Skate Wars Return: The Fempire Strikes Back!

Well, I'm slacking again on updates, FOR SHAME!

This bout was our annual Skate Wars saga bout, with this year's episode being The Fempire Strikes Back! The inner geek in me loves this bout... we get the added excitement of the Storm Troopers and Darth Vader breathing down our necks that the fans (and us) just eat up.

Our B-team was taking on the Tragic City Rollers B-team from Birmingham, AL while the All-Star team faced the Louisville, KY Derby City Rollergirls.

The B-team did a fantastic job, and just fell short after some tough jammer-in-the-box plays. Man, they were really making some great improvements! Excited that they are coming into their own now!

I had the honor of being voted our co-captain for the second game in a row, which means I got the fun task of figuring out a game plan for our line-ups. Talk about a bajillionty scenarios! What to do if Skater X gets injured, if Skater Y is in penalty trouble, if Skater Z has to cover for X, and who is going to JAM?!? Its a complicated chore and in my OCD about readiness, I think we came up with a million What-IF lineups.

Not that it means much in the throes of bout-dom. That chaos is impossible to predict, and even the best laid plans are often little consolation. Thank God for level-headed crews!

So for this bout, we gained back some of our veteran blockers that had been missing, and it was decided that I would concentrate on jamming this game, instead of tiring myself out by blocking too.

I was in a 3 jammerish rotation of sorts, which gave me time to really watch what was happening on the track. The first half was really crappy for me. Derby City started walling-up in the back and would be 4 across right in the middle of the first turn. That gave me zero room to A) gain speed, and B) avoid the giant wall of 'gina without taking some massive stop-dead-in-your-tracks hits. For most of the first half, I'd have to fight my way through slowly. I missed getting lead 3 times, and would have to call off the jam early if I got it to keep DCRG from scoring. I managed about 13 points in the first half, figuring out by about the last jam of the period that the wall wasn't a strong as it appeared and coming through the middle was pretty easy after a quick little juke to the outside.

With that little gem of information, the second half was all a different story for me. The blockers were doing great at breaking that initial wall up, and being able to go in an just grab those quick 3 and 4 to zero jams were slowly adding up. Unfortunately, I was the only DDG jammer to score in the second half, and they just didn't add up enough for the win. We ended up losing, 53-104. It gets frustrating, we know we are a good team, but just can't pull it out on game day.

Here's a little highlight reel from Rocktt Xtra:

After seeing that, I know of a few things I want to "tweek" myself in my game.

Thanks to all the great fans that came out to support us! We really appreciate all of you!

PERSONAL GAME STATS:

• Skated in 13 out of 43 jams (30.23% of the game), all as a jammer.
  
• Of the 13 jams, declared lead jammer 10 times (76.92%)
• Scored a total of 31 points in the game, an average of 2.38 points per jam
• Plus/Minus was +9
• Highest scoring jammer of bout
  
• Highest +/- of bout, the only jammer for DDG in positive
• Highest lead percentage
  
• Only DDG jammer to score in the second period
  
• Only 1 minor back-block in the bout.
  

Up Next: An away bout vs Little City in Johnson City, TN, then its Greased Lightning time for Summer Fights on July

A weekend to remember

I'm sure plenty are aware of the situation in Northern Alabama as a result of the marathon of storms to hit this region on 4/27/11.

But there is positive news to come out of the tragedy, and this is OUR story as team and the kindness and outpouring of love and support from the derby community:

Please read my Examiner.com article: Not Even a Tornado can break derby bond and spirits.

Awesome Good Luck Charms

One thing I didn't mention in my last bout post was how grateful I am for some awesome supporters and fans that came to cheer us on for our first home bout of the season!

My biggest and favoritest one being my good luck charm:


He brought an army of people from Rocket Harley for this one, and even a new recruit in the process!

THANKS ALEX!
And thank you to all who came out!

Dismember the Alamo: 4/9/11

Its only one event into the season, and I'm already slacking on regular and prompt updates!

Our first home bout, Dismember the Alamo, was 4/9/11 against the Alamo City Rollergirls from San Antonio, TX. Normally, I'm the preach-y one about eating right, and hydrating, and all that, but I had a major fail of being busy and screwing up my own pre-game regiment.

So when I arrived (late) to the VBC, I had to hurry up and scarf down the pasta I had made to load-up for the game. Eating that fast caused a major case of indigestion (NOT WINNING). But all upset tummy aside, warm ups felt pretty good, and I was finally feeling like my new 88a Heartless Stalker wheels were broken in enough for the slippery VBC floor. I also got to debut my new intro prop: my checkered flag that I ::cough cough:: borrowed ::cough cough:: from my part time job at the auto parts store.

For this game, I was put in as a jammer every fourth rotation for the duration of the game. I'm really happy to have mobility back in my knee and glad to be back to jamming in the chartered games this season. Taking the line on the 2nd jam, we were down by 4 points and scoreless in the first jam, and I knew I had to get on the board to put this game in the right direction. I was able to get through, but didn't get lead because I failed to repass a down skater. Not an issue, because Alamo's jammer got called on a track cut major, which sent her to the box and gave me a power jam. I was able to score 14 points before the two minutes, making the score 14-4 our favor.

After that, the game turned a bit uglier. Tripping, majorly sloppy, messy hits and some real brutal full-tilt-to-zero takedowns were taking us jammers down pretty hard, and making it quite the struggle out there. We stayed ahead in the score, all of us playing smart and getting those 3 and 4-point jams to keep us up. My highest scoring jam of the bout came right at the end of the 1st period, with a 16-point power jam. We went into halftime ahead 79-48.

I started off at the jammer line in the 2nd period, and we'd again trade 0 point or 2-3 point jams with Alamo. A series of jammer penalties would get us in trouble deep into the 2nd period, allowing Alamo to take a 1-point lead. I took the line knowing we could very easily lose this game, and worse, I already had 3 minor penalties. Talk about PRESSURE! I was getting a bit frustrated with the low blocks/dive hits that I felt should've been major impacts because they slowed me to a near stop in the pack most times. I *may* have took a little extra liberties getting up a few times after being tripped by these shenanigans.

Dixie doesn't typically do well under stress, and it was great to see everyone remain calm and take back control of the game. BOA landed 4 to move it back into our favor, and then my blockers did AMAZING, holding off the Alamo jammer for 3 straight jams and letting me get around twice for 8 points. After this jam, we're back in control 120-109.

BOA sealed the deal with a 20 point power jam right behind me, and it was all uphill from there, with Dixie taking the win 141-115. This is our first sanctioned WFTDA charter game of the season, and it feels good to put a "W" in the column!


PERSONAL GAME STATS:

• Skated in 14 out of 39 jams (35.90% of the game)
• Jammed in 13 jams (33.33% of game as jammer)
• Of the 13 jams, declared lead jammer 6 times (46.15%)
• Scored a total of 53 points in the game, an average of 4.08 points per jam
• Plus/Minus was +23
• Highest scoring jammer of bout
  
• Highest +/- of bout
  
• Served 1 minutes in the penalty box during the game (12.5% of my track time) for a major back block, and had 3 minors: a back-block, an illegal procedure, and a track cut
  

Up Next: An away bout at Knoxville, then the Rocket City Rumble III! Our 6 team, WFTDA Sanctioned tournament at the Von Braun Center South Hall.

Preseason Scrimmage -- March 13, 2011

To prepare for our upcoming regular season, we decided to have our first intraleague bout since probably 2007-ish, and to give it even more nostalgic atmosphere, we hosted it at Roller Time, our practice home.

For those who weren't around then (myself included), before DDG started playing other WFTDA teams and scheduling bouts with other cities, they had two intraleague teams within the league that fought for championships: The Red Hot Riots vs. The Thrill-Killers. Now, despite being on the same league overall, there is always some pent up animosity and bitterness that comes with the competition-- and this was an especially heated rivalry (re: DRAMA!) back in the days from what I'm told. The concept was abandoned completely when DDG began playing bouts at the VBC.... many very grateful to see it go, and very vocal about it never returning again.

So, it was a BIG huge deal to be playing an intraleague bout after all this time of it being such a taboo topic. Some whispered about the "Riots vs. Killers" dark aura that lingers at RollerTime. Its almost a bit of a legendary curse (reaffirmed with the rather forgettable loss to Memphis last RCR) that plagues the hardwood. But with the growth direction the league has taken, it was time to put away the bad juju and just play some fun-filled, no pressure roller derby with our teammates.

The day began with laughter and the unsuspected flying of the Red-Hot Riots Flag during track set-up. There were plenty of laughs abounding... and we knew that regardless this day would be a-okay.

We faced off PINK vs. BLACK. I would take the jammer starting line first for the pink team against Ebbin Flow. She got through just ahead of me to claim lead, but I was able to pick up the first point before she called it off. Injured-Asian Invasion was coaching us, and she had me jamming and then immediately going into the next pack as a power/outside blocker before coming out to rest for a jam. I took the jammer line again in the 5th jam, taking lead and scoring 5 unanswered points. My game-high jam came in the 9th with a 20 point jam, and the rest were quick 3 and 4 pointers before a call-off to keep ahead of the Black team.

Blocking I felt great too, with several big take downs and great holds against black. Bitchy Valens and I held off the black jammer against a full-strength black team for several great laps when all the rest of ours were in the box. My favorite photo of the night captured one of my bullying hits on Sarah Von Knockaho. I seemed to pick on her a bunch this game, with some knockdown hits that left for a great highlight reel.
The final score had us up 188 to 111. We had a great time, no one was hurt, and we had some great real-time practice in front of our most faithful fans! I can't wait to get our regular season started in April at the VBC!

PERSONAL GAME STATS:

• Skated in 15 out of 33 jams (45.45% of the game)
• Jammed in 8 jams (24.24% of game as jammer)
• Of the 8 jams, declared lead jammer 6 times (62.50%)
• Scored a total of 42 points in the game, an average of 5.38 points per jam
• Plus/Minus was +32
• Served 2 minutes in the penalty box during the game (13.3% of my track time), once for a major track cut, and once for my 4 minors: 2 elbows, 2 track cuts.

Up Next: First home bout of the season, April 9th against Alamo City in a WFTDA Sanctioned bout at the Von Braun Center South Hall.

No Sleep + Derby = OUCH.

In all my years of athletic endeavours, I've come to depend on my unnatural level of endurance under pressure and my borderline masochistic tolerance of pain. But every once in awhile, my body is sure to tell me when its had enough with a big EFF YOU. That was the case at our first home bout this year, the Spring BLAST OFF. I knew that I had burned my candle both ends too thin, but since when is that ever a problem!?

My bout week was spent under chaotic stress and pressure of my biggest career tradeshow of the year in Las Vegas. 10 hour days on my feet, followed by hosting social events for our dealers and customers into the nights. I hadn't had more than 4 hours of sleep a night in weeks. (I did get in a quick practice with the Sin City Roller Girls while there though, thanks ladies!) Top that off, I wasn't leaving Las Vegas until 12:40 AM, the DAY OF THE BOUT. Yep, the redeye back east and landing in time to change, get ready, and get to the VBC for the Spring Blast off.

Our B-team was playing first thankfully, so I had time to get some pasta into my system, and drink a good amount of energy supplements in hopes of boosting my jet-lagged system for the bout. We would be playing the Panama City Roller Girls from Florida, and I was told they were a fast bunch. A quick look at the line up (I hadn't seen it at all since I had been in Vegas all week), and I was on jammer rotation for the start of the game.

Warming up, I was trying to conserve as much energy as possible. I didn't want to over do it and run out of my reserve fuel for the bout. Hindsight, that might've been my mistake. The bout started with CU Afterclass scoring a quick 10 point jam, I followed with 15 points and Wicked One another 5. I went in for 2 more jammer cycles, scoring 4 and 3 points respectively, and by that point we had built a pretty large lead and were switching to our alternate roster, which put me into block.

And that's where it went horribly wrong. I was playing power and got tangled up with a sliding blocker who cagged my skate and fell on top of my ill-placed knee. I hit the ground and couldn't get up. It hurt really bad, but I figured it was something I could walk off. They wheeled me back to the bench, and I sat there poking my knee for a few jams and getting the medic to wrap it with an ace wrap. I'm used to playing with some discomfort (ie.. if it ain't broke, it ain't nuttin), so near the end of the 1st half, I decided to go back in.

That lasted oh, about 20 feet. One of the PCRG blockers came at me at the front of the pack and I went to easily counterblock her, but when I pushed against my right knee, it collapsed underneath me and I went down hard again with shooting pain at the back of my knee. I knew I was done, my body gave me the big EFF YOU and decided it was through.

I couldn't put weight on my knee all day Sunday, but it seems to be doing a bit better today, and I'm hoping its just some muscular damage opposed to something worse.

Dixie ended up winning 192-63. Out of the 3 jams that I played as a jammer, I managed 22 points, lead all 3 jams and had +22 in my plus/minus total. I was pretty happy with that considering I had zero sleep.

Fingers crossed that my knee makes a complete recovery by next week... we have one of our biggest games of the season against #5 Houston on May 2nd!

Beating the Brakes off the Vette City Vixens

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a DIE HARD Ford Racer. Although I can appreciate all kinds of horsepower, the one car that I absolutely can't stand is the Corvette. It probably has more to do with the stereotyped driver than the actual car, but its enough to have ignited a long-term hate relationship with any Corvette newer than oh, about 1963.

So that in mind, you must understand my mentality heading into our first 2010 expo home bout on the Redstone Arsenal against none other than the Vette City Vixens from Bowling Green, KY. This wasn't just about derby anymore... this was the deepest of rivalries. Ford vs. Chevy. Corvette vs. Mustang. Whatever you want to call it, this was eRacer X on a MISSION.

As the first home bout of the season (unofficially... the regular season kicks off April 17th), this was a special expo bout held for Arsenal/NASA employees and their families and friends to come out and watch the action for free. Our hope is that they would see how wickedly awesome derby is and buy tickets for our regular season... and we might all pick up some new fans. There were quite a lot of fans at this bout, and I'm pretty sure that we succeeded in the goal of picking up some newbie fans. I signed a few autographs for the kiddies and took lots of photos with them, so I expect they'll be asking Mom and Dad to bring them back. (photo: a young fan with my jammer panty on her head... isn't she a cutie?)

Now, to be fair, Vette City is a brand new derby team. This was their first public bout. You'd think we'd show them some kind of mercy. Mmmm, No. They are a great bunch of girls, and they have lots of promise, but derby is derby my friends, especially when its an auto related rivalry for me.

So I would start the game wearing the bright pink star. After going back and forth last season between jammer/blocker, it appears that I've been marked a jammer for this season. And what a way to start 2010... with a 19 point jam! I ended up in the box twice, once for a major elbow and then another right away for an illegal procedure 4th minor that sent me right back to the box (I wasn't behind her hips apparently... I got a little antsy!) But I did score 2 separate 19 point jams, which is the highest single scoring jam I've ever had to date.

Dixie ended up beating the brakes off Vette City, 219-50. The afterparty carried over to the Benchwarmers, and was a ton of fun. The Vette City girls are a great group! I look forward to skating against them again when they've got some more play time under their belts.

Part of my personal goal/training plan is to really analyze my performances by studying the numbers after each game. This is how I ranked for this bout:

• I played 11 jams out of 32 in the bout (34.3%).
• Of the 11 jams, I was declared Lead Jammer in 9 (81.1%)
• I scored a total of 83 points in the game, an average of 7.55 points per jam
• My plus/minus total was +64, that means 64 positive points during jams I played.
• I ended with 1 major elbow, a 4 minors box trip, and 2 left over minors at the end of the game. That's actually a pretty sloppy game for me, I tend NOT to collect any penalties at all.

Overall, I feel I'm starting to get a little better jamming. I'm trying to develop my style a bit, and photos are helping me see areas I need to work on. One big accomplishment for me this bout has been getting my jammerline start more proficient. I've always been kinda awkward on the start, and never felt I had a starting procedure that worked for me until now. I did some research on toe stop running starts and duck walk starts, and what I saw was that there was some wasted momentum in the way I was trying to run on my stoppers. So I played around with something I'm gonna call the ToeStopDuckyHop start.... its too difficult to explain in words, but it basically means I'm almost running sideways off the line and straight into a power push 3 -4 hops later. Its probably wrong, but its a lot quicker than what I was doing before, so I'll keep it for now.

Up Next: WFTDA Sanctioned bout against the Oklahoma City Victory Dolls on my 30th birthday, March 27th.

Down & Derby in Phenix City

Ahhh, the first bout of the season! Always good for some butterflies and a few opening night jitters. I figured that starting the season off at a mixed-team scrimmage bout was a great way to get back into bout mode without some of the pressure of a sanctioned, points earning bout against our WFTDA competitors.

The teams were a mixed group comprised of skaters from Burn City (Auburn, AL) Tragic City (Birmingham, AL) Chattanooga, and of course Cakeface Killa, Erica SLAPton, Brigitte Badonkadonk and myself from Dixie. The bout was a memorial bout for Sally Slaughter from Tragic City Rollers and Danger S of Tallahassee Roller Girls, and the proceeds were donated to Spread the Love for cervical cancer research.

Trying to organize a line-up with 14 people of all different teams isn't the easiest thing to do, so there was a little confusion before the bout on how to get everything rotating smoothly. I ended up Jamming and playing middle-outside blocker in the 6 line-up rotation. I'm almost not used to that much bench time between jams, so it was refreshing not to be winded up on the jammer line. The track was concrete, and wasn't too slick at all, which made it a really fast surface to skate on. Overall, that was great, ...except for coming off turn 4 when you have less than 4 feet of out-of-bounds room to try and stop in. Let's just say I got a nasty blister from carpet burn of slamming into and sliding down that wall. Ouch!

Performance wise, for a group of girls who have never played together before, I think we did great as a team. We traded point exchanges back and forth most of the game, and came out just short in the final jam when our jammer was sent to the box. Personally, I wasn't having the best game... especially blocking, but I managed a 12 point jam, took lead jammer several times, and only went to the box once for a track cutting major. I've had some persistent shin-splints this season, and I felt like I just couldn't get my skates solidly beneath me this game. I have some major work to do before our first DDG bout for sure.

The other great thing about this bout is that it was held in my old stomping grounds in Phenix City. I hadn't been back much since I left in 2007, so it was great to have my old friends come cheer me on down there. I'm pretty sure they didn't quite know what to think of roller derby. Thanks for coming and watching!

The after party was held at the Sports Rock, but unfortunately I didn't attend that one, so I don't have any excitement to report in that department.

(Photos: Melissa Humble)

View eRacer X's Photo Gallery

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Phenix City, AL (Burn City Rollers) becomes stop #12 on the Derby World Tour.

Down & Derby in my old backyard.

There's nothing like visiting your old stompin' grounds and catching up with your old friends after being gone for several years. Even better when your return is to take part in a kick-butt Roller Derby event that you can invite old friends to come watch your new found passion!

Coming up on February 27th, I was asked to take part in an exhibition bout with the Burn City Rollers (Auburn, AL). The event is titled "Down and Derby" with all proceeds going towards the Spread the Love Charity.

Spread the Love is a 501(c)(3) charity organization to benefit those fighting cervical cancer and promoting awareness of the disease and the importance of early detection. The fundraiser is in honor of women like Tallahassee Rollergirl Danger S. (Stephanie) who are battling the disease. (A battle that I hits close to home for me.)

Even better, the bout isn't in Auburn, but in Phenix City, Alabama... minutes away from my previous address from several years ago. I'm very familiar with the area, and miss many of my friends from the Chattahoochee area. I'm inviting them all out to witness my derby alter-ego in action and to catch up while I'm in town.

Down and Derby Exhibition
February 27th, 2010
6pm EASTERN
$5 admission at door

Gr8 Sk8 (up the hill behind Big Lots)
1031 Hwy 280 Byp
Phenix City, AL 36867
334-448-8848
view map


*Fold-up chairs/ seat cushions recommended

Chain Gang Train Wrecks the Junktion

Another great bout weekend, this time I was lucky enough to participate in Chattanooga's first Roller Derby expo bout as a guest skater. The Chattanooga Rollergirls are a newly formed league, filled with some great skaters with a lot of great things happening for them.

Dixie was the first team they ever bouted against when they came to play us at the Thrill-HER bout. I was really excited that I also was able to play with them in their other first, at their debut home exhibition bout.

The bout was a huge hit! CRG had already presold over 400 tickets, and had more than 900 people show up to watch and rally behind their new roller derby team. The Chattanooga girls were split into two home teams: The Chain Gang (black) vs. The Junktion (white). I was on the Chain Gang team, and was really excited that they made me a super nifty CRG reversible jersey with my name and number that I got to keep. Way cool! Black/White jerseys are always handy to have for scrimmage purposes with other teams, so that will get to see a LOT of usage.

In addition to the CRG teams, myself and 3 other NRG (Nashville, TN) skaters joined in to guest skate. Smith and Wesson was a Chain Gang member with me, and 5Scar Jeneral and Fully Addomatic joined the Junktion team, coached by Miss Murder from Hard Knox Rollergirls (Knoxville, TN). The Chain Gang had me on the line up rotating between Jammer and Pivot. I haven't played jammer really very much lately, so I was a bit concerned. Okay, I also haven't really been scrimmaging lately. We're on our winter wind-down practice schedule, so things haven't been too intense at practice, and how quickly you get rusty in this sport!

My jamming was pretty weak in my opinion... I had a heckuva time trying to get around 5Scar Jeneral, and took a pretty good beating. I haven't played Pivot too much, but I didn't seem to awful at that position. The Chain Gang played great defense, so we entered the half up. The second period would see me jam even more (yikes!), but I managed a few leads and scored a few points. Our team worked together great, and we finished up with the victory.

Final Score: Team Junktion 66, CHAIN GANG 81

Way to go Chattanooga! I'm looking forward to watching you ladies grow and playing with you in the coming season!

Watch a clip from the bout: Chattanooga local 9 TV.

View eRacer X's photo gallery.

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Chattanooga, TN (Chattanooga Rollergirls) becomes stop #11 on the Derby World Tour.

Sending the Bootleggers limping...

Its been a heck of a rookie season for me, but the official Dixie Derby season is finally OVER.

What a way to end on a really kickass note too! We headed up the road 10 hours to play the Carolina Rollergirl Bootleggers in Raleigh, NC. This would make twice in just a few months that I visited the Raleigh area. I had just been there a few weeks back for my cousin's wedding and to visit my best friend, so I was really excited that I'd have some cheering support for this game.

We actually went into this bout a little psyched out. Honestly, since CRG is ranked #5 in the east, we knew they were a high caliber team. Due to the travel strains, only 10 of us were able to skate for this bout, so knowing we were playing a fundementally great team also short was a little un-nerving going into it. But sometimes, if you try, you even surprise yourself.

BOA and I left after practice to get a jump on driving, and did a bonzaii run to Carolina straight through the night. The valuable life lesson gained: 2 Full Throttle Energy drinks + 1 NOS Grape energy drink = one seriously wired skater (incidentally, it also = a MAJOR energy drink hangover the next day, but whatever, we made it!). After some quality time with my bestfriend and her family, it was game time on Saturday.

The Carolina Rollergirls play at the historic Dorton Arena. This is probably one of the COOLEST venues I've ever skated in. The floor was unpolished concrete, and fairly grippy, but the best part was the late-setting dusk sun flooding through the windows during our early warm-ups. We arrived at 1:30pm for our 5:20pm bout start time, which felt like an eternity, but it allowed me some time to get my skates cleaned and ready and all the other pre-bout preparations that I didn't get to do while visiting my bestie.

For this bout, I was playing the Middle Out position, which I hadn't ever played in a game before, but I am liking more and more every day. My pack consisted of Blazin' Barbie, Ebbin Flow, myself, and BOA with CU Afterclass as our main jammer. This was one of the best, most cohesive packs I've ever worked with. We really had great communication and teamwork going on, and it felt GREAT to play with those ladies.

We jumped out on the first 2 jams to an early lead, and held strong the whole game. I haven't seen the stats yet for the game, but I know I had a few great jammer takedowns (YAY! My can opener finally was effective!) and only went to the box once the entire game for 4 minors. I did take the jammer line once, and managed a quick 4 points before it was called off, but CU and ChaChee were rocking the jammer line all night with no issues!

The final score was 86-76, with DDG never losing the lead during the bout. For a game we thought we were coming in as severe underdogs, we did excellent! I feel as a group, we were able to learn a lot about ourselves from this bout.

The afterparty was at a bar called Alibi, and of course was a good, crazy time. Who knew Chocolate Demolition was such the showstopper on the dance floor?!? A couple of PBR's later, it was off to bed and homeward bound.

UP NEXT: Guest Skating with the Chattanooga Rollergirls for their debut intraleague expo bout December 12th.

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Raleigh, NC (Carolina Rollergirls) becomes stop #10 on the Derby World Tour.

Shot at as an X-Pistol

Note: I'm a little LOT late finally finishing this blog, so this is pretty old news, but better late than never!

Mission Accomplished. I had a fantastic time at the X-Pistol vs. Assault Rivals bout with the Nashville Rollergirls. Being that I'm a first year newbie skater, I was a little concerned that I might not be able to hold my own against their advanced All-Star players, especially since they had pre-warned me that I was going to be on their jammer rotation for part of the game. But it turned out not so bad at all.

Don't take me wrong. I got pummelled pretty well by some of the Rival powerhouses. Sexy Slaydie sent me completely airbourne on more than one occasion. And of course, skating against my own Asian Invasion is never easy. R2D2 was in attendance, and I'm sure he approved of some of the jedi-style yard sails I was doing.

The original plan in the locker room was that I'd be jamming in the first period and blocking in the second, but that really never happened. I ended up on jammer rotation for the entire bout. Nashville is a very fast skating team, which made my job all the much more difficult for me. I don't really know the stats from the game, but I scored a few points and managed lead a few times as well. That made me really happy personally with my performance, because I've really never had the opportunity to jam in a bout against A team players.

Besides loving the Nashville girls, and being really honored to have been ask to skate with them, I was really excited about the learning potential from this bout. It was a packed house in Nashville, and their fans are pretty spectacular. Seeing the game from a different team's perspective and learning a different style is something I think will be beneficial to my quest to become a better skater. I learned a lot and played around with adjusting my own style of skating to see how I could improve. It was also a great way to gauge my progress this season, a sort of benchmark that I don't get to experience in game situations very often.

The final score had the Assault Rivals taking the win 83-62, but the score isn't really indicative of how close the gameplay felt.

Sadly, it was the last X-Pistol/Assault Rival/Distress Damsel game Nashville will be playing, as they phase out interleague play. But I'm very grateful for the chance to have played with NRG!

View more photos:

Hungry Photographer -- Roller Derby Pictures -- DeWeese

Another win at Classic City!

Another great weekend of derby! I could really get used to this whole winning streak thing!

Asian Invasion, BOA and I all rode out extra early to Athens, GA on Saturday morning to take on the Classic City Rollergirls. Its about a 4 and a half hour trip, but we lose an hour because they are on Eastern time, AND I was quite a bit paranoid of traffic jams due to the UGA game that was blocks from the venue. We actually made great time, and ended up there a few hours early to nap in the parking lot.

The venue is the local Skate Around USA rink, and was unfinished hardwood. A little more slippery than our rink floor. It was also a LOT warmer than we're used to, which is going to come into play in just a sec... This bout was considered an advanced B team game, so I was playing power for this bout. After a string of bouts as a jammer and one middle inside bout, I was a little frustrated in our only practice for this bout trying to retrain my brain for power. It's a completely different skating style and frame of mind between how I prepare for jamming and how I prepare for power.

The bout was great! We all are really meshing as a team. It was HOT out there, but since I'm a FL girl and love heat, and because I'm used to jammer conditioning, the blocker pace didn't affect me. We led at the half by a little over 20 points. BOA, ChaChee, and CU Afterclass were doing a great job of getting through the pack and scoring well, but the heat definitely was affecting them.

BOA asked at the half if I could take over for her jamming -- which I gladly did! I ended up with 24 points total, and another 15 point power jam. I really am liking this whole jamming thing! I ended up in the box only once with 4 minors, unfortunately it was while jamming, which is never a good thing. But overall a great game! FINAL SCORE: DDG Ragin Rockets 96; Classic City Rollergirls 75


The afterparty was right up the road at a bar called Fat Daddy's. It was really a great little bar. Since I'm new, I had never met most of the Classic City girls. I was told that their visit to Huntsville last season was one of the best afterparties many of the girls have had, and of course they proved just that at this one.

After some very yummy pizza and some PBR pitchers that really hit the spot, we took over the stage on Karaoke. M'Shell O'Bomb-Her sang Sir Mixxalot's Baby Got Back and had the crowd going. Then the Classic City girls got up on the mic for a great rendition of Touch Myself. Knowing how silly I get, I'm sure you are not surprised to know that my song of choice was Vanilla Ice- Ice, Ice, Baby. I also tried some Paramore, but I'm not really sure how that was received.

The venue was literally a few blocks away from the UGA stadium, so when we decided to leave and all piled into the vans to head back to the hotel, we weren't exactly thinking that the game had JUST ended, and that the streets were lined with some really *excited* Georgia fans. It took us a good hour and a half just to get out of the Athens area. I've never seen so much red and black in MY LIFE. I was pretty darn tired once we got done with a late, late night snack at Dennys, so I promptly crashed.

I wish I could find more photos to share, so I may be updating this post later, but enjoy the link below.

View eRacer X's Photos

UP NEXT: DDG-B at Central Arkansas Roller Derby, October 17th

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Classic City becomes stop #9 on the Derby World Tour.

Thrill-HER Double Header

What a weekend! This by far turned into my favorite bout weekend yet.

Dixie Derby closed out our home season with a doubleheader this weekend, dubbed "Thrill-HER" as a tribute to Michael Jackson.

To kick it off, our "B" team, The Ragin' Rockets, took on the Chattanooga Roller Girls. Again, some of our recently graduated freshmeat made their derby debut and did exceptionally well! I was put on a 4-jammer rotation for this one, which was very different for me as I felt extremely well rested throughout the game. Besides a small incident in my first jam of the 1st period (I broke another finger... AGAIN), I felt great for this game. Our super speedy stats people have already distributed the stats (kudos stat nerds!) I jammed a total of 7 jams, got lead jammer 4 of those 7, and scored a total of 32 points. Not too shabby! Only landed in the box twice... once for an alleged forearm major and once for a major track cut. No minors, which means I played a damn clean game! (or I didn't get caught~ mmuwahahaha) Might be liking this whole jamming thing a bit more again. The final score was Ragin' Rockets 110 - Chattanooga 56.

During the final jam, I escaped to the locker room to do a super quick change for the between game Thriller performance. Everyone was really excited and the performance went really well! It landed us a spot on several TV stations, and the crowd went wild with it. That was really fun to do, and I'm super glad I got to participate in the performance. It looked great with all the smoke and lights. We even had our own great Michael Jackson lookalike... it worked out perfectly that it all happened on what would have been Michael's 51st birthday too.

After I got my zombie on, it was time to race back to the locker room and get ready for Bout #2 with the DDG All-Stars. Yuppers, I skated in BOTH games. I wasn't jamming in the All-Star game, but let me tell you... that marathon Stomp weekend really prepped me for this. 2 bouts back-to-back? Cake!

So they had me playing the middle-in position for this game. I hadn't ever played that position, and its not really one I'm comfortable with, but I guess I didn't do too bad. I managed 3 or 4 take-downs, which for a beanpole like me isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. Wooohooo! I was pretty excited! Stats say I again didn't commit any major or minors at ALL in the All-Star game, which means either A) I'm not hitting enough or B) the refs seem to not see me, haha. Oh well! The game was really intense... we battled back and forth with the mixed team of Smooth Criminals, but in a buzzer beater they pulled out a one point victory. Final Score: DDG All-Stars 115, Smooth Criminals 116.

We didn't have time to really be down about it, because a special guest grabbed the mic right after the final buzzer. Big congratulations to (BOA) Bitch on Arrival who was proposed to (and accepted) at the end of the All-Star game! Much derby love!

View DDG Photo Album **** View eRacer X Photo Album ****

More DDG photos

Up Next: DDG vs. Classic City in Athens, GA -- September 12th

Photos: Ian McAlister, Angela Zaborny

Mobile Madness

This weekend, Dixie Derby's Ragin' Rockets (B-Team) headed down to the LA (Lower Alabama) coast to take on the Mobile Roller Girls in Mobile, AL.

The trip is about a 6 hour drive, and the team was all scattered among several different cars heading down, so we all arrived at varying times.

I rode down early with Asian Invasion, Hell Razor and BOA so we wouldn't have the stress of sitting in a car for 6 hours before the bout. We arrived in Mobile around 10:30pm on Friday night. Ever the lame-o, I decided to crash out early so that I'd be in tip-top shape for the bout on Saturday night while the others explored the hotel amenities.

Not one to ever let a chance for sunshine, ocean water and white sand escape me, a few of us headed out to the beach in Gulf Shores for a little R&R before the game. I'm kinda glad I left early that morning, because apparently while I was laying on the sand and letting the ocean breeze blow, all hell was breaking loose at the hotel.

Talk about a commute from hell... some of the girls chose to leave early Saturday morning, and encountered engine failure about 90 miles from Mobile, leaving 4 people stranded on the side of the road only 3 hours before the bout started. So, after much logistical nightmare, Therapissed's hubby drove out to pick the stranded hitchhikers up. They made it in time, and we'd worry later about getting them all home. (Pain Russell had her own scary return home as well, when a tire exploded on her)

The bout was only the 3rd B-team game of the season, and was the skating debut for 4 of our recently graduated fresh meats: Blazin' Barbie, Chemical X, Zero Factorial, and Therapissed. They did awesome in their first bout!

And what a bout it was... it was the first game in which I stayed on the jammer rotation for the whole game. It felt GREAT to get through the pack! I managed a 19 point jam (YAY!) in the beginning of the first period, which put us up and we never looked back! There were some pretty intense plays, with a lot of our girls taking high blocks to the face. The bout was pretty physical and tempers were getting pretty high, but we finished with a victory of 111-86! I am so proud of all the great teamwork from all the girls and what a great job Hell Razor did coaching with Bama Bruiser as bench manager.

The afterparty was at a bar called Veet's, conveniently located about 3 blocks from our hotel. They had an awesome Captain Morgan statue right in the doorway for some seriously hilarious photo ops (more to come when I get ahold of Asian's camera). The Mobile ladies hosted a great party along with the tradition of Indian Leg Wrestling. Our own D'Sassy Apache was a BEAST in the leg wrestling wars and took down player after player... way to represent for DDG, Sassy!

Around 11, we all headed back to the SkyView Lounge on the top floor of our hotel, because we were tipped off by the awesome staff at the Holiday Inn that Absolut Vodka was going to be there giving away free shots all night. Free Booze + Derby Girls = 1 hell of a good time. We even gave a brief preview to our upcoming Thrill-HER show on the dance floor when Bama Bruiser, M'Shell O'Bomb-her, and I pulled out some of the Thriller dance (not easy, as it was the radio version and not the video version). All said and done, I think I ended up in bed around 3:30am. GREAT night!

More eRacer X Photos from Mobile -- Dixie Derby Girls Photos from Mobile

Up Next: Thrill-HER! Saturday, August 29th VBC South Hall -- Huntsville, AL