Injuries and Illness

The past two weeks have been very tough. Ignoring the fact that where I work can be very demanding at times and that the past week was no exception to that truth, I've skated once in the last two and a half weeks. While this has been amazingly frustrating, it's given me some time to think and it's probably been better in the long run.

In any given sport, injuries are a given. Derby is no different. I've been to bouts where I've witnessed girls getting hit hard and landing even harder. The lucky ones spring back up and are fine. The not so lucky ones find themselves with broken bones or bloody noses. Given that I'm not a fan of pain, I occasionally question why I want to do derby so badly given how real injuries can be. Honestly, I'm not sure I can put down on words what it is that is driving me. However, I can say that it is a drive. This is the first time I've truly wanted something and pushed for it in years. I find myself dreaming about derby. There are certain songs that are songs that I feel the need to skate to, even when I'm nowhere near a skating rink.

Knowing that injuries are a reality means that they can be prepared for or at least lessened. This means skating in proper form and falling in proper form. It also means not skating when breathing is difficult hence my lack of skating recently (it seems that the most stressful week of the semester means I should also catch a virus going around that turns out to give nasty secondary infections; hello sinus infection, good-bye good health.)

Pushing through the pain is sometimes a good thing as you are trying to push yourself. Two minutes doesn't seem that long until you're in a jam that could win the game. You can't slow down and you can't just "sit it out" until you've got your breath. (I did see a girl leave a jam after she'd been landed on by a few blockers and she had a bloody nose; no, the jam didn't stop for her.) However, there is a line there. If you can't sit up on the couch without having a 10 minute coughing fit, then maybe you shouldn't be skating. It's frustrating and feels like quitting but the reality is that the body needs to heal.

The same is true of muscle aches. There's been talk on the recruiting message boards about how much is too much and how much of a break should you give yourself and your muscles before pushing forward. It's been interesting to read and helpful. The most repeated thing is that rest is good as it helps the body actually build the muscles that it suddenly finds itself using. Hydration and stretching have also been emphasized greatly.

The last time I was skating, I took a couple of falls, mostly to avoid small children who seem to believe that you'll stop and not run over them because they are small children. A few times, the safest thing to do was to fall. Most of my falls, while not forward, which is better, were at least to the side and not straight onto my back side. However, one of them was really impressive and made me realize I was pushing too hard and no longer had the strength to keep going. Was I good and did I stretch everything out really well? Nope. I was tired and hungry and had to go pick up some bird cages. I felt my left hamstring start to tighten up but I still ignored it. I then spent the week slowly stretching it while applying heat when I could. I was lucky that it wasn't something worse; that I didn't sprain or pull it though maybe I did and I just knew I didn't have the option to stay off of it due to work so I figured out how to work around it. I have sprained a muscle before and so I'm fairly certain that this wasn't the case with the hamstring but boy did I spend the week wishing I'd actually stretching it out nice and good at the time! Just over a week later and I'm finally feeling completely comfortable again.

These are all tools to help us maintain and improve our bodies so when we do go down, it's not for the count. Hopefully it's in a "really cool one knee drop and get back up without loosing speed" sort of way. We aren't always that lucky but at least by learning how and training in the right way, I can avoid future major hurts. It's better to sit out and take a breather now than find out I can make it to try-outs because I pushed too hard or fell the wrong way because I was in too big of a hurry to get better.

Baby Steps

My first time on skates was when I was about 9 years old. I think. I can't actually be sure as my memories are sometimes sketchy. Besides, I doubt it really counts as being on skates as I believe I spent most of the time on them on the grass or on my butt. Balance and I have never really been good friends. My Gramps use to tell me how he believed people had a sliding gene which allowed you to be able to glide along. If you didn't have it, you spent most of your time falling. Gramps also believed that I didn't really have a sliding gene as I spent most of my time falling when attempting to ski. Side note: Gramps was a skier and ski instructor for years and years so I'm sure he had some idea what he's talking about and getting up onto skates has been a challenge. This has me rather nervous about skating but hey, it looked easy. How hard could it really be?

On Valentine's day, N, my friend who is also an aspiring derby girl, called me up to see if I was interested in going skating. As I had no other plans, I agreed. We met up at Cheap Skate in Coon Rapids. I brought in the set of skates that had been loaned to me. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be but I quickly found out. Standing up was nearly impossible. N, while trying to not laugh, went and got me rental skates. My loaner skates were so good that I couldn't stand! Well a half hour later, I was wiped out. I managed to make it around the rink 3 times though it was hard. Falling happened a lot though I was determined to learn.

This first attempt at skating taught me quite a few things. First of all, I was way too tense on skates but I think this mostly comes from liking to be in control (I am a stage manager/lighting designer in my day job). Second, I don't like bending my knees. I blame this on drum corps. Third, I apparently have enough muscle memory from my few times skiing that my attempts to go forward led me to turn my toes towards each other which resulted in me falling. Most importantly was the fact that no one was laughing at me, well besides myself and N. Complete strangers were stopping and giving me advice and encouraging me. I've found that this is the most amazing thing about skating in general. Part of me expected to be looked down on and even mocked for my lack of talent on skates but I haven't been. I think this is largely due to the fact that skating isn't as easy as it looks and that it's all about baby steps.

It's remarkable how upset I get when I'm not as good as everyone else. I've found that I'm much easier on myself with skating than I have been with other things. This is probably in large part to being surrounded by encouragement. Random strangers at the roller rinks are becoming friends who get excited to see me get a little better every day.

Two days later found the two of us and another friend at the Roller Garden in St. Louis Park. This is a much larger rink. I didn't even bother with my loaner skates but donned a pair of rentals. This rink has a small practice area to one side. Thankfully my friends were willing to help me figure some things out. The first and most important thing was balance. I didn't want to lift my left leg and placed most of my weight on it, using my right leg to push me forward. After much encouragement and urging of my friends, I was able to stand on each foot while lifting the opposite. Balance was hard and I fell but I fell less than the time before. It was a huge improvement but it was a little scary.

At this point, I wasn't addicted yet. I was okay with missing a week of skating as it was fun but it was a lot of work. My two friends and I went to the Roller Garden again but this time on a Friday night. There were larger crowds and the disco ball was in full swing (it was disco night after all), which made it much harder for me but somehow I managed to have not forgotten everything. I was able to shift my weight a little but from the giggles of my friends, I knew I still looked the silly. The next morning N and I went to the skating lessons that they have there. This was the first break through! I finally understood how I was suppose to be pushing off and moving forward.

Shortly afterwards, I realized that I was starting to get hooked. N and I would go skating before our D&D group. I started thinking about where I could skate when I wasn't at a rink. I had my first dream about skating.

St. Patrick's Day led to my next break through as I went to yet another roller rink. This time I was the youngest person by far on the floor and I was trying out my loaner skates. It had been a month on skates in general and I wanted to have something consistent on my feet. Rental skates are a complete crap shoot. I went to Saints North in Maplewood. It was hard to be an anonymous person falling down since there were so few people. It was intimidating as I'm actually rather shy (no really, I am!) and don't tend to like talking to strangers. However, these strangers insisted on talking to me (and feeding me ice cream and cake too). One of them, the staff person on for the night, had been skating for longer than he could remember and he was concerned that I wasn't having any fun (I was having a blast) because I looked so tense. He recommended a few things (to any and all aspiring skaters: BEND YOUR KNEES) and said something that made everything click. Apparently I just needed bending my knees to be compared to a car for me to get it... So I went back out on the floor and suddenly things just clicked again! In fact, the next time I fell it was because I was thinking about how awesome I was doing!

Now I know I'm addicted. And I know it's all about baby steps. There's a lot of stuff I can't do yet but there's a whole lot more that I can that was way out of my league back in February. My mom is thrilled that I'm skating because it's getting me to exercise. My boyfriend is worried that I'm going to hurt myself even more than I currently do. My co-workers and friends can't wait to see me on a team so they can come cheer me on. Me? I can't wait until I figure out how to do cross-overs and can get back on skates again. It's been almost a week now and it's mostly due to being sick and giving my body a rest after pushing so hard for the last few weeks. But the desire is there. Everything is about skating now. Well, almost everything.

Introduction

Almost a year ago, I saw my first derby bout. My friend, Betty LaRude, had given me a pair of comps to get me to see a bout. At this point I'd known she was involved in derby since 2006 but had yet to see a bout. I'd overheard derby conversation and would just smile and nod. Upon realizing that it was the championship bout, I got my act together and went to the bout.

Wow! It was amazing! Here was something that I started to think might be fun to do. The best part was that I had so many friends who were either in derby or thought derby was cool that they were all encouraging me. My friends Betty and Rink lent me a bunch of gear to start off with but I was terrified to skate.

Just under a year later, a group of friends and I were at another derby bout. One of my girl friends thought derby looked fun and thought we should both try. Now, almost 2 months later, I'm starting to want to skate all of the time but I've also realized that I want to keep track of my progress. I've read other blogs lately about people who are in their first year in derby. While I intend on trying out this June, I'm not sure yet whether I'll make it. I have been told that I shouldn't put myself down as I could make it. I do know that I'll want to look back on this someday and remember what exactly it was that I did. I want to see my process.