Big Mouth and Bonnie D.Stroir

On the mic. Photo by jyphoto.co.nz

Another weekend of derby action, and this time I actually got to be on skates! Last night was another home game for my league, and as Mascara Massacre had a bye I was asked to MC for the night (having established my lack of fear when it comes to the mic when I was interviewed for a national sport radio station last month). The learning curve was really steep, and it took a fair few jams to get into the swing of things. For example, you can say something about a player going to the box, but nothing about a player leaving the box. Likewise, no matter how exciting it is, you can't talk about the jammer hitting the back of the pack as you don't want to give any team an advantage. To be fair, in all the bouts I've played in have I ever even noticed the commentating unless there's been a time out and even then I've normally been engaged in something else, so the odds of the MC saying something I a) hear, b) register that c) I haven't noticed and d) will give me an advantage seems incredibly small, but I guess it makes sense. I got a fair few compliments on my skills though, so maybe when I retire a future in commentating beckons?

Of course, it helped that it was an exciting match-up and there was lots to talk about. The Blackheart Bruisers, who are a new take on an old home team, finally beat Dead Wreckoning with a convincing 141-95 scoreline. Given that we beat DW 130-73 last month we're looking at a very interesting bout on the 23rd June! (check out http://nzrollerderbyscores.blogspot.co.nz/ for all your scoreline needs). The Bruisers worked incredibly hard over the last couple of months to gel as a team and make that win happen, so I feel like we have our work cut out. It's always weird when there's a gap between playing, either on a small scale (at scrimmage) or a large scale (bouts) or a huge scale (injury) and I confess to finding it hard to get my head back in team mode!

Notes from a bootcamp. Jamming is fun!

No afterparty for me last night (apart from a couple of hours on the door taking money and drinking lemonade) as this morning I was up early to attend a boot camp held by Bonnie D. Stroir. I've mentioned her on here a few times before and if you don't know who she is, please do check out her page and her now-closed-but-still-interesting-blog . Bonnie is (as far as I'm aware) the first professional roller derby skater, who's earning a living coaching around the world. She was assistant coach to Team USA at the World Cup, and has been skating since 2003, when I was kicking around Glasgow on a minimum wage job and roller derby was as unknown as, I don't know, something I still don't know about. There's no arguing her credentials, but I confess to being a little, I don't know, cynical? Since I started skating I've been coached by members of Rocky Mountain Roller Girls, Rose City Rollers, and numerous Aussie and NZ leagues. They've all been valuable but I couldn't help wondering what Bonnie's got that makes her good enough to make a living out of it where, say, Assaultin' Pepa of RMRG still has a day job. So it was with a lot of curiosity and keen that I set off for out North Shore venue for three hours of Bonnie.

I have to say, the woman delivers. As a teacher I know a little bit about how it's done and Bonnie's bloody good. She went through several different jammer-specific drills and tricks, each building on the last and totally changing how I view the art of jamming. As the woman herself put it "I've had a lot of time to think about this" and it shows. Even though I'm not a jammer (though wearing the pantie for the first time since the accident was quite exciting and made me rethink my "never again" stance!) I could see the value in the drills, how I could apply them, and a lot of her core ideas are valid everywhere on and off the track. She's upbeat without it getting ridiculous, gets attention without being bossy and does a good job of breaking things up into explanation, drill, and time for taking notes (she plays music during the drills so you're less inclined to get caught up in talking about the drill and more time just doing it- good strategy that).

Bonnie (purple helmet) gives us some wisdom. Photo by Khloe Karbash-Ya-In

She finished up the morning with a chat about derby and what she's learned. She's got no time for false modesty but is refreshingly honest about the mistakes she's made and how she's learning from them. Listening to her talk about how to keep derby a "happy place" had a lot of resonance with me, as it's feeling less like that at the moment for numerous reasons and I'd like to get some of the love back. There's something refreshing about talking to someone who's still got that enthusiasm, that joy in skating that we all had when we first let go of the handrail at the rink, after nine years in the sport. I left with a lot to think about in terms of my goals, my game and my attitude and I'd like to think the other attendees did too. I left a total Bonnie convert though, and one of her Live Love Derby stickers now adorns my helmet. Seems like a positive thing to remember on the track.