(Editor's note: this is Klept-O's first contribution to our blog--welcome her!)
As a skater, you always wonder, “What can I do to make myself better?” First, don’t take extended breaks from skating. Don’t even take a week off. You would be surprised at how much it affects you. Trust me, I know from personal experience.
Seriously though, skate, a lot. Skate with your team, and skate with other teams. Find local teams who won’t mind the guest skaters, and go as often as you can. The Dire Skates are lucky. They have Gem City in Dayton, and A-Town in Anderson near by. While both are an hour drive or more, it is still well worth the drive to help better yourself as a skater.
Is there a scrimmage near by? Go. Grab as many of your team as you can and head there, asap. It goes back to the skating with others point, but it also brings more than JUST those near by people to you. Recently Em, Terahrizin, Dragon and myself (Klept-O) went to Cornfed Derby Dames scrimmage in Muncie. We met A-Towns GoldyBlox and Faye-Tality up there. It put some of us out of our element. It allowed us to do things we don’t normally do. It also allowed Dragon to put me on my butt once. (Be glad I love you, Wifey, or I would never admit that in writing.)
Watch derby, watch as much as you can. Take and bookmark Derby News Network, or subscribe to WFTDA’s youtube channel. Go to every bout that you can. See things that other people can do. That drill you didn’t understand before? Watching elite teams do it, without fail makes it click perfectly. You may not be able to do it as well, but at least you can go, “I know what it looks like, and I will do it myself.”
Finally, and this is something I fail at, cross train. Do some running, yoga, or maybe even some kick-boxing. Find whatever it is that will get that heart going, and do it. Keeping that endurance high will help in those long two minute jams. Especially when you have to do a few jams in a row.
There are probably many other things that can be done, but these are just a few things that come to mind. They also tend to be the more important things for a derby skater. Maybe that is just my opinion, though.
--- Klept-O-Matic
