Pink Ribbon event

I'd like to post at least one picture with everything I write, so I keep telling myself to take pics at trainings and then I get so into the training (and being with the girls) that I completely forget about taking pics for the blogg. Sorry! 

However, during that period of a few months when I didn't write at all, we had another big event which I completely forgot to tell you about. THE local (but nationally high ranking) ladies Basket Ball team were playing their annual pink ribbon game and booked us as halftime entertainment! This meant that we would get to play derby in front of an audience of 1500 people, yikes! The tough part was that those people weren't there for us, and we only got to play for five minutes. About 50% of the girls that got onto the presentation team were rookies that had never played any derby in front of an audience at all so nerves were high strung to say the least. 

Waiting for our turn...

The biggest fear for most girls that are going to roll in front of an audience for the first time (and often times after that as well) is that she will fall flat on her face for no reason at all and look extremely clumsy while doing it. What they don't know is that that will most probably happen and not just once, but that the clumsiness doesn't matter because we look cool and are having fun anyways! Every single person sitting in that audience wishes they would have your courage to make a fool of themselves doing what they love doing and seemingly not giving a fuck about what others think. And that's exactly why you WONT look like a fool when you think you might. Still making sense?

Have fun, skate hard! (and make me read this post next time I get on the track in front of an audience again)

Nallederby

There is no ball in derby... But there's a teddy bear! Oh yes, Nallederby (= Teddyderby) is the newest thing here at Luleå Roller Derby. We've been playing it in secret for a little while, but now a video of it actually leaked. The aim of the game? Of the 5 minutes played, have your team be in Nallepossession the longest. No need to form a pack, legal hitting- and target zones do of course have to be observed, as do direction of play rules and throwing is allowed. Your team gains Nallepossession when: picking up the fallen Nalle with only your wheels in contact with the floor (no knees or hands on the floor), you make the opposing Nalleholder fall by means of a legal block, you make the opposing Nalleholder skate out of bounds by means of legal blocking.

Simple and loads of fun!

Victory is sweet!

A bit late, but it took me a while to get down from that cloud of sweet, sweet victory. But now I'm here so now I can tell you how awesome it was.

We went on a combined training camp/game weekend to Umeå. That's an often used form of meeting others within roller derby. You have a few training sessions together and then you close of the weekend with a game. These games are then usually called scrimmages which are friendly games. The more official games, or bouts, usually do not coincide with a joint training camp.

This was a very important scrimmage for our club, because it was the first time we were playing a game with a full team of our own players, no borrowed players. To me personally it was a very important game because it was the first one since I had become trainer of the team.

Jammer Lucie SlayHer jamming her way through the pack

We played three periods of 20 minutes. We started strong with the intent to shock shplat them from the start which seemed to have the desired effect. We immediately took the lead and managed to hold it through out the first two periods. During the last break in preparation of the final period we decided to change our tactics expecting the other team to have caught on to how we were playing and changed from a more mixed style to a purely defensive tactic to keep the lead we had and secure the win.

f.l.t.r. back row: Major Roadkill, Manic Medic, Miss Maniac, Wicked Rosie, Tiny Touretts, Petra Pak, Violent Vixen, Badass Babuska. f.l.t.r. front row: Cherry Lawless, Lucie SlayHer, Concrete Kitten, Gaby Granade, Scary Mary

We won a fantastic trophy made by the Umeå girls which will hopefully find a nice display spot until Umeå manages to win it back. The trophy goes together with the title "Queens of Norrland."

Queens of Norrland

That's us!!

One happy camper!

Wiii. Today was such a good day! Well, todays training was such a good training. It started of with Papa Smurf giving me this awesome folder. I always show up for trainings either with a big heavy folder (which holds all sort of derby related shit) or with loose pieces of paper on which I have scribbled down a general outline for that particular training. Those then end up under my bra strap so that I can reference it on the go. Result: soggy bits of paper that smell delicious (not!) with runny letters on them. But now I have the all in one coaching tool of derby heaven!

Oh yes, that is actually a magnetic mini whiteboard on the inside of the front cover with tiny magnetic jammers, blockers and pivots. I love it!! Thank you, Papa Smurf.

And then from there on the training just became even more fun. I had set up some mattresses against the wall so we could check the shit out of the wall in stead of each other (playing a scrimmage next weekend). That was so much fun! At first I was planning to ask one of our new refs to hold up the mattresses while we would practice our fullbody- and hip checks on them, but I think, after seeing the amount of force we were able to put out he was happy that I decided on the help of the wall in stead. I was planning to take pics so I could show you some of the girls flying into the mattresses and just slaughtering them, but I was having so much fun, that I forgot. I'll try and remember next time we do the same exercise.

After that we did 45 mins of jams with one 3 min break and only 6 on each team... yeah.. tiring, but so delicious! And wow... we were seeing some really good derby out there! Even getting compliments from players that had been away for a while and from some of our refs that really noticed we were getting better. Such a good feeling!

Just what I needed one week before Umeå. Thank you everybody! :)

Finally we're safe!

So far, we've had ice spray and snow to take care of our bruises and sprains, but now the team finally owns their very own First Aid kit! And it's huge! We need to fill it up a bit more, but it contains the essentials for now: icepacks, more ice spray, bandages, bandaids, disinfectant, scissors, more sports tape, etc. I am so happy with this!

Great derby!

Yes yes.. spending my friday evening watching a live stream of the USA flat track championships. You can get a free low quality stream here. And with the help of some clicks you can even buy the high quality version. It's the high quality stream that is showing on our TV right now. This are bouts between the top teams of the world which makes the derby quite complicated some times. New strategies, fast juking, even the refs seem to have a higher penalty threshold. Very exciting to watch!

The first bout was won by Minnesota in the blue and army uniforms

Preperation is everything

The 19th of Nov we're playing a scrimmage (a friendly game) against Umeå Radical Rollers and 50% of our team is going to be rookies that are taking their minimum skills test this week and next week.

Last weekend (during a not too sober team bonding night) we chose the team captain (Roadkill) and her assistant (Scary Mary) and I just know they will be awesome! So now the focus lies on becoming a team. Not only in the pub or smiling at each other on the track. But knowing each others skating style so you can predict your team mates moves and adjust your own so that we as a team can knock that opposing jammer utterly senseless. Very zen.

Sprained ankles, hip replacements and strokes!

A LOT has happened since I last had the time to write here. First of all... notice the name change of the blogg? I didn't really like the demonic part so much because that doesn't really fit me, but after trying 1001 options because every single name is taken (yes, no two roller girls in the world have the same name), you kinda lose sight and then I chose wrong. But one day, on my way home from practice it hit me. Manic Medic. Fitting in SO many ways! So I'm very happy with it.

Number two that happened: I did a long internship which I just finished last friday. First a period at the hospital where I felt very much like I was playing a part on Grey's Anatomy and then a period at a stroke rehabilitation center, where I felt very much like an incompetent cow. In the end I got very good evaluations on both though, so all was good.

Does the jacket make you feel safer?

Thing three that happened: over summer I became the vice president of our wonderful league: Lueå Roller Derby! I really don't want to let our fast growing league down, so I'm doing the very best I can without drowning. Everybody who has ever been on the board of a roller derby league, knows how easy it is to drown. So far though, it's just loads of rewarding fun!

Thing number four that happened: over summer I also became the trainer for our league. This is supposed to be a temporary thing, because we would of course like to have a dedicated trainer that doesn't play her-/himself, but it will probably keep going for quite a while. I love training our league! We have the best bunch of girls that are all strong individuals. And it's great experience for me: I only have a little more than a year left on my degree to be a physiotherapist, so not only do I get to practice my knowledge of training physiology and theories on training motivation, I even get the occasional patient, haha! Cherry Lawless was one of two girls with a sprained ankle.

©Joakim Norrgård

Now we are preparing for an away scrimmage against Umeå. I'll write more about that next time! :)

Still wishing you derby kisses,
Manic Medic