Weekend of Derby

This past weekend was Jet City's season opener in addition to our usual weekend practices.  It was derby derby derby from the minute I left my house at 7am Saturday morning to the minute I got home early Sunday afternoon.  The entire experience was a blur of images that I'll do my best to relay here.
In one week our little training team will scrimmage against the league.  We've been doing a lot of scrimmaging and scenarios to prepare ourselves for that eventuality.  In one of our scenarios we have two blockers stopped still on the track waiting for the jammer who has half a lap to build up as much speed as she desires.  The jammer should have the advantage and it's up to the blockers to bust ass to whichever side of the track she chooses as a passing lane.  In the past when we've done this I felt like as a blocker I was just watching the jammer go by, and as the jammer I ran straight into the back of one of the blockers almost without fail.  I had a lot more success this weekend.  As a blocker I always committed and got myself over quickly, although I occasionally misread the jammer chose the wrong direction. As a jammer I was sometimes pushed out and had to try again, but I don't remember getting any back blocks.
During the scrimmage portion of the practice it was like a light turned on:  you can touch the people on your team!  For a long time, I didn't touch anyone because I was afraid of penalties.  Unfortunately, now I'm a little indiscriminate with my grabbing.  At one point the opposing jammer came up to pass me on the inside line and I moved over and put out my hand to her thigh thinking, "oh good, someone's come to help me build this wall."  Whoops.  I got to jam once AND IT WAS AWESOME.  It would have been more awesome if I had remembered that our wooden floor is very slick in the morning and just one 88 pusher with my 95's really helps if I don't want to eat it while speed skating (which I did).
We then proceeded to go over to Everett Community College to help set up for the bout.  In case you didn't know, sport court is really a pain in the ass to set up.  Enough said. 
From there it's a blur.  The bouts were amazing to watch.  The after party was the most fun I've had dancing since Western Regionals.  It was very icy outside and the bar exited onto a hill which we all proceeded to slide down as we left.  I elected to actually crawl on my hand and knees - it seemed like the safest option.  As we were doing this, one of the players who was herself sliding down the hill, was yelling that she intended to run our asses ragged at practice the following morning.  As it turns out, this was not an empty threat.
We then proceeded via cab to a convenience store for some late night snacks.  While at the convenience store we met with another league member who proceeded to whip me with a stick of processed beef and then tell me that she liked my skating.  That basically made my heart explode.  Compliments are funny things.  They can be easy to dismiss, question or discount but when they come from the right people at the right time they can mean the world.  For whatever reason, it was exactly what I needed to hear at 2 am in a convenience store.
After a short night of restless sleep in an Everett hotel we made our way once again to practice.  The focus was primarily on strategy.  I really appreciate strategy sessions because scrimmages are so hectic and I would like to feel as if there was some more structure to what we're doing.  Unfortunately, there is some distance between my derby brain and my regular brain.  I'm a little smarter than the average bear, but my derby brain has roughly the intelligence of a Labrador retriever.  For instance, we were making a four wall in front and our opponents had a four wall in back.  Our jammer was trying to get through their wall and the pack speed was zero.  I know that I can't hit anyone while skating in the clockwise direction, but all my derby brain knows is that I should be helping my jammer.
The comment from our instructor, "Slater, you can't hit anyone while skating in the clockwise direction."
Me:  <nodding intently>  We run the drill again.  I back into the other teams' wall.
Instructor:  "Slater, you can't do that."
Me:  <nodding intently>
This went on for some time, which was sort of embarrassing.  I'll get there.  In other news, I can finally run on my skates when I want/need to.  I attribute this to doing lots and lots of starts at speed skating.  Also, in my campaign to be able to bust through walls I was told to try running through sideways on my toe stops.  I never thought to do that before and now I'll have to give it a try. 
While I would usually go speed skating on Sunday afternoon, circumstances required that I actually sleep instead.  As of today, 17 days until draft, but who's counting?
<originally posted 1.16.12>