Well the countdown is truly on! Next Monday is test day. Next Monday we’re either in or not. It’s not just a matter of passing the test. Most girls in Fresh Meat have got the skills to pass the test. That doesn’t change that there are only a finite number of positions left. At the beginning of all this we were told the league would be taking between five and 25 newbies – it all depends on how many chicks decide to retire this year. Nothing official has been said since then but rumours circulating last week said the number is currently sitting at just seven.
So, of the 45 (give or take) girls left, 38 are possibly going to be turned away come next Monday. The next opportunity to get into the league won’t be until October 2011. I once commented that this could be the shortest blog ever. If I don’t make it in next Monday we might just see the opposite! Because I’m not giving up. I’ve got a taste for it now and I’ll keep trying until I make it in.
But I should be more positive! In fact, I’ve been trying to schedule positive thinking in along with all the actual training. I don’t really know what I’m doing but I’ve just been devoting a small amount of time each day to visualising myself doing an awesome hip check or giving a killer whip.
Also, I have a new mantra courtesy of my derby idol Barrelhouse Bessy. Last night there was 30 minutes at the end of the training session where the Mouldies broke off into stations and us Freshies were free to move around getting help on whatever element we felt we needed. There was a stops station, where I dropped in briefly to do some ridiculously fun baseball slides. There was a whipping station where I got some much needed advice on how to give a stronger whip. There was a blocking station where I improved slightly on hip checks (this is something I will be practicing lots this week!). Barrelhouse Bessy was on the pack work station. She’s an absurdly peppy person. She was running our pack around the track getting us to lean on each other, clip wheels, speed up, slow down etc. The whole time she was excitedly yelling “safe yet determined.” Then she was yelling “safe yet…” and getting us to yell out the “determined!” part. Bessy is American and the whole thing felt quite American (think Tom Cruise and “show me the money”), which is fitting really for a sport that was born in the US.
So, this week I’m going to rely on “safe yet determined” (with a little emphasis on determined) to get me through 🙂
Diary of a Derby Wannabe 
marthaspiva
November 23, 2010
I’m so excited for you!!! I hope you make the team…waiting a whole year would be torture. The league here has drafts every 8 weeks so we don’t have to wait that long generally. I’ll keep the positive thoughts going for you!!!
Dont just visualize doing those awesome skills..visualize you in a bout…the whole bout..the introduction, playing the jams perfectly, hear the cheers, feel the wind in your hair and the blows you take in the blocks or the speed you create if you are the jammer, if you are the jammer visualize speeding through the pack and winning lead jammer. Visualize the gaps you find the pack. If you are a blocker, visualize knocking out the other team…all of them.. hear the shouts of the crowd cheering for you..smell the smell of the place you will be bouting (even if it means the nasty smell of stinky pads *laugh*). Go all the way through the bout…to the victory lap :). FEEL IT. Don’t just see it….FEEL IT!!!! That is the way to visualize :).
Claim it..right now..that you are part of the team…write affirmations and post them all over your house…where you will see them all the time :).
You’ve got this!!!
Em-shazzam!
November 24, 2010
Martha – you should be a life coach or professional motivator or something! I got so excited just reading your comments. I’m going to nick a packet of post-its from work tonight and plaster affirmations all over my place 😉
Alexandrina
November 23, 2010
Em, this is so exciting! It’s just brilliant to read these blogs and see the kinds of things that Freshies deal with on a daily basis. I’ve only seen you skate once, but I could see how talented and determined are and that’s what I hope to be during my training over the next 11 months.
The best advice that I can give you really is to ignore conversations that you have with yourself that sound like “I don’t do this well enough” or “I don’t do this as well as that person over there”. The best motivation and positivie boost that you can give yourself is to say “I CAN do this, and I WILL do this” just as you’re doing now. It will be difficult to maintain (trust me, I know) and sometimes those “I’m not good enough, I’ve let myself down” conversations will be impossible to ignore… but they’re untrue. You are an AWESOME roller, and I’ve no doubt that you’ll make it into the league – if not this year, then next. If not next year, then the year after.
I gotta tell you, I have only JUST “nailed” skating forwards without falling over. I hope to join the league during next intake. I’ve told myself “this is impossible”, but it isn’t.
Everybody around you believes in you, keep up the great work!
Michelle
November 24, 2010
Safe yet determined!! Your confidence is inspiring yet daunting! I want IN!! Bring on Monday!!