Sunday, November 15, 2009

Time to get caught up with the Old Capitol City Roller Girls. We had a fantastically productive four-hour practice Sunday with the Minnesota RollerGirls coming all the way down to coach us privately. While it was a very humbling practice, we added quite a few new drills to our arsenal and we'll be a more formidable team for it.

The roster for the OCCRG versus Paper Valley Flyin' Squirrels bout has been announced and it looks like: Animal Mother, Left 4 Deadwards, Hellyna Bucket, GladI8Her, Killer Baker, Furious George, Triple D. Zaster, Ophelia Fracture, Hitzy Blonde, Recyclopath, VTrain, Anakova, Bat R Up and Toxic Sugar. I'm pretty excited about the line-up myself and road-tripping with some of my favorite gals.

I've continued to make some improvements on a personal front. I'm getting better at parrying blocks while jamming And on a side note I am learning to not take criticism from the coach so personally.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Training for tomorrow

After taking a few days to come down from last Friday's sanguine derby high I can discuss the bout in just a little more detail.

As usual, Ophelia Fracture stole the show by running circles around the opposing the team, including a remarkable 23-point jam. Toxic Sugar earned quite a few oohs and aahs for taking out some of the Quad City jammers.

I myself had a night of personal bests. After having a dismal performance at the Studio 13-sponsored scrimmage --also against the Quad City Rollers-- where I averaged a pathetic 1.3 points per jam, I improved drastically to an average of 5 points per jam at Friday's bout. I even notched 14 points during one jam. I still have a long way to go as a skater but it was rewarding to see some improvement, at least stats-wise.

Yes, experience/more practices factors in heavily but I also finally managed to get a grip on my nerves that helped a lot. I kept my cool and tried to think positively in the hours before the bout, and performed so much better for it. I was relaxed and far more focused than I have been at previous competitions, which I attribute to knowing what to expect (i.e. prior bout experience), reading up on how to manage pre-show jitters and just feeling more confident in my own abilities as a skater.

Other accomplishments? Apparently all those Saturday nights spent attending open skate at the recreation center weren't for naught. I've gotten the hang of backwards skating and I have finally made some progress on T-stops (I'm much more of a plow-type girl).

Also looking to a four-hour practice this Sunday with a few of the Minnesota Roller Girls and I am very excited to announce that the Old Capitol City Roller Girls have accepted an invitation to take on the PVRG Flyin' Squirrels on their home turf in Appleton, Wisconsin on Saturday, December 5th!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Hard work = sweet laurel

In case you haven't heard...

The mighty Old Capitol City Roller Girls won their first home bout on Friday over the Quad City Rollers with a final score of 185-91!!!


It was a special night not only because we were victorious, but because everyone seemed to be having a personal best effort. Our jammers skated hard, our blockers hit hard, and we looked out for each by assisting with whips and breaking down walls.

We also had a very good turnout of several hundred people.

Here are some photos from the evening:

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MVP Ophelia Fracture (left) toes the line prior to the start

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Sweet Abattoir pushes Shelby Flyin into the clear

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Yours truly (third from left) jamming

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Team meeting at halftime

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Animal Mother (second from left) gets a whip from Fonda Cuffs

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Ophelia Fracture (red star) scored an amazing 23 points during a single jam

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Fonda Cuffs and Toxic Sugar celebrate the win