Since my last post, where I created a story about my derby journey I took some time off, went to the Philippines, attended a couple scrimmages and somehow landed on a spot with the Red Deer Roller Derby Belladonnas for an upcoming tournament (Flat Track Fever).

Which is huge, given that I had assumed I wasn’t A-team material, given that another team didn’t choose me for their tournament roster and I simply didn’t think I had the skills.

Anyways, a couple things have come out of this.

1: I’m starting a new blog. Paleopino - I’m going paleo for the next 6 weeks to see if it’ll improve my performance.

2: I need to set some clear and realistic goals for myself for my skills and the upcoming tournament. Part of this process is doing a basic assessment of what I my strengths and weaknesses are.

Derby isn’t the only thing in my life coming up into tournament season -the Warhammer/40K scene is starting to pick up as the snow melts. The type of goal setting and self-assessment is something mini-wargame players  can do just as well as rollergirls. Here’s my step-by-step guide for ya’ll.

List the things you know you do well. 

On the derby track, I’m strong at communicating and assessing the situation. I pay attention to how many penalties each jammer has at the start of a jam, and am always aware of what colour is going off the track when a penalty whistle blows.

And I can hold that line – being light and agile means I don’t drift off of the inside track line, even at a decent clip.

Be honest about what you can improve.

I know for a fact that I am the least skilled skater on the Belladonnas. I’m not fast and because of my size, contact that would normally not disrupt other skaters tends to destabilize me (I fall a lot).  There’s TONS of room for improvement for me in that capacity..

Focus on a few things you can measure, and what you’ll do to improve them.

Watching my husband evolve from the guy who was at the bottom of Conflict Calgary to the guy who is always in the running for Best Overall at tournaments made it easy. He focused on what he could control at each event. “I’m painting this army to win best painted next event – I’m focusing on highlighting well, and having a bright and noticiable colour scheme.” or  ”I want to focus on getting  ranked higher in the sportsmanship category than I have done before. I’m not going to pull any dirty tricks and I’ll explain to each opponent all the special rules my army employs.”

When he set goals, he also had  plan to reach them.

My goal: I want to be in the best shape I can be so that the few skills I have in my arsenal are deadly – basic body checks, track awareness and improve stability to execute skating skills. To get there, I’m going to skate at least 3 practices a week, and hit the gym at least twice a week. I also want to increase my strength so my time at the gym will be to focused on strength building  for stability in the pack.

I want draw majors because my skating form is so solid that when people try to hit me, they hit me in illegal zones (like my head). There’s no reason they should be able to hit me that well. That means strength and muscular endurance in my quads and core. Just another thing to address in the gym.

Evalute.

I’ll know how much I’ve improved by the end of the 6 weeks. Look over what you’ve accomplished – did you hit the goals you set out?

I can’t say how important this part is. It’s why I’m a spreadsheet whore at gaming tournaments - I want to know where  I was, where I can improve and where I sucked. You can’t figure out what worked and what didn’t unless you evaluate.

With the loaded tournament season try setting yourself some goals and see how it turns out.

Preface: this is a Warhammer-free post.

I’m writing this because a few  of people tagged me on Facebook for Derby Syphillis or something. To quote the activity, “Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals that roller derby has added to your life.”  I’m also writing this as a reminder to myself of how far I’ve come, and to freshmeat skaters of how far they can go.

Look in the back - that's me running on my toestops. Courtesy of Anthony Canada

I’m going to preface all of this by saying that unlike other gals I happened to benchmark with, I am not a natural skater. For the longest time I was afraid of falling, afraid of the speed, afraid of skating too close to other people and pretty much afraid of my own shadow on skates.

I’ve said it on this blog before (albeit in a different context): it is in adverse situations that you improve.

This is a post about success, and how the path to it is riddled with moments that feel like  failure.

Continue reading…

The more I involve myself in roller derby, the more I realize that 40K and derby aren’t all that different.

For one, each has an overall metagame. And regional metagames. Bouts in Alberta WILL look very different from those in Quebec, for example. Strategies and playstyles differ from league to league, and team to team. For example, RDRDA’s Nightshades, for example are a team of amazing blockers who can control the pace of the game, whereas Med Hat’s Gas City Rollers are a team of fast as hell jammers.

And in roller derby, just like 40K, people who want to win are constantly trying to break the game.

Take, for instance, the “no start”. It’s the derby equivalent of the slow play stall tactic douches use during tournaments, or leafblower lists.

Observe:

Yes, that was 2 minutes of standing around.  The jam went on without the jammers getting whistled on (which happens with the last gal in the pack crosses the pivot line –  a whole 30 feet from where the jammers start.

How does this relate to anything GW? I mean other than the obvious bootie-short wearing, of course.
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My beloved league, Red Deer RollerDerby Association, hosted Operation Skate and Destroy  over the last weekend. I had such an amazing time!

Here’s a breakdown of my weekend:

Saturday – Bootcamp:  5 different coaches providing skill and skill building insights. RDRDA’s own Team Canada skater TAZ started the morning off by kicking my ass with off-skate dynamic movements (and in the same manner destroyed my plan to “save” my legs for benchmarking the next day). I got some great pack skill and strategy techniques from Coach Lime, learned some interesting agility drills from Tye Die. Also had the privilege of learning the finer points of hitting and jamming from RDRDA’s Hollywood Homicide and Razor.

Saturday evening – Nightshades Bout: Worked the door for the first half of the bout, but got to see how FAST the pack was moving to keep RDRDA Alum Spaz in check. RDRDA features some of the BEST blockers and it was amazing to see how good the Nightshades were able to control the pace of the bout in the 2nd half and come back to victory!

Sunday morning – Benchmarks: I had the most serious nerves. For those who don’t know, benchmarking is a minimum skills assessment that basically ensures you’re capable of playing the physically demanding sport of derby. Well – I did it! This was a HUGE milestone for me, and there are so many people whose efforts have helped me along the way to get to this point.  I won’t list them all, but pretty much anyone who as seen me on skates has had a hand in both improving my skills and enabling me to skate.

Which brings me to the point of the whole weekend for me – my Bout:

Yes. That’s me. Laying a hit onto Adoll Hitter. And she did go down, if I recall correctly. Next time I’ll be hitting with my eyes open, so I’ll be able to SEE what I’m hitting. Lesson to all: CHECK YOUR BLIND SPOTS.

I barely remember it. Super thanks to Anthony Canada (who shot the photo above) for creating a record of the fact that I actually played and didn’t dream the whole thing up.

Monday –  Bangover. Given I skated for HOURS and I was skating pretty hard throughout that time, it wasn’t particularly surprising that I had a REALLY hard time walking the next day.  Tendons in my knee were inflamed. Stairs were the enemy.

The point of this whole story is that I’m REALLY looking forward to doing it all again. E-Ville Beaver Bash, here I come!

This weekend, I had planned to occupy my time by attending the Calgary Roller Derby Bootcamp. The camp included all-star coaches like Pauly, Bonnie D Stoir and Smarty Pants.

But it seems like the stuff that really tied that whole experience together was spending a sunny afternoon at a beautiful park with my daughter.

That grimace is actually her "photo smile". I know she's happy when she puts it on for me when I point a camera at her.

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As I’ve stated previously, power gamer me so happens to be roller derby me. I have to admit, power gamer me is a little scary.  Teri Fying, one might say.

Looks like you'd have to freehand the fishnets on these minis.

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So if you haven’t yet heard, I’ve been skating with the Red Deer Roller Derby Association’s as freshmeat (derby’s name for total n00b).

Now if only I could montage my way up to boost my skating skills like in the movies, instead of having to grind them up like in WoW (non-referred) or RL.

Since I’ve started, I’ve hit a few practices, fallen more than a handful of of times, and sprained an ankle.

I still love it and I’m hoping to get better and faster on my skates. Sooner, preferably.

With all that said, I have to admit that being involved in derby has made me more sympathetic to power game-y listbuilders in 40K.

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