Dresden Derby Days

All the participants of the bootcamp! 

This weekend I spent coaching in Dresden with Fisti Cuffs, it was a bootcamp that Dresden Roller Derby put together. Fisit is one of the most awesome rollerderby players I know, and also one of the most amazing people I know, so this was a camp I knew was going to be amazing in so many ways. She is not only a very good player, but she's also really smart, and probably one reason we get along so great is because we do share a lot of views on how rollerderby should be played and what's important for a team to progress and become better.

The bootcamp was fairly small, with only about 30 participants and it made it possible for us to plan to have the girls on-track at almost all times. I ran a short little off-skate session on Saturday while Fisit did some wallwork. Oh, and the bootcamp also had a referee part that was run by the always, oh so chaming Dr. NoNo from Berlin. I love whe nbootcamps have an officals part to them, I think it's so important that we have good officals at bouts, and just like us skaters they need to practice, not fair if only us skaters get all the fun.

NoNo, me and Fisti taking a little break! 

The camp was really well organized, we had time to do on-skate, off-skate, video-analysis and some basic inclassroom strategy... there was also a little portable sauna for the nights. The participants of the bootcamp all spelpt in the hall and the food was all AMAZING! AND they had gotten me some WINESCHORLE, so I was of course really delighted.

For the onskate stuff we did lot's of plowstopping and walls, and everyone were developing so much, it's so amazing to see! We alos did backwards blocking and when to do it, we all know it's the hot thing to do, but that deosn't mean you should be doing it all the time. Both Saturday and Sunday the day was ended by a scrimmage, and it was really cool to see how everyone where using things during the scrimmage that we had been working on during the day.

This is how happy we are to coach together. 

All photos are stolen/borroed from Roller Derby Dresden facebook page. 

Some pictures from the German trip

Loony and Pia on top of Stuttgart

Beer in the sun

Exploring German North coast

Som dude screamed ''Rollschuen'' after us

I know... there are no actual pictures of derby, but at least we are on skates... Germany in five days was amazing, and I hope everyone that met us had a blast... we had a blast coaching and skating. Scrimmage during Rally in the Vally on Sunday was soooo much fun!
Now we are back in Malmö for a couple of more hours before we are heading to Stockholm, to see some friends and family and I'm crossing my fingers for some more sun! My tan still have a looong way to go before I can get ready for my winter gloom again...

Stockholm vs. Hamburg - bouting time

Picture of STRD warming up stolen from Facebook

Stockholm arranged their first bout this weekend, and it was amazing and fun, me and Loony were announcers and Hamburg got beaten by Stockholm. Stockholm did start off a little shaky the first jams, until they ended up in a powerjam situation, and capitalized MAJORLY on it, and htey never looked back. Hamburg was never even close to catching up during the entire game. Hamburg only fielded 10 girls for the Stockholm trip and they started to look tired in the second period - I must make an extra shoot out to Heavy Miss Gale, who I think was in more than every second jam, and was by faaar the most effective Hamburg blocker, until she fouled out with a few minutes left on the clock.
Stockholm played tight and you could tell that they been working harder on some aspects of the game, such as bridging, stringing out the pack keeping the Hamburg jammer in play and hitting her over and over.
Stockholm really is one of my favorite teams, probably because I feel like I have always been a part of STRD and it made me so happy to see them skate so hard and smart. Ahhhh Stockholm - you guys are great.
Exactly a year ago on the day of the game was when I dragged HussInsane to her first Stockholm practice, and in this game she was for sure one of Stockholms most effective blockers, but also made a few successful attempts with the star on her helmoet, but not only that she was also wearing the captain C on the arm, and just frankly looked great. HyperNova looked as great as ever jamming, fluidly getting through the pack and Twisted T is really turning out to be quite a double-threat.  Stockholm has lots of talented and hardworking skaters, and that makes me happy and I am looking forward to see lots of them next weekend for Team Sweden try-outs.
Oh, and the final score was 150 - 55 to Stockholm....

My first European Scrimmage

(I'm white on the backline looking for the jammer.... suprise... suprise... )

I am no longer a European virgin, I now have been hit and hold in Europe, and I enjoyed it. I went to EROC and held a strategy workshop with Bloody Mary and held a workshop in advanced skating. It was amazing to see how many leauges there is in Europe there is, and how hard they work. I had the joy of skating for the white team, and we won... and as I said in my workshop winning is fun, but that was really not the most important of this scrimmage. I loved to skate next to a Finn, a Swede, a German and a French, whipping an ex-pat American, while being hit by a Belgian and a Britt.

It is hard to say where Europe will be in two years, but considering how much will and hard work there is here I hope for our own WFTDA tournament... Oh YEAH baby...

What makes Europe so interesting is all those women come together, speaking all those different languages, different cultural references and at the same time they are just you GOD OL' DERBY GIRL...

And a big thanks to the Berlin Bombshells for putting on this amazing event, making it possible for so many girls to get together and share that thing we like to call derby loooove...

First German Championships in Rollerderby

 (Boutcasting with programs, weinshcorle and a mic)

So me and Loony boutcasted for Derby News Network (DNN) from the German Championship in Berlin, and that was real fun. First time ever, so it was a little hard, especially since i was not really familiar with any of the German skaters. Loony played Hamburg before, and been to some bootcamps, so she recognized some of the girls, making it a little easier.
We really did not know until the day before that we were going to do the boutcasting, so we were as prepared as we could be. I sat on a ledge and hugged Loony while we both spoke into a shared mic, and drank some weinschorle... it is my favorite thing to drink when in Germany... that and Weissbier. We were trying to figure out the girls name from the programs and their numbers.... yeah, it was not the easiest, and out voices were starting to crack after a while... but it was fun! Did I mention it was fun!

 (Master Blaster jamming for Berlin Bombshells photo stolen from the book of Faces)

Both Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz and Berlin Bombshells looked awesome, they had great skaters, good strategy and were a really good match up, and made for a great final. They for sure dominated the other three teams, Essen, Barock City and HanseConnection... those other three team were not really cohesive teams, sicne they had to borrow girls, to make up a complete rosters and it is always harder to play with mixed teams than with a team you always skate with, since derby is a teamsport, and knowing your team and strategy is an important part.

I am so excited to be back in Europe, being able to help in so many different ways, boutcasting, coaching, workshops... yepp... anything where I am needed is totally worth it! Being a part of history being written, is so amazing and watching derby grow as a sport warms my little Swedish heart, and I saw girls from allover Europe in the audience, lots of Swedish (from Stockholm Rollerderby and Crime City Rollers- that's Malmö) and French girls from at least Paris... and Germans of course!! Oh, funny thing, I got interviewed by some German media, and proved that I acctually can speak German, well sort of. Klick here and wait for 1.41 min... and you can share the experiance...

It was really awesome to be back in Berlin, I have not been there in four years, and then I spent a summer, this time it was frozen, and we walked everywhere on Sunday and Monday. We were supposed to take the bus back home on Sunday, but when we came to the bus, we realized that Loony by accident booked the ticket for Monday, so we just had to turn around and spend another day in Berlin. Smashed and CallaVera from Stockholm Rollerderby were awesome enough to hook us up with some bedspace in theri hotel, after some beer-drinking.

(May I introduce you to CallaVera and Smashed from Stockholm Rollerderby)

But now both me and Loony are back in Copenhagen and getting some rest and going to the gym, it was an amazing weekend, and I am really looking forward to what German Rollerderby will look like next year, at the German Championships... but this upcoming weekend we are going to Gothenburg to participate in a mixed scrimmage between Gothenburg Rollerderby and Stockholm...

I am off to Berlin and the German Championships

(on the bus with some Crime City girls)

First time ever I get to see European Rollerderby, it is really, really EXCITING! I have just watched some online before, but this is first time I get to see multiple bouts and in Germany... in Berlin that is one of my favorite cities in the world, so this will be a very, VERY exciting weekend. I'm taking a bus from Copenhagen to Berlin with a bunch of Swedish and Danish rollergirls, we packed candy and some wine for the trip... WEINSCHORLE!!

See you on Sunday... this blog is ready to party!