First day of freshmeat bootcamp

"The first day of fresh meat boot camp is tomorrow. Do you have any advice for me?"

This post is in response to an anonymous "ask" I received on another blog of mine (shown on the right).
Well I am glad you asked! First of all, congratulations!! You are going to have an absolute blast.

• Make sure you’re really paying attention to what the coaches are teaching you, and make sure you’re trying your best to do it. Practice is the time to really push yourself and make lots of mistakes, because it’s how you learn. When you’re learning something new, I know it can be easy to get embarrassed or discouraged, but there’s no need for that! You will be with a group of skaters struggling with the same thing as you, and you will be with coaches who remember exactly what it was like to be in your shoes.



Whoo look at me falling! Photo by the wonderful russellrenophotography

• If you’re falling a lot… GOOD! That’s what it’s all about- falling down and getting right back up. It’s awesome when you fall, because that means that you’re trying your hardest, and that is what derby is all about. 

• Stay low! Keep your knees bent as much as you can, and keep your back straight- don’t bend forward at your waist, because that doesn’t help you much at all. This is called derby stance, and you want to keep it pretty much the entire time you’re skating. It helps to get used to this early on, because when you start scrimmaging you’ll be able to take and give hits better, and it also helps to stabilize you. Also, if you fall, you’ll be closer to the ground so it’ll hurt less. It will burn the hell out of your thighs at first, but it will gradually get easier and easier. After a while it may also start hurting your back, but try to stick with it and push through it, as that will go away too… I’m not sure if that’s good advice medically speaking, but that is what my coaches have told us, and no one has injured their back yet, so there’s that…
• Usually, your coaches will explain and demonstrate something to the group (at least in my

  

  Bliss from Whip It knows what I'm talkin' about. Ask questions!

  league), and then they let everyone go onto the track to try it out. If you are totally lost when they’re explaining what you’re doing, ask questions. They’re there to help you, so don’t feel nervous approaching them or asking in front of the group, because I bet there is at least one other skater in the group with the same question that’s just too nervous to speak up. Also, when you try out what they’re teaching you, you can always call a coach over to watch you do it and see if you’re doing it right (I still do this), and they’ll be able to troubleshoot with you and let you know what you need to fix (or they’ll tell you that you’re doing it perfectly, which is always awesome).
• Look ahead of you at where you are trying to go, not at your feet. My coach told me this on my first practice and it helped soooo muuuuuch.
• When you fall, pick a cheek. Butt cheek that is. Yeah it sounds funny, but it’s what you have to do. You never want to fall right in the middle on your tailbone, because that hurts. A lot. So pick a side (left or right) to land on when you’re falling, rather than falling on your tailbone.
• This isn’t so much for your first day of camp, but in general you should try to get in some extra rink time if possible. If your rink has public sessions, go to them! The more time you spend on your skates, the better. You’ll be more familiar with how everything works, and when you’re at practice you’ll be able to spend less time on keeping your balance and more time on learning how to stop, do crossovers, etc. It’s also a great time to get extra practice trying to do the things you learned at training. It is really hard to improve if you don’t put in extra time on your own. Also, watch some derby! Go on youtube or derbynewsnetwork, watch some gameplay, and learn the rules.
• I had something else to say but I can’t remember so it probably wasn’t that important
• Finally, just don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone learns at their own pace, and I promise there is always that one newbie that makes you wonder if this really was their first practice because they just learn everything so quickly (and that might even be you!). 

Basically, just don’t get discouraged, get back up when you fall, don’t quit, talk to the other skaters (newbies and veterans), and have a blast! This may feel like too much to process, but the most important thing you can do is remember that you are there to learn and improve and have fun while doing it. Any other skaters have some advice?