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 Private Workshop w/ Bonnie Thunders & OMG WTF

WHAT A GREAT COME BACK SURPRISE!

Not being very familiar with the PODIO platform used by Bear City Roller Derby to communicate within the league, I'm very often (always) missing points, small or big... Fortunately, I also have concerned friends who help me out!

Explaining my upcoming Team France / World Championship 15-day trip to one of them, the day before I left, she pointed out that I would be back just on time to enjoy Bonnie and OMG. Wait, you got me lost, here. What?

This is how I learned that there would be a (free!) private BCRD workshop on the Saturday and Sunday following my return, i.e. 5+4=9 hours of Gotham coaching. Groovy!

Freestyle Class at the BMO Derby Girls

Last week, hardly back from Helsinki and not having yet recovered from the 1h-jetlag (dude!) I took the train to Brest to visit the B.M.O. Rollergirls for a special workshop.

I was asked to run an agility class with lots of unknown stuff in it.

The equation was self-evident. At least to my twisted mind:

agility
+
stuff rollergirls don't practice
=
FREESTYLE SKATING