Week One: The Beginings of my First Derby Bruise

Today marked the successful completion of my first week of roller derby boot camp. I am so stoked that I rocked the car dance on the way home (which is fairly uncharacteristic of me). I've learned a few things this week:

1. No matter how excited you get about roller derby, don't go out and order skates on eBay unless you know what you're doing, or can get advice from someone who does. Otherwise, you'll end up with skates that don't fit (mine are a size too big) and that don't work (my bearings won't tighten up enough that the wheels don't wobble, which means skating one lap takes as much effort as it should take to skate five).
2. Core strength is your friend. The first week of boot camp you will hurt no matter what, but the more core strength (and leg strength) you have going into it, the better off you will be. Yoga is a big help with this stuff, as well as lunges, squats, and twisty sit ups.
   
3. It's just as important to celebrate the little successes as it is to push yourself to improve weaknesses.

Starting derby has been a complete whirl-wind for me. I randomly decided to find out how to get involved in derby because of a number of things: first, I met some of the derby girls a few years ago at a community event, and they seemed totally awesome; then I came across a story in Bust magazine (one of my fav things) when catching up on my "for fun" reading; the final straw that pushed me to find out more about it was watching Whip It (lame as that may sound) while I was home alone one weekend and feeling pretty down.

It turned out that there was a recruitment night about a week away from when I found out, so I started Googling, found out as much as I could, and dove right in, reading up on the basic rules and watching bouts (derby speak for a game) online. I also made sure to catch the last bout of the season for our girls, which was AWESOME. I have never been even vaguely interested in watching, let alone participating, in a team sport before. Derby just brings out the sports fan in me though.

I'm really excited to be a part of such an awesome community of women. Ever since my best friend moved out of state, I've been feeling very...well, I'm not sure how to put it. There's just something that's different about the relationship between women and the relationship between a woman and a man (although my hubby is fantastic and supportive and I couldn't ask for a better one).

Derby has already boosted my confidence about my body (a problem I've struggled with ever since puberty, like pretty much every girl since the big bang), and I feel like I'm getting into great shape in a really fun way.

I want to end this first post in the spirit of #3 above, and celebrate the fact that I finally figured out how to do crossovers tonight!!! (when I finally stopped thinking about them so hard--although counter clockwise/left side crossovers are still a mystery to me), but I am having a miserable time figuring out T-stops. Something about stopping, in any sport, has always been tough for me, be it ice skating, roller blading, skiing, etc. I just favor the "run into something" method, which won't fly in derby.

p.s. The derby bruise alluded to in my post, is located on the right side of my bum, which has resulted in my sitting in a really funny way for the past few days. You're supposed to fall forward (onto all the pads you're required to wear), but you can't always make that happen.