Off the beaten track

So here I am in week one of injury. Bleh.

In other news, VDL is doing its FIRST EVER IN THE ENTIRE WHOLE WORLD bout on Saturday! This is extremely exciting news, since this is the kind of thing we have been working towards. A while back, I was listed on the roster but needed to get my orange star before I could. But then everything went to shit and because I was overseas and I am now injured there is no way I was going to be able to bout. Boo.

Bubbles' lineup list

But here's the silver lining. I can't bout, but I can still be on the team (technically speaking), because they need bench bitches! Bubbles (who was also injured) and I are officially the team benchies, which means that we are in charge of making sure the skaters line up in the right order for the upcoming jams and seeing who can go on in what position and making sure people get enough breaks and there are enough people on the track and whatever. Specifically, she's doing lineups and I'm panty bitch, which means I make sure people have the right helmet panties and also track penalties so we don't send a jammer in on their third minor or something stupid like that. Sarge and Marie (as captain) will also be in charge of strategy.

Homemade penalty tracking list, v. 1 I can't find a blank one on the internet, WTF??

Bubbles and I had a practice go at doing our benching jobs yesterday. Holy crap, benching is fucking hard and also frustrating! Seriously, we set up about 20 lineups in advance, and only the first one actually turned out the way that we wanted. It's really hard to do a lineup because you might have someone in it but then they are already in the bin, in which case you have a split second decision to put someone else in. And you have to take into consideration things like jammer positions are much more brutal and exhausting (so it seems) than blocking, so you can put a jammer in for one jam, but not for multiple jams in a row, whereas you can for someone who is a blocker. And then you also need to think about the fitness levels and individual skills of the skaters; some of them will be able to do multiple jams, then have one jam off, and then go back in. Some will need more than one. Sometimes you will have a really good combo that will work against particular people on another team. And you need to factor ALL of this stuff in in less than 2 minutes, while keeping in check who is in the box and how many minors/majors they have!

Homemde penalty tracking list, v.2. I don't *technically* need that last "minor" column, since that many minors and you're ejected. But oh well. For the sake of completeness, why the hell not? (Also, anal retentiveness compelled me to list skaters in alphanetical order.)

Seriously. It's challenging in this really interesting way, and I think I can grow to like it. Of course, it's not as awesome as being able to actually skate in the jams, but it is something I think I might like doing. I like putting things into different combinations, and making sure that official shit goes down as it should. It's pretty administrative in a way, but benching is an important role and probably one that would be just as important to master the skills of, as well as skating.

I still want my ankle to get better though. But yay, new skills.