It's a Fine Line.

I was at a kids birthday party on Saturday and one of the dads and I
were talking about derby. He had no idea what it was all about except
that is was quite a physically aggressive sport.

So once again I had that conversation; No you can't hit people with
your fists, no you can purposefully trip them, no you can't head butt
them either, and on and on. He ended up asking me with a mixture of
confusion and a bit of doubt that this sport was aggressive at all
"well what can you do?"

So I hip checked him.

Ok, it's not really ok to hip check people unless they are either your
team mates or an opposing team, but I figured we were close enough
friends and he was a big enough guy that a little hip check would just
give him an idea of what it was all about. Don't get me wrong I pulled
my 'punch' and didn't go in hard ... But he almost fell over and spent
the next 15 minutes rubbing his hip looking at me. I apologized
profusely as I hadn't meant to hurt him. And he laughed (thankfully)
and said he got it now, yes it was quite a painful sport.

On Sunday we had our usual training. But this week we also had an off
skates hilarious obstacle course. I, of course, couldn't bare not
going as hard as I possibly could and ended up belly flopping on the
wooden floor, feeling very thankful I had decided to leave all of my
protective gear on (this also proved to me why the only exercise I'm
interested in doing is with wheels on my feet). The photo above is of
my hip/belly bruise.

When I got home I surveyed the damage and added it to the lump on my
shin from a wheel kicking up during pack work, the scratches on my
shoulders from other people's pads and the fingernail marks on my back
from a teammate grabbing my shirt (skin) to get past me. And this was
all only from training.

I giggled as I remembered that as I did the crazy belly flop the team
mate I was racing stopped to see if I was ok. And my reaction as I
jumped back up was to scream at her "Don't stop!!!"

I guess I am well and truly a derby girl after all.

Relax ...?

I took Wednesday off training to rest my body for a week post bout and
today being my day off work I was going to make the most of it. After
two weeks non stop with the kids, a big derby bout and straight into a
week of work, today was MY day.

I had full plans to sit on the lounge and do nothing from the time I
took the kids to school until I had to pick them up. Oh sure I would
take time out to eat something yummy, have a long shower and wash my
hair, maybe even sit in the sun and read my book if the weather was
nice but beyond that I would do nothing. That was the plan.

Instead of sitting down when I got home I decided to I start hosing
the moss off the bricks out the back. Once that was done I moved the
last of the building left overs and all the sleepers for the front
yard into a neater pile 2 meters away. Then I decided to rearrange the
outdoor furniture and pot plants. Scrub the rest of the yard, pull the
weeds and scrub the laundry and the toilet. I stopped just as I
thought about getting a toothbrush to clean the grime built up on my
garden gnomes.

I realized I was hungry so thought perfect, I will eat a late lunch
and watch a movie ...I lasted about 12 minutes.

The inside of my house is now as clean as the outside. Jesus I even
went and dusted the inside of the car!!!

What's wrong with me. I used to be able to spend days doing nothing. I
could ignore mess, I could sit and be still (at least physically, I've
always been terrible at being still mentally) and love every minute if
it.

I blame working/playing derby!! Mixed together with my normal state of
child, hubby, dog and house maintenance, I seem to have forgotten how
to chill out! These last 8 months have been the busiest of my life.

(It's at this point I want to point out that I completely know how
lucky I have been/am and my little rant is just my thought of the day)

Pre kids I worked hard and long hours but once I got home my time was
mostly my own.

Post kids I had a time almost everyday where they would both nap at
the same time, or they would be happily playing and I could be still
for a moment. From the time Hamish was 2 I had at least 2 days where
for 5 hours I had some peace and quiet.

These days there is both more and less down time, mostly because I
have filled the school days with work. And although the kids no
longer require so much of me outside of school hours, I have filled a
lot of that time with derby (both training, secretary stuff, games and
social stuff)

Lesson learnt I suppose. I have more energy now and so if I take a
night off training I had better find a way to use up that energy
otherwise I will find myself lifting couches one handed, like a
superhero, to vacuum underneath.

Upside, my space looks amazing and I did end up finding time to have a
long shower and wash my hair.

Do You Win?

A while ago one of my neighbours was asking me about roller derby and our league.  Her leading question was "Do you win?".  I cheerfully told her that no we had never won anything, but that didn't seem to matter.  As I have said before I'm not sporty, I've never really played sport before and I certainly have never won anything sporty.

This year IWRDL has been part of a tournament called the 5x5 championship.  Basically derby isn't like soccer or AFL, we don't have the setup of many games between leagues that lead to some sort of grand final.  It's more like a series of hosted bouts that are one offs and for some leagues this is a rarity.  So some of the leagues that live within the greater Sydney area decided to work together and once a month play off against each other in a tournament.  IWRDL went into it being the youngest and least experienced league and were just feeling honoured to be asked to be a part of it.

Our first bout was against the Blue Mountains Roller Derby League (BMRDL).  These girls were agile and quick. It was like we were hamsters trying to keep up with twitchy little super powered mice.  We lost.  But we always lose.  And we were so proud of some of the things that had come together on the track and of each others stamina.

Our second bout was against the South Side Derby Dolls (S2D2).  We had scrimmed against them many times but knew that their training had taken them from being our big sisters to a heavily tactical team.  We lost. But we always lose.  And we learnt so much about the sort of tactics that are coming into the game. About ourselves as derby players, our strengths and our weaknesses, and the fact that after a year we can still come together and be proud of each other even as we get completely slaughtered.

Our third bout was against Central Coast Roller Girls (CCRG).  These girls had not been beaten by anyone else in the tournament. They have an amazing combination of all of the skills of the leagues competing.  They are agile, strong, fast, hard hitters and generally amazing.  They also reminded me of us though.  They are kind and funny and they play because they love the game.  They wanted us to dance with them as we waited for jams to start, they cuddled us before the match, and after we lost they laughed with us and cuddled us again.

On Saturday, we came up against the last team we had to play to decide who played who for the finals.  We had seen the Hawkesbery Area Roller Derby (HARD) girls play all the other teams.   They were actually the first team we ever played and they kicked our proverbial arses.  We knew they dominated the track, they hit HARD all the time.  Their walls were impenetrable.  They had as much, if not more, team spirit that we did (and man team spirit can go a long long way).  But we also knew they hadn't won a game in the 5x5 either.

I was terrified, my team were all actually wondering if we could win this one.  But as far as I was concerned ... we don't win.  And for me knowing that felt ok.  We don't win on points but I'll challenge anyone to win on spirit and enthusiasm more than we do.  In my opinion we are so young and fresh that I don't feel ready to win.

But ............................... we won.  Ok it was by a very teeny 8 points, and it could have easily gone the other way, but we did win.

I stood there in the silence of my team, watching the score board making sure there weren't any last minute changes (I mean 8 points can be 1 mistake in 1 jam) and I felt sick .... and then those final whistles signalled that the score on the board was the final score and IWRDL had won their first every official bout.

My reaction surprised me. I cried, big fat non stop tears that rolled down my face uncontrollably for at least 10 minutes.  But yet I didn't feel prouder or stronger than I had when we had lost with other games so why the heck was I crying.  And then I realised ... look at these faces, look at how much my team revelled in winning something! And yes we may have only won the right to fight for 3rd or 4th place.  But we won something. And as a league we needed to win something.  To see the pay off of the hours of work, the pain in our joints and the bruises we are constantly bearing, the time we spend away from our family and the passion we have given this game.  I wasn't crying from the joy of winning, I was crying from the joy of watching all of these woman that I sweat and bleed with, that I love so much  feeling so joyous.

Next time someone asks "Do you win?" I can say "Sometimes we have more points that the other team.  Most of the time we don't.   But in the way that matters most, yes, we always win!"

Photography by Richard Rayment

Today's Activities.

Today I spent a rather unreasonable amount of time doing the following:

- Trying on a multitude of tights, leggings and socks in a many
different combinations.
- Shopping for completely pathetic foods like nut mixes, high protein
bars/drinks and new water bottles.
- Drinking loads of water and taking vitamins.
- Shaving/waxing.
- Packing and re packing my derby bag.
- Cleaning my wheels, powdering my knee pad covers, checking my toe
stops, re doing my skate laces and making sure my tool bag has
everything I need.
- Figuring out what the hell one wears mid winter in the mountains,
that will also be light enough to carry around, cute enough to wear to
a derby after party, layered enough that I can strip off layers as I
dance and comfy enough for an hour and a half drive home.

Oh ... That must mean that tomorrow is a bout day.

Conversations with a Man

Laying in bed last night;
Me: (whisper) Babe, what's that noise?
AB: (whisper) What noise?
Me: (whisper) That tick tick tick noise.
(Quiet pause)
AB: (cranky voice) It's the rain dripping in the gutter .... And for
future reference why the hell did you need whisper. When you whisper
I'm thinking your hearing something urgent, not just rain in the
gutter
Me: Oh, yeah ... Bahahaha

Next Generation

Jack (3) and Hamish (1 1/2)

This was my life when I started this blog in January 2008.  It was full to the brim with cuddles, dirty nappies, kids parties, park visits, kids wrestling, breastfeeding, housework, cooking, and basically trying to be super mum. 

It was a very intense, crazy and beautiful time.  But it was also quite lonely.  I no longer had the day to day socialness that work brings, my conversations with other adults were either about children or interrupted by children.  And as all mothers of young children would understand, I lost myself into the world of mothering.  This is of course completely normal and I did not and do not resent any of it.

And so in an attempt to connect I started this blog.  And for a long time it gave me a place to be 'Me'.

Almost a year ago I stopped blogging, it wasn't that mothering had stopped or that I had less to say but my life had changed.  I was no longer blanketed by children, I had regained my sense of self again.  My babies were no longer the babies this blog was about.

Jack (8 1/2)

Hamish (almost 7)

They were kids, little men who come with new challenges but they no longer needed me to be completely smothered in them.  In fact the opposite is true.  They needed me to start stepping back, and I was happy to do it.  I had missed myself.

I have had many times over the last year where I have thought about my blog and had a longing to write something. But I almost couldn't relate to the woman who started this blog anymore.  So I didn't.  I wondered if I should just start a new one, but that didn't feel right.  This blog is an intimate part of me that I decided to share with the world and denying it by starting a fresh feels tantamount to lying.

So today I am going to give something a whirl.  Wondering Willow v2.  It's not a new blog, but its different, just like me.  If all goes well you will notice that I am no longer lonely.  I have filled that 24/7 mothering void with work, rollerskating (still), friends (new and old) and a different sense of self.  I don't know if it will take off or if this will be the big start of nothing big.  But it's worth a try.

Beaten But Not Beaten Down

These are not the faces of the winning team. These are my teams faces
after loosing their first ever bout by over 100 points. This is why I
have spent the last day on a complete high.

Sound strange?

We went into our first ever tournament this weekend. Not only had we
never really played a proper match, we had never even played on a
proper track. We are a brand new league full of players who have
skated for less than a year. And who have only been playing together
for a few months.

The thing that brought those smiles to our faces is that we know we
left nothing behind. We gave our all during the match and left
everything we had on that track. We were outmatched but we fought and
the score showed that, with more practice, we will have what it takes.

I started the day watching the two teams we were scheduled to play
later that day, play each other HARD v CRDL.

HARD was full of women who were mostly the size of two of our women.
They were big hitters and hard to budge. CRDL were like a precision
flight team. They worked in unison. Talked in numbers for their play
formations and were all amazonian.

CRDL thrashed HARD.

The day was too long and emotional to go into a great amount of
detail. But there are a few moments that I wish I could live over. At
least by writing them here I will never forget.

Bout 1 IWRDL v HARD 170ish to 70ish

- Before the bout the teams get to have 10 minutes skating on the
track. Most of it is meant to be spent getting used to the surface.
But for us most of it was used telling each other what all the lines
meant (THAT'S how new we are, we needed to have the lines pointed out
lol) and going over the rules about the outside track, seeing as when
we train we don't have enough room to have an outside track. And
getting used to the rope that is the track boundary.

- I started having a bit more pack awareness. One of the mistakes I
have made a few times in practice is being too far away from the other
players as I'm chasing someone down to hit them. This match I feel I
had a much better feel for where that 10ft mark was and managed not to
engage with anyone outside the engagement zone.

- At one point all of our team bar one blocker was in the penalty box.
That one stood out there alone and just kept trying to hit their
jammer over and over. It's impressive to see someone so new, put so
much in.

- The night before one of our coaches had said to me if I said sorry
to anyone she would punch me in the face (it was said with
motivational love). At one point I was already going in for a hit as
the end whistle got blown. But it was too late as I was already in
motion and I hit her. Before I could stop myself, I said sorry. She
laughed and said don't apologise. I quickly skated to my coach. Took
out my mouth guard and knelt in front of her. She asked me what I was
doing and I explained that I had just apologized and I had come in for
her my punishment. She cracked up, called me cheeky and thankfully
didn't actually punch me in the face.

- After the game was over the other team came over and joined in as we
were all cuddling each other. We then do a skate around high fiving
all the spectators and other team.

- During our cool down a player from a different team came up and said
she and a few of her team mates had been watching our game. She said
she thought it was a great game and asked who else we had bouted. I
told her it was our first. She looked shocked. She then asked how long
we had been playing together. And I said 4 months. And she was really
impressed. Then she asked if we had members who had played before and
I told her we only had three. Her reaction was amazing. She had such
positive things to say and the most impressive was that she couldn't
tell just how new and inexperienced we were.

If we were the underdogs against HARD. We were lambs to the slaughter
against CRDL. They had virtually perfected things we could barely
remember to think about let alone do.

Bout 2 IWRDL v CRDL 293ish to 11.

- 11 points to nearly 300. It sounds pitiful. But I can't tell you how
hard we worked for every one of those points. Before the game started
our coach showed us a photo of one of the other scores from the day.
It was 350ish to 3. She told us if we could do even just one point
better than that she would be ecstatic. My absolute favourite part of
the day was our team and supporters on the side lines (which were a
lot of other teams as well) reaction to every point we got. We raised
the roof. We cheered and screamed and stamped, jumping up and down
like we had just won the game. I like to think we showed people that
the best part of IWRDL is the team spirit. The fact that we were not
going down without a fight. Even if that fight was like watching
rabbits stand up to lions. As we stood as a pack waiting for jams to
start I often looked over my shoulder and smiled or winked at the
other team. I wanted them to know we knew we were going to be beaten
but that we would enjoy every minute of it. The roar of us and the
crowd for every one of those 11 points lifted us higher and higher.
Beaten but not beaten down.

- One of our coaches telling me to do a particular play that worked
and took us from 1-4 points. Of course it wasn't all me :) but it was
my best play of the day.

- Finally finding my voice and yelling to the other girls. Usually I'm
so caught up in my own head that I don't vocalize what I'm thinking.
Having a few jams where I was yelling out, pushing and pulling a few
of the other girls into blocking positions. Having our jammer behind
me as I'm yelling what I'm doing trying to make holes for her to get
through. I saw a few of my skills come out and I have so much more
confidence in myself.

I could go on and on. About everyone and everything. But let's be
honest, nothing can capture the feeling of that day. The joy I felt
every moment on the track. The pride I feel in myself and every IWRDL
member, coaches and benchies included. It was a day worth bottling.

Silence in the Ruckus

My poor neglected blog. I'm sure if blogs had feelings it would feel
like I had left it for another man and just popped back in for a booty
call once a month.

And it is kind of like that. Not because I don't still want to blog
but because I have so much less time. Big things are a happening.

I realized that I haven't told you about my new perfect job working in
Specsavers. It's four days a week between school hours and I take
holidays off to be at home with the boys. Cool people, work that's
interesting enough to keep me interested but not so interesting that I
take it home mentally at night. It's like a gift from the gods.

I also haven't told you the latest derby updates. We are playing in
the Eastern Regional Roller Derby tournament this coming weekend. This
means that a dozen teams do a battle to the death until only one team
is left standing ;) not literally of course but that is how it feels.

It's a huge part of why I'm not blogging. We are training more often.
In my spare time I am reading rules, learning hand signals, learning
plays and generally immersing myself in everything derby. For the
first time I'm so physically and mentally tired I can't wait to take a
break.

We are all getting uniforms, we all have our derby names, (Buffy
Stun-Hers #144) we are all slighting peeing our pants in anticipation.
Not at the idea of not winning. We are a brand new league who have
only been skating together a manner of months so winning isn't our
focus. But at not feeling proud of our efforts. Of being so paralyzed
with performance anxiety that we forget to perform.

Anyhoo, it's late and I'm tired but this was the first and last chance
I could foresee having time to blog for a few more weeks and thought
I'd do a mini catchup.

Life is good, bruises and all (actually bruises are sexy)

Watching - derby
Listening - to my coaches
Reading - rules
State of mind - full

This is Getting Real!

Remember in the good ole days when I talked about skating in terms of new skills I had learnt. Shooting the duck, spirals, doing a basic t-stop? Yeah they were amazing for me and I was so proud of myself and my fellow skaters.

How times have changed!

These days it's all about derby and derby isn't about spirals or anything pretty (although don't get me wrong all of these pretty skills help create amazing skaters). These days skills are all based on hits, dodges and moves that are about position on the track. None of it is pretty.

We are starting to see the hard parts of derby. I don't mean the drills that make you want to cry. The ones were you do a time pyramid of floor work and speed skating. Of planking, sit ups, pushups and booty lifts for 20mins. I'm talking about watching friends take the brunt of our hits, dodges and positions that leave them getting hurt.

A few weeks ago Smashund Terrier fell on her head. Now, we wear a helmet but it was so hard it left her spinning. It was out first ambulance call. Luckily she didn't have a concussion so chose to get a lift home instead of going to the hospital.

Then last week as we warmed up running on our stoppers. El Scorcho fell. Her ankle twisted in a bad way. Long story short she is, as I type, in surgery getting pins put in her ankle after a double break.

Capt'n KidCat is out of scrimmage with a damaged knee. I still have numbness and bruising coming up on my knee from a fall weeks ago. Actually I have bruises all over my shins, hips and bum. As I'm sure most of my team mates do. It's complete carnage.

I pride myself on the fact that I actually don't fall much. Being stable on your skates during a hit is almost as important as your ability to give a hit. And I'm getting a lot better at my stability. But last night we learnt a new maneuver. It required us at a team trying to be at the front of the pack. And depending on where your jammer was, speeding up or slowing down the pack. Mostly is was about 'catching a bunny' meaning as a team trying to hold one person from the other team back so we controlled the situation.

People were hitting me in the back, catching my skates with theirs and in one case (the one that gave me my latest bum bruise and the bit of whip lash I currently have) me just bouncing off one of our amazing blockers who can cover the whole track just with her legs.

My last fall was during a scrimmage. There was a pile up. In the chaos I can't tell you who fell first but I can tell you I was second last to fall. Me. Then Dinky Die tried really hard not to kick me in the head (for which I will be eternally grateful) which resulted in her trying to jump over me. This then resulted in her belly flopping onto the floor. I felt someone go over my back, and as I looked up I saw her and she made this incredibly scary noise. A mixture of scream and groan. For one long moment I thought she had broken her arm. But seconds later I realised she had just winded herself.

It terrified me. After she recovered, coach had a great talk with us about what we both did right and what we both did wrong. All I knew was I was trying not to cry.

So as I said, this is getting serious.

Scarier than hurting myself, for me, is watching other get hurt. I mean when I had my big fall last night I was playing at being the jammer. I fell hard on my butt and hit my helmeted head on a wall. But when someone stopped to ask if I was alright I just screamed "just get up and make me a space". But when I heard that sound last night of her trying to catch her breath I wanted to cry and hug her and promise I would never EVER get in her way again. Even though it was one of those situations where no one was at fault.

This is getting serious .... it certainly is. I'm not questioning my resolve that this sport is what I want to do. But I am questioning the why? And so far the only answer I have is that these days I want to challenge myself. Derby, apparently, is my version of jumping from a plane. Only I'm not strapped to someone who knows more that I do. I push myself so hard, as we all do. And try to balance achieving the objective of these new skills which require a team focus versus self preservation or concern for particular individuals.

Did mention the word carnage? I have a feeling I will be using it a lot for any future scrimmage posts.

Watching - Devil Seed. So terrible that I think I could have made a better movie with $5k

Reading - the WFTRDL rules. Hard to read and even harder to take in. Hence the fact that I am reading them over and over.

Listening - I can still hear Dinky Die in my head.

State of mind - is it possible to be cautious and reckless at the same time?

You Never Know Till You Try

Note: this photo isn't me

About 13 years ago Andrew and I were wandering around a park after dark. We were talking and holding hands as we walked barefoot onto this huge lush green field of grass. Suddenly I had this overwhelming urge to do a cartwheel.

I used to do cartwheels all the time. There is something I love about the feeling of defying gravity and doing something slightly extreme with your body.

Anyway, this night as it was dark I didn't notice all the tufts and divots in the field. I landed on one with my first hand and promptly fell on my back. My wrist hurt for the rest of the date. And then really hurt as I tried to drive home. Then became excruciating as I tried to sleep. But in the way of so many early 20 year olds I ignored it.

Six months later I realised it was still hurting. I went to the Doctor and was told it was broken. I needed to have an operation to put in a bone graft and a pin. It has never been the same since.

That was the end of cartwheels. Or so I thought.

Last week after Rollerfit I looked at the huge open space and felt that feeling again. I must do a cartwheel. So I did. And it was awesome.

The next class coincidently Stacey mentioned that you could do a cartwheel on skates and then promptly got one of her friends to do one. One of the other rollerfitters and I looked at each other and said 'we can do that'. But we didn't, we giggled about it and kept skating. But then she looked at me again and said 'do it', and I knew I was going to try.

I was terrified my wrist wouldn't cope, or that I wouldn't be able to stick the landing with wheels on my feet. But I really, really wanted to try.

And Taa-daa I did a cartwheel on skates.

Life is to short to say no to things just because they are scary. One day in the not to distant future my body may not be strong or nimble enough to do a cartwheel ever again. Damn if I am going to let today be that day!

When was the last time you did a cartwheel? or whatever your version of a cartwheel is. Maybe you haven't ridden a horse for ages cause once you got bitten, maybe your too nervous about traffic to drive, maybe you don't want to tell someone you love them even though you do.

How would you feel tomorrow if you realised you had missed your chance to do that 'thing' one last time!

So stop reading this and go and cartwheel!!

Reading - a science fiction best of annual the name of which I can't remember.

Listening - The Foals

Watching - Still on a horror movie kick. The last was 100 Ghost Street (spooky but not good) and Don't be afraid of the dark (good but not spooky).

State of mind - AB is away for a few days and I feel like I have a million things to do. So I have that slightly frantic put of stomach feeling going on.