I was able to watch video of a couple of jams from my first scrimmage last week.
If you haven't had the chance to watch yourself skating yet I highly recommend it as a great learning tool.
Once you get over the fact that your arm swing and derby stance make you look like an orangutan on wheels, it makes it much easier to see what you need to work on.
It also gives you a good visual memory of what you need to do differently next time.
The first learning points that I took from watching myself were that I spent nearly all of my time at the back of the pack. I guess this makes sense as it's the safest place to be if you want to see hits coming from the opposition but it is the soft option as far as getting fully involved in the scrimmage goes.
I also noticed just how hesitant I was and how slowly I recovered from falls.
Now these are things I already knew I had to work on but seeing them happen on video made me realise that I was twice as slow at recovery than I thought I was, twice as hesitant etc.
So my goals for my second scrimmage were to skate more assertively, get up faster and as much as possible avoid being at the back of the pack!
Scrimmage night came along and I did pretty good at reaching my goals.
After the opposing jammer skated right past me untouched for at least the fifth time I set a new goal for myself - hit the opposing jammer.
I mean, that is the point of being a blocker on the track.
A few messy attempts later I finally managed to land a bit of booty on the jammer stopping her from skating past me on the inside....progress!
Highlight of the night was scoring my first points ever as jammer!!
I didn't get lead jammer but snuck through on the inside to score more points than the lead just as she called it off. Even managed to just get my hips past the last blocker for that extra point just as the fourth whistle blew....best feeling ever!
Downer of the night was doing the freshmeat grab on another skater during scrimmage....my worst fear is that in my inexperience I will drag down another skater and injure them badly.
I really thought I was over that habit but obviously need to work on it again.
Oh well....two steps forward, one step back. At least I'm still going in the right direction......
If you haven't had the chance to watch yourself skating yet I highly recommend it as a great learning tool.
Once you get over the fact that your arm swing and derby stance make you look like an orangutan on wheels, it makes it much easier to see what you need to work on.
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| I would be very happy to pull off this monkey move. |
The first learning points that I took from watching myself were that I spent nearly all of my time at the back of the pack. I guess this makes sense as it's the safest place to be if you want to see hits coming from the opposition but it is the soft option as far as getting fully involved in the scrimmage goes.
I also noticed just how hesitant I was and how slowly I recovered from falls.
Now these are things I already knew I had to work on but seeing them happen on video made me realise that I was twice as slow at recovery than I thought I was, twice as hesitant etc.
So my goals for my second scrimmage were to skate more assertively, get up faster and as much as possible avoid being at the back of the pack!
Scrimmage night came along and I did pretty good at reaching my goals.
After the opposing jammer skated right past me untouched for at least the fifth time I set a new goal for myself - hit the opposing jammer.
I mean, that is the point of being a blocker on the track.
A few messy attempts later I finally managed to land a bit of booty on the jammer stopping her from skating past me on the inside....progress!
Highlight of the night was scoring my first points ever as jammer!!
I didn't get lead jammer but snuck through on the inside to score more points than the lead just as she called it off. Even managed to just get my hips past the last blocker for that extra point just as the fourth whistle blew....best feeling ever!
Downer of the night was doing the freshmeat grab on another skater during scrimmage....my worst fear is that in my inexperience I will drag down another skater and injure them badly.
I really thought I was over that habit but obviously need to work on it again.
Oh well....two steps forward, one step back. At least I'm still going in the right direction......
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