As a mantra during Gloucester’s Greasy Pole competition goes : “Focus, Footwork, Flag.” The basic concept of the contest is to reach the end of a forty-five foot long grease-covered telephone pole that is hovering over the ocean walk-the-plank style. Grab the flag nailed to the end and win!
During this past leg of the trip, I kept returning to that mantra. “Focus, Footwork, Flag.” Although a little awkward for a direct translation to derby-ese, the simple message speaks to the elemental conditioning that can carry a skater through a lot of war zones on the track.
Don't Become Extinct on the Track!
Our time with Dominion Derby Girls in Norfolk, VA included intimate pack situations that breed awareness — focus. A skater, or team, not flexing their awareness muscles might end up like the dinosaurs.
It Might Take a While…
Skaters early in their careers, or just learning the game usually experience the chaos of ten people on the track, hitting the crap out of each other, and come down off of a jam wondering “what just happened?!”
It took at least a full season of bouting for my switch to really flick over toward “Oh, we’ve got all the time in the world!” Things started to slow down, brain stuff was actually happening, and the track began to look like a board from the ancient Chinese game of Go.
Control and strategy evolve out of the newly developed skill of paying attention. Eventually, the intense flux of strategy and focus becomes more comfortable, and the ability to not only respond, but to drive the forces is a skeleton key on your Derby keyring
But, keep in mind: a sense of urgency will help balance this out. You still actually have to get the job done! Neither extreme, exclusively, will yield a whole product of your efforts.
Complacency Kills – Urgency Upsets – Balance is Best!
“Perfect Practice Make Perfect”
The less you have to think about skating, the more you can think about this kind of stuff. So, we deepened our muscles’ understanding of speed skating form, and more advanced isolated skating skills during our stay in Raleigh with the Carolina Roller Girls. Footwork!
Sunday morning was a rude awakening as we continued this conditioning with the Jacksonville Roller Girls. Pepper in a little endurance, and now we’re talking! Magic City Misfits welcomed us to skate that night for our first two-practices-in-one-day experience.
Ever been trail skating? Do it! We crushed 15 miles of the rail-to-trail in Jacksonville the next morning before heading down to Sintral Florida Derby Demons for an evening of pyramid-based endurance, track coverage drills, and Chickadee got in on some scrimmage action. Playing Rock Band in Daytona till 2am… :check:
By the way – I have basically zero training as a referee. I understand the concept, and respect and admire great officials, but I am about the farthest thing from one. I do, however, take the skater-spectator liberty of screaming at the top of my lungs about calls that I know I would flub myself if wearing stripes.
Jurasskick Park at Jurassic Park
Don’t Forget Your Off-Skates “Training”
Out of the derby scene (but highly recommended by JRG and MCM), we decided to check out The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Jurassic Park. Totally killer! Going to Islands of Adventure on a Wednesday morning in January = WIN! We continued some touristy stuff by heading down to Key West for a night, then caught up with Gold Coast Derby Grrls in Fort Lauderdale.
It was a great opportunity to synthesize what we’ve been learning during a 60 minute scrimmage. We danced around the track, along with South Florida Men’s Derby, some Dub City RollerGirls, and GCDG skaters, against GCDG’s hard hitting chartered ladies.
Jamsterella and Anya Dixon of FMDG try to get in the way of speedy Crash Register of JRG
With plans of getting back to Jacksonville, we hopped in the van and headed up for a bout between JRG and Fort Myers Derby Girls. This whirlwind of leopard print and day-glo lime featured some incredible focus, footwork, and sights set on the flag – Victory. With ears still ringing from a night of rock and roll that was “sooooo goooood” at the after party, we hit the sack.
And guess what!? It was Sunday again, so another challenging and fun practice with MCM was waiting for us. Thanks to Nuke, Powder, and Meow-Mix for keeping us in line as we shared your track during a string a practices we won’t forget!
We’ll keep our eyes on the flag as we continue our journey (finally) heading Westward!
Tags: Jurasskick Park
One Response to “Roller Derby Is Like a Greasy Pole…”