Pace line race

Have two lines, where a faster skater is paired up with a slower one. The faster skater gets the inside line.

Each pair of skaters seal together, and on the whistle, the back pair race to the front.

"Why is the fastest skater on the inside?" you might ask. The slower skater has to skate on the outside of the pace line, while the faster skater has to weave between the other sealed pairs in the pace line. So the faster skater has to travel further. Then when they get to the top of the line they reseal, and the next pair goes.

If you don't have a lot of people you can have a single pace line but alternate fast/slow people, so that when they get to the back you will have a pair of fast/slow people to race!

Also if it wasn't obvious by now:

New Year, New Gear

Workbench, computer desk dinner table, whatever.

Yay, so after Season's Beatings and over the break I got a bunch of fun new stuff for derby!! Here is what's new:

1. Helmet. It is a thing of beauty. And safety.

Bauer IMS 7.0 Custom Hockey Helmet
It's custom for my tiny head.

Yay!! I now have a hockey helmet which is supposed to be really good for not having concussions. That'd be nice. I had to order a custom helmet because all the head measurement sizes were so big for the hockey helmet and I guess a lot of stores didn't stock XS. But the custom was the same price as a non-custom, with the added bonus that I got to pick the colors of the little air venty things, which is why they are yellow, of course.

Lots of padding for my brain

The helmet also has a little ratchet thing on the back so it's more adjustable than just the chin strap, and the foam compresses enough to keep my brains in. It's removable and replaceable as over time it will compress (and not squish my head so much), but unlike the brainsaver lining in my other helmet, it's not washable. Not that I ever washed my helmet lining in the 2+ years I had that helmet but anyway... :P

i can haz face shield

I also have a face shield for it but I haven't been game to wear it yet, but hopefully this will stop me getting popped in the face like at the CVRG bout last year. We're actually scrimmaging with them this weekend so I guess that is a good reason to get that face shield installed. It just screws in with a regular screwdriver, so that's kind of cool. The downside of the new helmet is all my cool stickers are on my old one, sadface. :(

2. Bushings. I have only ever changed my bushings once (which I detailed here) but I got some new ones at beatings. They're orange and the same squishiness as my old bushings, so I know what to expect once they compress a bit. I did remember to adjust my trucks enough so that I can accomodate for them while they're new.

These remind me of fruit pastilles.

That said, when I replaced the bushings, I was NOT expecting them to be as grody as they were when I took them out. I've had them in for almost two years, and one thing is that there IS a noticeable size difference between them, from the compression on my trucks I guess. But that size difference was made up by an inordinate amount of crud and grime around the bushing, washers and kingpin. EW.

Even if I don't replace the bushings more frequently, I guess it's not a good thing to be skating on a sheet of fuzzy crud (some of which actually looked like dried spiders legs), so maybe more cleaning is required there.

3. Toe stops. I still love my moonwalkers but they're wearing a bit.

Yeah, these wore unevenly too.

They're still functional, but I have to rotate them regularly to make sure they're still useable. That's not a problem, but hey, they were selling toe stops at Beatings, so why not.

So Bionic came out with these giant ass toe stops (aptly named Super Stoppers) which are HUGE like elephant feet. Okay, not really, but they do have a LOT more surface area, which should be good for running on and pushing off of.

I had a bit of trouble getting used to the size (e.g. I would go to run on my skates and there'd be so much toe stop that I would be tripping on it), and there is a flat side to it so it's angled (unlike the moonwalkers, which were more round). So they will take a bit of time to get used to, but otherwise it's all good.

Holy giant toe stop area, Batman!

YAAAAAY, NEW STUFF!!

Offskates crossover practice

I know that crossovers are a fundamental part of being able to derby, but it has taken me AGES to ty to get the technique down. I came across this video which might be useful for just getting the muscle memory in order first before trying to push around and whatnot:

I like that it's offskates practice. When I was at SCRD we were trying to do these on skates and I couldn't get my feet in the right place without falling on my face. So having this done offskates (and on carpet, for more resistance on the chair) is pretty handy. I'm sure you could later upgrade to onskates, and maybe without carpet.

Notice how low she's getting and how far she can push the chair with one stride!