Thankfully we have a dropbox account filled with documents provided by our lovely 'god-mothers' who play derby in the USA, so we already have a database of multiple drills, technique details and suggestions on how to set up the practice format, time it and stick to it. I swear, if we didn't have the internet, roller derby would not exist in Iceland right now. EVERYTHING we have learned we've learned from youtube videos (Bonnie D. Stroir and MsDerbyDiva deserve endless praise for their instructional videos), articles, WFTDA website or from watching games. I am so eternally grateful to these awesome women that have taken the time to create the materials and share them with the rest of us, we'd be lost without you!
Anyway.
Tonight I'm going to work on the basics with our group: starts, stops, and derby form. I feel we have been rushing things a bit, and some of the girls even want to start 'scrimmage', when most of them don't even have proper pads or a mouthguard yet. For me, any hitting/blocking/pack drills should NOT be done until you have all the protective gear. Having broken a few bones and teeth in my life, I know it doesn't have to be a long fall for these things to happen. Of course I'm anxious to start these drills also, but for now I'm being the annoying safety guy, and will simply refuse to participate or endorse these drills.
I'm hoping I can keep the group's attention and do my part properly. Yesterday night I sat down for 3 hours and went over a bunch of notes and info I had on hand, and made more notes in my book, glued in the cut-out track specs I had, and set up and timed the practice format. Usually some of the girls will bail after about 1hour, but I'm hoping to keep them motivated for the whole 2 hours (we don't yet have a fixed attendance rule).
Fingers crossed, yo! :)
