taking a deep breath, coaching and testing new wheels

Wednesday  I was coaching my last Stockholm practice in quite a while, i am heading to USA on Monday, staying there until I go to Stuttgart to play Team USA and then to head back to Sweden to play the Swedish Champs!

Yes, life is fun and busy!

Practice was for our more advanced skaters, and I planned a bunch of things that we need to improve, getting lower, blocking backwards and then turn around and keep the jammer on the ass, bracing, stay together and use plows to slow a pushy jammer down, keep your core strong, toe stop work and then the darn hockey stops. I always also try to throw in some endurance and some skating in the opposite direction at every practice.

When I coach I alternate between coaching skills I'm good at and things I need to improve. Being the coach it's not always fun to fall on your ass every time you are trying to demo hockeystops the way you suck at it. At the same time, if I don't I will never improve... and at least when you fall you know you are trying hard. Yesterday really was lots about skills I need to improve, and I guess the rest of the league also get to improve.

My new task is to become a better jammer, so lots of footwork in my future, I am not a fancy spinner, I am a dumb "I will get through here" sort of jammer. So maybe I will try the fancy spinner a little more, be good for me.

I just got a set of new Juice wheels that I tried out, and I really liked them from the get go. Durometer 95 worked really well on the dirty concrete surface we skate on during the summer.

Treating myself...

Getting to work early, doing work... I miss my girl, I am cold, I forgot to have lunch, I had too much coffee... I want to buys something to create an artifical happieness. I don't need anything, maybe a pair of new wheels.. I acctually need new wheels... I contemplate what new wheels I should get, I want some real hard wheels I can use when I skate in USA and have to be on sportscourt. I think about it, I will get new wheels, maybe next week when I'm at Five Stride.. I deserve new wheels, I haven't gotten new wheels in over a year, I've spent my money on other things, on travels, on food, on gifts to my loved ones, on more travels...

Loony is the best...

I'm at work and she does this.... we will be fast as lightening in Glasgow! I do confess - I NEVER clean my bearings and until Chezeball Bearings started to sponsor me -  I never had top-notch bearings... and I LOVE my Cheezeballs... they are delisous... 

F*ck it, sun is shining!

And a HUGE thanks to Fluke Skywalker who made this poster happen...

So outdoor practice it is! On our own outdoor track! It is awesome - since rain has been haunting me! Crossing my fingers that the sun will last until we gotten to practice and had an entire pratice too... it will be great, and hopefully the little skateboard brats will not bother us either.

I just started to use my Flatout Outragous on hte outdoor track, and they work really well, I used them yesterday at Stockholms practice, and despite the mad amount of dust, they gripped really well. Stockholm just found an outdoor hockey rink with a roof over it! SCORE... so they are also getting some practice in before Nordic Light. If we are arranging Nordic Light again next year - we will make sure it's not right after the summer, since most leauges seem to coming off summer holiday right now, and the Swedish leauges seem to ahve a problem to get indoor space during the summer, since schools are closed.

Well, well... you learn while you skate... or live... or whatever is cleaver... so now over and out and totally into practice... my hamstrings are feeling much better - so maybe I can even be a part of practice today!

Outdoor practice - you better dress in jeans

picture stolen from facespace, from practice yesterday

We have smooth concrete on our practice track, but outdoors and concrete still means that when you fall, you fall hard. So my advice is to wear tights and jeans shorts... Just will make you lose less skin, I know some people are under the impression that rinkrash is cool, I'm just under the impression that it hurts. I have had rinkrash a couple of times, not to talk about the snow/icerash I got during the summer snowboarding... NOT fun - just painful. So covering up my skin against rashes, is not really rocket-science to me....

I once again want to say that our track is aaaamazing, and I am gonna start using my narrow poisons on it, after the bout, because my Pure wheels are so heavy, and skating is feeling sluggish!

In Hell...

Yes, I'm at MayDay in Hell, and yesterday I went to a Helsinki Roller Derby practice, and that was good times, floor was more sticky than I expected, wish I had worn all G-rods, instead of the Stingers with G-rods combination I decided on, after someone saying that girls were using Poisons... 
TOday I'm leading a couple of hours of practice and then there is scrimmage, mixed scrimmage that is set up as a bout. So as I said, I have a bunch of girls that are going to gel and play like a team, and I cannot make them too tired, since they are supposed to play a bout later.... yeah... HOW ABOUT THAT??

Time to chomp down some bread and a banana (all I have) for breakfast before I head over to the venue and start coaching, hopefully this will be a GREAT day...

Ribban cruise...

Summer - not just yet

So Ribban is the place to be - it's the beach that has a boardwalk in Malmö... Yeah... It is about 2,5 km long... and skating in the blazing spring-sun of Sweden is quite a pleasure. I went on a skate with Dusty today - it was nice and I bet all you guys that read my blog soon will get sick of me and all my blabbing about how much I outdoorskate. But outdoorskating is soooo much fun... Today the entire skate ended up being around 13 km, but in the end we took a coffee break, according to Dusty, you have to drink coffee at Ribban... and I endorse anything with coffee involved.
I must say I do like my Pure wheels but I still think that the Kryptos are a tad better, I don't know what it is, but I just think I like the Kryptos better. But I am going to switch back next week, and let you know if I just still like the Kryptos better, or if it's just all in my head! Loony really like her Pure wheels, so I guess taste is like the ass, cleaved... (just sound better in Swedish)

Tonight I have a meeting with the Crime City training committee, and that is always a pleasure, hopefully it will be as great as ever. Been traveling a lot latley and we also have not had that many training halls avaible- and I also think that is what have lead me into all this outdoor skating... yayaaa... and also because it gives me an impressive tan, and who does not want an impressive tan?

New boxes of stuff and rolling on Ribban

SwedeVix has those now

Yeah, we got in a new order, colorful pads and wheels and skates for eagerly waiting girls around the contry... it's almost like I am getting it myself, I love whe derbygirls smile (and sweat), and I hope everyone will get super-happy when they get their stuff, and run around on their skates of pure joy.

Ninja came by here earlier today and we went skating, a total of 15 km in a brisk pace, and then she bought me an ice-cream. Yeah, overall it was a good day, in a few days I will be in Helsinki and it just hit me I don't know what wheels I should bring... damn, life is full of problems that aren't really problems...
Now I'm gonna watch a terrible TV-show with my girlfriend who finally stopped coughing her lungs up... yeah...
Check out SwedeVix - we have a whole bunch of new stuff... wheels, shoelaces and tomorrow the socks will go up online! Bumblebee striped socks and purple unicorns... who can say know... of course Malou already got herself a pair...

In Stockholm - guess what?! Skating!!

New purple Pure wheels

Me and Loony took my really dirty car to Stockholm yesterday, we left in time to attend Stockholm practice, and it was really good times. I love Stockholm rollerderby, one of my best friends from waaay back Husse plays on it, and I just have always had a really good connection with the team... It was the first team I ever got to coach - 3 years ago when I barley knew what I was doing myself. I like to think both me and Stockholm have gotten much better since then!

And SwedeVix just got some new outdoor wheels in, so I treated myself to a set of purple Pures ones - I wanted black ones, but Vix wouldn't let me... I am really excited to see if I will end up liking the Pures more than the Kryptos that I have been doing my outdoor skating on the past two years. My first set of outdoor wheels were Aerobics, and they made me feel like I was skating in some sort of goeyness... But Husse says she looooves them... Loony loves her Pures and I am still not swayed... I think I still would favor my Kryptos... but I'll give it a week or two before final judgement day!
We are staying at my mothers house outside Stockholm - and they have chickens, and this one little chickens mother left it, so my stepdad was trying to keep it warm, not cooking it alive...

It is for sure keeping warm

Wheel-O-Mania: what I skate on

I have many girls asking me about wheels, right now I'm on Atom wheels and have been since May 2010, a combination of G-Rods as pushers and Lowboys. I really like this combo, and it works well for me on lots of different surfaces, but I have a feeling that lots of girls wouldn't find it sticky enough, especially not on those slick sports-hall floors lots of Scandinavian girls skate on.
I think my preferred combo for those would probably be Stingers as pushers with G-Rods and if the floor was really slick I'd probably go all in on Stingers - all eight... and yes, I am on the narrower wheels. I used to be on Heartless, but they were to narrow for me when jamming, I lost too much speed, and what they made up in agility wasn't worth it. The slim Atom wheels are a little wider than Heartless and it made a huge improvement in my jamming! It was actually OMG from Five Stride who talked me into going a tiny bit wider, and I totally blew her off about it, but she is a person I really trust when it comes to gear! And it showed out to be true, it really did improve my jamming...
Another wheel I have heard lots of good things about are the Atom Poisons, and I think that those and also the Radar Ghosts are good cheaper alternatives for girls that want a cheaper sticky wheel, those wheels are so called hybrid, and can be skated on both indoor and outdoor. The Ghosts are the narrow version of the Radar Shadows and Poisons come both in narrow and wide!
I am actually quite a fan of the Radar Flat Out for minor outdoor skating and  for slick indoor floors, they also come in a narrower version, the Flat Out's also make for a very good pusher wheel.

Wheel preferences can be quite induvidual, and I know girls that like their wheels to be superduper sticky and girls that like their wheels to slide, because they feel that it gives them more control. I preferred more sticky wheels when I was less skilled, and I don't mind a little more of a slide to my wheels now. Also the success or failure of a wheel depends on your skating-style, your weight and skill, just because your best friend likes a wheel does not mean you will be as crazy about it!

The best way to figure out if you like a wheel is to borrow it from a friend and see if it works for you, and in worst case buy it, and then re-sell it.... and most wheels take a couple of hours to get broken in and also used to, before you can really decide if it's a good fit for you! But I must say that both the girls at Five Stride Skateshop and Fast Girl Skates know what they talk about, and they interact with amazing derby-girls on a daily basis... and therefore are a great resource!

What do you skate on? And do you like it? And why??

Speedskating with Stockholm Rollerderby

Today Stockholm invited a trainer from Stockholm Speedskaters, and it was interesting. He had some really good off-skates exercises practicing form and balance. The main problem was that he was not really familiar with quads, and that caused some problems in the on-skate drill, nothing major, but some were a little awkward on quads. It was still quite an informative and different practice.

The floor in Farsta Hallen, were Stockholm had tonights practice is really slick, and I really think I need to get myself a pair of Stingers for those slick floors. I have been spoiled in US with those nice sportcourt floors (even Gothams Crashpad was better when the floor was pulling apart and we had cracks in it)... But you know, one day ''sigh''... one day...