Skatenance - or Skate maintenance if you prefer

We all know to prolong the life of our bearings, wheels and skates in general that regular cleaning and maintenance is vital.

So I was in the middle of my regular clean up and check over when I see THIS!!!! A crack!!! A crack in one of my beautiful wheels :( needless to say I was a wee bit sad especially as I had a game the next day (a closed scrim with a sister league but a game never the less). No back up wheels to be found, what do I do?! I still skated haha and did for a couple weeks before we had a bout coming up, money being tight I decided super gluing the crack was wise haha well although it held it was definitely NOT a permanent fix! But with no spare cash to buy even a 4 pack of wheels what was I to do. A fellow skater told me its a bit dodgy that my wheel broke so soon as I’m not an overly heavy skater nor do I skate heavily (if you follow).

I wrote a quick friendly email to skatebritain.net (where I had originally purchased my skates inc. wheels less than a year ago) and added a pic, a rapid response asking my address, next day this lil beaut turns up :D problem solved!! Brilliant service yet again.

If ever in doubt about something that has gone wrong on your skate, do not hesitate to drop the seller a friendly note. At worst they’ll ignore you but they’re more likely to give you some friendly advice on what to do and best a new wheel hahaha

rollergirlsarebatshitcrazy:

Okay this just happened hahaha

mygiffeduplife:

We get plenty of that..


When hitting jammers, the smarter blockers know better than to release after one hit to make sure she’s really down. Then we skate back, make her reenter behind us, and lather, rinse, repeat.


Duh. That’s just common sense.


We know the game happens behind us, so checking back there is second nature.


This is especially important for jammers, but also for goated blockers.


You can’t win a game if your jammer can’t get past the opposition. Know when to help her.

Just a quick (slightly late) post to say a massive thank you to all at NWRD! It was my birthday on the 11th of Feb and it happened to coincide with training night :D a derby birthday what more could you ask for!! Weeeeell as you can see above all of the beautiful gals n guys of NWRD signed me a birthday card and made me stand up by myself as they sang happy birthday!! I can’t remember a better birthday and I loved every bit of it. So a huuuuuge THANK YOU to my derby family, I couldn’t have spent it with better people :)
I want to say an extra special thank you to Rhimorseless, my fellow NWRD teammate and very good friend, for hand making me this b-e-a-utiful card and buying me a frying pan to teach me to make pancakes (pancake day was after my bday) I’m an excellent tosser now hahaha
DERBY LOVE

Derby injuries…….it was only a matter of time
Now lets not be nieve, we all play roller derby knowing full well an injury is highly likely or almost guaranteed at some point in your derby life.
Almost 8 months in with mere bruises and grazes then BAM rotator cuff injury. Worst part of it I know damn well it was preventable but mid scrim you can get a little gun ho and sure enough I did. I’m jamming, coming up to the pack at full speed only one blocker on the inside line on the apex, I think ‘I don’t need to slow down, I’ll hit her she’ll go flying and I’ll just keep on going on the inside’ oooooh how wrong was I, going against everything I know! She saw me, she braced, I hit her, I spun off her and landed shoulder first on the ground followed by my legs haha boy did it hurt, I’m ashamed but there were tears on the flat track!
Needless to say that was the end of the scrim for me (and it was my first time as captain *hangs head in shame*) but I’ve been x-rayed and nothing is broken HUZZAH! See the physio on Thursday to see how long I’ll be off skates for :(
This has been the moment I’ve dreaded most since starting derby….not being able to play. But if it’s done nothing else it’s sure as hell knocked some sense into me. Get low and more importantly than that…. Skill over power. Don’t go in hell for leather when a skilful tap or manoeuvre could do the job, you’ll only end up hurting yourself. Believe me!
Play safe kiddy winks ;)

Plow Stops
This stop seems to be the one that trips most people up haha literally! So I thought I’d write a few pointers on how to execute a beaaaautiful plow stop with no falling, flailing or speeding up.
‘But whyyyyy do we have to learn plow stops when we can t-stop?’ *facepalm* whenever I hear this I die a little inside hahaha but I do have to think back to when I was learning and I too detested them haha but wow I never knew how vital to roller derby they truly are! You use them in almost every aspect of the game, as a jammer to slow before entering the pack, as a blocker to slow a jammer down positionaly, forming a strong wall, counter hitting and sooo much more. So quit yo jibber jabber and lets get to it!

Stance. It is all about getting the correct posture for this move so lets break it down starting from the bottom up

• Feet -  Weight on the inside wheels. Toes pointing in, heels pushed outwards making a ‘V’ shape
• Calves - Use these muscles to drive power into your heels forcing them out.
• Knees - Bent. NEVER lock them straight.
• Thighs - Pulling tightly in, sitting back into a good squat, you should feel the burn ;p
• Ass -  This is where your centre of gravity/weight should be, drop it down, the lower you can get it the faster you’ll stop.
• Chest - Upright, facing the direction you’re heading.

Performing the stop

There are many different ways of teaching how to do a plow stop and everyone’s different in which method they connect to. This is the most basic explanation I know and my preference.

As you are skating forwards in a derby stance (knees bent, chest up) your feet will be parallel, when you want to stop drop your weight straight down into your butt, drop it low, and force the power from your thighs and calves into your heels driving them outwards.

It really is as simple as that…in theory ;p it’s a move you need to build your leg strength for admittedly, the stronger your legs and ass get the more power you can put into pushing your heels out and inevitably stop quicker :)

If you watch other skaters perfom this stop you will see that everyone varies in the spreadness of their legs hahaha technical term there. What I mean is some people push thie legs all the way out practically doing the splits, whereas others keep it in tighter. There is method behind this madness. If you’re coming in quick and need to stop sharpish the best option is to spread them legs and drop it low bringing yourself to a sharp stop. If you did that skating in a tight pack, chances are you will trip someone and get a low block major so best to keep your legs a bit tighter ;)

So that’s all I have to offer you on the subject of Plow stops really, think I’ve covered all the bases. Now all there is to do is practise practise practise! And when you’re not on your skates….squat! DO ALL THE SQUATS! Always work on getting your thighs and ass in the best shape they can be, the stronger they are the easier a lot of things derby related will be :)

Hey there,
I absolutely love my Vanilla skates (Renegade boots). They have never rubbed or caused sore/pressure points as they are so well padded. Which comes in extra handy as I found the sizing to be a bit small (I’m a size 6 so they advise a 7US) I was soooo worried when I got them, I could hardly close the laces and my toes felt a bit scrunched in. However, I persevered and was told to wear them bare foot and as tight as possible, which sounded weird to me, but ooooooohmygod they have moulded to my feet and are an absolute prefect fit for me now, my feet never roll or slip around inside them when skating and like I said I never get rubbing or even a thought towards blisters!!
When the time comes to get a new boot (which I don’t expect for a hell of a long time the way these are holding up) I would absolutely go for Vanilla again and highly recommend them.
Hope this helps with your decision :)

Had my first mixed scrim outside of the safety of my teams four walls today. Just a friendly one with two local teams; the Wirral Whipiteres hosted it with the Manchester Arcadians joining with ourselves to make up numbers. It was a little bit crazy, the first half was hectic and it turned out there were a fuckload(technical term) of us so not as much track time as people hoped for (myself included *is a track whore*) but every jam I got to do I bloody loved!! Check out my photo woooooooop never in a million years expected that, I almost cried! In ROLLER DERBY :O

*SOPPY ALERT* I am so honoured to call the NWRD gals n guys my team mates, don’t know what I’d do without this amazing bunch of talented fine ass people in my life! Today if nothing else has definitely increased the love I have for my team tenfold.

hellobettierage:

Roller Derby!!!

I never reblog but I couldn’t resist this! I bloody love roller derby and it’s so rewarding.
You get back what you put in people :)