Just after having been elected, the coaching committee of the French Team announced the program of the next step: THREE SUMMER DATES FOR TRY-OUTS – video application allowed for expats and special cases. The names of the 40 lucky rollergirls will be announced by the end of August.
I registered for the 2nd date in Clermont Ferrand (Center). There was already a first selection in Montpellier (South) three weeks before and there will be a last one in Paris (North) three weeks later. Make your choice.
TEAM FRANCE VERSION 2.0
THE FORMAT HAS LEVELLED UP since the
first draft two years ago, where there was only one date to try your
luck: It had taken only one afternoon to do on-skates agility, derby
drills, scrimmage situations and a rule test. As well as an extra
(real) scrimmage the next day which was not compulsory. It was very
basic and was controversial but we were running out of time (July try-outs for
December world cup...) and given the situation back then it was not so badly handled. As long as you do your best with all that you
have in stock, what more can you do?
This time you are sent a consequent
file once you have registered and sent your
complete sports resume. The file contains all the physical and
agility drills you are going to be subjected to during the test.
TRY-OUT DAY
• THE
OFF-SKATES TESTS were mainly drawn from American football and gave a
general idea of your physical fitness: endurance (Luc Léger), one
ups (max reps of push-ups, abs and squats in 1'), high jump and long
jump without run-up. Some off-skates drills, such as the T and L
tests, had been turned into on-skates drills, which I found much more
interesting as you are here to rollerskate.
• THE ON-SKATES AGILITY COURSE was
inspired from hockey skating and tested most of the basics of
skating, with just enough recurrence to enable you to prove your
worth on a category of basics if you happened to have failed a trick. The course
was 2'30 to 3' long and included (roughly) frontwards and backwards
laps, side stepping, stops: toe stops, plow stops and powerslides,
enjambments and two-feet jumps, as well as 360 mowhawk shifts.
• THE RULETEST was the Test O' Matic type,
with a few (very) tricky questions on (very) special situations.
These three blocks needed the whole
morning to be completed, from 10AM to 1PM. We were 26 divided into 3
groups rotating from one test to the other. I was in the group with
probably the best rotation: all fresh and spry for the on-skates,
warmed-up for the off-skates, and one last effort for the rule test
while you were at it.
The afternoon started at 2PM after a
one-hour lunch break. Program: drills and scrimmage.
After a quick re-warm-up, we were
divided into two groups and explained the THREE DERBY DRILLS.
• First drill, the Wall, taking
place between the pivot and the jammer line to check the physical and
mental endurance of the blockers by slots of 2', going to and fro the
two lines (alternating between anti-clockwise and clockwise
directions) preventing the jammers, queuing behind the jammer and pivot lines -- depending on your direction, from passing.
• The Bridge was the second drill.
Everything is in the headline: testing the ability of the blockers to
communicate, estimate distances, adapt and create... doing bridges.
• The last drill was a step further into
real situation and was called The Multiball: Several packs
made of three whites and three blacks and jammers let loose skating
around.
Last but not least, it was time for the
most important test: THE SCRIMMAGE. The players were randomly
dispatched into the two teams. I was with the whites with a couple of
team-mates but I had never played with most of the girls. We took
stock of the situation, whose job is who's, and had quite a
successive try right away. The blacks had tough blockers but our
jammers were mainly cleaner and our blockers had a good mental
connection. The game was clean on the whole despite our demanding day of
sports, and the atmosphere on track was at the image of that of
the whole day: fair-play and sunny. For want of sun outside (pouring
rain) we let it in the venue: WE HAD FUN.
Of course it was try-out day. Of course we were focused, but we were relaxed too. It was like chalk and cheese with the 2011 try-outs where the atmosphere was heavy with sideways glances, whereas we were 40 candidates for 20 places at the time... i.e. one chance out of two to be in!
UPDATE: video added on Oct.20th. Teaser with footages from the 2nd and 3rd tryouts.
SELF STOCK TAKING
Am quite satisfied with my off-skates
and my on-skates agility performances, as well as with my jammer work
and my team work during the scrimmage. Have split feelings as for
the rule test but I don't think I screwed it all up. My little
victory over myself that day is at the endurance test, which I am
both pretty proud of and quite annoyed about, as I pestered everybody
saying that I would flunk that one. Because...
... I HATE RUNNING.
So that I never run and I have no
motivation whatsoever to surpass myself doing so.
Plus, my body has a hard time to adapt
to off-skates training as I'm spending most of my time on-skates. Do the Evolution, baby! And this is not a lousy excuse: My physical
trainer in rehab even pointed out to his assistant that I was
behaving with sneakers as I would do with wheels. I experienced it at my
expense several times with quite a complete collection of the whole
range of leg tendinitis you can get.
Shameful experience ever: One Sunday
afternoon, had to walk quite a bit looking for a cool open bar with
non-skating friends.
I am so not used to articulate my toes anymore that I got a f'n tendinitis at the big toe flexor... Well, well.
Put me on skates or make me do interval
training with indoorbike, fair enough.
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