Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls

I can’t believe that it has been almost 2 months since I started recruitment. It seems like just yesterday I was wobbly on my skates thinking “What did I get myself into?”. Now most of us have become more confident skaters ready for any new challenges that await us. Anyone who thinks that roller derby is just about girls dressing up and looking cute while beating the crap out of other girls is sadly mistaken. Roller derby is about dedication, determination, and physical and emotional ability. Sometimes I become down on myself when looking at all the truly awesome Psycho Sisters and their abilities, but then I realize everyone started from the ground up. I just have to keep pushing myself. One’s skating ability is all about the effort you put into it. The one thing that stuck with me the most throughout recruitment is giving your all. Giving 110% no matter how much you sweat, hurt, or want to puke. It’s about pushing yourself to that limit so you can better yourself and more importantly your team.

I now wear my bruises like I wear a new tattoo, proud to show it off and eager to explain the story behind it. I’ve learned so much in these few short weeks and can’t wait to see what else I can learn and become better at. I’ve learned that blocking is not as easy as it seems and falling becomes less scary the more and more you do it. The best thing I can compare recruitment to is a roller coaster that you’re scared to death to ride. It’s intimidating, scary and potentially harmful but once you muster enough courage to ride it you realize it was far too short and one of the most fun times in your life.

Peace, Love, and Derby

RacHellB

punkndrublic:

LOTS of scrimmaging! Slammers ran lines to see how our new girls felt in their best-suited positions. Kitty Kaboom showed some great improvement with blocking and communication, and The EmPaleHer was able to break as a pivot, make it through the pack, take lead jammer status and call the jam. I even took lead jammer status through a pack lead by coach Anita Priest and opposing jammer Rotten S’more- two REDIC amazing skaters. I’m sure it was just a fluke haha.

My name is Heather. I’m currently in recruitment with the Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls. I’ve wanted to do roller derby for awhile. The women who play roller derby always seem so confident and so… badass! I’ve looked into it for a few years, but always had some excuse on why I couldn’t get involved immediately - work, school, a theater production I’ve performed in, money, family obligations… but when it came down to it? I was afraid to learn how to skate. We had a rink in my town when I was very young, but my mother never wanted to take me because “I’ll break something.” (It should be noted that at the same time my mother instilled this fear, however, I was actively involved in a number of sports that could have resulted in injuries just as serious, including softball, karate and football.) Eventually the rink was torn down to build a highway, leaving me with few opportunities to learn to skate.
The thing is, I’ve never been one to let something as little as fear keep me from something I wanted. I finally manned up and started taking skate classes at Universal Skating Center a few weeks before recruitment. While I still came into recruitment as a very weak skater, it’s nothing compared to what I once was. In my first few skate classes, I couldn’t even pull myself off of the wall. The one time I did, I accidentally smashed a little kid up against the wall when he tried to go around me. By the time recruitment began, I was wobbly, but I could at least stand up most of the time. And now? I feel about a million times more comfortable than I did only one month ago. All I can think about is how much I want to skate. Just walking or running doesn’t feel natural. I need the feel of my skates on my feet!
I won’t lie and say I’m an awesome skater already. Every practice we’ll do an exercise and as Anita explains how to do it, I know I’m giving her that “ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!” look. I still have a lot of challenges to push through, but I’m determined. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, both during practices and on my own, but one day I’ll get all of this down and be ready to skate in my first bout.

If any of you know me - you know that I am an extremely vivid dreamer. I can have four dreams in a night and remember them all sometimes. During our season I have dreams about all of our games. Most of these are anxiety dreams as I like to call them. One time I had a dream that we had an outdoor track and it was snowing (WE’RE IN FLORIDA) and Wu-Tang Clan was performing. Another time Tiger Beatdown and I were accused of cheating in a relay race and got in the faces of these two guys. Anyway - our season starts on September 25th and I have officially had my first anxiety dream about it. So in my dream I missed the entire first half because I over slept - which might I add is nearly impossible because I don’t sleep past 10am EVER and our games start at 5. I had to take a train to get there(I DON’T KNOW WHY!) and I was sitting next to this little girl with a wand the whole way. I get there and the venue is HUGE. Not only is it huge but it’s packed to full capacity. It’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever had to skate in front of in my whole life. When I start getting ready I realize I only have my outdoor skates. It wouldn’t be a big deal that I have the widest grippiest wheels ever except that I jam for my team. Also not only do I have to jam, but I have to jam against Blitzkrieg - the fastest girl on 8 wheels. Half time is just about over and I’m walking up this ramp next to a limo and Shod N. Froyda is in it and I beg her relentlessly for her Atom Poison Slims. Yes they’re grippy, but I’m sure they’re better than my big ass purple Atom Centuri’s. As these wheels are near and dear to her she begrudgingly hands them over because she’s my homie. I ask her if she’s got a skate tool and she pulls out a pink one with flower designs on it. If any of you know Shod N. Froyda you know she doesn’t have a pink friggin skate tool. SO I full on sprint into the arena and I’m a little thrown off that Arkham is where we usually are. My entire team is already on the track warming up. I am in full on panic mode at this point. Mid-run I think “OMFG I NEED WATER”. I get to our bench and fortunately there is a beer pong sized table with water and gatorade on it and it is full from end to end. With a sigh of relief I plop my ass down and begin unscrewing the nuts on my skates like a maniac. AND THEN I WAKE UP FML.

 Do you look forward or do you look back? Do you try and do both and fail? In life and in Derby you need to have a balance of looking forwards and backwards. If you don’t look behind to see what’s coming, you risk being knocked on your ass and repeating the same mistakes. But if you don’t look forward you risk watching life pass you by. So where’s the balance?  
Lately I have been having issues with balance, both literally and figuratively.  Trying to fit roller derby into your life is complicated.  Derby is time consuming.  You have to practice at least four hours a week with your league, and it’s always good to skate more on your own.  But what if you work a time and soul sucking job that leaves you with no time for yourself?   I find that by the time I can skate I am exhausted. I rely on caffeine to wake me up for practice (not really healthy, I know), but mentally I feel I’m not really there.   It’s causing me to fall more and get hurt.   I wake up the next mornings sore, and then go to a job where I’m on my feet all day.   
I love roller derby, way more than my job, but it doesn’t pay my bills.  Derby can also be expensive.  I need new knee pads, I’d like knee gaskets, a bearing press, cool socks.  Some are silly, some are necessary, and all cost money.  So what do I do?   How do I find the balance between my derby life, my job,  and my personal life (Boyfriend… what boyfriend?  I barely see him now due to work and derby).
I’ve always been a person who likes to remain busy, so I know I will find a way to juggle it all and still somehow become a bad ass skater.  Fortunately my job is pretty awesome about me taking days off for derby related things as well.  It’s all about finding the balance, not only the balance that comes from your core strength, but the balance that comes from being mentally able to face the challenges.  
Both life and derby will knock you on your ass, the question is how quickly can you recover?  The three second rule works fine for derby. Fall. Get back up. Get back on the track.  Yet, there is no three second rule in life.  (Unless you count the one about dropping food on the floor and eating it.)  
This need for balance is becoming more crucial as my first season approaches.  With a little over a month to prepare for my first game I am both excited and panicked.  Part of me wants to put my skates on right now and skate in my death trap of a living room.  (I have a cat with a foot fetish.  He trips me up when I’m off skates, dare I risk putting them on and being tripped or running him over?)   I need as much practice as I can cram in, but without time when can I do it?  I have a short vacation coming up, and I plan on bringing my skates with me.  Hopefully that will be the break I need to get my head in the game.  Pun intended.  Until then, wish me luck.  I’m going to need it.

Haley here. I am more than halfway through with my roller derby recruitment now. We started blocking a little over a week ago, and as soon as I got blocked, and blocked someone else, I suddenly knew that this was for me. Roller derby is for ME! I found out my test scores last practice, and I was shocked with the results. When we were being testing, I gave it my all, and I knew maybe I screwed up on one or two things, but when Anita told me those results, I was very very stoked.. Sometimes when you feel you might have blew it, you end up being surprised. There are still a few things I need to work on, but I’m getting there!


I am now on the hunt for some new wheels.. I’m thinking maybe G-Rods! I’ve heard nothing but great reviews about them. My minds made up. =)


Ever since we stopped having practices on Sunday, we get to skate with the Psychos on Tuesdays now! It would have happened eventually anyways, but I am glad it happened sooner than expected. Some of the psychos have been so awesome and given me pointers to help me with things I might be having a hard time with, and I really appreciate it. I hope to bond more with them as I go to each practice! I was so surprised when we were doing blocking last Thursday. I actually think I made a Psycho or two stumble when I threw a hip block. I’m pretty sure it was real, and not my imagination…ha!


I feel like the rink is honestly my second home now. I enjoy spending time with everyone and also my new found love, derby.

Hi, I’m Jen, and I might be crazy. So, it’s fitting that I would be participating in a league that uses words like “Lunachics” & “Psycho Sisters” to describe some of its participants. When people ask me why I’m doing roller derby, my stock response is, “Because I’m strong, short, and have a lot of anger,” but it is so much more than that.

Before roller derby, the only team activity I ever participated in was Academic Team. I was the captain, and, boy, was I ever fast on that buzzer! I like to tell people I lettered in being a huge dork in high school. I had recently begun to feel that I had missed out on something significant by never participating in team sports. I figured it was something that I would just have to wonder about for the rest of my life, until it dawned on me one day:  “Duh, DERBY!”

I started roller skating when I was about 6. It was the late 70s, they played the best music, and the disco ball was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. There was shag carpeting on the walls around the rink, and I remember pulling myself around, desperately gripping that pile between my little fingers. I remember the first time I let go and skated on my own. It was an amazing feeling. When I got better, my parents bought us all street skates. Soon I was zooming down bike paths in my neighborhood with my mom & stepdad. When I got to junior high, skating represented freedom to me. It was the only place your parents would actually drop you off and leave you. Alone. With your friends.  It was AWESOME. I think the first time I held hands with a boy was during a couples’ skate. Sigh.

Now I’m 37-years-old (I think I am the oldest Lunachic), and I think that once again, skating represents freedom to me. I get all geared up, put my mouthguard in (because my biggest fear is getting my teeth knocked out!), hit the rink, and it’s like nothing else matters. All of my problems, worries, and annoyances just seem to evaporate for the 2-3 hours that I am at practice. Maybe it’s because I’m concentrating hard on not falling, (which I do anyway), or maybe it is because, for the first time in my life, I feel like I am part of a real team (even though I’m not actually on a team yet), playing a real sport. 

I leave practice feeling exhausted, but also accomplished, strong, powerful, and like a total badass. I’m like, “Yeah, I fell flat on my chest and had the wind knocked out of me, but (as soon as the dizziness passed) I got back up and kept skating.” I feel like a lot of the things we’re learning come kind of natural to me, while some other things seem like bad habits from years of recreational skating that I need to work on breaking.

All the girls I’ve met are amazing and supportive, and I can think of few better role models for my 5-year-old daughter than a group of badass derby chicks.

I think I may end up being really good at this. 

Location: Universal Skating Center
Time: 8am - 1pm
Date: August 27th Saturday

BUY OUR OLD STUFF AND LET US FEED YOU CUPCAKES!!

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:)

Well, what to say… My name is Haley Cannon. I am 19 years old. Currently going through roller derby recruitment. To be honest, it’s one of the best experiences I have ever had. I’m not quite as in shape as I expected to be. I get tired extremely fast, and sometimes I feel like I’m doing too much too fast. But, you can never do too much too fast when you’re doing something that you love. The more and more I practice, the more that I can feel myself advancing to the pace that I want to be at. I have been wanting to do derby for the past three years. I’m old enough to do it now, and look, I’m going through recruitment! I have finally found something that I love, and will do anything to continue doing so. I don’t think I will ever get tired of it. The coach has been so wonderful and helpful. Even if I don’t make it this time, that doesn’t mean I’m going to lose hope and give up. I’ve been skating most of my life, just a little rusty nowadays. 

 

I’m not the best at some of the things we’ve been working on. Such as superman falls, knee glides, and sticky skating. But I know with hard work and time, I will get them down pat and be good to go. I’ve only done two sports in my life, and that’s when I was young. I did gymnastics for a year, and soccer. None of them meant anything to me, really. But this, THIS means the WORLD to me. I wouldn’t have it any other way. A little part of me dies when I have to take off my skates. But when I put them back on, that part comes back to life. 


I fractured my left elbow skating when I was younger. Do I think that’s going to happen to me again? WHO KNOWS. Do I hope it will happen? No, I don’t. But if I were to break a bone….it would be worth it. And I wouldn’t give up. I’m already getting bruises left and right. I don’t mind.


Overall, this whole experience has been great. Have a month left to go. I’m excited to see where all of this will lead to. Let’s just say, I cannot wait to become a psycho sister. (Staying positive…)

You can now vote for September’s skater of the month here on the blog or at our website HERE

http://www.orlandoderbygirls.com :)