I signed up for a ROLLER DERBY class.
Here's how it happened:
I had never even heard of roller derby until a few years ago when I heard about a movie called "Whip it". Soon after, I rented the movie and I loved it! It looked really fun and bad-A.
One night at work I confessed to my friend Brooke that I had always wanted to do roller derby and she was like "no way! I'VE always wanted to do roller derby!" I told her to tell no-one of my deep, dark secret. Of coarse I could never actually do it, I can't even roller skate!
Sometime around the end of December, I took Zack to get his haircut at some cheapo dollar cuts place. As I was waiting I perused one of those alternative newspapers and there was an article which told of the upcoming RED ROCKETTES roller derby classes for ALL levels of skaters to participate in.
For the next week I couldn't stop thinking about it and knew I had to do it. But, to go alone? Never! Then I remembered my friend at work and so I told her about it. She was excited at the prospect but didn't say much more. The class was set to start on the 6th of January and as the week progressed I grew more nervous. Should I do it? Could I go alone? Finally at the last minute Brooke contacted me and said she wanted to do it. Yes! I rented skates and we bought cheap pads at Play it Again.
We showed up that cold night to an even colder warehouse in an industrial park. We were freezing! There were about 20 girls there ready to go. We all geared up and then were told to warm up by skating around the track. WOW! Within 5 minutes my shins were on fire. Half the girls were whizzing past me, weaving in and out of the pack, the other half looked like me, stumbling along, trying really hard not to fall down.
After our warm up the class began. Let me just say that everyone was so nice and so welcoming. The girls teaching us are great and very encouraging. We did a bunch of exercises to get us comfortable on the skates, practiced derby stance, practiced stopping, etc. Then we played a game with everyone and it was time to go. It was 2 hours long and tons of fun.
A few days later I went and ordered all my gear. Elbow, knee and wrist protection, helmet, mouth gaurd, and skates.
This last Thursday was our second class. As I sit here writing this 2 days later, my body is one big mass of bruises, sore muscles and possibly one broken coccyx. I am beat down!
This second class we focused on learning how to fall. A proper derby fall involves falling on your knees and elbows or a side-slide fall. An improper derby fall, which I specialize in, involves falling backward and slamming your tailbone into the concrete. I did this three times. The first time was so hard it kind of knocked the wind out of me and I just laid there in shock. Wanton Rebellion (our teacher/leader) came right over and told me to get up. I was like "um, are you crazy? I think I'm paralyzed"! She insisted. I got up and felt like I was going to faint. She told me to skate around the track a few times. I was like "I think I'm done for the night". She told me in no uncertain terms to "skate it off"! I'm not one to argue with a derby girl so off I went. I was surprised that I could actually still skate and it did feel a little better. Then she told me to come back to the class and practice my falls some more. In my mind I was thinking "there is no way I can do this"! But, Wanton was so encouraging and so sure of me, she made me think I could. And I did! Yea for me! I'm tuff! And then I did the improper fall two more times. And I kept going.
Who knows, maybe I have ruined my tailbone forever. Time will tell. But I sure hope it is better enough by Thursday that I can go back to the class because this is really fun stuff and my excitement about it is getting me through the most awful month of the year. January - bleh. Plus, I now have an excuse to buy leg warmers, love them!
Thanks Red Rockettes!
