Here is what I saw when I walked into the hangar: about 15 people skating on the flat track, about ten more getting their gear on, and a girl sitting at table with a laptop open. I quickly deduced that the person I should talk to was the one with the laptop. I was right. After filling out a lengthy waiver and writing a check for derby insurance, I was strapping on my many pads and lacing up my skates. I giddily took to the track, which feels nothing like a smooth wood rink floor. The track is basically connected squares of plastic with a raised inner and outer loop marker. Since it is way slipperier than what I was used to, it took me a couple laps around to get my bearings. Once I did, though, it felt gooooood. The first part of the practice consisted of drills-many of which involved intentionally falling and getting up. Oy vey. The only thing I was having problems with was that around the bends of the loop (the apex), I kept slipping sideways. After struggling with it for a while, I finally asked one of the coaches. She asked me if I had loosened my truck. My response: "What's a truck?" She sat me down, grabbed a tool and explained that basically I was driving a car with wheels locked in forward position. Once the "truck" is loosened, the wheels can move side to side, like turning the steering wheel on a car. Again, once I got back out on the track, it took some getting used to, but it was MUCH better than before. After about an hour of drills, the coaches announced that we would be splitting into teams to run a drill similar to "keep-away." One of the coaches, brought out what she called a "panty," which I think was similar to cheerleading spanks. Here is what I heard: "The goal of your team is to get the panty." She then went on to explain that if you knock the player with the panty out of play, then your team got the panty. The team with the panty's goal was to pass it around to other teammates as much as they could, while trying not to have it "taken away." I decided to watch a round before I actually played since this was the closest I had come to anything similar to derby. After the first round, I decided to join. I felt pretty good! I was getting in the pack, weaving around, blocking, hitting (with hips), and I even managed a couple of times to get in there and take the panty out of the hands of the holder. It wasn't until I was watching the other teams play, when our team was done, that I understood that the ONLY way to change possession of the panty was to knock the player with the panty out of bounds-----no one else was trying to steal the panty. Oops.
The practice ended with a test over derby rules. I didn't even attempt it since I have absolutely no idea what the rules are. In order to scrimmage as a Wrecker, you have to score a certain percentage on this exam. I found out where to download the official rules, took off my gear, packed up and left.
Here are a couple of things I learned at this, my first "real" derby experience:
1. Based on how sweaty and stinky I was and the four days of sore muscles which followed, this is an incredible workout.
2. a. There is such thing as at truck. b. It should be loosened.
3. You are not supposed to steal the panty.
4. I can NOT wait to do this again.
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