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

Bootcamp Team France "Born to Reform"

A dozen members of the 2011 French selection who made it to the World Cup in Toronto (Dec.'11) gathered to organize a huge advanced French bootcamp on January 5-6, 2013, entitled "Born to Reform". The aim was to share experience throughout on-skates and off-skates classes and conferences.

The event was divided into three different cycles: skater / coach / staff, with specific classes according to the cycle you had applied to.

Honestly, I would have loved taking part in that bootcamp.
Coaching was fun too, though.

School's back after summer

First day, PRG Class picture 2012-2013 -- by Sally Broyeur

 

Some sing "School's out for summer" but we'd rather sing the opposite!

It is the start of the new season and we're all excited.

Proof here with the class picture taken last week!

Don't we look cute and disciplined?

Visiting the Sac City Rollers

After our one-week stay in Vegas for the RollerCon (here and there for latecomers), we headed to California to visit longstanding friends of Karla Karschër's. One of our stops was Sacramento and we took the opportunity to go and train with the Sac City Rollers.

It was one hell of a resumption! The class was their very first of the season after the summer break, and coach Purdy Grrrl did not take it easy on us. The program was simple, though: ENDURANCE for the three quarters of the class... pacelines, single, double, clockwise, anti-clockwise... and a bit of skating and derby skills to end up with.

We made the mistake to show up with our Team France jerseys (we wanted to match a bit... yeah and show off too).

"Hey Team France, show us that blocking drill again. Girls, watch how close they work together. Team France, once more. Alright. Now one more last time, let's try with a bigger built jammer." Uuuh!

To be honest, I almost fainted and had to ask for sugar but that was fun (and purifying, given the water we lost).

Water. Air. Have you ever derbied in a sauna? Worse: have you ever had an endurance class in a sauna? Well... We did.

EROC 2012

The 2012 edition of the EROC took place in Berlin on the last weekend of January, and was hosted by the local league, the Bear City RollerDerby. Go HERE if you want a little "history" of the event -- if you can call it history so far...

The European Derby Convention is growing year by year: Have a look at the list of the registered countries and leagues if you're sceptical! 13 countries were represented by up to 16 leagues each (for Germany) -- and 7 for France!

The event started on Friday evening with an opening party at Wowsville bar where all the participants could meet and warm up for the weekend. I had forgotten what it was like to be allowed to smoke in bars! Although I convey it's pretty cool not to have to go outside and lose your fingers in the German cold, I'm not quite sure I'm liking it anymore.
By the way I would like to deeply thank all my saviors to whom I borrowed the gloves during the weekend: I really had underestimated the power of cold. Now I know that I'd rather concentrate on my gloved hands slipping on my crutches, than concentrate on saying to myself over and over that pain is just an illusion.
Anyway this is no dilemna now as I don't need my sticks anymore: I learnt to walk this weekend thanks to an intensive training consisting in at least one hour per day of waking in the snow.