It's been a while since I've written about my fitness and skating. Work has sped up and slowed down and sped up again. This makes it hard to do anything consistently. I've managed to go skating a few times and definitely have missed the feel of wheels under my feet. However, I'm not entirely sure I miss derby.
The game has certainly evolved since the last time I went to a bout (new rules have been released at least once if not twice since the last time I went to a bout). I sometimes wonder if people miss me and I'm sure that some do but I completely get the "out of sight, out of mind" reality of it. When you're pushing your body through those practices, you don't have time to think about who isn't there. You're too busy pushing yourself and supporting the people who are there. When I was still active, there were other women that I would reach out to on facebook when I realized that I truly hadn't seen them for a while (this was hard for me to judge as I was often not around a lot). I know a few of them were very touched that I had messaged them because it seemed that no one else had done so.
I miss the skating. I miss the hard work. I miss the people. I don't know if I miss the game though. I can certainly get my butt kicked doing other things and I can skate and enjoy that. It's hard to be completely into something when you can't be around. At the end of last year, I looked at my work schedule and realized that I'd be available for even fewer practice sessions than I had in the fall. As much as I wanted to sign up and be able to do it, it made even less sense. I did eventually get on skates again, but it was honestly after the new year. I haven't made a bout yet. There have been a few times that I could have gone, if I didn't mind going after a long day at work (it's exhausting to listen to talks on international politics and peace keeping) or skipping out on something else, like sleep. There's one more bout in the MNRG season left and as much as I want to go and cheer on my former Debs team mates, I know it's probably not going to happen. That will make two seasons where I've not managed to make a bout and that makes me sad. It's certainly not out of laziness. It's mostly about my job. I guess that's a big down side to work in theatre.
I've not been too active in parkour lately either. Frankly, it's been a rotten start to the new year. I've tried squeezing in parkour classes and never seem to have enough time. I can plot things out but it seems I'm not able to predict how intense work or life is going to be, which ends up keeping me from class. Add into it the worst winter I've ever experienced in Minnesota and there were days that I just didn't leave the house. It was safer that way. The next time I do make it to Fight or Flight Academy, I'm investing in a punch card. The last several months that I've paid for a number of classes for the month (4 classes), I usually end up only making 2 or 3 classes. Better to go with a punch card that I can use whenever and that I'll actually get the full value out of it.
Additionally, I've found a yoga center I like. They do hot yoga and barre classes. My favorite yoga classes are at 9 pm and then I sleep really well. I've taken 3 barre classes and each one seems to be getting harder. Barre is a combination of yoga, pilates and ballet work. I've taken the class with a different instructor each time. The first two times were the 60 minute classes. Today I took the 75 minute class. It was the hardest so far. It was harder than most derby practices. I think this is mostly due to the fact that when we do some drills in derby, we were usually in some sort of line, so you'd get a bit of a break. Not so with barre. You just keep going, with a beat. It never seems to end. While I learned where my core was doing roller derby, I seem to be on a path to beat it into submission with barre. There is a part of me, when we're doing work with the bar, that feels like the dream of being a ballerina is coming true. I've yet to break it to myself that I'm not going to be dancing on stage, but maybe I can get the body of a dancer and then learn how to dance on my skates. That's still one of my goals. I've been looking into dancing lessons at the Roller Garden. They have them on Monday nights. Now to just get through the next hurdle of work so that I can make those lessons.
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Showing posts with label parkour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parkour. Show all posts
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Monday, May 6, 2013
Becoming an athlete
I made a post the other day on facebook that read It's a good thing roller derby got me to accept that I'm an athlete. Biked around the lake again this morning. This is a huge change of who I am and it's one that I'm extremely proud of.
Growing up, I hated physical activity. Sweating was gross and shouldn't happen. I had the chance to ski practically wherever I wanted for little to no cost (it helps having a Grandpa heavily involved in the ski industry) but had no interest in it. It was cold and you went up high on the ski lift and it required using your body. My body and I haven't always been on the best terms. There are still times where I'm comically awkward. It was far worse when I was younger. My "sport" was marching band and even that was grudgingly despite the fact that I played flute/piccolo and eventually became the drum major. Being drum major was pretty cool though and it did require the least amount of physical work. Don't get me wrong, waving your hands around and knowing all of the music is hard work but at least I got to stand still.
I went to college where we had no marching band and my physical activity dwindled even more. I remember once asking my advisor why he was going to go work out after working in the scene shop. Surely that was enough physical activity. I believe his response was along the lines of "you'll understand when you're older." By my last year of college, I had hooked up with this guy who did drum corps so I decided to do drum corps. I still wasn't an athlete though. I was a musician who was performing a very physically intense show but not an athlete despite all the running and push-ups and other core work.
Then came derby.
For whatever naive reason, derby wasn't going to make me an athlete. I didn't understand how much the sport can and does transform a person. Suddenly I was interested in how and what my body could do. Of course, this came after the Angry period of Derby Break-up but my faith in derby, and women, was restored by being in Debs.
As I spent more time skating, I started to care more about my body. I wanted to eat better and I wanted to be more active. The relationship I was in at the time wasn't helpful for either of these and with the introduction of my now-husband, I not only became more active but also started eating a lot better.
That fall, I signed up for my second session with Debs. We did some initial testing to figure out where people needed to be placed. After our testing, I got an email from the head trainer, Hanna, titled "Holy cow!". She was entering data from our testing and noticed that I had gotten 23 laps. She went on to say, after a few exchanges "Not an athlete my ass ;)".
I still have this email. Why? Well, Google does let me keep all of my messages but more importantly, it was part of the turning point on how I view myself. That year, we had athlete contracts so that we all started to think of ourselves as athletes. I think there is a common misconception that athletes are people who compete. I was under this belief. My personal opinion is that the gym culture in the states has a lot to do with this where people go and work-out but don't think of themselves as using their bodies as an athlete does. They are fulfill some mental checklist to stay healthy. I'm not saying this is true for all of them but I'm pretty sure if you stopped by a local gym and asked people if they thought they were an athlete, they wouldn't. So for me, I thought I was only an athlete if I was competing in some way. But this turns out to not be true. Yes, derby is a sprot that involves competition, but more than that, it involves being an athlete. It became so much easier to do things, and to believe in myself, when I accepted that as a truth. The video below came out last summer, around the time of the 2012 Summer Olympics. It still speaks to me.
Growing up, I hated physical activity. Sweating was gross and shouldn't happen. I had the chance to ski practically wherever I wanted for little to no cost (it helps having a Grandpa heavily involved in the ski industry) but had no interest in it. It was cold and you went up high on the ski lift and it required using your body. My body and I haven't always been on the best terms. There are still times where I'm comically awkward. It was far worse when I was younger. My "sport" was marching band and even that was grudgingly despite the fact that I played flute/piccolo and eventually became the drum major. Being drum major was pretty cool though and it did require the least amount of physical work. Don't get me wrong, waving your hands around and knowing all of the music is hard work but at least I got to stand still.
I went to college where we had no marching band and my physical activity dwindled even more. I remember once asking my advisor why he was going to go work out after working in the scene shop. Surely that was enough physical activity. I believe his response was along the lines of "you'll understand when you're older." By my last year of college, I had hooked up with this guy who did drum corps so I decided to do drum corps. I still wasn't an athlete though. I was a musician who was performing a very physically intense show but not an athlete despite all the running and push-ups and other core work.
Then came derby.
For whatever naive reason, derby wasn't going to make me an athlete. I didn't understand how much the sport can and does transform a person. Suddenly I was interested in how and what my body could do. Of course, this came after the Angry period of Derby Break-up but my faith in derby, and women, was restored by being in Debs.
As I spent more time skating, I started to care more about my body. I wanted to eat better and I wanted to be more active. The relationship I was in at the time wasn't helpful for either of these and with the introduction of my now-husband, I not only became more active but also started eating a lot better.
That fall, I signed up for my second session with Debs. We did some initial testing to figure out where people needed to be placed. After our testing, I got an email from the head trainer, Hanna, titled "Holy cow!". She was entering data from our testing and noticed that I had gotten 23 laps. She went on to say, after a few exchanges "Not an athlete my ass ;)".
I still have this email. Why? Well, Google does let me keep all of my messages but more importantly, it was part of the turning point on how I view myself. That year, we had athlete contracts so that we all started to think of ourselves as athletes. I think there is a common misconception that athletes are people who compete. I was under this belief. My personal opinion is that the gym culture in the states has a lot to do with this where people go and work-out but don't think of themselves as using their bodies as an athlete does. They are fulfill some mental checklist to stay healthy. I'm not saying this is true for all of them but I'm pretty sure if you stopped by a local gym and asked people if they thought they were an athlete, they wouldn't. So for me, I thought I was only an athlete if I was competing in some way. But this turns out to not be true. Yes, derby is a sprot that involves competition, but more than that, it involves being an athlete. It became so much easier to do things, and to believe in myself, when I accepted that as a truth. The video below came out last summer, around the time of the 2012 Summer Olympics. It still speaks to me.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
3 years later and stilling rolling
Valentine's day marked the 3rd year since I'd first put skates on in a hilarious attempt to go around a skating rink.
A lot has changed since then.
Due to the nature of my work and my life, I made a practice in October and then didn't skate at all until January. I kept meaning to go skating and things simply didn't work out and skating wasn't the priority.
The spring session of Debs has started off, though it was a rocky start. Our first practice, I had to work. Our next practice was canceled due to weather. That takes us to our third practice, my first one, where we spent some time on skates. I was extremely nervous because it was going to be my first time on skates since October. This was the first Sunday in February. I'll let you do the math.
To my surprise and delight, not only did I not suck, but I got compliments from the coaches! I was doing things well and I didn't feel unsteady or unsure. And it felt so good to be back on skates.
Of course, the next week, practice got canceled because of a horribly winter storm, though I did have a chance to skate during the week before. That meant Tuesday, the 12th, those of us who needed to do testing were going to meet at the guys' practice space.
Last session I had made it into the intermediate (purple) group, managed to make a few practices and then fell off the face of the derby world. I realized that the odds were not in my favor to still staying in purple but I wanted to try and I'm extremely glad that I did.
Due to this practice being added to my already insane schedule, I got there just in time for us to start and didn't have much of a chance to try out the floor. I think this was actually a good thing for me as it meant that I couldn't obsess over it. While we waited for the girls trying out for the scrimmage group to finish doing their 25 in 5, we chatted about what to expect and did some work off to the side. There was a grand total of 5 of us there for the purple group.
We started with the 25 in 5 so that the coaches could see how we'd do with the other skills when we were tired. Historically, I've gotten so far into my head with the 25 in 5 that I've always failed. This time, before I got onto the track, I prayed that I could just skate and not get into my head and freak out. And then we started. Normally, I fall during the first couple of laps and then during the last couple of laps. This time? I didn't fall once. In the first minute, I'd already completed 5 laps. I was done with my 10th lap just before the 2 minute mark (I had a counter and the coach who was timing was calling out time marks otherwise I wouldn't have any clue). In fact, I completed all 25 laps with 2 seconds to spare! I think I'm still in a bit of shock about this and it still feels a little unreal that 2 days short of my 3 year "anniversary" of skating I managed to do the 25 in 5. It's something that a lot of people struggle with and it is hard. You doubt yourself for a second and that can cost you the chance to finish by half a lap. I write this because one of the other girls did just that.
The rest of the testing was rather straight forward and a bit of a blur now. I had a lot going on this last week and so I wasn't getting into my head and freaking out, which helped a lot. It was interesting to me that the girls I was testing with all asked me why I was there because I had made it last session and why wasn't I testing for the scrimmage group. I pointed out that I had disappeared in the middle of the session and simply never made it back and while I had read the email about testing as a statement that to make it back into purple, I had to be there (meaning anyone who had made purple before), I knew that I definitely had to be there since it had been so long.
And I made it! The girls with me were all convinced that I had it in the bag but I knew how shaky I was compared with where I had been and I wasn't completely convinced. And if I hadn't made it, at least I knew I could make the 25 in 5. And sure enough, one of the comments I got was that I'm a lot more stable when I'm skating more often but that I should easily get back to where I was now that I'm back on skates.
I think there are several things that made a difference this time around for me. First in my faith and leaning on it when I'd otherwise just go into my head and be slightly neurotic. More interesting for me was the fact that while I was too busy to go skating, I kept being active. In the past when I've been too busy to skate, I've not gone out of my way to stay active. This time I did. A combination of parkour and yoga and general working out helped keep me in shape and I think it had a lot to do with keeping me in the purple group.
A lot has changed since then.
Due to the nature of my work and my life, I made a practice in October and then didn't skate at all until January. I kept meaning to go skating and things simply didn't work out and skating wasn't the priority.
The spring session of Debs has started off, though it was a rocky start. Our first practice, I had to work. Our next practice was canceled due to weather. That takes us to our third practice, my first one, where we spent some time on skates. I was extremely nervous because it was going to be my first time on skates since October. This was the first Sunday in February. I'll let you do the math.
To my surprise and delight, not only did I not suck, but I got compliments from the coaches! I was doing things well and I didn't feel unsteady or unsure. And it felt so good to be back on skates.
Of course, the next week, practice got canceled because of a horribly winter storm, though I did have a chance to skate during the week before. That meant Tuesday, the 12th, those of us who needed to do testing were going to meet at the guys' practice space.
Last session I had made it into the intermediate (purple) group, managed to make a few practices and then fell off the face of the derby world. I realized that the odds were not in my favor to still staying in purple but I wanted to try and I'm extremely glad that I did.
Due to this practice being added to my already insane schedule, I got there just in time for us to start and didn't have much of a chance to try out the floor. I think this was actually a good thing for me as it meant that I couldn't obsess over it. While we waited for the girls trying out for the scrimmage group to finish doing their 25 in 5, we chatted about what to expect and did some work off to the side. There was a grand total of 5 of us there for the purple group.
We started with the 25 in 5 so that the coaches could see how we'd do with the other skills when we were tired. Historically, I've gotten so far into my head with the 25 in 5 that I've always failed. This time, before I got onto the track, I prayed that I could just skate and not get into my head and freak out. And then we started. Normally, I fall during the first couple of laps and then during the last couple of laps. This time? I didn't fall once. In the first minute, I'd already completed 5 laps. I was done with my 10th lap just before the 2 minute mark (I had a counter and the coach who was timing was calling out time marks otherwise I wouldn't have any clue). In fact, I completed all 25 laps with 2 seconds to spare! I think I'm still in a bit of shock about this and it still feels a little unreal that 2 days short of my 3 year "anniversary" of skating I managed to do the 25 in 5. It's something that a lot of people struggle with and it is hard. You doubt yourself for a second and that can cost you the chance to finish by half a lap. I write this because one of the other girls did just that.
The rest of the testing was rather straight forward and a bit of a blur now. I had a lot going on this last week and so I wasn't getting into my head and freaking out, which helped a lot. It was interesting to me that the girls I was testing with all asked me why I was there because I had made it last session and why wasn't I testing for the scrimmage group. I pointed out that I had disappeared in the middle of the session and simply never made it back and while I had read the email about testing as a statement that to make it back into purple, I had to be there (meaning anyone who had made purple before), I knew that I definitely had to be there since it had been so long.
And I made it! The girls with me were all convinced that I had it in the bag but I knew how shaky I was compared with where I had been and I wasn't completely convinced. And if I hadn't made it, at least I knew I could make the 25 in 5. And sure enough, one of the comments I got was that I'm a lot more stable when I'm skating more often but that I should easily get back to where I was now that I'm back on skates.
I think there are several things that made a difference this time around for me. First in my faith and leaning on it when I'd otherwise just go into my head and be slightly neurotic. More interesting for me was the fact that while I was too busy to go skating, I kept being active. In the past when I've been too busy to skate, I've not gone out of my way to stay active. This time I did. A combination of parkour and yoga and general working out helped keep me in shape and I think it had a lot to do with keeping me in the purple group.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Adventures on ice and injuries later
On the 23rd, for the first time since I was about 13 or 14, I went ice skating. Back then, I had issues with most athletic activities. I liked the idea of skating (I use to have an American Girl doll, Samantha, and her winter story involved ice skating) but the actually activity was hard. Both times that I remember skating, I skated outside on a lake or pond. That's how ice skating is suppose to be done. Once, a now ex-boyfriend talked about ice skating while in Alabama and I was very confused. It hadn't occurred to me that people could skate on indoor ice rinks.
Now, so many years later, I got to try ice skating again. This time, I had roller skating experience and I wasn't doing it in hopes of holding hands with a cute boy (yes, that was true back then). We went to an indoor rink because while my step-daughters own ice skates, the rest of us in the family don't. I wish we had planned the location a little better but I've not had to work it out before. The place we went to, the Depot Ice Rink, was like going to the Roller Garden except it was ice instead of roller skating.
We got there and eventually got onto the ice. There was a bit of drama but that eventually passed. The strange thing was getting onto the ice. Ice is normally rather slippery. Derby has actually helped my ability to walk on ice. It felt exactly like the first time I went roller skating except I didn't wipe out. I also had more knowledge of what my body can do than when I first went roller skating.
Between all the moments of needing to tighten and loosen skates and discover that owned skates were too small, I had barely any time skating. Eventually, everyone settled down and I was able to skate. During one of these moments going around the rink, I looked over at my husband with, what I imagine to be, a look of sheer delight. Ice skates have edges! Two edges on each skate in fact! (No, I had no idea. I honestly believed that the skate was just pointy on the bottom.)
It was just like roller skating for a brief moment and I suddenly remembered the stride clinics at derby practice and all the working on inside and outside edges. With barely any effort, I was suddenly moving much faster as I pushed off the edges.
Having not been on skates in far too long (October I believe...), I was certainly able to feel this in my legs and feet. All of those muscles I haven't really used in a while were letting me know that they weren't too happy with me. It wasn't nearly as relaxing as skating can be as I was trying to move on a smaller surface with smaller edges than I'm use to. I certainly didn't like the narrow bar down the center of my feet. But it was good to be back on skates of some sort. Of course, it also made me miss roller skating a lot.
Winter break and holidays being what they are (and we had the kids for the first half of it), it was too crazy for more skating. However, we had already paid for some parkour classes and needed to get them in before the end of the month. The plan was to take a class on the 27th and then on the 31st so we'd get all of our classes in. The 27th fell through but we were able to make a class on the 29th.
Less than 10 minutes into class, I managed to hurt myself rather impressively. I was doing a wall run where I placed one foot on the wall to push myself up and then the other foot to push away from the wall, doing a 180 degree spin and then landing. The move is called a tic tac. According to my husband, I was a good 4' in the air. Now my landing...well it sucked. I managed to land on the left side of my left foot. Thankfully my derby training taught me to just relax instead of stiffening up. My foot felt like it had fallen asleep and was just starting to wake back up.
My husband helped me hobble over to the futon in the gym while the instructor got me an ice pack. For the next 10 minutes or so, I put ice on it and kept it elevated. It hurt. I was able to get my shoe back on and do some arm exercises with rings (very useful and fun and hard at the same time).
It's now a week later and there are bruises on my foot and I've been extremely inactive because of not wanting to hurt my foot further. Thanks to derby, I already knew about R.I.C.E. (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) but the internet taught me about P.R.I.C.E. where "P" means protect from further injury. This ended up meaning that the last 3 days of my vacation were spent with my foot propped up and me not really moving. And when work resumed, I did a lot of office work and took short days (also, it's the last time I'll be able to take short days until who-knows-when). I'm still frustrated that my foot hurts, especially when it gets accidentally kicked or I have to sit out of a parkour class and especially because it means I haven't been able to go skating. I'm also thankful that I'm not hurt worse. It could be a lot worse and it's certainly been a lot of pain. Normally when I get hurt, I usually go to my chiropractor and he fixes things. I'm not too sure about a foot. My husband hurt his ankle back in November and it took a few weeks for it to not hurt anymore. It'll probably be the same for me. I'm glad that it doesn't hurt to put weight on it though it does feel tight, I know that I can at least still walk.
Now, so many years later, I got to try ice skating again. This time, I had roller skating experience and I wasn't doing it in hopes of holding hands with a cute boy (yes, that was true back then). We went to an indoor rink because while my step-daughters own ice skates, the rest of us in the family don't. I wish we had planned the location a little better but I've not had to work it out before. The place we went to, the Depot Ice Rink, was like going to the Roller Garden except it was ice instead of roller skating.
We got there and eventually got onto the ice. There was a bit of drama but that eventually passed. The strange thing was getting onto the ice. Ice is normally rather slippery. Derby has actually helped my ability to walk on ice. It felt exactly like the first time I went roller skating except I didn't wipe out. I also had more knowledge of what my body can do than when I first went roller skating.
Between all the moments of needing to tighten and loosen skates and discover that owned skates were too small, I had barely any time skating. Eventually, everyone settled down and I was able to skate. During one of these moments going around the rink, I looked over at my husband with, what I imagine to be, a look of sheer delight. Ice skates have edges! Two edges on each skate in fact! (No, I had no idea. I honestly believed that the skate was just pointy on the bottom.)
It was just like roller skating for a brief moment and I suddenly remembered the stride clinics at derby practice and all the working on inside and outside edges. With barely any effort, I was suddenly moving much faster as I pushed off the edges.
Having not been on skates in far too long (October I believe...), I was certainly able to feel this in my legs and feet. All of those muscles I haven't really used in a while were letting me know that they weren't too happy with me. It wasn't nearly as relaxing as skating can be as I was trying to move on a smaller surface with smaller edges than I'm use to. I certainly didn't like the narrow bar down the center of my feet. But it was good to be back on skates of some sort. Of course, it also made me miss roller skating a lot.
Winter break and holidays being what they are (and we had the kids for the first half of it), it was too crazy for more skating. However, we had already paid for some parkour classes and needed to get them in before the end of the month. The plan was to take a class on the 27th and then on the 31st so we'd get all of our classes in. The 27th fell through but we were able to make a class on the 29th.
Less than 10 minutes into class, I managed to hurt myself rather impressively. I was doing a wall run where I placed one foot on the wall to push myself up and then the other foot to push away from the wall, doing a 180 degree spin and then landing. The move is called a tic tac. According to my husband, I was a good 4' in the air. Now my landing...well it sucked. I managed to land on the left side of my left foot. Thankfully my derby training taught me to just relax instead of stiffening up. My foot felt like it had fallen asleep and was just starting to wake back up.
My husband helped me hobble over to the futon in the gym while the instructor got me an ice pack. For the next 10 minutes or so, I put ice on it and kept it elevated. It hurt. I was able to get my shoe back on and do some arm exercises with rings (very useful and fun and hard at the same time).
It's now a week later and there are bruises on my foot and I've been extremely inactive because of not wanting to hurt my foot further. Thanks to derby, I already knew about R.I.C.E. (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) but the internet taught me about P.R.I.C.E. where "P" means protect from further injury. This ended up meaning that the last 3 days of my vacation were spent with my foot propped up and me not really moving. And when work resumed, I did a lot of office work and took short days (also, it's the last time I'll be able to take short days until who-knows-when). I'm still frustrated that my foot hurts, especially when it gets accidentally kicked or I have to sit out of a parkour class and especially because it means I haven't been able to go skating. I'm also thankful that I'm not hurt worse. It could be a lot worse and it's certainly been a lot of pain. Normally when I get hurt, I usually go to my chiropractor and he fixes things. I'm not too sure about a foot. My husband hurt his ankle back in November and it took a few weeks for it to not hurt anymore. It'll probably be the same for me. I'm glad that it doesn't hurt to put weight on it though it does feel tight, I know that I can at least still walk.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Drum Corps to Derby to Parkour
Last weekend, I gave one of my derby coaches a ride into practice. On our way there, she asked me how parkour was going and if I'd done it "in the wild". The more interesting question that she asked was this: Would I have done parkour if it wasn't for Debu-Taunts? She asked after I talked about knowing that it'll take me years to be able to do any of the really cool things that I see the coaches and the other people I try with do because I know that they've taken years to be able to do it. And honestly, no, I wouldn't have even tried parkour if I hadn't gotten involved in roller derby and the Debu-Taunts. To be fair, I probably wouldn't have done derby if I hadn't done drum corps.
Until I started doing derby, drum corps has been the hardest physical activity I'd been involved in. We ran. A lot. While breathing. In tempo. I remember one time that the horn players were told that the next one of us to drop our horns lower than where they should be would be forced to stand there while the rest of the corps ran a lap around the field. A couple of soprano players (trumpet sized bugle) dropped their angle and we all had to run while they stood there, knowing that they had let everyone else down by not doing their part. We spent all summer perfecting an 11 minute show. We did push-ups and practiced in the rain. Recently, I pulled out my old tour video and watched it.
It's amazing how tan I was after that summer (and I did use sunscreen all summer but when you're outside all day, you end up getting tan regardless) and how awful my hair looks short. The other amazing thing is how tight of a team we were by the time we got to quarter finals. We laid it all out on the field and gave our best performance. Our coaches and staff told us to be proud of ourselves because we didn't hold back and that no matter what, no one would ever be able to take away the feeling that we were having. No score would ever change what we had done.
Fast-forward to a couple of years ago, long past my time doing drum corps. This fall is my fourth session in Debs. I've been hesitant about blogging because there is just so much to say that I don't know if I can even manage to get it all out. There have been some really awesome things like making it through sections of our jumping drills or managing to do real push-ups. But there have also been things that have gotten to me like freaking out over being timed to do as many laps as possible in 5 minutes or the fact that skating wasn't my priority this past summer. Yet there have been some amazing changes this session that I have seen in myself.
Our first on skates practice, we were told to be ready at 4pm, meaning on skates and in gear and ready to go. Since a couple of people showed up just a little before 4, they weren't ready. So the rest of us did push-ups and crunches until they were ready. My mind went straight back to those moments in drum corps when we had to do similar. It sucks to do them but it sucks even more to be the person who is causing it to be done. It hasn't happened since and while I know I mentally groaned, I didn't get bent out of shape for having to do it.
The day we did skill assessments, I was in my head even before I got to practice. I was convinced last year that I would make it into the contact ready group. I didn't. It took all year to figure out that it was because of my priorities (job is higher than derby in most cases) prevented me from being consistent in my training. By not being at practice every week, I wasn't able to build on what I was learning. In some ways, I was having to start at the same point every time instead of moving forward. I wasn't sure I could handle another session in the pink (beginner) group. Not that I don't have things to work on but I know I've moved past being terrified of being on wheels. As we worked through the different skill evaluations, I realized that we were oddly numbered at times. I ended up doing some of the drills more than once (one of them, the falling drill, I wanted to do again for my own peace of mind to show myself that I can do better double knee falls than I had done). Instead of letting someone finish on their own, I skated with them because even if we don't compete, we are a team. I know how many times it's helped me complete something when there's been someone else doing it besides me.
To my great shock and surprise, I've been moved up to the contact ready group. It's a new intermediate level, so we aren't scrimmaging but we are able to start hitting each other. I will admit to kind of being obsessive about checking my facebook status for the first several days afterwards to see the words I had posted about making contact ready. I may have even giggled in delight in seeing my name on the list of the purple (contact) group. Now I chuckle to myself that the contact group is the purple group because that's the color of bruises.
This was all a couple of weeks ago and I've since had my first contact practice. I think we were all eager and nervous about starting. I say this with confidence because we were thinking too much. Before we gave and received our first hits, we worked on driving, or pushing, someone right next to us. When we were simply skating next to each other with slimy spines (like a cat, leaning completely up against each other), we had no problems. Yet as soon as we were suppose to do something else, we all started to have issues, the main one being that we were no longer slimy.
It's hard sometimes to not think about something new. There's the question of where my weight goes and am I steering with the correct foot. Eventually, we'll get to the point where we just do it without thinking. Even now, we shouldn't think because it causes us to doubt ourselves.
Tonight, my husband and I went to a parkour class. As we drove down, he asked what was on my mind as I seemed inside my head. This wasn't a good sign. When we started to do warm-ups, I noticed that I was inside my head. I have no idea where I was in it, but I was definitely inside of it. I wondered if I should just stop then and not continue with class but it seems there's a strong streak of stubbornness in my family. Hoping that once I was working my body, I would get out of my head, I went ahead. We were working on vaults and there were a lot of us. In theory, vaults are easy. Especially when you use your upper body a lot, which I don't. I probably do more than others since I work in theatre but most of my power is in my legs.
The first vaults we ran through went well enough.
I'm still not confident enough about doing a speed vault, so I tend to do safety vaults, and I'm sure I could probably go faster on them. Then we got to the vault I hate most. I hate this vault more than I hate any of the plyometrics we've done in derby. This vault is difficult and awkward. The kong vault. Now for guys, it's not nearly as awkward but I am well endowed. Additionally, as a woman, my body is built differently than a man's so I can't just do what they do. I avoided going to the vault classes for a month once because they were focusing on kong vaults. That's how much I hate them. As we were reviewing them and working through an obstacle course, I was at the end of the line (there may have been one person behind me). This way, I would hopefully get some distance before a line of teenage boys (and my husband) got behind me, watching me struggle with this vault. I know from derby that I shouldn't care what others think and that I shouldn't compare myself to others but it's hard. It's hard watching these teenage punks (and my husband) effortlessly do something that seems impossible to me.
Easy, right? Except for that whole "getting your knees between your arms" bit, which I struggle with a lot. Sometimes I mentally blame derby because so much of what we do needs our knees apart (no really! for balance and stuff) that it's weird to have my knees together. There's also an exercise we do for derby called frog leaps (I also hate these, but not nearly as much as I hate kong vaults) where our arms are between our legs. I'm pretty sure I'm giving my body mixed messages (ie, fall in parkour, slap the ground and have your hands open; four point fall in derby, tuck in your fingers so no one rolls over them) but I'm hoping the differences in gear and environment is keeping too many wires from getting crossed.
Tonight, I got one-ish kong vault looking thing. I attempted a second and I was in my head, so much so that my instructors noticed. At least if I was freaking out over something specific (vaulting over bars is scary; I don't want to do a face plant), I could at least figure out a way to deal with it. Instead, I was simply wandering around in my head as though I was lost. As I struggled doing this a second time, on a higher beam, I got more frustrated. It's been a month since I'd gone to class (work/home life getting in the way) and I tend to be really hard on myself even when I know my circumstances. The more frustrated I got, the harder it became. A comment was then made about watching my shins. I know it was suppose to be playful but I was way past the point of frustration. That ended up being the end of class for me. I walked away and calmed down enough to come back and watch what everyone else was doing. I was far too self-conscious to try anything else. One of the boys in the class did ask if I was okay, making sure I hadn't gotten hurt. How does one explain a bruised ego to a teenage boy though? It's not that I don't think they'd understand but more that I think they wouldn't understand the point. It's much easier in the abstract to say that I'm not going to be so hard on myself and that I know that it's something that takes time and work. When trying to do so in reality, sometimes frustration wins out.
Yet again, it all leads back to drum corps. If I can learn how to play a baritone bugle (I'm a flute player) in less than six months to successfully march in a drum corps, then I can certainly try roller skating. If I can go from not being able to stand, on carpet, in the worst skates (roller rink rentals) ever to learning to hit other women in two and a half years, then I can try parkour. In some ways, drum corps was easy. I'd done marching band and I studied music. I'd never done it so intensely, in the heat, never really knowing what state I was in, but I had a background that made it easier. Before I went to a roller rink on Valentine's day 2010, I don't think I'd ever put on skates. Maybe once at a family reunion a million years ago (the late 1980s) and if I did, I probably stayed on the grass and didn't actually skate on them. The most physical activity I'd done to that point was drum corps and work. I took a little bit of karate in college so I knew I had some form of coordination but that was about it.
That means for parkour, I'm already doing a physical activity in roller derby. I have a background there. I know how to move my body, mostly. I understand the importance of landing on the balls of my feet and bending my knees. There is a foundation. In my childhood, I didn't play on the monkey bars and do the crazy bar flips. I was afraid of heights and deemed such activities a sure sign of insanity. When we had a gymnastics unit in elementary school gym class, I could do a front roll and that was about it. Already, I've moved leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I started parkour in June. If I can be working on cartwheels and vaults and jumping at walls on purpose in less than 5 months, how much more will I be able to do in two and a half years? I'm guessing it'll be a lot more.
Until I started doing derby, drum corps has been the hardest physical activity I'd been involved in. We ran. A lot. While breathing. In tempo. I remember one time that the horn players were told that the next one of us to drop our horns lower than where they should be would be forced to stand there while the rest of the corps ran a lap around the field. A couple of soprano players (trumpet sized bugle) dropped their angle and we all had to run while they stood there, knowing that they had let everyone else down by not doing their part. We spent all summer perfecting an 11 minute show. We did push-ups and practiced in the rain. Recently, I pulled out my old tour video and watched it.
 | |||
| Yes, that's really me. No, my hair isn't that short anymore. |
It's amazing how tan I was after that summer (and I did use sunscreen all summer but when you're outside all day, you end up getting tan regardless) and how awful my hair looks short. The other amazing thing is how tight of a team we were by the time we got to quarter finals. We laid it all out on the field and gave our best performance. Our coaches and staff told us to be proud of ourselves because we didn't hold back and that no matter what, no one would ever be able to take away the feeling that we were having. No score would ever change what we had done.
Fast-forward to a couple of years ago, long past my time doing drum corps. This fall is my fourth session in Debs. I've been hesitant about blogging because there is just so much to say that I don't know if I can even manage to get it all out. There have been some really awesome things like making it through sections of our jumping drills or managing to do real push-ups. But there have also been things that have gotten to me like freaking out over being timed to do as many laps as possible in 5 minutes or the fact that skating wasn't my priority this past summer. Yet there have been some amazing changes this session that I have seen in myself.
Our first on skates practice, we were told to be ready at 4pm, meaning on skates and in gear and ready to go. Since a couple of people showed up just a little before 4, they weren't ready. So the rest of us did push-ups and crunches until they were ready. My mind went straight back to those moments in drum corps when we had to do similar. It sucks to do them but it sucks even more to be the person who is causing it to be done. It hasn't happened since and while I know I mentally groaned, I didn't get bent out of shape for having to do it.
The day we did skill assessments, I was in my head even before I got to practice. I was convinced last year that I would make it into the contact ready group. I didn't. It took all year to figure out that it was because of my priorities (job is higher than derby in most cases) prevented me from being consistent in my training. By not being at practice every week, I wasn't able to build on what I was learning. In some ways, I was having to start at the same point every time instead of moving forward. I wasn't sure I could handle another session in the pink (beginner) group. Not that I don't have things to work on but I know I've moved past being terrified of being on wheels. As we worked through the different skill evaluations, I realized that we were oddly numbered at times. I ended up doing some of the drills more than once (one of them, the falling drill, I wanted to do again for my own peace of mind to show myself that I can do better double knee falls than I had done). Instead of letting someone finish on their own, I skated with them because even if we don't compete, we are a team. I know how many times it's helped me complete something when there's been someone else doing it besides me.
 |
| Non-skating bruise, but look at the pretty purple. |
This was all a couple of weeks ago and I've since had my first contact practice. I think we were all eager and nervous about starting. I say this with confidence because we were thinking too much. Before we gave and received our first hits, we worked on driving, or pushing, someone right next to us. When we were simply skating next to each other with slimy spines (like a cat, leaning completely up against each other), we had no problems. Yet as soon as we were suppose to do something else, we all started to have issues, the main one being that we were no longer slimy.
It's hard sometimes to not think about something new. There's the question of where my weight goes and am I steering with the correct foot. Eventually, we'll get to the point where we just do it without thinking. Even now, we shouldn't think because it causes us to doubt ourselves.
Tonight, my husband and I went to a parkour class. As we drove down, he asked what was on my mind as I seemed inside my head. This wasn't a good sign. When we started to do warm-ups, I noticed that I was inside my head. I have no idea where I was in it, but I was definitely inside of it. I wondered if I should just stop then and not continue with class but it seems there's a strong streak of stubbornness in my family. Hoping that once I was working my body, I would get out of my head, I went ahead. We were working on vaults and there were a lot of us. In theory, vaults are easy. Especially when you use your upper body a lot, which I don't. I probably do more than others since I work in theatre but most of my power is in my legs.
The first vaults we ran through went well enough.
I'm still not confident enough about doing a speed vault, so I tend to do safety vaults, and I'm sure I could probably go faster on them. Then we got to the vault I hate most. I hate this vault more than I hate any of the plyometrics we've done in derby. This vault is difficult and awkward. The kong vault. Now for guys, it's not nearly as awkward but I am well endowed. Additionally, as a woman, my body is built differently than a man's so I can't just do what they do. I avoided going to the vault classes for a month once because they were focusing on kong vaults. That's how much I hate them. As we were reviewing them and working through an obstacle course, I was at the end of the line (there may have been one person behind me). This way, I would hopefully get some distance before a line of teenage boys (and my husband) got behind me, watching me struggle with this vault. I know from derby that I shouldn't care what others think and that I shouldn't compare myself to others but it's hard. It's hard watching these teenage punks (and my husband) effortlessly do something that seems impossible to me.
Easy, right? Except for that whole "getting your knees between your arms" bit, which I struggle with a lot. Sometimes I mentally blame derby because so much of what we do needs our knees apart (no really! for balance and stuff) that it's weird to have my knees together. There's also an exercise we do for derby called frog leaps (I also hate these, but not nearly as much as I hate kong vaults) where our arms are between our legs. I'm pretty sure I'm giving my body mixed messages (ie, fall in parkour, slap the ground and have your hands open; four point fall in derby, tuck in your fingers so no one rolls over them) but I'm hoping the differences in gear and environment is keeping too many wires from getting crossed.
Tonight, I got one-ish kong vault looking thing. I attempted a second and I was in my head, so much so that my instructors noticed. At least if I was freaking out over something specific (vaulting over bars is scary; I don't want to do a face plant), I could at least figure out a way to deal with it. Instead, I was simply wandering around in my head as though I was lost. As I struggled doing this a second time, on a higher beam, I got more frustrated. It's been a month since I'd gone to class (work/home life getting in the way) and I tend to be really hard on myself even when I know my circumstances. The more frustrated I got, the harder it became. A comment was then made about watching my shins. I know it was suppose to be playful but I was way past the point of frustration. That ended up being the end of class for me. I walked away and calmed down enough to come back and watch what everyone else was doing. I was far too self-conscious to try anything else. One of the boys in the class did ask if I was okay, making sure I hadn't gotten hurt. How does one explain a bruised ego to a teenage boy though? It's not that I don't think they'd understand but more that I think they wouldn't understand the point. It's much easier in the abstract to say that I'm not going to be so hard on myself and that I know that it's something that takes time and work. When trying to do so in reality, sometimes frustration wins out.
Yet again, it all leads back to drum corps. If I can learn how to play a baritone bugle (I'm a flute player) in less than six months to successfully march in a drum corps, then I can certainly try roller skating. If I can go from not being able to stand, on carpet, in the worst skates (roller rink rentals) ever to learning to hit other women in two and a half years, then I can try parkour. In some ways, drum corps was easy. I'd done marching band and I studied music. I'd never done it so intensely, in the heat, never really knowing what state I was in, but I had a background that made it easier. Before I went to a roller rink on Valentine's day 2010, I don't think I'd ever put on skates. Maybe once at a family reunion a million years ago (the late 1980s) and if I did, I probably stayed on the grass and didn't actually skate on them. The most physical activity I'd done to that point was drum corps and work. I took a little bit of karate in college so I knew I had some form of coordination but that was about it.
That means for parkour, I'm already doing a physical activity in roller derby. I have a background there. I know how to move my body, mostly. I understand the importance of landing on the balls of my feet and bending my knees. There is a foundation. In my childhood, I didn't play on the monkey bars and do the crazy bar flips. I was afraid of heights and deemed such activities a sure sign of insanity. When we had a gymnastics unit in elementary school gym class, I could do a front roll and that was about it. Already, I've moved leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I started parkour in June. If I can be working on cartwheels and vaults and jumping at walls on purpose in less than 5 months, how much more will I be able to do in two and a half years? I'm guessing it'll be a lot more.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Better Every Day
In that period of time between graduating from college and finding a real job, I decided to run away and join a drum corps for the summer. No, seriously. I had no idea what I was going to do after college, so I decided to learn a completely new instrument and ride around on a bus, touring the US while learning an 11 minute show.
That 11 minutes would change my life.
It's been almost a decade since that summer and I still look back on it fondly. A small part of me regrets part of the reason I did it, which was to prove to someone else (another drum corps) that I could march in a division I corps. (Note: Back when I marched, there were 3 divisions of competition. Division I was the elite and large drum corps) Yet, even for that crummy reason to march (this is why I didn't start skating again just to prove to some people in a small league that I could do it; they wouldn't care and it would be the wrong attitude), I learned a lot of valuable things from it.
We marched with the motto of "Better Every Day". Too often in life, we're worried about how we compare to others and we want to be better than them. In my drum corps, The Pioneer, Better Every Day was about self. You never compared yourself (in theory) to your peers but to yourself. Yesterday, you could hold the horn up for 2 minutes without getting shaky arms, then today you strive for 2.5 minutes. It was about seeing the small improvements and then being able to look back over a period of time and seeing how big all of those small improvements really were.
This was probably one of the best things I learned because man has it come in handy over the years.
Last summer, I was epically sick and could barely breath, so I didn't skate much until just before Debs started up again. This summer, it's been a matter of priorities. Over the course of the summer, I've come to terms with the fact that skating isn't my number one priority and that this is an Okay Thing. I work a very demanding job and I'm newly married AND I'm suddenly a Parental Figure. Responsibilities have changed as has my time commitments. Instead of freaking out and despairing melodramatically about how I'm stuck in a place and how Everyone Else Has Surpassed Me, I'm thinking more about the little things that I have improved on.
I can look back on this blog and read all of the things that I can now do, but the biggest one has been my change in confidence and attitude. I'm so happy for my Deb sisters who made it through boot camp and thrilled at those who were drafted. I know that I'm going to be far below in skill compared to those who didn't get drafted but hey, they just spent a summer getting their butts kicked by roller girls. They worked *hard* all summer and I know that it's not a commitment I can make in my life right now. This is also an Okay Thing. It's hard work and I enjoy it and I love how much I've improved.
Saturday I took a free parkour class offered at Fight or Flight Academy and then had an hour to kill before the class I was taking as part of my membership. So what did I do in that hour to stay limber? I went and found a place to skate for a bit. This was, annoyingly, my first time on my Antiks and to say I love them is a huge understatement. They felt like an extension of me. It was amazing! I didn't have much time on them between trying to find a place to skate, my husband calling and then having to get back to the gym, but it was a blast.
It was actually that second class that inspired me to write. One of the biggest things I've been learning in parkour is how to change downward momentum into forward momentum. This involves rolling. My dear husband has challenged me to be able to do a roll while wearing skates. I'm not entirely sure that this will ever happen but then I never thought I'd do parkour or derby either, so we'll see.
At 4pm on Saturdays, the gym offers two parkour classes; a beginner's class and a 30+ class. Often the two classes are lumped together but yesterday I was asked what I wanted to work on. I was surprised to learn that I was going to get my own 30+ class, which would really be more like a private lesson as I was the only one who qualified for that age group. I asked if we could work on rolling because it's been one of my weak points. I then spent an hour rolling and doing various exercises to improve my rolls.
Having spent two years learning how to fall on my knees and to fall small, it's been interesting trying to roll long. Rolling long means that my energy and momentum is moving forward instead of down, which would be into the ground and hurt. It's been really frustrating (and makes me dizzy) to keep trying these rolls and only feeling myself flop onto the ground and do something that isn't at all like a roll. Yet, over the course of the hour, Skinny, the trainer, started to point out all of the little things that were improving in my rolls. They were smoother. This one was longer. Once I started using my legs (there's a blog post about explosives legs being in derby and parkour somewhere in my head) and arms, instead of just letting them exist, I got more power in my rolls and could stand up. By the time we were done (Skinny insisted that I end on a good note), I was actually doing shoulder rolls that looked and felt how they were suppose to, mostly.
It felt really good to hear that I should be working on and celebrating the small improvements because over time, they will become big ones. It was also encouraging to hear that all of these things require constant training and that you never stop working on the basics.
Over the course of the afternoon, I could feel all of those small changes and how big of a change they've had in me. I know that tomorrow I will be better at skating than I was today because I'm working on things off my skates and finding time to get back on my skates. Tomorrow, I'll get better at parkour because I'll find time to work on one thing to improve some muscle.
I am thankful that there's about 3 weeks left until Debs starts up again because I know I'm going to need it. I'm not sure where skating and derby are going to land on my overall priority list but I do know that my main goal is to get better every day.
That 11 minutes would change my life.
It's been almost a decade since that summer and I still look back on it fondly. A small part of me regrets part of the reason I did it, which was to prove to someone else (another drum corps) that I could march in a division I corps. (Note: Back when I marched, there were 3 divisions of competition. Division I was the elite and large drum corps) Yet, even for that crummy reason to march (this is why I didn't start skating again just to prove to some people in a small league that I could do it; they wouldn't care and it would be the wrong attitude), I learned a lot of valuable things from it.
We marched with the motto of "Better Every Day". Too often in life, we're worried about how we compare to others and we want to be better than them. In my drum corps, The Pioneer, Better Every Day was about self. You never compared yourself (in theory) to your peers but to yourself. Yesterday, you could hold the horn up for 2 minutes without getting shaky arms, then today you strive for 2.5 minutes. It was about seeing the small improvements and then being able to look back over a period of time and seeing how big all of those small improvements really were.
This was probably one of the best things I learned because man has it come in handy over the years.
Last summer, I was epically sick and could barely breath, so I didn't skate much until just before Debs started up again. This summer, it's been a matter of priorities. Over the course of the summer, I've come to terms with the fact that skating isn't my number one priority and that this is an Okay Thing. I work a very demanding job and I'm newly married AND I'm suddenly a Parental Figure. Responsibilities have changed as has my time commitments. Instead of freaking out and despairing melodramatically about how I'm stuck in a place and how Everyone Else Has Surpassed Me, I'm thinking more about the little things that I have improved on.
I can look back on this blog and read all of the things that I can now do, but the biggest one has been my change in confidence and attitude. I'm so happy for my Deb sisters who made it through boot camp and thrilled at those who were drafted. I know that I'm going to be far below in skill compared to those who didn't get drafted but hey, they just spent a summer getting their butts kicked by roller girls. They worked *hard* all summer and I know that it's not a commitment I can make in my life right now. This is also an Okay Thing. It's hard work and I enjoy it and I love how much I've improved.
Saturday I took a free parkour class offered at Fight or Flight Academy and then had an hour to kill before the class I was taking as part of my membership. So what did I do in that hour to stay limber? I went and found a place to skate for a bit. This was, annoyingly, my first time on my Antiks and to say I love them is a huge understatement. They felt like an extension of me. It was amazing! I didn't have much time on them between trying to find a place to skate, my husband calling and then having to get back to the gym, but it was a blast.
It was actually that second class that inspired me to write. One of the biggest things I've been learning in parkour is how to change downward momentum into forward momentum. This involves rolling. My dear husband has challenged me to be able to do a roll while wearing skates. I'm not entirely sure that this will ever happen but then I never thought I'd do parkour or derby either, so we'll see.
At 4pm on Saturdays, the gym offers two parkour classes; a beginner's class and a 30+ class. Often the two classes are lumped together but yesterday I was asked what I wanted to work on. I was surprised to learn that I was going to get my own 30+ class, which would really be more like a private lesson as I was the only one who qualified for that age group. I asked if we could work on rolling because it's been one of my weak points. I then spent an hour rolling and doing various exercises to improve my rolls.
Having spent two years learning how to fall on my knees and to fall small, it's been interesting trying to roll long. Rolling long means that my energy and momentum is moving forward instead of down, which would be into the ground and hurt. It's been really frustrating (and makes me dizzy) to keep trying these rolls and only feeling myself flop onto the ground and do something that isn't at all like a roll. Yet, over the course of the hour, Skinny, the trainer, started to point out all of the little things that were improving in my rolls. They were smoother. This one was longer. Once I started using my legs (there's a blog post about explosives legs being in derby and parkour somewhere in my head) and arms, instead of just letting them exist, I got more power in my rolls and could stand up. By the time we were done (Skinny insisted that I end on a good note), I was actually doing shoulder rolls that looked and felt how they were suppose to, mostly.
It felt really good to hear that I should be working on and celebrating the small improvements because over time, they will become big ones. It was also encouraging to hear that all of these things require constant training and that you never stop working on the basics.
Over the course of the afternoon, I could feel all of those small changes and how big of a change they've had in me. I know that tomorrow I will be better at skating than I was today because I'm working on things off my skates and finding time to get back on my skates. Tomorrow, I'll get better at parkour because I'll find time to work on one thing to improve some muscle.
I am thankful that there's about 3 weeks left until Debs starts up again because I know I'm going to need it. I'm not sure where skating and derby are going to land on my overall priority list but I do know that my main goal is to get better every day.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Crosstraining
During the season, we do what is called dry land practices. This is a brutal off skates practice that helps us to build muscles and endurance so that we're better on our skates. I love and loathe these practices. It's awesome what I can get my body to do when I push it hard but the next two days usually suck as I hurt everywhere.
It is strongly recommended (though not required; remember, I'm in a recreational league) to do dry lands on our own and to do some cross training to build up muscles and endurance. I've gotten better at doing some exercises on my own, mostly balance and core exercises, and eventually the endurance will be come once my bike is repaired by my husband, which will happen after our bedroom is finished. Why are there never enough hours in the day? The great thing is that he use to bike hundreds of miles in a day. He's not at that level anymore, but he's going to help increase my endurance by getting me to keep up with how far he goes.
But I wanted more than just core work and biking. My husband also trains in parkour and after some nudging, he's gotten me into it. So what is parkour?
According to wikipedia, "parkour is a physical discipline and non-competitive sport which focuses on efficient movement around obstacles", but what does that end up looking like? It looks something like this:
I can't actually do any of that. Yet. I mean, I've only been training since the beginning of June but it reminds me a lot of derby.
The guy in the video, he's one of the trainers and owners at Fight of Flight Academy and he's said some things that have really stuck with me and reinforce what I've already learned in derby.
Keep trying and training and remember where you are now because in a week, a month and a year, you will have improved if you keep training.
This isn't an accurate quote but the meaning is there. Within the gym, there are areas that are deemed impossible and they practically are impossible. I've learned though that sometimes traceurs (this is what someone who does parkour is called) work on something not to succeed at it but to push themselves harder. Last week, the class I took got to experience these areas. Watching our trainer attempt to do a move and fail because it's so difficult helped me to know that it's okay if I fail. He then pointed out that even though you may never be able to do that move, over time, you can look back and see how far you've come. He also pointed out that you're still working the muscles, so it's not a waste to do the move as best you can.
This mindset helps so much in derby. My first session of Debs, all I could see was my weaknesses. I thought it was being realistic when really, it was preventing me from improving. It took others pointing out how far I'd come that I was able to appreciate where I was then. Even though there are still things I struggle with, there are so many things that have improved and I can easily look back and remember when it was deemed, by myself, impossible to do those things. It's also a good reminder that you just can't show up once a week and expect to improve. You must continue to train and only then will you see improvement.
Commit to your move
Often in roller derby, I've not committed to something. Sometimes it's a stop, sometimes it's turning around. It's even been not committing to just staying standing. By not committing, I'm giving myself permission to fail. That lack of commitment automatically leads to failure as I don't believe I can do it.
Guess what? The same is true in parkour.
Last week in class, we were learning a new (to me) move. We'd already been training for a while and we were building up to more complicated moves. There were several times that I failed. It didn't take much for the problem to be found. It wasn't my shoes or my abilities. It was that I hadn't committed to the move. The times when I was close to making the move or when I did get it right, I was committed to doing it and I knew I would do it. When I hesitated or simply didn't give it my all, I failed. I was trying to learn how to do a shoulder roll (think a somersault, but going at an angle). At one point, I simply ended up flopping onto the ground and roll on my side. Before anything was said to me, I blurted out "I know, I wasn't committed!" That lack of commitment kind of hurts. We train on mats but it still hurts to just flop down onto a floor with mats. While I was a bit dizzy at that point, that really doesn't excuse deciding to not commit. It's the same thing when I'm on skates. If I'm not going to commit to a movement, I shouldn't do it as it'll just end up hurting.
Get out of your head
One of my biggest problems with skating is that I think too much. My coaches always know when I'm in my head and it's often because I'm trying to figure out what my body is suppose to be doing instead of letting it do it. These times are when I screw up the most. When I stop thinking, things flow and suddenly my body knows what I'm doing.
I have approached obstacles in my parkour class and stopped dead in front of it because I started thinking. It's often the thought that this is kind of scary or trying to figure out which leg goes where but I end up not being able to do it. It's funny how active thought can cause the body to stop functioning.
When I went to Colorado over the 4th of July holiday, I ended up needing to blow off some steam. I went for a walk and eventually came to a parking lot. Since starting parkour (it's very addicting), I've started to look at my environment differently and wondering if I can move over obstacles instead of around them. (The same thing happened with skating except it was more a question of what it would be like to skate on a particular surface.) In almost a zen state of mind, I started doing safety vaults in the parking lot. By the time I was done, I was running at the barriers in front of me and vaulting over them successfully. Except when I started to think about what I was doing. I wanted to work on a couple of other vaults and couldn't quite remember how the are executed but thinking about it caused me to essentially freeze up and not be able to do anymore vaults.
No Pain, No Gain?
After dry land practices, we're told that we're going to feel it in our muscles the next day and that this is a good thing because it means we worked hard. I get the same thing with parkour. The funny thing is that even though it hurts and I'm sore and moving seems a bit too much, I no longer think of it as pain. A couple of years ago, being out of breath and having my core be aching would have been torture and more pain than I could handle. Today? I like the feeling. I feel alive and accomplished. Every time I leave feeling exhausted, I want to do it again. I've even taken parkour classes two days in a row. This may not have been my best idea ever, but it was an amazing feeling. I think I need to come up with a new phrase as I'm gaining so much (working on balance and core as well as some of the mental road blocks) but it's no longer seen as pain. If there has been nothing else that I've gained from derby (and there's been a LOT), I know that this change in attitude has made my life so much more than it's ever been.
It is strongly recommended (though not required; remember, I'm in a recreational league) to do dry lands on our own and to do some cross training to build up muscles and endurance. I've gotten better at doing some exercises on my own, mostly balance and core exercises, and eventually the endurance will be come once my bike is repaired by my husband, which will happen after our bedroom is finished. Why are there never enough hours in the day? The great thing is that he use to bike hundreds of miles in a day. He's not at that level anymore, but he's going to help increase my endurance by getting me to keep up with how far he goes.
But I wanted more than just core work and biking. My husband also trains in parkour and after some nudging, he's gotten me into it. So what is parkour?
According to wikipedia, "parkour is a physical discipline and non-competitive sport which focuses on efficient movement around obstacles", but what does that end up looking like? It looks something like this:
I can't actually do any of that. Yet. I mean, I've only been training since the beginning of June but it reminds me a lot of derby.
The guy in the video, he's one of the trainers and owners at Fight of Flight Academy and he's said some things that have really stuck with me and reinforce what I've already learned in derby.
Keep trying and training and remember where you are now because in a week, a month and a year, you will have improved if you keep training.
This isn't an accurate quote but the meaning is there. Within the gym, there are areas that are deemed impossible and they practically are impossible. I've learned though that sometimes traceurs (this is what someone who does parkour is called) work on something not to succeed at it but to push themselves harder. Last week, the class I took got to experience these areas. Watching our trainer attempt to do a move and fail because it's so difficult helped me to know that it's okay if I fail. He then pointed out that even though you may never be able to do that move, over time, you can look back and see how far you've come. He also pointed out that you're still working the muscles, so it's not a waste to do the move as best you can.
This mindset helps so much in derby. My first session of Debs, all I could see was my weaknesses. I thought it was being realistic when really, it was preventing me from improving. It took others pointing out how far I'd come that I was able to appreciate where I was then. Even though there are still things I struggle with, there are so many things that have improved and I can easily look back and remember when it was deemed, by myself, impossible to do those things. It's also a good reminder that you just can't show up once a week and expect to improve. You must continue to train and only then will you see improvement.
Commit to your move
Often in roller derby, I've not committed to something. Sometimes it's a stop, sometimes it's turning around. It's even been not committing to just staying standing. By not committing, I'm giving myself permission to fail. That lack of commitment automatically leads to failure as I don't believe I can do it.
Guess what? The same is true in parkour.
Last week in class, we were learning a new (to me) move. We'd already been training for a while and we were building up to more complicated moves. There were several times that I failed. It didn't take much for the problem to be found. It wasn't my shoes or my abilities. It was that I hadn't committed to the move. The times when I was close to making the move or when I did get it right, I was committed to doing it and I knew I would do it. When I hesitated or simply didn't give it my all, I failed. I was trying to learn how to do a shoulder roll (think a somersault, but going at an angle). At one point, I simply ended up flopping onto the ground and roll on my side. Before anything was said to me, I blurted out "I know, I wasn't committed!" That lack of commitment kind of hurts. We train on mats but it still hurts to just flop down onto a floor with mats. While I was a bit dizzy at that point, that really doesn't excuse deciding to not commit. It's the same thing when I'm on skates. If I'm not going to commit to a movement, I shouldn't do it as it'll just end up hurting.
Get out of your head
One of my biggest problems with skating is that I think too much. My coaches always know when I'm in my head and it's often because I'm trying to figure out what my body is suppose to be doing instead of letting it do it. These times are when I screw up the most. When I stop thinking, things flow and suddenly my body knows what I'm doing.
I have approached obstacles in my parkour class and stopped dead in front of it because I started thinking. It's often the thought that this is kind of scary or trying to figure out which leg goes where but I end up not being able to do it. It's funny how active thought can cause the body to stop functioning.
When I went to Colorado over the 4th of July holiday, I ended up needing to blow off some steam. I went for a walk and eventually came to a parking lot. Since starting parkour (it's very addicting), I've started to look at my environment differently and wondering if I can move over obstacles instead of around them. (The same thing happened with skating except it was more a question of what it would be like to skate on a particular surface.) In almost a zen state of mind, I started doing safety vaults in the parking lot. By the time I was done, I was running at the barriers in front of me and vaulting over them successfully. Except when I started to think about what I was doing. I wanted to work on a couple of other vaults and couldn't quite remember how the are executed but thinking about it caused me to essentially freeze up and not be able to do anymore vaults.
No Pain, No Gain?
After dry land practices, we're told that we're going to feel it in our muscles the next day and that this is a good thing because it means we worked hard. I get the same thing with parkour. The funny thing is that even though it hurts and I'm sore and moving seems a bit too much, I no longer think of it as pain. A couple of years ago, being out of breath and having my core be aching would have been torture and more pain than I could handle. Today? I like the feeling. I feel alive and accomplished. Every time I leave feeling exhausted, I want to do it again. I've even taken parkour classes two days in a row. This may not have been my best idea ever, but it was an amazing feeling. I think I need to come up with a new phrase as I'm gaining so much (working on balance and core as well as some of the mental road blocks) but it's no longer seen as pain. If there has been nothing else that I've gained from derby (and there's been a LOT), I know that this change in attitude has made my life so much more than it's ever been.
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