Last night I watched Canberra's representative team the Vice City Rollers take on and thrash the Sydney City Assassins. It was an epic bout for many reasons; a record-setter for derby attendance in Canberra, with over 3000 tickets sold - and the bout being held at the AIS Arena (Australian Institute of Sport)! But it was epic most of all because this is the first time Canberra have won against Sydney. The girls played so beautifully as a team, and though Sydney's defense was still A-grade, our packwork ensured that the VCR jammers got through the pack again and again. It was a very inspirational game!
And quite frankly I need all the inspiration I can get right now - today will be our first scrimmage session with the big kids.
From the time we started as Fresh Meat on March 16 this year we have always been the newbies, and though we all train together on Tuesday nights we usually split into star levels for any contact drills. We've certainly never had full-blown scrimmage with these girls, but as newly-minted Orange Stars the time has finally come - and I for one am a wee bit terrified!
It's funny to think that this time last year I was pumped about learning to skate but feeling a bit ambivalent about the contact aspect of roller derby. I'd already ordered my Reidell R3s, but when they arrived I really was hard-pressed to stand up in them! Now I am about to play with and against girls who have been skating longer and harder than me - many of them on our rep team. What a journey!
It looks like our Carnival of Carnage (debut bout) will be in late February next year, and then our intake will be drafted into the League's 4 teams. I am still terrified of breaking bones. And this is not as unlikely as it sounds - in the last 2 months we've had two broken collarbones, a broken wrist, a broken nose and a broken leg (in that order!). There have also been some broken ribs in the mix. So when I tell you that I am a bit scared of lining up with the big kids you can maybe see why!
But part of the derby thing is feeling that fear and, if not overcoming it, at least dealing with it. So this afternoon I'll line up with and against some of our hardest hitters - Aunty Aggro, The Cleaver and the Dalai Slam'er. But I'll also be playing alongside derby legends like Dr Hell, Bambi von Smash'er and DeNature, so that's gotta be worthwhile! All these women have the potential to break my bones, I'm just hoping they'll choose not to!
3 comments:
You go Isa!! Hope the only things you break are fear barriers! x Skye
Congrats on the Orange Isa !!!!
scrimmage is so scary at first but then insanly fun (but still a little bit scary haha)
I hope when we're both bouting we'll get to meet on the track some day :D
Blitz, we've been doing scrimmage since we got our yellow stars, and with those gals I found I only wanted to vomit just before the whistle blew, ha ha! But last Sunday was the first time with the rest of the League - so all our really experienced and awesome skaters! Really scary! But yeah, it was awesome fun, too! Made me feel like I didn't know what was going on all over again though, ha ha!
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