Raw Meat Week 4 - The Dress Rehearsal!

29th October 2012

Oh what a night it was....There was Tutu's, Face Paint, Hats and Wigs..... Lycra, Leggins, Feathers and Wings!! We all had heaps of fun to calm our nerves on an important night....

After a brief warm up from Bride of Skatan and Finger Prince doing the Nutbush and YMCA, skaters grouped into their colours to start the Mock Test.  Each group moved between the five testing stations and the one wait station, brushing up on skills and asking last-minute questions of the trusty trainers and helpers.  Kane 'em & Missile Belial led the stepping drills, while Psycho Fox, Bam Bam Belial and Miss Whirl took the skaters through derby stance and riding the track. Violent Krumble, Bone Shaker and Ankle Grinder took the skaters through the t-stops and snow plows.  Elle Catraz and Gogo Fiasco and Mental Defect showed us how to weave through those cones and on the other track Wofle Whistle lead the endurance & luckily there was a rest stop after that one!!

    

We were really impressed on how far everyone has come from where we started only 4 weeks ago. Your skill level and confidence is really encouraging and we also love to hear you cheering on each other. Keep it up Fresheroonies!! We hope you had a chance to speak with the trainers to go over any last minute skills and techniques and if there is anything that you are still unsure of, please email us or reply here to start a discussion.
 

Remember that what we are looking for at the Raw Meat test is safety first.  In other words, for example, are you sturdy enough on skates to be prepared to hit and be hit by other skaters without risking injury to yourself or others during Fresh Meat?  Or will you be able to stop safely when you are skating in a pack? That means that you don't necessarily need to be the fastest, the strongest, or the most experienced skater to pass Raw Meat - you just need to be safe enough that we can feel confident knocking you around during Fresh Meat!

The Raw Meat test will run exactly as it did in the dress rehearsal.  So if you didn't cover a skill last week then we wont be testing you on it this week!  We wont be throwing in any random, crazy skills just to trick you - promise!

We will be giving out results on the night (probably outside, so bring a jacket!) and this could take some time, then heading to the Wheaty for a well-deserved celebration/commiseration beverage.

Stay Hydrated, keep practising and look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

With love from the 3 Veg & Gravy xx

Raw Meat Week 3

22nd October 2012

Raw Meat Week 3 was brought to you by the Nanas, super-star trainers Kane'm, Kaos and Elle, and a whole bunch of sweaty freshies!

Warm Up

Agnys and Hazel are two ladies very dear to the hearts of ADRD. Their special guest appearance at training in week three saw the Freshies getting up and out of the rocking chair and taking the scones out of the oven (derby stance), holding in the wee (crossovers), Nana dancing (loosening pu those hips), braiding on skates (yep - with actual wool) and having group nana hugs. What a way to warm up!

TrainingIn preparation for next weeks mock-test, Elle, Kaos and Kane'm took the freshies through a re-FRESHer course of all that had been learned in the previous weeks - cross-overs, t-stops, snow plows, riding the track, stepping and weaving. The trainers managed to find some of the most fun drills we've ever seen at Freshmeat, that had our newbies in stitches, as well as helping them progress their skating.    

Among others - the Air Hostess drill saw our trainers act as guides for the freshies, who moved towards the hostess/host in a big pack  mirroring their movement through T-stops, snow ploughs, stepping left/right and forward.  

The Bus Driver had the Freshies riding the ADRD bus (with a Mouldie at the helm), hailing buses at "bus stops", and being picked up and dropped off around the track.  Buses were stopping and starting at lights, going through tunnels, swerving around tree, missing children in the road and eventually, ending up on the freeway goung super fast.

The weaving pace line drill saw our freshies prasticing slow and controlled weaving around the track. And other round of speed skating (5 laps in 1 minute) and endurance (25 laps in 5 minutes) had skaters pushing themselves to the limit. 

Stretch & Chat
After a very silly training session, Ghan and Missile led the Stretch & Chat, talking about none other than, the silliness, fun and frivolity that ADRD can bring to a derby girl/guys life.
 Being part of ADRD means being part of awesome events - like bouts, Bingo (fundraising), Camp (where miracles happen) and Rollercon. It means having an opportunity to travel - either as a player or part of the cheer-squad - to faraway cities and towns to play against other leagues. It means getting to wear awesome bout-fits, participate in hilarious skate-outs and express yourself in an entirely new way. And it means being part of a huge community of like-minded people and gaining a ton of new friends.       

It's a great experience and we can't wait to have some new blood in the league.

So much improvement has been made in the past 3 weeks and you should all be super proud of yourselves. 

So see you all next week for the final dress rehearsal for Raw Meat and happy skating!

Love the 3 Veg & Gravy x x x x

Raw Meat Week 2

15th October 2012

We started the night off with a warm up from two of the three veg, Sweet Potato (The Philistine) and Cheesy Cauli (Count deBumps). After doing some dynamic stretching as we rolled around the stadium, we started working on learning each other's names by calling them out as we weaved through a pace line and also removing our personal space by skating together in groups.

Our trainers for the night were Elle Catraz, Tricksey Belt'em and Psycho Fox. They had skaters hitting the wall (literally!) with stationary snow ploughs, before practising t-stops across the stadium.

They then took slaloms and weaving to a new level, with skaters weaving between cones and carving with both feet. The trainers extended our ability to carve (weaving leading with one foot) by explaining how trucks work and helping skaters to adjust their own trucks (remember to read Foxy's post to fix your own!).

Elle introduced us to stepping in our skates without rolling forwards. We were stepping side to side and forwards & back. Foxy showed us how to keep your toes slightly pigeon-toed while stepping forward & back to help stop any wheels rolling.

We worked on our cross-overs, for which Tricksey taught us the importance of good cross-overs to maintain and quickly build speed, as well as get out of tight spots in the pack.  We started by doing the grapevine up and down the stadium, before moving on to exaggerated cross-overs and, finally, full cross-overs on the track.

We also worked on extending our understanding of riding the track. It's important to be aware and to get used to looking behind and around you.  Remember to turn your shoulders and point to where you want to go. Tricksey pointed out that short strides take much more energy, while long strides give more speed with less effort.

We finished the session with a chat from Roller Controller, and between himself and Frill Seeker they have covered injury management, cross training and preventative measures very well. Roller reminded us that ice is critical to stop swelling in injury affected areas, and that alcohol will make swelling worse as it thins the blood. We will have a blog post in the future with some of the key points from their chats.

Enjoy your week and we'll see you all on Monday!

Three Veg & Gravy
xox

Raw Meat Week 2 - what a photogenic bunch!

What a great training session last night! We'll get a summary of the training session up here in the next day or two, but we wanted to post a few happy snaps to tide you over until the next blog post is up.

 Working on our stepping!

Stepping like mofos

Riding the track

Cool down, stretch and chat

We're falling in love with you freshies! We're super impressed by the hard work and fantastic attitudes you're all been showing us. We hope you're psyched for next week, we'll be revising all of our raw meat skills again with a few fun bits thrown in for good measure.

Love from the Three Veg & Gravy x x

Skate Maintenance 101

So you've just started Raw Meat (exciting!) and there's already a bunch of stuff to worry about. Basic skate maintenance is one more thing, but it really can give you a shortcut to improving as a skater. Your skate set-up can really make a difference to your technique. There's some basic stuff about skates that makes a huge difference early on, but you'll also need to know it for the rest of your skating life.

The Anatomy of a Derby Skate

It all begins with the anatomy of the derby skate, so check this diagram, thanks to Ivanna Spankin:

http://www.sincityskates.com/images/random/sincity_derby_diagram.pdf

When you buy a pair of skates, unless they've been made specifically for you, or some clever derby girl has owned them before you, they will come pre-assembled from a skate manufacturer. More often than not, there's some stuff that needs tweaking. Skates usually come with a basic tool, or you can get one for around $15 from any skate shop.

Adjust Your Trucks

A common problem is having trucks that are too loose or too tight.

When you lean to one side, your trucks lean with you, and that makes the two wheels on that side curve into a small arc, and you turn. If your trucks are too tight, the wheels won't move and it will be really, really hard to turn corners.

But the trade-off is that loose trucks are harder to balance on, so you also don't want them too loose until you're comfortable with your balance on skates.

(If you're really interested, these skate geeks wrote an article that explains it in more detail:

http://quadskating.com/skates/roller-skate-trucks.htm )

If you flip your skate over, one truck is the short metal bit you can see running across the skate between the two front wheels and the other truck runs between the two back wheels. You adjust your trucks by tightening or loosening the large nut in the centre, which is called the action nut. Use a skate tool or wrench to adjust your trucks.

Which way do you turn the nut?

Anti-clockwise loosens, clockwise tightens. I remember it using Rosie the Riveter's old mnemonic: Lefty Loosey - Righty Tighty

Only adjust the nut one quarter turn at a time, and then forcibly wiggle the wheels back and forth to check how much the trucks are moving, and maybe adjust another quarter turn, and so on. You want them to move with a little bit of pushing effort. Try skating on them once you've adjusted them a little bit, and adjust further if you need, but don't loosen them too much all at once!

Also, your trucks will gradually get looser over time by themselves, as you skate on them.

Check Your Wheels

Next thing with factory-fresh skates is to check your wheels. Too loose and they'll fall off; too tight and you are gonna be working a whole lot harder to get anywhere. Check them all, because they are likely to all be set differently. (Gah!) You want your wheels to spin freely without rattling on their axles. Use a skate tool to adjust them. A good way to adjust them is to gradually tighten them to the point where they only just won't turn, and then loosen them off a quarter or a half turn of the axle nut until they spin without stopping for a long time.

Make sure all eight wheels are set to pretty much the same looseness.

This video shows you how to check your wheels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z3zo_AYze68

Laces

A super common complaint for skaters with new skates is numb feet. Some of it's getting used to skates and building up strange little unused muscles and learning balance, but some of it can be helped.

Some people (me included) like their skates loose around their toes to beat numb-foot (I just made that term up) but tight around the top for a more stable, secure feel.

You can simply skip a couple of holes near the toes and start lacing from the third or fourth hole up.

Or you can lace the first few holes up, then skip a few, then lace the top ones.

Or you can double-lace. To double-lace, get two shorter pairs of laces. Lace halfway up each boot using the first pair. Then lace the top half using the second pair. That way, you can have one tension in the bottom half, for your toes to wriggle freely, and a different, tighter, tension up the top.

Which lets you worry about skating instead of the pain in your toes.

That's it for now... see you on the track. x

Psycho Fox

Raw Meat Week 1

8th October 2012

Crikey..... What a start to Week 1!!! I hope it was a heap of fun and you made some new friends along the way. You are going to be spending a whole lot of time together so don't be afraid to get the conversation going next week! We thought it may be a good idea to recap on what happened Monday night in case it was a blur....

Firstly an introduction from Violent Krumble, Psycho Fox and the Leotard Ladies aka Bone Shaker and Ankle Grinder. Then the 3 Veg .... Sweet Potato(The Philistine) Brussel Sprouts (Zigby Stardust) and Cheesy Cauli ( Count deBumps) had a chat.

Then the Leotard Ladies took the warm up, there was skating in conga lines, warming up our ankles and rolling around on the floor in a circle!!

Violent Krumble, Psycho Fox and Ankle Grinder were our trainers for the night. They covered: 

T-stops and snow-ploughs – practicing stopping on the track. Remember: for T-stops lean on the back foot and keep feet close together. For snow ploughs use pigeon toes, bend your knees, and dig your heels in.

Stride – skating on one foot, skating low, staying in derby stance, touching lines on the ground while skating, falling safely (“like a rag doll”) and not grabbing other skaters when falling (“fall alone”). Remember: bend your knees and keep your head up.

Cross-overs – pushing with one foot at a time, then exaggerating the pushing motion and, finally, doing complete crossovers. Remember: push with both feet and make your cross-overs nice and deep.

Riding the track –moving in a rectangular shape around the track, coming out wide on the straightaway and cutting in tight across the apex. Remember: turn with the shoulders, look around the track, and communicate when you’re overtaking on the inside or outside.

Endurance - we paired up and counted each others laps in 5 mins than swapped over. You were probably a bit buggered after that!

Then there was a stretch and cool down lead by Blue Wrenegade and a chat by Frill Seeker.

Frills taught us the importance of hydration and massage & what this sometimes leads too!! Also eating correctly so you are switched on for derby.

ADRD promotes a safe, friendly and inclusive environment, we want you to skate confidently in a comfortable environment, please remember we don't tolerate any mouthing off, or unsafe behaviour.
Just a reminder from a safety point of view to please remove any jewellery (such as large dangly earrings, facial piercings, necklaces, watches and rings) at all your training sessions. Also that if you are wearing safety equipment to wear it correctly, do up your helmet and leave it done up all night.

Hope you have been practising and we look forward to seeing you in week 2.

Love and Bumps

Sweet Potato, Cheesy Cauli, Brussel Sprouts and Mushroom Gravy xx