#moominbrawl

[myderbyjourney]

Wheely big bruise... What happens when you fall on a wheel

[myderbyjourney]

Starting to get anxious about the tourney in Birmingham at the weekend! Not just the Derby part (third ever bout) but the actual getting there, getting home and staying in a hostel! I will sleep anywhere but just get worried I will forget something I need, miss the train, get lost.... But I'm sure it will be fine. Training yesterday was awesome. Nice to play with the A's also! So sore and sleepy now.

[myderbyjourney]

First time training with mainleague.

I got on the train (will start from the train yes) and started to worry that I'd got the wrong date or time. Before training I ate some Dim Sum that I cooked from frozen that I may not of fully cooked so I couldn't tell if I was just really nervous sick or possibly poisoned myself sick. When I got to Tottenham one of the players was sitting outside and I asked her if we were being let in yet, she explained how to get into the centre like I'd never done it before...I said thanks (my voice may have got a bit high!?!?) and she was like 'ok!' In a singsong way highlighting my dorkyness... Badminton was still going on and no one was around (it was about 7.30) then I saw My wreck league friend and I was sooooo relieved to see her! We waited around for a bit and a B teamer came past told us it was off skates outside. We stood outside for 15 minutes in the freeeezing cold and nothing happened so we all traipsed back in and did off skates in the hall. Got accidentally hit me in the face with someone's kit. We did one legged squats and lots of ankle related stuff. I tried really hard not to be overwhelmed being like 'omg [amazingplayer] is next to me' lol. The warm up was fuckkkking nuts. So we did the usual squats and open the gate stuff. Then pace line , stepping through, spaghetti, then stepping through again backwards. The pace line then went in anti Derby direction. I got soooo confused about directions, in and out of track, forgot to speak and my body just got confused. Going backwards in anti Derby direction.... Everyone else looked very tired to so that was reassuring, Myself and another girl used our inhalers. Hers wasn't working very well so I mentioned I had a spare inhaler if she needed it. We did stops which we had to do for a minute. Plough, tea tray, Derby, power slides and hockey stops. I took myself off to the side to watch how to actually do a powerslide and The coach told me off then when I explained why, she showed me. I tried some stops that I hadn't done before and my fresh meat coach from last year was really nice and encouraging. We got into threes and did an offence drill, I was with A teamers. I had never done any of the hits before...Got smashed in the stomach with a boney shoulder arrrrgh. They were laughing and apologising saying that inevitably everyone needs to get hit by [specificboneyashellplayer]. One move was like a rugby tackle. I hit My drill budy out but I think she might have been playing nice. I hit her in the stomach pretty hard and couldn't tell if she was annoyed or not. They were both nice explaining things as again it was the many little movements and isolating parts of your body when my body tends to move as one big entity. That's the part I get worried about. It takes me forever to get all the moves made up of smaller movements! We were then split into 4s and told we were offence or defence. So we had to mill about anywhere in the hall, when the whistle blew quickly find each other and make a wall but they were specific walls that us newbs didn't know the names of! But we did ok and then the offensive players would come and smash into us. We then swapped over and changed groups. It was a lot harder to do offence when you didn't know what was going on! Scrim was a shiiiit show. I had no idea what was going on half the time as it moved so crazy fast and I kept getting lost and confused. I got hit in the ribs really hard by someone.... when I got home it hurt to laugh. I Jammed fairly early to get it out of the way. Had amazing skaters on my team! Asked them just to get me out and they did! Scored 4 points then had to call it as the other jammer was right behind me. Second time I jammed I couldn't get out and got sent off for forearms oops. Hit a couple of people off though. Only just! We then had a warm down. People were very nice and encouraging. I felt a little crappy about the scrim and some of the skills but it's muscle memory and hopefully it will come! My ex wreck now B team friend said that people don't usually get moved down for 'not keeping up' and it's more about attendance. I was sore for a few days but it was fun :).

[myderbyjourney]

That weird moment when

a Freshie asks what your real name is and you realise no one ever refers to you by your real name anymore. I was Moo or Moomin from the get go as a freshie myself and it stuck. A girl once thought Ramona was my Derby name and Moomin my real one hehehe. Note : I mean no one in the derby world. My boyfriend refers to me as Ramona which I like :)

[myderbyjourney]

Panic!

Cherry popper bout on Saturday! Nervous already. And excited. And nervous! Also went to the gym today hoping to actually go twice this week which is my usual target. Increased my sit-ups and Russian twists from 60 to 80 after I was chatting to a team mate about her work out regime. At number 68 I was regretting the decision! But, I kept going and finished up. Anyone have tips for cramp? I keep getting it in my foot and thigh :(