#teamwork

The other day Bee gave me a sore thigh,
so this weekend I gave her a black eye.

Note: I may have carelessly ran full speed into Bee's bum, and she may have ran her eye into my shoulder, but we'll never know.

Whatever the facts, the conclusion remains the same:

we're even.

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Team France Training Jul.9-13 2014

INTRODUCTION

Hardly back from 10 days of Frenchness! I arrived on French soil on Monday 7, had a quick stop in Paris for the night, before carpooling to the Mont-Dore on Tuesday 8, with three former Paris RollerGirls / current Team France team mates.

I will spare you my cell phone adventures that made me turn around on my way to the metro and lose precious minutes, costing me my (legendary) punctuality and ruining my clothes - first (aborted) timing being perfect on all levels, second (belated) timing synchronizing my entering and exiting the metro with such a heavy and persistent rain that I didn't even try to avoid it.

Alas, a second trial was waiting for us at the meeting point. The key of the door to the basement car park was missing. After sorting out the door problem in making eyes at a random neighbor, the four of us loaded the car and drove to the exit - which was closed, obviously, and no emergency button around to open the blind, obviously.
That was when the stakeout started, waiting for any sign of human presence in the basement, to set us free. We were about to give up and burst open the content of our truck to search for the lost key, when a light swiched on in the distance. She saw us waiving in despair, walked to us bathed in the halo reflexion of the neon light. She gave us her blessing and pressed a button in her key ring. The blind started roaring and creaking and the sullen Parisian sky appeared over the driveway. Saved!

And we finally hit the road with soaking wet clothes drying on the dashboard.

Too busy skating to write.

Juno, the ultimate poser.

I haven't taken the time to write in here for ages - more than a month!

After a black hole of news stories due to my ankle's encounter with a Canadian player, things got pretty hectic at such a sustained pace that I didn't have the time to report them.

Okay, let's be honest, I didn't TAKE the time to do so, because first I was too busy being depressed by my gimpy leg, then I was too busy working out to chase the wrong karma away, and last I was too busy skating to make up for those months of deprivation! (Obviously.)

Here's a little chronological catch-up on the main events of those last two months!

Team France Training Mar.5-9 2014

The second training of the 2014 French Team took place on March 5-9 in Bellenaves, France, not far from the location of the first training, lost in the middle of nowhere for a focused sports retreat. That March training was saved at the last moment by the local committee of the French Federation, Roller Auvergne, who most graciously offered us a training place, in taking charge of the renting fees of a brand-new gym for the whole 5 days. Such a gesture deserves to be highlighted.

ACCOMODATION

The whole event met some organizational problems due to the training place mishap but everything was solved for the best given the situation. We were hosted in two different places, which means the team was split into two groups, with the most convenient distribution according to car-sharing.

I was in the Bellenaves cottage with 14 other team mates, mainly Parisians and girls from Montpellier. We had the advantage of being close to the training hall contrary to the other (major) half who had to drive for 40 min twice a day. But they had a BBQ. And a football table game in their living room. So I guess we're even.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHALLENGE

That second training was psychologically more challenging than the first. After the discovery phase where you learn to know each other, both on the track and outside of it, in order to create a team spirit, things have gotten more competitive with the sword of Damocles starting to hang over our heads.

Toe Stops are Optional

Mallory for SkateXpress

With the start of the new 2014 season, I started to take over the weekly Agility Sessions at BCRD. I ran my first class (in English!) last week and decided to strike hard in doing a toe-stops-off course. Throughout my (short) quad skating life, I have always encouraged people to free themselves from that stops addiction: that habit may be the easy way at first but it will end up limiting you.

Some people are all for it, some strongly stand against it. I am in-between the two, not because I am an indecisive person, but because of personal convictions.
Toe stops are there, at your toes, it would be a shame not to exploit them. Yet, they should be used in full knowledge of their pros and cons. Here are my thoughts about that optional device that juts out of our derby plates.


WHY TOE STOPS ARE ONLY ADD-ONS

Toe stops are part of your skates. Indeed. But they are not essential to them: The job of your skates is to make you ROLL, a task in which toe stops are NOT involved. They are an add-on, a device that can be used for the STOPPING PART. You could argue that stopping is a stage of the rolling process: The rolling has 1) a start (gaining momentum), 2) a body (the rolling itself) and 3) an end (stopping). Just like everything in life, and, in order to stick to the subject, just like any movement and trick. Never isolate elements from their contexts.

BCRD A Team Try-Outs

It must have been planned for weeks and posted all over podio, but I only learnt about it last week: on Saturday there were the A-Team Try-Outs. OMG do we have to register? Did I miss the dead-line? Nope, just show up. The training will be closely observed by coaches Master Blaster, Bee Fattal and Daniel.

Until now the selections were based on continuous assessment along the preceding months only. The tryouts completing that assessment were (re)implemented for the first time for that season.

A dozen of players showed up to try their luck. The training was divided into three parts and felt a bit like a SUPERADVANCED MINIMUM SKILLS TEST. The agility skills were actually more challenging and more complete than those required for the Team France Try-Outs.

FMyLife #12: Jammed Finger

 

Fate had it that I was having this conversation yesterday at lunch, watching volleyball on TV, about me not being into ball sports, because when I was a kid and teenager I was a violonist (like for real) and couldn't take the risk of jamming a finger...

 

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED AT THE EVENING DERBY SESSION?

I ran my straight finger into a random back during scrimmage. *and on try-out day*

FML.

Team France Training Oct.30-Nov.3 2013

A lot of water has already passed under the bridge although it has hardly been 10 days since the end of that very first training of the 2013 Team France of Roller Derby. At least for me who had a hectic and exotic 10-day break at the other end of the world for a very different matter: judging the 7th World Freestyle Skating Championships which were held in Taipei this year, immediately followed by an intense 4-day meeting with the WSSA Technical Committee for a complete review and update of the freestyle ruleset. This trip to Taiwan will be the subject of another blog entry. Let's get back to the topic in hand: The FIRST training of the NEW VERSION of the FRENCH TEAM.

FMyLife #11: Hip Check!

According to the Urban Dictionary, "HIP CHECKING" means:

"to physically impact someone at the hip by using the hip. It is a versatile action but can especially be used as a greeting or to show playful aggression or disagreement.

She hip checked him when he told her that chicks were weak."

In the context of derby, it is an unfortunate effect of a hit turning bad. Tested. I will not display a picture of my hip because there is nothing to see, not even an itsy bitsy tiny bruise. It's been one week and I suspect I may have stretched/torn an ab. Time will tell.

In the meantime I have searched the Internet and asked information around about crashpads. I was looking for a light one that would just cover the hips and I stumbled upon volleyball items. I am impatiently waiting for the McDavid 9230 hexpad shorts. I am counting on them to cushion the repeated shocks during the everlasting hit sessions at training! FML.

First strides as a Bear City Rollergirl

FRESH DERBY NEWS! It has been a while. For those who would have missed a chapter, I have moved to Berlin (as explained more thoroughly here). Here is a feedback on my first impressions about my new league, BEAR CITY ROLLER DERBY.

A (not really) BRAND-NEW WORLD (but still a lot new)
 
Berlin was no complete unknown territory to me, I had already been there several times for skating events, in freestyle and more recently for the EROC, where I represented the Paris RollerGirls as their head coach two years in a row, in 2012 and 2013 (French HERE).

I had also skated quite a few times in the Bombshells' training venue, first time back in 2011 for a bootcamp run by Suzy Hotrod and Swede Hurt; I also took part in the 2013 EROC scrimmage (in 2012 I had crutches), played a bout as a Paris AllStar against the Inglorious Bombshells last April and joined a couple of practices the following week while I was at it... with already the idea of moving in mind.

Freestyle Judge Training in Madrid

This weekend I gave a hand to a long-term friend to help him into a delicate task: Examining candidates who passed a freestyle skating judge test.

The judge training was taking place in Madrid, Spain. Kio and Marie, whom I met in rehab, came pick me up at the airport on Saturday afternoon. I worked on the exam videos the candidates would have to explain the next day, and then we went for a night trip, driving the streets of Madrid in Kio's convertible Mercedes, visiting the Temple of Debob (an ancient Egyptian temple that was rebuilt in the center of Madrid), having a drink, going to a friend's where we spent most of the evening telling weird stories about mosquitoes in Asian jungles and English seaside resorts inhabited by old people, until bed-time.

First French WSSA Freestyle Judge Training

This weekend, on the 15-16 dec. 2012, I ran a Judge Training.

Yeah... Alright.

That judge training included

a couple of FIRSTS.

1. First skatecross judge training
2. First battle judge training in France
3. First French training based on the WSSA model

Ever.

How awesome is that?

Socially and politically, it is a big step in the world of French Freestyle!

Derby Training

Training Schedule

The Paris RollerGirls have two official trainings per week in the gym, on Saturdays and Sundays: 7 hours/week to scrimmage yeah! The ground is soft and sticky, which is quite tiring but we say to ourselves that it's just a 2-in-one training+extra work-out...

During the week we are responsible for our personal trainings (on and off skates). Now that the sunny days are back, we are meeting outside to skate together, and I must say that we see each other nearly every day now!

 

We have the incredible luck to have three amazing American Derby girls to coach us: Amelia Scareheart, Fifi Lafoe and Dixie Pixie -- Mimi, Fifi and Pipi (er--yeah...)! I feel really honored to have the priviledge to have such quality training. All the more that it's the first time I have coaches: With Freestyle, I'm used to train on my own in the streets, come rain or come shine, and coaching myself. It's a big luxurious change to have somebody behind your back to tell you to do this and that!!

 

I rarely Freestyle now. I really need a break, I came so near from being disgusted... But I still skate a lot, to go from one place to another... and I try most of the time to do it with quad skates to become more and more agile with them.

I'm having a go at street roller-dancing too, and I really like it. It's a bit like doing Freestyle but with quad skates on. New challenges, and I need to work on my upper-body... very interesting work.

As for the off-skates workout, I'm doing body training, jogging and stretching!