I love these!

OK so first things first...

1. learn to skate
2. look like you know what your doing
3. actually know what your doing
4. actually know what your doing and do it well!
5. look the part!

So today is a busy day so I will have to make this a short post however I promise to do a post of Derby Fashion soon.  Derby fashion is really something I mean where else can you wear your underwear outside of your pants and look cool? ...LOL.....But for now I just have to post these AWESOME bootie shorts! How fitting are they to my Alter Ego Alise T'Kill.....My new addiction to eBay will help me find a pair....LOL....I must have them!...LMAO

Here I go to new days,

Practice Pictures

So it's late and I am sleepy but thought I would share a few pictures from tonight's practice :)

Firecrackya & Dii Mented training the newbies

Left to Right: I'd Hit That, Alise T'Kill & Angel

See that blur... that's me, gee I look fast!

Buzzz...There I go again!

Me buzzing right by Em'Jekill

Left to Right: Kitty Von Doom, Smokey 5-0, Pixel Ninja, Alise T'Kill,
 I'd Hit That & Tobi

Coach just blew his whistle

I'd Hit That and Alise T'Kill - blocking exercise

Fresh Meat Night, all very new folks, everyone did so great!

Alise T'Kill & Sai Dystic



What did you just call me?

Say that again coach...a what? An athlete?  Well I have to say I have been called a lot of things but I never thought that would be something I would hear...Yup folks that's right my coach, Pixel Ninja called me an ATHLETE!..

(Left to right Kitty Von Doom, Smokey 5-0, Me, Pixel Ninja and I'd Hit That)

So you cant see the expression on my face but the look on Smokey 5-0 and I'd Hit That is pretty close to the look on mine...LOL.  Pixel Ninja was talking to us about the skills test. He was talking to us about how we need to be dedicated to this and that doesn't mean just coming to practice 3 times a week...it means doing push ups, squats, sit ups at home on our nights off...it means endurance training and dedication to want to go further.  He's right though professional hockey players don't just go to practice and play a few games then go home and do nothing...they work out on their time off for hours at a time...by no means will I be a professional athlete but he's right ya know it does take more than just the minimum to be good and to be a winning team so if I'm doing more and that makes me an athlete I'll take it :)

Here I go into new days,

She was a wise woman!

Yup my Nanny was a wise woman and who the heck ever thought the things she tried to teach me would help me in Roller Derby...LOL...I am sure she didn't! 

Well I am talking about her lessons in good posture.  Now my Nanny was a classy lady and I know the lessons in good posture came from wanting to make sure that I looked and acted like a lady.  (And yes stop laughing I know being a lady is sometimes debatable...LOL)  I remember when I was young my Nanny would come visit us for a couple months every winter in Newfoundland.  She was always sweet but let me tell you when your slumping and not sitting like a lady the lesson would begin and it would go something like this "Alise dear stand up straight, Alise chin up, Alise shoulders back and boobs out"  (I was a kid I had no idea what she meant by boobs...LOL).  I remember more than once having to walk around our living room with books on my head and her walking behind me the the back scratcher poking me between my shoulder blades saying "Alise dear your not listening shoulders back"....LMAO I love my Nanny and I miss her every day...but I cant tell you the laughter that fills my head when I think about this...LOL

So cute story... but your wondering how does this apply to Roller Derby?  Well here enters Smokey 5-0....tonight we were doing a blocking drill and we were paired together.  I kept my knees bent but I really still felt like the quick movements would make me fall over.  Smokey 5-0 says with a big smile "shoulders back, back straight, stick out those boobs" Jesus I thought I was gonna pee my pants she sounded just like Nanny! But you know I did exactly as she said and I all of a sudden felt very comfortable and I didn't fall and I felt like I could get past her in the exercise....I didn't though cause dam shes quick...LOL...but I will get there! So thanks for the tip Smokey 5-0 but if you come to our next practice with books for my head and a back scratcher I WILL take you out!...LMAO Thanks again Nanny and Smokey 5-0 both very wise women! ;)

Here I go into new days,



Pretty in Pink

Bye bye "big red mouth guard smile" Alise T'Kill has a "little pink mouth guard smile" now :) Remember in my earlier post I was complaining about  my mouth guard well thanks to my fellow Fresh Meat team mate Klem'Mydia Burns (I know I love her name too!!)  I have a new mouth guard! No more drooling over myself and my team mates. No more having to remove it every time I want to talk (and yes you all know how much I like to talk..LOL) ....check it out Protech Dent Mouth Guards....I highly recommend this above whatever they send in a Fresh Meat Package.  Its very thin and easy to mold to a perfect fit.  And if it doesn't for some reason sit right you can put it back in hot water and remold it again. Best $20 I have spent in awhile :)

ProTech Dent Mouth Guard

 

 











Here I go into new days,

Together

I thought after reading a note from our coach I should also clarify for my family and friends that even though I keep referring to my friends at the Dieppe Roller Derby as my team I am not officially on a team....YET :)

I am a Fresh Meat Skater with the Dieppe Roller Derby until such time I pass my skills test, then I hopefully will be placed on a team.  My goal is I would like to be a member of Dieppe Roller Derby's first team, Hits N' Sass . The team has a logo and the beginnings of a website but has no official members as of yet.  As I mentioned before the Dieppe Roller Derby is a new league in the Moncton area.  Right now we have about 20 members and the league is less than a year old.  As we grow there will be more teams under the umbrella of the Dieppe Roller Derby.

So right now I must admit the skills test seems so close yet so far away and it does freak me out a bit....OK lets be honest it freaks me out a lot but I am a woman on a mission!...LOL  Pixel Ninja will tell us when we are ready and then he evaluates the test.  I think he may do some testing in late Fall and we hope to be ready to bout in the Spring.  The test is based on the WFTDA (Womens Flat Track Derby Association) Minimum Skills Requirements (Oh man oh man check this out to see what the heck I am in for...LOL http://wftda.com/rules/wftda-minimum-skill-requirements.pdf ) It's gonna take a lot of hard work but I can see me actually getting there .... I can see it right in front of me and I just have to push myself to get there.  I know I can do this!

I refer to the girls in the Dieppe Roller Derby as a team because even though we aren't "technically" a team yet we are in all other aspects a team. (Here is a picture to the right of a small group of us....we need to get a pic of all of us together soon!) We learn together, fall together, laugh together, fund raise together, commute together and we hang out together. We all have a say. We all come from different backgrounds, careers, some have families, we are all different ages, shapes and sizes, we each have challenges but help each other get through them.....we treat each other with respect and we all want the same thing... to be a Derby Girl on a team with the Dieppe Roller Derby.  At the end of the day we are a team and feel the accomplishes and achievements we make together. If that's not gonna make an amazing team I don't know what will.

Here I go into new days,

Pixel Ninja aka The Coach

I am going to start referring to him as Pixel Ninja, MD because folks this guy claims to "build women"....I keep telling him he is cheaper than a plastic surgeon because for $40 a month in league fees and the tools and work outs he gives us in 6 hours a week I'll have an ass lift in no time!.LOL OK so he isn't really a MD but I'm starting to see personally what he means by being able to build women...after a little over a month things are moving and shifting and I am getting stronger and more determined every day!



A coach (as per dictionary.com) is a mentor or someone who gives instruction or advice.  Its really much more than that isn't it? Yes I think so! A mentor is a REALLY big word meaning "wise and trusted counselor or teacher" And I have to be honest and say wise is not often the case...I mean a lot of people fall into a roll of coach for whatever the reason it's not always because they know how to deal with people or that they know much about the sport or what it takes to allow your team to excel.  It's sad when you think about it but too often very true.

Not ever participating in sports myself I was VERY nervous about how I would do...it's easy when your having fun to think your doing well but a reality check and feedback is important.  I'm really starting to see that I can and will be good at this!

Pixel Ninja is armed with a whistle, a pair of roller skates and the knowledge and ability to make us excel.  He has experience in various sports hockey, speed skating, football (just to name a few), which I can start to see being incorporated into our drills .....football how does that apply to roller derby?... well lets just say when your playing tag on roller skates for a drill tackling sometimes occurs, and you better wanna know how to do it right...LOL

He is always smiling - well most of the time, only a stern face when we aren't paying attention ;)  You can tell he really enjoys what he is doing and you can see how proud he is of all of us when we meet a personal or team goal or if we just plain catch on to something quickly...He recognizes what all our strengths are and pushes us to reach our potential that he sometimes sees before we do.

After my second rink practice he sent me an email " You did really good tonight! You can definitely see big improvements, your doing great and you always look like your having fun!"  (and I really am having so much fun!) That really meant a lot to me! A good coach tells you when your doing well and pulls you in line when needed and he does both!  His coaching creates a great morale and team play and it trickles down to our senior players and is reflected in how they train and coach us,  I can't say enough about Dii Mented and Vigilante Banshee in a couple lines so they will each get their own very deserving post soon! :)

Pixel Ninja continues to challenge us and that will make us great! I said the word "mentor" is a big word well thanks Pixel Ninja, MD for being ours, you rock!

Here I go into new days,

Roller Derby Explained

Not knowing much about the sport I have since looked for a short melted down explaination of the sport....I happened to come across this post on the web...LOL....great and easy way to explain it, and sums it up pretty good! Complete Post from: Fear Abby

"For the spectator, roller derby is a blast to watch. Ladies falling and flying all over the place. But it's not so easy to understand. Basically, some girl with a panty on her head tries to pass a mob of skaters and appears to get pummeled, except the few times she gets through by some miracle and then zooms around to catch up to the mob and do it all over again. Referees figure up how many points the girl scored based on how many opponents she passed legally, meaning she didn't appear to step out of bounds or punch anyone in the face trying to get through."

I love it! And that sums it up perfectly! But those of you who need a little more understanding here you go.....Complete Post from "How Stuff Works" 

"The game itself is a series of races between two teams of five players. Each team's jammer is the only player to score points. Three blockers try to stop the other team's jammer while propelling their own jammer forward. Each team's pivot acts like the pace car in a NASCAR race and controls the speed of the pack. She also keeps an eye on the jammers, calls her team's plays and acts as a blocker. Helmet designs differentiate the positions -- jammers wear stars, pivots wear stripes and blockers wear blank helmets.
Each race is called a jam and lasts up to two minutes. At the start of the jam, the pivots and blockers gather in formation at the starting line. The referee blows a whistle, and they skate as a pack while the jammers wait at the starting line. When the pack is 20 feet from the starting line, the referee blows the whistle again, and the jammers start to skate.

The jammers try to catch up to the pack, work their way through and come out the other side. No one scores any points during the first lap, but the first jammer to pass the opposing team's pivot becomes the lead jammer. A referee points out the lead jammer and follows her progress around the track. The lead jammer can "call the jam" before the end of the two-minute period by putting her hand on her hips."

In practice we have been doing some training as a pack I cant wait to try it when everything just comes together and particpate in a bout.... next year for sure...cant wait!

Here I go now, here I go into new days

You joined what?

OK I will be honest I didn't know much about roller derby other than what I understood from seeing the movie "Whip It"  . I should also say that my career is in the Health & Safety Field so you can just imagine some of the responses I got when I told people I was joining Roller Derby! ..LOL...Also people who know me well have heard of my Roller Blading experience I mentioned in my earlier post "Fresh Meat"....and for those of you who haven't heard it here it is....

I decided that I needed some exercise and thought Roller Blading looks like fun...(Yeah right!!)....I went to Walmart and tried a pair on ...what I should mention as a piece of advice is Walmart wants you to buy it and test it out at home.... do not try to skate in the store like I did...it only ends in a 16 year old kid coming to tell you to take off the skates and buy them or leave...yup folks I got kicked out of Walmart!...LMAO ...see there is a rebel inside of me ;) I went home put them on and went to a friends house...which was on a hill...I didn't know how to stop...yes that ended badly too...I perfected the stop drop and roll and I rolled past her house waving not knowing how to stop..LOL....it was either roll on someones lawn or I was ending up in the Halifax Harbour.  OK so that is pretty funny and your surely laughing but I had to try and get back up the hill to her house...I took them off walked barefoot up to her house..she drove me home...I put them back in the box and that's where they stayed!...LOL

So I guess the morale of this story is wheels on your feet can be rough, it can result in injuries but being trained is most important! The Dieppe Roller Derby is a new league so everyone is fairly new and learning together which is probably part of what makes it so dam much fun! See ya later Roller Blades ....I got big girl skates now!! :)

Here I go now, Here I go into new days....

Derby Names

All I can say is WOW so far this has been the most stressful part of Roller Derby! I mean everyone has a name and it must be original, creative and fierce :) When I say original I mean 100% original.  There is a website called Two Evils: The International Rollergirls Master Roster in which you can plug in your idea and see if its taken.  You can not have the same name as any other girl in the world!  If your suggestion is similar to another it may be rejected or you may have to contact that person to ask permission to use a name similar.  I mean seriously .... it can't be that hard to name your first born child...LOL

I have had a lot of help from my team mates, my friends, family and my friend Aaron.  Aaron and I in particular have been tossing around ideas for weeks almost daily and just when I think we got one its taken or too close to another or just not "fierce" enough...LOL God love him he has even found songs that's fitting to the name and has sent logos etc.. :) Thanks for all your help, you rock! ;)

When my real frustration over not having a Derby name kicked in was a few weeks ago when we ordered practice jerseys and everyone had a name and a number to put on it.  I settled on #7 for no particular reason other than just to have something on my jersey. :)  Then fast approaching was the Muddy River Rollers JAMboree.   I will write more about that in another post but it was a training and bouting opportunity where over 100 skaters from Atlantic Canada would be attending. I met a girl at the office who plays for Muddy River and she right away introduced herself by her derby name and I was like "hello I am Alise, no derby name yet"....no way would I meet all those people at the JAMboree with no Derby name....LOL

So I posted a message to my team mates asking for help...we posted several ideas back and forth and came up with a top 3 and finally narrowed it down to one (Thanks Dii Mented!) ALISE T'KILL ...I thought "hummm that's catchy, original, sounds a bit like a James Bond action movie title...I love it! Now with the luck I have been having with the roster I bet I cant use it"....I plugged it into the roster and for the first and only time this pops up... "Congratulations, there are no names similar to "Alise T'Kill"." WHOOO HOOO and so Alise T'Kill has been born!!

Aaron sends me this song.. LMAO I feel like a wrestler with my own song...LOL...I thought it was fitting... for now it just helps me get into character while I work further on this Alter Ego called Alise T'Kill...LOL ;)

As for my catchy sign off...as the song says :)

"Here I go now, Here I go into new days"

Alise T'Kill

My Equipment

So the first few times that I went to practice I was able to rent some gear BUT.....nothing is the same as having your own gear! Very shortly after joining I started looking around for some equipment...there are a few places that most people order from Roller Girl in BC and Neon Skates in Montreal.  (Both happen to be sponsors for our league and the only 2 companies that I am aware of in Canada that are skater owned companies that sell exclusively for Roller Derby), both are very knowledgeable and helpful in finding the Fresh Meat Package that is best for you.  Equipment is very important in Roller Derby..I mean I didn't know much about the sport but I knew enough that it is a contact sport and injuries can happen.  I have learned quickly that proper training and equipment is most important in preventing injuries of any kind.  A Fresh Meat package comes with a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, wrist pads and of course SKATES :) I choose to go with Roller Girl and I ordered online, communicated with them back and forth for a day or so then my gear arrived 2 days later.  Fitting perfectly! I did however add a set of outdoor wheels to my package.  So for about $400 I am good to go! 

For the most part I have no complaints about my gear it is just like everything else and needs to be broken in and when you have nothing to compare it to I think this package is really the way to go for any new person.  I am sure as I become more familiar with my equipment and know more about the sport I will add and change things up as time goes by. 

I have decided however the mouth guard that came with my equipment is not my friend and I am buying another one this week.  And we must protect our pearly whites :) The one that came with the kit is too big and bulky I have to take it out to speak and I usually drool all over myself...LOL You can see what I mean in the attached picture.

I did fnd that my skates were rubbing against my ankles so I ordered a pair of eZeefit from Neon Skates.  These things are amazing...no more blisters!! I highly recommend adding them especially if you are breaking in new skates!

Fresh Meat

So a close friend of mine Emily (Em Jekill) had been bugging me for couple of months to come check out Roller Derby and I have to say in all honesty I was very nervous at the thought...I have never been an athletic person and have never participated in any sports....don't even get me started on how much I knew about Roller Derby (trust me it wasn't much) I was always more of the artsy type, movies, theater, music and such.  (Plus I hate to sweat...LOL) And to make it more interesting I haven't been on roller skates since I was 8! Well unless you include my brief encounter with roller blades (LOL I will get to that one in another post)

Emily has a very persuasive nature and she got me to come to a Fresh Meat Night (This is the derby term for rookie).  We went to the practice at the Lions Center and I wasn't sure what to expect really but upon my entrance I was introduced to the League President "Dii Mented", given a bag of gear and a pair of roller skates.  I watched the other girls carefully and suited up. 

Dii Mented is the Fresh Meat trainer. And what a patient woman she is...I follow her around all the time as she shows me to do things..for me I learn much easier by watching other people do it...I'm waiting for the day she flips around and says "stop following me"...LOL She spent the next 2 hours introducing me to Roller Derby....how to stretch, fall down (I may add here as a point of interest that I only fell down once without being told too...LOL) It is VERY important to learn how to fall properly to prevent injuries, if you spend a lot of time learning how to do it right then it becomes instinct.  I was shaking but had the biggest grin on my face the whole night! (I mentioned how I hate to sweat well I was drenched and still smiling!) I just loved it and knew I HAD to go back! I signed up immediately asked when I could come back, how do I get my own gear etc...

So the following Wednesday I went back and within just a few weeks I had all my own gear and was officially a member of the Dieppe Roller Derby.

A fantastic group of girls!! I will talk more about them and my coach in a future planned post but for now what I should say is I think they are all an amazing group of individuals and surely I have developed some lasting friendships here!

Since I started last month I have learned to skate (slowly but I'm getting better), learned to fall down - one knee, both knees and a "Porn Star" (I love the terms we have for things...LOL A Porn Star is a fall on both knees, and hands on floor with butt in the air...LOL....almost like your a porn star waiting for something...LOL, but it's really not as sexy as it sounds), I have learned to zig zag around cones, cross over skate, and whip it! I have a few blisters, bumps and bruises and I'm sure there will be more but it really is so much fun! Oh and last night I even learned how to skate forward, turn around and skate backwards :)

This will be a journey worth recording I am sure! Looks like I am Fresh Meat for awhile ...until I pass a skills test which if I pass hopefully will put me on a team where I can actually bout :) I tremble with excitement at the thought !!

So I think this is a pretty good start, I have been at it for a month so I have a bit of catching up to do but hopefully I will have this blog caught up in no time.

Hummmm I must think of a catchy sign off to my blog....for now stay tuned more to come :)