And then we went snowboarding...

I'm not kidding - Loony is way to good at snowboarding :-)
It's only her second time, and except from when she yelled at me in the lift, I think she did amazing. Fearless!

Vacation in the North...

So me and Loony are in the North of Sweden at a skiiresort called Åre. We just got here today and decided to go for a walk in the ski-hill... Yeah, we probably looked like two giant toddlers... We kept on throwing ourself downhill and rolling in the soft but heavy and knee-deep snow...

Had an amazing dinner and now we are on our backs watching TV and feeling the excitement of going snowboarding tomorrow... It's Loonys third time!

Sunday Scrimmage and Saturday toddler

Sometimes we get indoor practices - and then we scrimmage... so yesterday we had scrimmage... It was fun, but not as fun as usual. I guess you cannot always be 100%... it was a long weekend - and I also had to catch up on some work...

Tomorrow me an Loony are going to Åre to spend a few days skiing/snowboarding with my father and his new family. I'm really looking forward to that...

On Saturday it was Hell's birthday party and I dressed up, very fancy, I was wearing a dress and that is not the most common sight. But it was fun, and some people got really drunk and some less... and we had a danceparty in her tiny apartment... Good fun!  Now I'm off to present rollerderby to Stockholm City... yepp... very formal - I even made power point...

We might have watched too much Toddlers and Tiaras

Amelia Scareheart - A Derby Person I heart

Amelia Scareheart B-52

Amelia is an amazing skater, I seriously adore her, but not only because the amazing job she does skating but also because of her personality. She is a very wise woman, and I love having those around me, especially since half of the derbyworld are such firecrackers. She is one of those people I would love to have as a coach, all her girls in Paris seem to love her, and I know for a fact she is not so wise at the afterparties...

And I have to say it here, she is a woman with a very small frame but big assets, ok, I did it... I am over it... ok, not really... but ok.. yes I am. Pheeewww... but that said, she is a short skater, but not to be underestimated.

Photo by Wicked Shamrock Photography

I think I read about Amelia before I ever met her, she was the WFTDA feutured skater of the month and she had just moved to Paris from Atlanta about the same time as I moved back to Europe. I met her at EROC 2011 and then I kept hearing lots about her, and I was really excited to bout her when we went to bout Paris with CCR. And she forfilled every expectation, she is an amazing blocker and we had a really amazing tight bout, that CCR eventually won, but not by much. Amelia tends to jam once in a while, but I must say that I prefer to watch her block, I think she is an amazing blocker, not saying that she does not get the job done when she is jamming.

She was the head-coach for Team France and bench-coached them thru all of the World Cup together with Dixie Pixie, and I can say that I would not mind to have her as myc bench-coach. She has played and coached Paris Rollergirls the past year, she been at EROC 2011 and 2012 as an instructor. I just like her, I get happy to see her, and she is just superfun and nice... you know, I like nice!

Photo by Kay Dee 

Amelia always have good answers to questions and she is very levelheaded, and trust me AMAZINGLY fun at the afterparty. I just found out last month that she is moving back to Atlanta, and it will be a big loss for Paris and for Europe. I will REALLY miss her - she is so much fun to play against and with (even if there wasn't enough times of this)

European All-Star Invitational

So two weeks ago I got an e-mail from an LRG skater asking me if I'd be interested in skating for an European All-Star Team, against LRG... and I thought to myself "why not....."

Acctually to be honest I acctually started jumping up and down and since I wasn't allowed to tell anyone and I had no clue who else LRG had asked, I wrote an excited blogg about life and jumped up and down  a little more... until Loony got the same question... and we both jumped up and down....

But since I am allowed to tell people now I will:

I am always excited to play derby.... (photo by Bijan Bagheri)

I GOT INVITED TO THE:
EUROPEAN ALL-STAR TEAM!!
(according to LRG)

Who knows, it's a challange, we might get beaten by 200 point, but it will happen while I am laughing and skating and doing my best!

So London Roller Girls are also hosting a boot-camp and it all sounds like it will be really exciting and fun, and now we have to book a ticket to London... London is really growing on me... oh oh oh... and I get to see Knickerblocker again...

EXCITED; EXCITED; EXCITED; EXCITED; EXCITED!!!

Keeping the jammer behind us..

Photo by Ivan Better

I just LOVE this picture... Look a the determination, look at the teamwork, look how cute we are... oh oh oh... and Loony made all of our tights! Oh oh oh...

This picture makes we wanna have advanced practice real soon again...
Monday here we come!

Preparing for WFTDA minimum-skills

On Wednesday we have another minimum-skills test for our freshies that still has not passed, so yesterdays practice was mostly targeting skills preparing for the test, and as I always say, you can NEVER practice your basics enough... Usually Mondays are our day for the girls that have passed minimum skills, but yesterday was open for everyone - but really, really focusing on the wishes from the girls that are taking the test.
We also had two visitors from Västerås Rollerderby  and they are also coming back on Wednesday to take our minimum-skills test.

I was a few minutes late to practice since I decided that the bus probably was gonna be late (it wasn't) and Loony was really sick when I got home from work, so I had to feel a little sorry for her for a little bit before I could leave for practice. Only a few of us that played Stuttgart showed up, and we were all quite sore... We also had some girls that showed up that hasn't been to practice in a while, and that was super awesome to see them at practice!

Since I was late Twisted had already started the usual Black Widdow when I came, and when the black widdow was done we did 10 skills in 10 minutes... that is a skill per minute... things that we will test on the minimum skills and a few that we will not, but are good to know. We did some windsprints since it is one of my favorite exercises and after that we did a pack excersice and find your partner on the whistle. Since the girls had requested to do some whips we did whips, and we also did as many laps as you can in five minutes... and then we capped of practice with some hitting and hitting in a pack, just to end it all with another of my favorite exercises ''big pack''.

Every practice I run I get so excited about how much everyone are improving and how hard everyone are working... roller derby is the best... 

Stockholm Rollerderby v.s Stuttgart

Photo by Mandy Ballaschanke

So as I have already said, the game this weekend was so much fun, exciting and utterly nerve-wrecking, it made me smile the entire way. And I must say that playing for over 1200 excited fans was quite amazing. The Stuttgart Newspaper wrote an article about it here, if you just happen to read German, otehrwise I can recommend google translator, and then there is also a press-release from Stockholm Rollerderby here. 

 Playing derby makes me happy, practicing it makes me happy... Somedays I come to practice and am in the worst mood ever, I barly did not go because I was tired, not in the mood and all those things. But I always push through and just go to pracitice, because I know I will leave with a BIG smile!

 Yay for rollerderby! And there will be more exciting news this week - just hold tight and I will let you know as soon as I know... ah ha ha

This is waht we call derby love....

I might be old but I'm still flexible

We won against Stuttgart

I still dont think I really understand that we did. I am very bruised up but happy, we played a fair and VERY tight game, and we didn't only keep the audience on the edge of their seats, but also ourselves.
Everyone on the team did a fantastic job, kept on pushing until it was over. Everyone kept a very good attitude on the bench both when we were down and up, and kept on putting their best skate forward.

I'm just gonna hold onto Twisteds ass...

I foresee more strategy talks on our carpet and fun focused practice. I for sure have to step up my off-skate routine... I also desperatly need to go see a chiropractor, my back is KILLING me.

And I must say Stuttgart was a FANTASTIC hosting team, and we had about 1,200 ppl watching us! It was craaazy...

I found a unicorn in Berlin

On our way to Stuttgart we had to change our flight in Berlin, and guess what I found?? A gigantic UNICORN!!! Oh yeah... I considered stealing it, but figured that being arrested in Berlin would make it hard for me to show up and skate at a bout in Stuttgart the next day. I was worried that they would not listen to me claiming that the unicorn asked me to bring her, apparently everyone can not speak unicornish. And since I didn't really have the 150 euro that they priced the poor thing to, we had to leave her... And she is still loonily at the Berlin airport... :-( Maybe we have time to hug her on our way back to Stockholm...

In Stuttgart with coffee!

Morning in Stuttgart with Loony, Bananna and Titty... Boutday starting with lots of coffee and bread, Germans for sure love their bread :-). Me and Loony will soon go out for a prebout walk in our nice little Kallio shirts. We are wearing Amly's shirts for breakfast and laughing at each other.

Line-ups written, intro-song chosen, helmet covers in a safe spot, bout-fit prepared and a little trickle of nerves, coffee, and least but not last a smile Ready to goooo.... Goooo.... Hookup and skate, skate, skate...

I am superexcited about the bout tonight, it's gonna be great fun and apparently they have sold over a thousand tickets for it... Gives me the jitters... It is odd how excited and nervous you can feel for an hour that will come and pass.

I love rollerderby, there are so many things I love about rollerderby and so many things that we can do and develop, pushing a sport forward that we own, that is our own.

When I don't roll... I dress up...

Bench managers can be pretty

20's prom at Rat City with Summer Assualt

There is something about dressing up and derby, I totally LOVE dressing up, but at the same time I'm not that much about dressing up when I skate. I think I just might be to focused on playing derby to acctually fuss about what I am wearing...
When I skated for Gotham I bouted in jeaggings a whole bunch of times and really big bling earings... I think I might just go back to the bling earings... When I moved back to Sweden I did wear a whole bunch of game-face makeup... but captaining in combination with a lot of different things, made me really pressed on time and I never really gotten into a consistant look...

Flagpresenter at Dockyard in 2008

But I do LOVE to dress up - and when I benchmanage it's a fantastic time to do it! And when you are not skating and you are just rooting or working a bout is also a good time... Oh, back in the day when I skated in Seattle I always used to volonteer to be a ''scorewhore'' or ''point princess''. What you did was that if there was a venue without (and sometimes with) a scoerboard, you would write the score on a scoreboard and skate around on the outside of the track and showing the score...  I also love all the event that are held around derby in US, lot's of leauges have ''derby prooms'' with theames, and I am a SUCKER for theame parties...

Practice planned....

Benchcoaching in Helsinki May 2011

Today is an ''everyone practice'' and tehn we will have an hour for the girls that are going to Stuttgart this weekend. We are acctually starting with a team meeting for the group that is going to Stuttgart, while Crackher will start the warm-up with everyone else.
I am super excited to go to Stuttgart this weekend, it will be mine and Loonys second bout with Stockholm, and that is always exciting, it finally start to feel like we are a part of Stockholm Rollerderby. I've been coaching quite a lot, and I really enjoy coaching a leauge, a little more than just coaching at boot-camps.

Don't get me wrong, I love coaching at boot-camps and hold practices for other leauges, but it is something special about seeing your own team progress and develop, it makes you proud and excited. It is easier to come up with drills for your own leauge since you know what they should work on...
If you know that they have a problem with lifting their feet, you can sit home and think about what the best way to target it would be... YEAH... I do spend alot of time thinking about drills and developing already existing drills, or what drills that will work well together. Yepp... I am really nerdy like that... I do it during work, I keep a document open and fill in drills during the day and then in the ned of teh day I print it and bring it to practice... very neat... I like it... 

Awesome Derby Art Blog

A typical ''freashie''

A typical ''veteran''

So I just fell over this one blog by Elektra Q-tion, well, I saw the link on a facebookgroup and she does the cutest drawings ever, plus she does some really spot on observations about derby... AND I've skated with her on Team Amazon at ECE 2010... yupp... you should check it out....and yeah, all the pictures in in this blog is shamelessly stolen/borrowed from her!

I have a VERY amazing sense of derbyfashion.... (parts of Team Amazon 2010)

Icebox might be thawing

Halleluja - our practice space was not THAT cold yesterday, it was just cold, but no worse than it was acctually enjoyable to skate. We still could see our breath,  but it wasn’t painful to breath…

So yesterday was advanced practice,  for now advanced practice in Stockholm Rollerderby refeers to everyone that has passed minimumskills, so we were quite a bunch.  It was superfun - I was leading practice and time just went flying. I think there is one of my issues, that I just want to cover EVERYTHING, but I have to tone it down and narrow down each practice to just target a few things.

Since the practice space have turned into a fridge, we have started every practice with Black Widdow, and so we did yesterday, but with a few adjustments, we did the ten, eight and six laps with a partner instead of alone... My main focus of the practice was to work with a partner, not in a huge group, but with a partner.

Yesterday was a fun day of coaching, and everyone seemed really excited, we had about 25 girls on-skates in our advanced group, and I was so happy to see so many ppl work so hard. It makes me happy, both as a coach, but also as a team-mate. It was probably an extra motivator that it wasn't as cold as it has been previous weeks...

I had a great time, and I'm proud of Stockholm Rollerderby and how hard everyone are working and developing... and on Friday we will be taking off to Stuttgart to bout. So Wednesday is our last practice before... I'm starting to get a little nervous... brrrrrr.... hopefully it will be a good match-up! It will be mine and Loonys second bout with Stockholm Rollerderby... 

I am really excited to get to hang out with Titty during Friday, she is one of my favorite Germans… she has promised to spend Fridday showing us Stuttgart...

Tour de Force - full platta in Malmö

First we benched for Gothenburg

...they did amazing for their first bout

And then we watched CCR's A-team win against Paris

So we all piled into my car and went to Malmö to participate in the usual derby awesomeness - me and Loony helped Gothenburg on the bench for their first bout ever. It was awesome, and they did so great for their first bout ever. I was very impressed by Gothenburg and was happy that I could help making their first bout a little easier. They have a few girls that really stood out, MadFish got MVP, even if she almost got seven trips to the box... but I thing the nerves got the best out of her. Villa will become great with some more experianc, patience and practice, and I was really suprised in a good way by Sandy, she really has developed since December when me and Loony coached in Gothenburg. In general - everyone looked great and amazing, and I was superexcited to share thier first bout with them! And i got to dress up - I litterly was wearing a dress - I did feel like a tranny, and Evil Eye apperently really like me with lipstick and looing like a tranny...

It was awesome to see that CCR were looking amazing, it was a little sad not skating with them, and I think we miss it more than we will ever admit, sometimes it's hard to turn to new pages in life. But for once I got to watch a bout and drink some beer and just hang out with friends... It was great to see all of the Crime City players, but also Titty was up from Stuttgart and I had the great company of my lovley car-companions Kix, Only, Loony and Amy....

I must say that Crime City really looked very together, Ninja and Firebird wall looked nice and strong, Ankefar jammed like the awesome jammer she is and so did Curly, and as always I loved to see all of the really nice packwork out there by Crime City...
Paris did not look to bad, but at times they seemed a little disorganized on the track, and I missed seeing Amelia in the pack -and I saw much more of her jamming. I was very impressed by Paris Machete, she had some really great blocks and waterfalling action out there.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Some really exciting things have happened the past days! I am getting more and more excited about the upcomming derby year!!

Right now I'm in my car squeezed in the back with Kix and Amy who are both trying to sing and dance at the same time as Only is driving through mörkaste Småland!

Tomorrow me and Loony are gonna help Gothenburg om the bench for their first bout. I'm so excited for them, about a year I went and coached them in Gothenburg and they have gotten so far since then .

I marvel everyday over how much rollerderby are growing.

Towards Malmööööö and Tour de Force

So I'm filling my car up with Loony, Kix, Amy and Only and heading towards Malmö this weekend, ahhh... it's gonna be so much fun! CCR's A-team are gonna be beating up on Paris, it's their first A-team game since me and Loony moved, so we will not be missing that! Not at all, it will be stellar! I think it's gonna be a great bout to watch!
Before that Gothenburg will bout for the first time ever against the more seasoned CCR's B-team, and me an Loony have promised to help Gothenburg on their bench. It will be really awesome and fun, to see all the growing talent of derby in this northern part of the world. I am so EXCITED!

I am also sooooo excited to see all the girls in Crime City too, I miss them soo much, especially all the girls that played on Team Sweden... oh oh oh... and Titty from Stuttgart will be coming too... it's gonna be a blast! And I also heart Amelia Scareheart from Paris, so it will be SUCH a blast and amazingness to get to see all those lovley people!