Sunday, March 7, 2010

Makeup practice with Brick

I have to give a special shout-out to Brick, who skated her butt off last night at the bout and then came to the CDC at noon today to run a makeup practice for me, Tami and D-Train. It was a great practice -- lots of endurance and conditioning work, and *lots* of work on crossovers. I wouldn't say I have them down, not by a long shot, but I feel like I made good progress today and I know what to work on.

I think part of my problem is that I don't fully trust my left leg -- and when you're doing a crossover skating the normal derby direction (which is counterclockwise), your left leg is pushing behind and outward while your right crosses over it. This is not an excuse -- it's a "here's what I need to work on": I broke my left ankle several years ago, and my left knee has been giving me minor-to-annoying pain ever since I started derby. Well, the left ankle is fine now -- a little stiffer than the other, but totally usable; and the left knee is just twinge-prone, not injured. So these things really are not reasons not to trust my left leg to support me and push off. Now I must convince my lizard brain of that fact.

Whew. I'm *tired* from that practice! Brick worked us hard, which is great. I've gotten a lot stronger since I started derby, and I have a long way to go still.

Tomorrow night, another endurance practice, though hopefully that one will include some blocking drills and other fun stuff too. This week I only got in three practices (and that is if you count our Friday night rink-style skate, which Brick said doesn't count as a practice ... but for my own personal development, I'm going to count it. I got off my ass and skated and sweated.) Next week, I will get four: Monday, Wednesday (skating off to the side at the travel team's practice), Friday, and Saturday. Easy peasy. (Well, *getting* to them will be easy. The practices, I assure you, will not.)

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