Week 7 Training/Sunday

This is very similar to something I did at practice today, and I am super disappointed that no one was filming me.....

Seriously, in my wildest dreams not even remotely. And you, dear reader are surprisingly more gullible than me if you even considered that for a moment. But it does inspire me to begin compiling my super hero wish list:
1. The ability to skate like this guy. And do parkour.
2. When we were watching "Heroes" on TV there was this girl who had the coolest ability I could ever imagine, and as far as super powers go, it seems to me like the only one you would really ever need . She could either just observe a person for moments or watch a video of someone doing ANYTHING and then be able to do whatever she just watched. How awesome is that?? And I guess if I was fortunate enough to acquire this super power we could just go ahead and cancel wish number one.

So today we worked a lot on skating in a pack, plow stopping, booty blocking and hip/body checking. And to be completely honest, I felt like a totally uncoordinated idiot. This was a really challenging day for me. I was sliding all over in my plow stops in the pack, seriously concerned I was going to smack into someone. And then I realized I had all my weight on my big toes and things started to look up when I began putting a bit of weight on my heels too. For those of you who don't skate, a plow stop is when you get your feet out very wide, then turn your toes in and bring them towards each other, deeply bend all your leg joints, stick your butt way out and either bring yourself to a stop or just decrease your speed. It is the absolute safest way to stop in derby, and can also be a really effective way to block/slow down/impede the opposing jammer from passing you and scoring a point. Kind of a tough skill on its own, it becomes even more challenging when you are skating closely in a pack and everyone is plow stopping with their legs out wide. The chances of knocking wheels or tripping over someone's leg are really increased.

I was managing pretty well with the warm up to hip/body checking on my knees side by side with my partner. But today when we got up and worked on this skill while skating I was a total mess. I feel like I'm a fairly decent skater, but it was as if my consciousness had just arrived in my body and had never read the instruction manual. I kept knocking into her wheels and stumbling, or just falling all over myself most times I attempted to get close and hip check her. I did notice that the few solid ones I got in were only when I wasn't completely over thinking the movement or just freezing with that fear in the back of my head that I could potentially stumble yet again. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am a habitual MASSIVE over thinker. There are times that I can work with this personality trait and it serves me spectacularly, and instances like this that it just destroys me. It presents itself on full volume in moments when I really want to understand something, and this was one of those moments. Several times when I actually managed to get the mechanics right and make good contact these damn elbows were knocking into everyone, such a remnant of NY subway riding. That would be a penalty and I would end up in the box. It was really a pretty comical scene, me skating up to people, checking them and then apologizing profusely for throwing yet another elbow. For me this is the most challenging skill we have worked on yet, and the mechanics of it fascinate me when I am inhibiting my initial frustration. I can't wait to get it, and I am so excited for Tuesday because I really want to practice again.  My poor, sainted husband is either running away from me or throwing himself to the floor playing possum because I keep sneaking up on/begging him to let me hip check him.

Since I seem to be on an "aquiring super powers" kick it only seems right to mention that this week Oona woke up from a nap and began walking unassisted from room to room, squawking and chattering as she went. She had never done that before. The squawking and chattering yes, and at high decibel levels. I still maintain she is quite possibly the loudest baby on the planet, but she had not been fully mobile prior to that nap. She woke, I got her out of her crib, she was twisting in my arms insisting to be put down and when her butt hit the floor she brought herself up to a stand and then off she went, exploring all the rooms of the house from her new perspective. It was if she had been walking for weeks. Holy power nap Batman. Here's hoping that one day soon I will wake up and be able to give consistent hip/body checks with no accidental elbows.