Every Bunny Loves Derby!

Lesson Five: Change your Mind,
I hit the ground yelling, marrow seeping from my bones into my leg -spreading dread and adrenaline. In slow-mo-shin my ankle flipped, it flopped, it gave up and lay there in my boot, a dead fish in a sea of sound. The sounds said, "Oh my ohmyohmyohmy" and "oh no ohnononono" and mostly, "FUCK FUCK FUckfuckfuckfuck!"
As though we had written the scenario carefuly and read then from the practiced script, we played out the night with precision. "The Medic", played by Lass Gasp gave direction, exported the broken bones to the bone fixery, soothed nerves, and used her insider connections to insure the very best of care. The entire cast gave stellar performance after stellar performance. The stars were out.
When I woke up a few days later in a nest of pillows and blankets, at home, I had only enough voice to say, "Thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou" and fall gently back to deep slumber. It was then that they pulled together, charted and measured my exact needs, and while I slept they made it all ok. "My League Derby Loves me" I thought. And, "I derby love them too."
So of course, when I finally could sit, I sat up. When I finally could hop, I hopped, when I could stretch at last, I did. The day came that I could get outside and I smiled and soaked in the sun. I thought, "If i can go outside, surely I can go to the corner" and I could. I thought, "If I can get all the way to the corner, I can go to practice" and I did. I thought "If I'm at practice, I can stretch, I can do crunches," and I did. I can, I can, I can...I can do all things through derby.
For me, my league gave their time, their groceries, their compassion. For them, I will get better. I will be better than ever before.
18 days ago I broke my leg,
This week I get to swim,
in 20 more days I will walk,
and by derby, I will skate again.
And this brings me to my lesson for you, from me.
My advice is this; stay positive.
Say "I can", "I'm not tired", "I can do it","I can do it again"
Smile when your muscles hurt. Laugh when your tired.
Don't let yourself down and don't let your team down.
Don't waste time saying, "I can't"...not when you have every reason to believe today is the day that you can.

You and I are mild mannered. We're not the type that starts fights, right? We are smart enough to know that physical violence is uncalled for. We are civil women of character.
That's all very true. But jesus help those who are against us.
Not so long ago, in a place far far away, two evil women "started shit" with a member of my beloved Circle City Socialites. The incident quickly escalated until five members of our team (including me) were forced to "throw down on them bitches."
Of course, the poor evil doers never had a chance and the whole thing lasted only a few minutes. But in those few minutes, we learned something invaluable about the women we are.
I woke up feeling, different, changed, ... I woke up in a bathtub actually. But the change was not from the tub-sleeping. My confidence grew exponentially during the night. I not only feel secure in the fact that I can handle myself in most any situation; I now see that there are 25 other girls, just as bad ass, and they will pin a girl to a cop car if you try to "start somethin."
I woke up with a whole new respect for my teammates. They are some savage bitches. At the practices since then I've become less concerned with politeness. I've stricken the words "I'm sorry!" from my vocabulary during scrimmages. The reason is not because I'm now a jerk, no no no no, silly. It's that I know they can handle me. They sharpen themselves against me, and I sharpen myself against them. And If that means I get knocked down alot, welp, that's why i've invested in ice packs and ibuprofen.
So my advice today is this:
Beat others as you would like to be Beated.
Challenge yourself. Challenge your team.
And occasionaly, you should sleep in a tub. It's good for your constitution.

Soooo, We're on the right track. We're not fearless, but getting closer, and we're now ready to start all over. ...mmm yep allll over.
And the very best way to start again is with a song! Yes, it is!

So the fear I've got is breaking something, or getting hurt bad enough to keep me from ambulating. That would kind of piss me off. And it's reasonable to assume a small percentage of our team will be injured to this degree. And it's reasonable to assume you're more able to stay upright when you're calm and collected, versus scared out of your gord. That's right, I said gord. I'll say it again too.

So to kill this fear, really dead, you've got to think like a Bunnie. And what do bunnies do? THEY HOP!!... ok and they mate, but for now i'm only talking about the hopping part.
I didn' hop on skates for a long ass time. Not that I couldn't. In fact now I realize I have always been capable, just not willing. I did not want to hop. If I did, something bad would happen. I saw lots of ladies landing on tailbones when they jumped, and i'm just too proud to sit on a donut pillow.
But then I saw Ace of NRG in a bout. There was a nastymess of falling Roller Girls on the last turn and Ace is jamming through it, stepping over, jumping over, turning, teetering and solidly jetting through the pack- which is mostly on the floor by the time she's through.
A- She's got her baby skates bronzed.
But B.. She still should have fallen. I saw her nearly bite it a few times but she never touched the ground... like an angel from heaven.
So if there is one trick I want to know it's the "Staying Up" thing.
And here's how you get it:
Get outdoor wheels and put them on your skates.
Take yourself someplace nice, someplace where the cement is pretty smooth and relatively flat. I suggest The Monon Trail, The Canal Walk, and random new parking lots.
Now, get out and put your pads on, all of them, and your mouthguard, tailguard, and maybe smoke a cigarette first too- Just in case.
Take a look at the cement you used to think was so smooth. It's not smooth at all is it? See all that debris?! It's really terrifying isn't it? If you were inside you would say, "No Way , Jose!" But you are not inside and you don't have your inside wheels on anymore.
Give yourself a goal and slowly, you will tumble towards it. When I first skated outside I hated it. I was "Not putting up with this!" But I came to quickly realize that outside you have very limited choices. You either move your feet, or fall on your ass.
So move your feet! There is very little "cruising" outside so you have to adapt. You will learn that given the choice of falling vs staying up, your instincts begin to choose for you.
Once you get away from your car, you really have no choice but to learn. I suppose your other choice is to sit by and watch sweaty men in spandex jostle by you, and that is no way for a roller girl, especially a Socialite, to spend a lovely afternoon.
If you do this, your first time back inside will feel like heaven, your reflexes will be closer to ninja than ever, and you will have that fear in your super action hero death grip....bwa ha ha ha
So, if you see a girl flailing her arms and screaming down the monon... call the police haven'tyou heard of all the recent crime over there??

Let’s get started! The first thing we have to do is find our fears, tie them up, and murder them with a huge butcher knife.. or pool noodle actually.

So, Go to the dollar store and get yourself a pool noodle. Take that noodle home. Tell your dog you are "Not playing around!" Then drop it on the floor between you and your TV because the Simpsons are on and you've got some fear to kill.
To Explain; I asked for some advice about turn stops and jumping from the ref for our league- Baron VonSplatterday (B-Splat). He explained the movement. I stood blank and obviously un-helped by the explanation.
He explained a second time adding, “Well, you have jumped and turned around before haven't you?"

But no, I've never, or at least not in a long time. So he told me to do it, right then, without skates on. I was a little embarrassed. ‘What if I can’t jump and turn around at all?’ I thought. The same fear that holds my trembling skates to the floor glued my rubber soled shoes to the cement. I was amazed to be stuck with the same feeling I've had so many times on skates. After a few dry runs I nervously jumped up and twirled to face the other direction. -and I did it! TaDaa!

After realizing I had all this time been afraid to jump (period), I decided I had to get more comfortable with my body in motion, all kinds of motion.
My advice:
Stand about a foot from your noodle and jump over it, forward. Now try it backwards. Do you feel silly? Good, good. Keep it up! The point is that you begin to get the feel for your body while it's in motion. And since you're doing this in your "safe place" (for me it's the Simpson’s, for you maybe it's What Not to Wear), you are learning to move your body without fear.
More things to do: Jump and twist and twirl! Land on your toes! Land on one foot! Land on the dog! .. no no don't land on the dog. The next time you practice you will be amazed at how much more comfortable you are doing the tricks you used to agonize over. Keep practicing! You've got Fear on the run!