Posts (page 2)
Ok. I have like 15 things to post. But it's been a while. We'll go semi chronologically.
1. Rockabetty Bruisers--changed their name to Long Island Roller Derby (I think I got that right). The real point here is: I skated with them over the holidays and they were awesome. Really nice. A very very young league and they really have their shit together. I know they think they don't. But they really do. I added two new drills to my book and hopefully left them with one. If you live in LI. Go check them out.
2. The 2006 B.A.D. Girls season. The scheduled dates are: Game I: Jan 28th. Game II: March 4th. Game III: April 1st. The last two are still semi-tentative. But you at least get the idea. I am really excited about this season. We learned a lot from our exhibition bout last fall and now are are ready to really rock. (and roll).
3. I got new skates. They're awesome. My brother gave me 3 bills toward them so I pitched in an extra 250 (ew. that's a a lot). But!
1. Riedell 695 boot
2. Snyder Advantage plates
3. Bones Reds bearings
4. Hyper-Shaman wheels
All of which I have skated on exactly once so far. But so far I can say: Extremely responsive. A big difference in rotational weight that I can actually notice. Very comfortable and stable boot. I am super-psyched. I hope I stay that way.
4. Tucson Dust Devil Tournament. Yep. We're going. So help us. Day 1: mini-bouts to determine your seeding for the single elimination tournament. Of course, you could get eliminated before the single elimination tournament even begins by sucking at the mini bouts. Only 4 of 6 teams in each pool of mini-bouts even advance to day 2. It's totally terrifying. We still don't know what the final set of rules will be. We don't know how any of these leagues play. Big problems could ensue, for instance, if we play a team that plays dirty. We play a super clean game with body checks and no use of the arms. And certainly no elbows, no tripping, no intentionally falling in front of another player. It's just going to be a complete crap shoot-- all these all-star teams, most of which have never played against another league, just like ours, coming together under one roof to figure out who's the best of the nation. It's going to be interesting. Stay tuned.
You have no idea the amount of fun that was had at our first bout. 
Our goal was to skate and have fun at our first bout. Our goal was to have "some people there." Crazy. I think we owe most of our attendance to the works of the wily and unpredictable Iva Vendetta. She is our PR Mistress and Media Hoar. She's unrelenting. She has way too much responsibility within the league but somehow manages to flog herself into the wee hours of the morning when most of the league has no idea what exactly she's been up to or should be up to. All black magic to most of us. All we know is **750 people** were at our bout.
So that brings me to another topic I am sure other leagues are struggling with:
This league is non profit. (duh) It's run with a "for the skaters by the skaters" mentality. That said. We don't, for the most part, have the foggiest idea how to run a company. And that is plainly what we are trying to do. I can count on one hand how many of us
(I know of ) who have actually worked for a good-sized company and count on less fingers how many of those people where managers of budgets, projects, had any oversight, etc. We are the C-level staff. We are the makers of dreams.
So my points are two:
1-this is hard to do. I am one of the few and proud had-worked-at-a-decent-sized-company-with-marketing-and-pr-departments, and mostly, it's hard to explain all the stuff you want to explain at meetings without sounding like a bossy bitch. So I try and do it in little pieces. So far I think I am sucking at not sounding like a bossy bitch.
2-There were still 750 people at our event that I had pretty much zero to do with (working on the new website: www.bayareaderbygirls.com). The league without any of my assistance (as if it where some grand prize) got 750 to cheer loudly at a venue with insurance, lights, dj, bands, the crowd had banners and signs, they had programs, there was beer, there were two sponsors for the event giving us $$ to be there. So, maybe I should just shut up? Eh?
Last wed I skated with the Gotham Girls of NYC. It was incredibly different from what we are doing in the Bay Area. Not because of anything more then them having been around for a year longer... but drastically different none the less. I hardly know where to start.
First. They have refs. The refs are unpaid volunteers who come to every practice and set up the track, they ref the practice jams, they are willing derby-man-slaves. This may seem like no big deal, but having refs at practice *defiantly changes everything*. At B.A.D. we have to set up our own track, and we have to use cones. Not only does this take about 20 minutes out of our practice time, you can skate in and out of a cone track with ease, creating a breeding ground for accidental-out-of-bounds-cheating. We set the track up after we do drills, so our drills are rarely preformed on the actual track.
Second. They have very (it seems) established chain of command. Not necessarily hierarchical. But there are girls in charge of specific departments. The girl who is head of coaching was conducting stretching whilst in the foreground there was a girl having a mini-meeting about having roping on the outside of the track. If girls started slacking off with the stretching you heard: "Stretch while you talk ladies!" Not that we don't have a chain of command... but the Gotham Girls seem to have it more honed then we do... they seem to be able to multi-task in ways we can only dream of.
Third. They have teams. We just formed teams... so I barley understood what that could mean. As it turns out--if we can do it like the GGRD, it's going to be awesome. During the scrimmage part of practice, each team and their captain went into a huddle of sorts. We worked out who was playing what for the next jam. After each jam the captain told her girls what she saw they could improve on and what she saw they did well. Having this kind of feedback made a world of difference.
Forth. They have positions. I had just spent a long time on the phone with Ivanna Spankin from Sin City, learning about tactics and positions, how to run a line-up, how to handle a bench. It was awesome. All I needed was to see it in action. And that was exactly what I got from GGRD. I skated with the Brooklyn Bombshells for the evening. Aside from being a total unmitigated liability as the #4 skater... I think I did ok.Har.
Positions change everything. All of a sudden, instead of just skating around in a pack--you've got a specific job to do... you've got to stay on the inside (for example), stay with your pivot, and work together in very specific ways-- to accomplish much more specific goals. I know that sounds vague. I will post more on strategy as I learn it. But the basics are there are four positions in the pack assigned by numbers 1-4, with 1 being homologous with the pivot position.
Kicked my ass last Thursday.
She was sneaky--she hovered on the outside of the track, just behind me (we
were both playing pivot). As her jammer rounded the pack, and I
was guarding the inside, she swooped in and with a full head of steam, plowed into me.
It was awesome.
I went flying into the inside of the track. Her plan backfired a
little though: I was such a "no-contest" when she delivered her blow, that
she went flying through me like a paper wall--and herself landed inside the
track right along beside me.
Beware of the surely vixen.
p.s. I got up before her and proceeded to kick her jammer's ass.
I was selected by Stitches Stew, head of the coaching committee, to be the captain of one of our two teams. I am now the proud captain of the San Francisco Shevil Dead. I am so excited I could pee my pants.
As it turns out, however, this entails a lot more work than had I originally thought. Even with Sassy Slayher as my fabulous co-captain--it's gonna be some work. We have to split up our girls into levels of play, forming some semblance of strings (first, second, third). We have to consider what positions each girl would be best fit playing. We have to organize an extra weekly practice (and imbibe-ment session) in order to work on tactics and strategy.
All in all: Me = superpsyched.
Violet Temper from Philly Roller Girls was at practice last night! She skated super. And she reminded us that we need to work on pack formation during lineup and we need to concentrate on skating within arms-reach during the entire jam.
I am on the coaching committee and last night we had a meeting to discuss rules for our first bout. (Which is going to be awesome and is going to be October 22nd at Dry Ice in Oakland.) We are looking at different sets of rules from other leagues across the country. Of our major points of contention are:
- Jammer re-engagement
- The ability to skate back up to the jammer even after she has passed you in the pack, without incurring additional points against you when/if she passes you once more. This makes it much harder for the jammer to get out of the pack--potentially making for a more interesting spectator sport--more physically violent, and less an all out speed race.
- The con of this is that the jammer could literally not get out of the pack for the entire jam if her blockers don't help her out.
- This would make the sport so much more interesting for me.
- Length of jams
- Single jams 2 minutes to 90 seconds, but in most leagues the "lead jammer" can "call off the jam" after she successfully laps the pack twice. (which she would do if the other jammer hadn't gotten to the pack a second time, thereby securing her hold on twice as many points.)
- Number of periods
- 3, 4 or more periods?
- I think we are going with 3 15 minutes periods, for our first bout.
- Legal blocking
- Use of the arms will be limited to above the shoulder. You can not use the arm in any kind of swing. The arms are basically an extension of space... at least that's my understanding so far.
- We haven't even gotten to scoring yet--I think it goes like this:
- Score a point for every person in the pack you pass *after* you've lapped the pack once.
- Score a point if/each time you lap the other jammer.
In the meantime come out our benefit on the 17th at Studio Z, in San Francisco to raise money for the bout!
So there I was--at RollerCon.
In Vegas, for only the second time of my life. And there I was, surrounded by awesome, strong-hearted, strong-willed, strong women (with a lot of ink). The women of roller derby's future. I met girls from all over the place. I had the best time.
You remember roller derby.
While our new derby nods in approval at the retro-stylings, there are a few differences: First, and most importantly, the new leagues making up the National League Coalition are women-only and skate on flat tracks only. We do however use only quad (not in-line) skates. There are defiantly D.I.Y. and punk rock underpinnings.
Anyway, I hope to post here more about derby, how I got started, current happenings, photos... etc. So stay tuned. Rock on roller girls.
In the meantime, listen to this NPR coverage of RollerCon and the resurgence of derby.
