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.

2013 Team France Try-Outs

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.

Visiting the Leopard Avengers

This weekend I was in Caen (14) to visit the local Leopard Avengers for a Sunday Workshop in an amazing roller hockey hall, with a perfect smooth ground and a glass roof, which was part of an impressive sports complex, two steps away from the city hall downtown!

MY TRAIN WAS LATE.

I missed my 16:10 train so I took the next one.

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.

Gonna miss the view...

My room.

Single room with balcony and bay window onto the ocean.

Sunset at 5-ish just when I finished my classes.

Seriously, would shower with the door open to admire the view!

...and the atmosphere

...and the people

...and the working like mad

...and the food

BOOTCRAMP Berry

This weekend, I was coaching in a BootcRamp in Bourges (fra) together with Wheely Wonka and Cherry LieLie, while Maëlstrom and Watzé were running a ref clinic in parallel.

The Paris RollerGirls were in da place, baby!

The event was extremely well organized and ran smoothly from A to Z. Seven out of the nine of us who were staying at Mojo Mama's place were sleeping in Oto's room (her two-year old son). Three words: Pa-ra-dise. It is only one word indeed, but it is worth three at least. Tons and tons of toys. A room carpeted with mattresses. A childhood dream!

Thank god the bootcramp participants did not see us like that, we would have lost all credibility. Forever. Ever.

Saturday. Cracking start.

Most of us arrived on Friday evening, but the event started on Saturday at 1PM. Yet, we were in the gym at 9AM to help setting up the track and everything, and we all had lunch together after a brief but efficient general presentation: organizers, coaches, refs and participants.

RollerCon '12, Las Vegas: Day Life

Last year's RollerCon was an Epic Fail for me. Remember...

This year was faaar better and I could enjoy all the facets of the event. At least the two main ones: Day life (i.e. derbying) and Night life (i.e. partying).

 This year was particularly huge. 5 to 6 thousand derbypeople in the same hotel, the Riviera down the Strip in Las Vegas. 5 days of non-stop events, on skates, off skates, on track, in pool, on dancefloor...

Off-skate workouts, conferences, on-skate classes, scrimmages and bouts constituted the day-time events and were organized in parallel in several rooms.

The off-skate part was made of workout classes and conferences on various subjects. Except for the pool workout for which the pool of the hotel was reserved (obviously), the workout classes took place at the very last floor of the Monaco Tower with a large bay window onto the city and the desert in the background. Stretching classes at 7PM with the sunset over the city were great.

RollerCon 2011

MISCELLANEOUS

• 4 tracks and a huge off-skates room 
• A gigantic hotel in which you can get lost just like that (tested and approved) 
• Waiting lines to get tickets to attend workshops 
• Over-secured check-in – too bad for you if you don’t gather on time your ID, your RC pass, your Workshop ticket and your RC sticker on the left side of your helmet 
• Stickers, badges, goodies a go-go 
• A crowd of rollergirls AND rollerboys from all over the world 
• Tons of love, tons of flashy “lift-n-separate” short pants, and tons of workshops’n scrimmages all day long

The experience was very instructive, attending such a huge event, observing the organization, remembering tips and drills of the workshops I took, meeting people I didn’t know, meeting others I knew and I hadn’t seen in a while. I was there only for two days, but I tried to enjoy these 48 hrs as much as possible.

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!