Bench staff!!

Keep it classy!!

Heading to GBG

Me and Loony are bench-coaching Stockholm's B-team when they take on Gothenburg tomorrow... very exciting... I am taking a class in accounting - so I have been superduper busy this weekend - it's just redicolous how much things I have had to do this week. And now we are driving to Gothenburg, leaving in a few minutes... and Sweden decided to invite winter back... so its freaking cold outdoors...

Lots of our fresh meat are playing their first bout, and this will be exciting and fun! Oh yeah!

No time... no time...

No blogging... inbetween classes, work, helping out the B-team, coaching, writing line-ups, eating and once in a while breathing... I just don't have time... Time is so scarce... it is REALLY really valuable... 

The journey of Roller Derby

When I started Rollerderby about 4,5 years ago - I never imagined that me nor Rollerderby would be what and where we are today.

On the bench... for Luleå Rollerderby

Loony coaching and me running lines... 

I really like to bench-coach/run lines, me and Loony did it for GBG a few weeks ago and last weekend we did it for Luleå's Slaughter Daughters, right after we played our own bout against London Brawl Saint... so now I have NOvoice left... (Only thinks its really sexy, and it creeps me out a little... ha ha ha)
Helping Luleå was fun, a little chaotic, since we hadn't had that much time to talk to the girls before the bout. It was their first bout ever - and I think they did STELLAR. I was happy to be in orange again...

Iam really happy we had the opportunity to do this and all the girls were amazing on the bench, and Ithink they can only become better from this and on. The first bout is always nervewrecking - I still get nervous around bouts, I think you should be! 

New Girls trying rollerderby in Stockholm

Tonight was the first out of three ''try-out Rollerderby'' Mondays. Today was mostly just trying on to skate and the next two Mondays will ahve more structured practice... and then for the girls that we have gotten hooked... there will be a ''fresh-meat'' program that will run over several weeks and have two on-skate practices per week! Oh yeah!!

Ihad a few friends tellling me that they were going to come - but only my friend Madde showed up. She looked a little nervous, but she did a GREAT job! First time on skates can be REALLYscary! Imean, it is your feet ROLLING away from you!

It was awesome - we had 34 girls coming tonigh - and we hope that the majority will come and love derby as much as Stockholm Rollerderby does! Oh yeah!

London beat us by points but not in spirit

HussInsane jamming and me blocking... 

Things never go as you plan them, sometimes I even wonder why I bother planning... just kidding, it is always best to try to be as prepared as you can be.
 One of our skaters called me Saturday morning, just to let me know that she would not be able to skate and (that means - new line-ups and gettign a hold of an alternate, not my favorite start of bout-day), one of our planned main jammers got ejected in the beginning and London Rollergirls really knew how to capitalize on powerjams, no kidding. The first period was a time of adjustment  - but the second half we went out and played much better, and I very much can say that I am VERY pleased with the way we played the second half.

I think we all took something positive from the bout, and I must say that all of the skaters on the team did their really best, and that is what counts!

Oh, and I wanna make a special shoot-out to all the volonteers, NSO's and referees that made this bout possible - without you guys we could never have done this. Also a HUGE thanks to Crime City Rollers - who let us come down and use Baltiska Hallen and shared London Rollergirls with us.

 Ahhhh... now we have two weeks until our B-team will be playing Gothenburg and then both our A- and B-team will be heading off to Glasgow... no rest for the wicked!

Gettin ready to bout!

We just got off the train and to Pia and Antonios where we are staying... And I made some new friends... We are excited to bout tomorrow - me, Loony and all my new friends...

March Attacks Crime City

So I'm on my way to Malmö, since Stockholm Rollerderby will kick off a derbyfilled weekend with playing London Roller Girls B-team in teh early afternoon tomorrow. I'm nervous but not nervous, at this point there is nothing really to be done, than to have fun and trust my team. And my team is very trustworthy... we have done our best out of the few practice times we have had, and at some times VERYcold practices. Stockholm are a bunch of amazing derbyplayers with lots of ambition, and for all I know, we can only get better.
Crime City have been really kind and helped us in Stockholm out a lot - to able Stockholm to be able to have this bout, so a big THANK YOU to Malmö and the amazing derby community that thrives there. I do miss those girls of Crime City alot - and it will be AWESOME to see them play against London after us...

I'm very excited about Swedish Rollerderby and the way we are heading - it is amazing what we have acomplished in such short time and Happy Birthday to CCR turing two years!

So now line-ups are written, boutfit and skates packed, butterflies and unicorns in the belly, smile and a good attitude... yeoo, it is all ready to get on the train heading towards Malmö... I'm ready to have FUN with my teamates!

Ah, I have a third derby wife!

Yes, this was very awkward...

Observe the fathers flowers in the mouth... and trannie mother

Ta daaaaa.... we are married after 2 years of engagement

May I present Smashed not Strrd! We had a lovley wedding during the Stockholm Rollerderby bonding weekend... Our priest Jazz Ass might have been very intoxicated and my derbyfathers Roffe and Krille almost missed the cermony due to unability to put clothes on... the father of the other bride Husse wore clothes worthy a trannie and the flowers were a doll, that Mad Maloony catched.... We did the plank and I picked Smashed up during the cermony and my bestman Kix bought me a stripper, who gave everyone lapdances with the snus almost falling out of her lip... sexy... So I have no doubt that this will go down in history as one of the better derbyweddings... The pictures are all taken by our lovley wedding photographer It's Aliva!

Oh, and as you can tell, we both wore lovley dresses in the colors of Stockholm Rollerderby... and we had the support of the majority of the current skaters of Stockholm Rollerderby... AMAZING!

And the wedding guests.... 

Jamskating in a basement

So some girls in Stockholm toook the initative to start a jamskating crew called the Swayes's - QUAD SKATE CREW... the object is to learn a coerography and hang out on skates and look kool and you need NO PREVIOUS EXPERIANCE.. .and since I like to hang out on skates and look kool (I mostly look like a dork), I decided that this was a GREAT way of spending a derbyfree night... (I for sure need to work on my outfit and makeup) Both Kix and Twisted showed up for this, and a few girls from Royals (the other Stockholm derby leauge...) and some otehr ppl that just seemed like they wanted to dance away on skates... yayaaaa...

I have never been a good jam skater, to be honest I've done very little of jam skating, since I have no sense of rythm and I'm musically challanged. When I lived in USA I often saw jam-skaters at the rinks, and I have always been really impressed by their smoth moves and at times I have even gotten instructed by a few, trying to teach my gigantic feet to look more smooooth... and since I really like skating I've tried, and tried and tried, mostly with me looking very hillerious...  I did dance for several years as a kid - mostly because my parents decided it was a good hobby for a little girl, my mother thought it be good for my posture (she was probably right)... When I started skating 4-5 years ago, my focus was more on speedskating and rollerderby, even if I had a coach in Jet City that would end his practices in an all-jam syncronized dance... like a musical... and me being that girl that does the spin the opposite way... I still thought it was fun and so was yesterday, even if I kept on doing the spin the wrong way...

We already know Loony is a better skater than me, she ought to be, since she has been skating since she was 4 years old, and damn that girl is a fantastic jamskater too... yes she is.. We came to the basement and all of a sudden BANG - she was showing moves and everyone following her lead. It was awesome and fun, and they are planning to have it in the basement for a few weeks and then they/we will move outdoors and find some smooth asphalt/concrete and do our thing... Oh yeah!

So if you are in Stockholm on Tuesdays 18.00 - 19.30 - this is the place to be! Come come come! We will dance it all away... and most of us look really silly...

And after the session Loony, Rikard and me went and visited Minna, ate all her food and then went out for Indian food and beers... YUMMY... this was an amazing derbyfree night! 

Gonna go JamSkate

Trying the jamskating in Seattle 2008

So some people in the Stockholm Region thought it be fun to Jam Skate... and Ihave not gone many times and I am quite bad at it... so this is gonna be INTERESTING I must say! So off we go... probably if I'm not to tired when I get home...

My derby mommies

So there are derby wives and husbands and cats and dogs and so on and so on... Ihave two derby mommies...
OMG WTF and Bonnie Thunders... best mommies ever!! When Imoved to NYC I lived on their floor in Queens the first six weeks... it was awesome... I always got to sleep with a cat and it was about a two minute walk to the Crashpad (Gothams practice space).

They were good mommies and I miss them! Iwas looking for another old picture and I found this from the Gotham Derbytaunt ball 2010... 

A few things... of today

I'm not really well, I have a cold that seem to linger and never fully let go of me, yesterday Ifelt extreamly bad, but Istill made it to practice that I ran together with Becky Lawless. I have a really hard time not going to practice if I'm able to stand up.
First hour was our intermediate group and we just worked with lots of juking and speedcontrol, and then had the combined pracice with blocking exercises and some jammers hell before the advanced group got to do their thing, and our thing was fun, even if Ijust got to watch with my skates on...

It is SO frustrating to not being able to skate at times, not only because you are running practice - but also because you are feeling crappy and sick. Especially the days when half the teams attention span seem to be limited to 5 seconds...

On the brighter sidewe found out today that we are getting another practice space in the middle of April until July, that is much better and cheaper than our current Go-Cart Hall. I must say I will not miss having to shout intructions over the running engines of 10 go-carts going fullspeed on the track next to our track... Imust say that photos taken in the Go Cart Hall do have some cool grassroot feeling to it... and from all I know - we might be back in the Go Cart Hall again in August... senior non-elite sports for women are not really high on the priority lists....

Another fun thing of today is that it's Alotta Riots B-day... or as we like to call her Aloha! I miss her and I hope she is havign an amazing birthday! You can also find her blog here if you just wanna say Happy Birthday to her...

My girlfriend is a monkey

It's ice under her head and she is hanging upsidedown from a string that is attached to soemthing that appears to be dead wood.
Yes - I was EXTREMLY worried.... and she just had a GOOD time! *sigh*

My third derby-wedding

So i have gotten married twice during RollerCon in Vegas - the first time was to my freshmeat buddy and fellow troublemaker Colt 45, we had nice outfits on and it was Vegas and it was one of the things that happen every year at RollerCon - the gigantic derbywedding... Me and ReAnimator got married the next year - she being my bankedtrack wife and me being another of her international wives.

So this weekend I finally married my third wife, we been engaged for almost two years, and it just seemed to be appropirate to get married during a bonding weekend. We might have overdone it - but I don't think it can be overdone... so we probably did not overdo it! Oh, and my wife is Smashed not Strrd.... 

Stockholm Rollerderby Bonding weekend over!

This weekend over 30 derby girls occupied my mothers house... We had amazing food, games, off-skate, sauna, wedding and a little drinking... I will write a blog about it soon...

The last girls chillin in the house drinking coffee...

Tonight is floor-talk

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I have a carpet that is great for using in strategy talks... since it has a ''derby track'' on it. So tonight most of the STRD A-team is getting together to talk strategy and watch derby.  We are bouting London Rollergirls B-team next weekend. Yay - I cannot belive it is only ONE week until gameday... It is exciting!

the rest of the weekend is going to be spent at my mothers house with 38 roller-girls... yikes... yikes... this is the BIG bonding weekend! 

Spreading the love....

Our visiting skaters Fox and Faran (pic stolen from their www)

You guys know how important I think minimum skills are - and I really URGE everyone to take it seriously. I'm not so strict about it because I don't want people to scrimmage and play derby, I'm strict about it because I want people to be safe on the track before they get on the track.
Minimum skills just prove that you are ready to scrimmage, because you have the basic skill set and the basic understanding of derby. For some girls it takes six weeks to get there, and for some girls it takes six months to get there, it depends on how often you come to practice, how motivated you are, your fitness level when you started and your previous experiances. Most girls that have some sort of sportbackground tend to catch on faster - also if you are more of a fearless person. But to be honest, one of our most promising freshies have no previous sport background... so motivation and throwin in extra time on the skates outside of regular practice usually helps.

Coming to practice is the key to passing your WFTDA minimum skills - if you come twice a week and work hard, you will pass. If you just come whenever - you probably will pass one day... Watching derby is also really important, and just coming to scrimmages and bouts and NSO will teach you a lot. Rollerderby is a fullcontact sport, and as any sport it takes a bit to build the muscle memory and understanding. And it is the FULLCONTACT part that makes me so strict about the minimumskills, you might not only hurt yourself, but someone else... The more comfortble you are on your skates, the more comfortble you will be around other skaters, and the more comfortble you are around other skaters, the more you will improve your derby skills... and one day you will play your first bout, just come to practice and work hard!

At our last minimum skills test we had two girls from Västerås Rollerderby come and take the test, and they both passed, we in Stockholm Rollerderby were really happy to see that rollerderby in Sweden are growing, and we are also very happy to be able to help, coach and push everyone to the best of our knowledge. 

Gettin ready for London Brawl Saints

In just about two weeks Stockholms A-team will be playing London Rollergirls B-team. It will be great fun and hard work and we been skating hard towards it.

Since we have limited practice time we have done the best we can out of it. The ice-box a.k.a our training facility has been thawing... it is really nice not having to wear three sweaters and a vest and long johns and so on... it's nice to acctually sweat during practice.

We have also parted the leauge into three different levels, so everyone can push themselves and each other on a level that is targeted towards their skill, fitness and/or motivational level. Red being the girls that still has not passed minmum skills, yellow our intermediate girls and blue our most advanced.

So far this has worked out really well, on Mondays we have one hour of yellow and then one hour of yellow and blue overlapping and ending with an hour with just blue. And when yellow has their first hour of on-skate the blue group does off-skate and when the blue group has their alone on-skate hour the yellow group does off-skate... voila!
 On Wednesdays we currently have two hours of red, yellow and blue and the last hour is for the team that is bouting next (so today it will be the team that is bouting London but after we have bouted Londno it will be the team that is bouting Gothenburg), if we get weekend practices we usually have scrimmages... We are hoping for more practice times going into April... so all cross your fingers for us!

Picture by Viktor Johansson

Back in Stockholm to party

Since we moved to Stockholm we've been out dancing and partying once, and since Loony really loves to dance, we decided we needed to do something about it.
So yesterday we had dinner at non-active derby players house - and then we went out to a girlparty. The dinner went in the colors of Mexico, and lots of Coronas with lime and salt was drank - and lots of very expensive but tasty Tequila was drank! It was awesome to see Hyper Nova again, she's not activley skating at the moment and I truly miss her...

The girlparty was fun, lots of derby girls, lots of our rookies came and at one point we had the stage crowded with Stockholm Roller Derby girls, and then we stayed there for the rest of the night. Good fun! I was wearing heals and the late night walk to the subway was a little in the painful side.... But as they say in Swedish "vill mam vara fin får man lida pin"

Sister hurt her knee

My little sister had to go to the emergency room for a twisted knee... Nothing terrible - she will be fine after a few days on crouches. She does have a good story to tell, and it was not my fault - it was dad who raced her down the hill... But then she was having lots of fun with the wheelchair at the emergency room... Kids heal and forget fast!

Me and snowboarding are finally friends again...

It was AMAZING to snowboard again - i miss it - and i finally feel like I have à healthy relationship to snowbaording. We can have fun together - and I wanna go again, and again... and again... who wanna come with?

When I quit snowboarding it was like breaking up from a long relationship - and even today I have a hard time to talk about part of the life I lived back then. To be honest, I was a very unsecure 20-something, I wanted so much, I felt so much and most of all I never felt like I fitted in.

I truly loved snowboarding, and I was good, really good, but I never became as good as I wanted to, and I was good, and that took it's toll on my selfesteem, and so did the constant struggle to proof myself as a girl in a very male-dominated world. I never felt pretty enought, I always felt like a gigant and still I LOVED to snowboard, the way the early crisp wintermorings made me feel.
There was somethign about the peacefulness of snowboarding, the physical demanding part, the limits that I had to push and always standing strong. I never cried, I was a little manic, I was so many things and at the same time I never felt comfortble in my own skin. It was a time of searching and longing to belong.