Never let the sun go down on you

We are practicing in the country of the midnight sun. Summer in Stockholm and we are revving up for the Swedish Championships! It's quite EPIC! 

The fun with the unexpected

Life will always throw you a curveball -and you can't always hot homeruns... So being lost by trying to use some odd baseball analogy all I wanted to say was: fuck it and smile - it ain't that bad after all... There is a solution to everything... Threesome (ok I lost track again) nevermind

I got on skates - just a few minutes - did 30 laps - I feel accomplished. Little things that makes me happy - being able to rollerskate - you don't know how much you love it and will miss it when you just can't.

I ran late from work, jumped on the bike, got home grabbed my gear bag and ran to practice. At the bus with Becky I realised I had forgotten my whistle... Coaching without a whistle always make me wake up the next day sounding like Janis Joplin after a harsh night on the town... (That I would buy her)

Our practice is in a small little town outside Stockholm, and I figured the grocery store would be a better bet for whistles than the pharmacy... The girl working shook her head and said "nope, we have no whistles" and then me and Becky turned around to discover WHISTLES!! They might be used more for parties, but when in need... They were just PERFECT!!! 

Whistle - whistle....

Practice was superfun, I really love coaching a motivated and hardworking team! Few things come easy, and if they come to easy, you usually don't value it as much. 

One of my skaters broke her plate - about the third time this year, I guess R3's are only designed for so much fun... 

It's so crazy light outside now, 9pm and it's still bright outside! I love the summer in my country! This is what we all live for! Midsummerweekend,  I am gonna hang out with my bro/sis Becky Lawless. 

Midsummernightsun

There is so much to rollerderby...

Coming back from an injury is not easy - it's never easy to not being able to be on track and just wait and for your body to heal. I am one of those people for the very first time, this is the longest I've been off skates since I started rollerderby 5 years ago...

Potential Fresh Meat after theri first Foundational Skills exercise

It's hard, but I've at the same time had a gerat time continuing doing what I usually do, I still come to practice and run practice, and I am more relaxed coaching when I don't have to try to improve my own playing. I also have spent some quality time on how we are going to get new girls into the leauge. We are running some foundationals skill classes - a few sundays, so girls that are interested in rollerderby can come and test and see if this is acctually something that they want to do. It's open to anyone that have their own gear and you do not have to be a member... if you wanna know more about it... you can read about it HERE!

And then we are going to have try-outs, we will start a Fresh Meat program with girls that already know the basics of skating and derby, and have the motivation and have a hunch of what it means to be a derbygirl. I really like running foundational skill sessions... It's superfun to see all the girls that are interested in joining us working so hard, and looking really awesome!

So I am off skates, but everyone else are on, and that is completly fine with me! I have my bike - and we are really getting really close nowdays! Like REALLY! I try to bike about 20km per day, and it is fun, and I am gettting an odd tan and it's amazing!

Oh, and I am back in school, taking leadership and oragnization classes, I just had an exam in communication... It's quite AWESOME!

WFTDA Annual Meeting - exciting things

A few times that thought of not being involved on rollerderby has hit me - and I really conmsidered it, but then I always have to rethink it because I go on amazing journeys and rediscover the essence of why I started rollerderby from the get go.

PPL that work (non-payed) in the oragnization got a hat... so we could recognize them and say how  much we appreciate them (and also to ask them questions)

This year I had the opportunity to go to the WFTDA Annual Meeting that was held in Florida, Stockholm has just gotten our fullmembership and we were allowed to bring two reps, all leauges that are full members are welcome to join. And it was AMAZING to sit around and discuss the sport that we have built, the sport that we all love and try to draw up guidelines for what the future will entail.

Crime City Rollers representing by Muffa

WFTDA har grown out of a few leauges deciding it be good if they all played under the same ruleset; back in the day - like 10 years ago, there was no agreed upon ruleset, and teams would come together and decide  before the game what was legal and not legal. I mean, I started 6 years ago, and I can say, that was never the case for me, but I also know how the existance of WFTDA has hightened the level of gameplay, it has made us grow into organized, amazing, strong athletes, in a very revolutionary way.

It is very cool knowing that WFTDA is expanding internationally, that we have more and more European leauges joining, Australian, Asian - it's a worldwide revolution, of a sport that was founded and most people thought was a fad, traditional sportsfederations laughed at us and the newspapers thought we belonged in "nöjesidorna". The ruleset is getting translated and as a small step of that a few of us international skaters, translated the WFTDA missionstatement into our native language. I must say it almost made me cry to stand infront of hunderads of WFTDA reps and read out the missionstatement.

WFTDA is so much more than a platform for competative play, it's a forum for disscussion, for developing, for asking questions, to answer questions and to make your voice heard and your vote count!

We all walked around with little nametags, the sticker showed how many times you had attended, This was  my first year, so I had one! 

WFTDA Annual meeting was amazing - we sat indoors in sunny Florida  from 9am until 5 pm and shared opinions, thoughts, dissaponiments, views and visions. We shared what has worked for us, and what is not working, and then we had free drinks (true story, the hotel had an open bar for an hour) and kept on talking poolside. 

Only at WFTDACon you will end up in a cuddlepuddle with some of your favorite skaters!

I am back!! It is time!

Practice is done at sunset!

So I didn't feel like writing, and it's hard to force yourself to do something you don't wanna do, so I didn't... There are so many other things In life you gotta do that's sort of forced... And something you love doing, shouldn't be on that list...

I have spent the past six weeks off-skates since a scary sort of shark bit me during a bout... Worst pain ever! During the five years I've played rollerderby I have never been off skates more than barley three weeks... So this is a new experience! 

And to be honest - I LOVE rollerderby - and I do love the opportunity to be able to skate, but coaching and building a leauge and sport is also VERY important and fun!

I think we constantly need the reminder that this is OUR sport - and we are pushing it forward and we are all little important pieces in the awesomeness that rollerderby is.

You don't become an amazing athlete over a night - you work on it, you fall asleep visualising how amazing you and your teammates will do the next day, building rollerderby is just the same! We are all together building an amazing sport that makes me proud to be a part of, we surprise ourselves and the people that don't really understand us. We are former athletes, barstars, bartenders, mothers, sisters, brothers, hipsters, hippies, yuppies, homos, hetros, whatevers together we are all strong and together we can build something that matters, something slightly different, something that is competitive but that is not the only thing! Rollerderby is a sport - but to me it is and will always be so much more: it's what made me believe in myself and has taught me to be a teamplayer!