First Practice

Went to my first practice from 5-7 pm yesterday, January 27, 2008. I was soooo incredibly nervous! when I got there, I was immediately greeted by Ram Jam Betty- who is a sweet gal and as it turns out, a pretty skilled Rollergirl. She made me feel much more at ease, and I was feeling pretty comfortable by the time Raven Darkhold got there. She was thrilled to see me, and was awesome about helping me find and put on gear. I felt really dumb, since I was making her miss warm ups and stretching, but she said not to worry about it. Then, once I was all geared up,I discovered my skates were too small. Don't it just figure? Well, took me another 15 minutes or so to get the gear off, get the new skates on and gear up again, but then my feet felt SO much better. A really nice gal named Christina took me under her wing and skated slowly with me at the opposite end of the rink from where most of the girls were doing speed drills. I know it shouldn't have, but it just amazed me how hard it was to get my legs back under me after not having skated on quads in 13 years! My ankles are still pretty weak, so I am gonna get acewraps to see if that will help- I think though, that they should get stronger with time. After about 20 minutes, Adam, one of our Refs, came over and taught me my first stunt fall. I did it really clumsily, but I guess okay for my first try. Then, almost immediately after I stood up from the stunt fall, I fell for real. Backwards, in slow motion right on my butt, in front of everyone! Only hurt for a second or two, and I did not hit my tailbone, fortunately. That was my only fall of the day, which I count as a good sign! :-) After skating with Christina a little more, I sat and watched the girls Jam for the rest of practice. This was when I fell in love with the sport. I'd read a little about it online, but watching it really made it click in my head. The teamwork required and the focus- that is right up my alley. During this time, a bunch of the girls came over and introduced themselves, which was super nice, and made me feel very welcome. After a few cool down laps, we sat around and stretched, and discussed upcoming plans for practices and the travel team for the next Bout was announced. All in all a very cool experience and I cannot wait to get on skates again!