#flourcityfear

[troymachina]

Apparently I did one of everything last weekend. #flourcityfear (at Haig Bowl Arena)

[geogrefer]

One of my biggest fears....

As I sit here preparing to go to practice tonight I realize that I have been skating 3-5 times a week since I got my first pair of skates in November.  When it is just been skating (like for ref practice), my body reacts well to it. It is just like any other exercise I have ever done.  For the last month or so since I have been participating in full contact drills, I have really begun to feel my age.  Getting hit and delivering hits takes its toll on your body.

I have been taking steps to mitigate the impact on my body but I know I need to do more.  I take ibuprofen prior to practices and skating so I am less sore when I am done.  This is an old runner trick that I learned early on. It is better to take the ibuprofen before you run and you are less sore after you run. I have been taking rest days between practice and running to make sure my body has a bit of time to recover. The thing I think I really need to get into the habit of doing is eating better.

Injuries don’t scare me because if I have learned one thing from running, skiing, hiking etc. you can’t play scared. If you play scared you will get hurt. I refuse to play scared and will always give my all.

I am scared my body is not going to be able to handle this. I have aches and pains in places I didn’t know I could get aches and pains.  I have derby bruises....but they aren’t visible....they are there. I can feel them but you can’t see them.

When I lost my 60-65 lbs., I did it by eating properly and exercising a lot.  I am still getting the exercise but my diet is crap.  I need to find that drive to eat healthy again.  If I am going to be the jammer that I know I can be in my head, I need to get my body into the shape I need to make that happen and that doesn’t happen by shoving pizza down my pie hole.  I have been good with breakfast and lunch and snacks. I usually lose my diet at dinner.

So.....long story short.....my biggest fear is realizing I am not as young as I used to be. :P

[geogrefer]

I got hit in the 585 and landed in the 716.

It was a busy derby weekend for me. Friday we had the QCRG end of the seaon Awards Banquet. On Saturday I reffed 4 games in two different cities.  I reffed a double header with some of my favorite ref friends in Stratford, ON and then reffed another double header with some of  my other favorite ref friends in St. Catherine’s ON.  No....I’m not going to rank who are the better ref friends because both sets have had major influence and impact on my development as a ref and I can’t thank them enough. However I will say that one certain head ref has an obsession with “Hamilton the Musical” like I do and that might rank her up as my favorite ref ever.  Especially when she drove by as I was leaving, rolled her window down, stuck her fist up in the air and shouted “I’m not throwin away my shot!” 

 That was a lot of derby in one day for a person.  But that wasn’t the end of the derbz for me over the weekend. I played in my first scrimmage as a player on Sunday with the Flour City Fear and some of the wonderful people from ROC City Roller derby. Some of their A and B team players showed up and we mixed up the squads. It was a blast.

I was very nervous heading into it. Up until that point I had only participated in a handful of practices where I was allowed to hit or be hit. I definitely had the shakes lining up for my first jam.  Oh, did I mention I am a jammer?  My first jam I took some big hits. This was a lot of not being hit before and deer in the head lights wtf am I doing out here kind of stuff. But I kept pushing and I think I actually made it out of the pack. The next time jamming, I actually managed to get lead!  I’d like to say it was my amazing jammer skills and footwork that got me out first, truth be told it was my amazing blockers Schramm and Hater Tot that cleared the biggest lane in the history of roller derby for me to skate on through.

Getting lead is a wonderful rush. I don’t know how to explain it. I guess it would be like when you score a goal in hockey or soccer.  It makes you feel like a million bucks. From this point on I settled down on my nerves and concentrated on the game at hand.  I have a new found respect for forearm penalties.  As a ref you don’t realize how easy it is to get an arm up on someone or push them or accidentally grab them.  I probably committed 25 forearm penalties and I need to work on that.

At one point near the middle of the first half, I was jamming and I took a hit from one of the ROC Stars named Star Spangled Bam Her that felt like my skeleton had removed itself from my skin and was floating through the air away from me.  I got in in the 585 and I landed in the 716.  That is how hard I got hit.  I bounced right back up. I hurt...but damn it I wasn’t going to give up.  Again...somehow I think I ended up with lead on this jam but man did it hurt.  I proved to myself I can take a huge hit and keep on going.  I wanted to high 5 her after the jam but never got the chance to because I ended up taking a penalty and had to go to the penalty box between jams.

I could give you a play by play of the rest of the day but the gist of it is that I learned a lot, had fun, got hit and gave hits.  I was unsure about playing but no longer. I’ve got this.During the game our bench coach gave me feedback and I did my best to implement it into my game immediately. I love the fact that all the women who showed up from ROC City to play with us were so supportive. It was very easy to keep a positive attitude no matter what happened with that type of support. I can’t wait for my first games in Cleveland on July 23rd. It is going to be a blast!

BTW....today my body hurts. Feels like I repeatedly got hit by a truck kind of hurt. I tried to do some push ups and my body said “Oh no you didn’t”. 

[geogrefer]

Introducing......

It was brought to my attention that I haven’t blogged in a while.  I guess that is true. It has been a while. Life has become busy and so has my derby life.  Actually, derby life has calmed down in some areas and picked up in other areas.

As far as reffing goes, I was able to get my first 2 WFTDA sanctioned games under my belt. I was OPR for one and ALT for the other.  Both great experiences and I worked with some top notch crews.  I was able to attend a ROC City scrimmage and ref with them and that was amazing.  The refs that ROC City have in their organization are top notch.  I learned a lot and had a ton of fun while doing it. I look forward to doing more of that in the future.  Which will happen more often because.........

I am now a dues paying member of the Flour City Fear which is the mens team based in Rochester.  I was pretty much hooked after attending my first practice. This team is a great bunch of guys who have come together because they love derby. There is a good mix of new comers, experienced coaches/players and those of us who know some about derby and are trying to take it to the next level.  Joining this team left me with a dilemma.....I can’t use GeogREFer as a player because it has the word ref in it.  So I had to think of a name I could use to play under.  Sure....I could have gone with just my last name on the back of my jersey but I really like creative names.  It took a while but once I found my name, it hit me like a photon torpedo hits a klingon warbird.

Skating for the Flour City Fear its #1701 Jean Luc HitsHard!

Pretty good name if I do say so myself.  All the cool Star Wars names were taken so I went with Star Trek because....well...who doesn’t love Captain Picard? The name also comes with a built in number!

I am looking forward to learning how to hit and to play in some games.  I am hoping to be ready to play by July 23 when FCF has a double header in Cleveland against the mens teams from Cleveland and Cincinnati.

I have a lot of work to get to that point and not a lot of time to do it.

Speaking of July, I have been accepted to ref in the  ________ and the ________ tournament in _________  on _______ . I am looking forward to working with __________, ____________, and _____________ as well as others I haven’t had the opportunity to work with before.  I can’t wait to get more ________ and _________ experience as well as maybe get to work the ________ position for the first time ever.  

That’s all I got for now.  Future blogs will definitely include a healthy dose of stories from my experiences as a player.