How you know you’re a derby girl

Tonight at practice we had a drill where we skated with partners and tried to get our wheels caught in theirs. We were skating around to be aware of our surroundings, trying to throw the other person off balance. And having a blast doing it!

I managed to catch my partner really well once; and threw myself off balance in the process. I’m happy to announce that I reacted properly and managed to “fall small”, curling myself into a ball as I hit the ground. Unfortunately, I did manage to fall directly in front of Bijou Blacnbleu so we had a bit of a pile-up. Still, I jumped up and got right back to skating.

Secretly, the testing your physical limits is a big part of the fun! We played Queen of the Track again – generally the rules are that everyone is on the derby track and you hit each other – you’re “out” if you fall or are knocked out of bounds. Tonight for the last round you had to fall to be “out”. This was a great change, as I tend to get knocked out of bounds or I’ll edge people out. This drill actually forced us to really try to hit, AND it was good to just see how stable we could be!

From my spill earlier in the evening I think I may actually have my first visible derby injury – on my shoulder. I was a tiny bit stiff but really not too bad at all.

And of course, I like the pain. When any of my athletic friends talk about being sore after a workout, I always respond “isn’t that the best??”. I like the physical ache of good work. The lung burning of speedwork? Not so much. But to feel your muscles after some good physical activity? There’s nothing like it.

Yup, pretty sure I’m a derby girl.