In the Penalty Box

I assume every roller girl has gone through this, a time where something you love so very much because a chore, a job and something you hate doing. I got to that point Just a few weeks ago where I was at my breaking point with derby. I'm not even sure of the starting point of it but after the bout in Baton Rogue I was at my breaking point. I had an extremely horrible panic attack after the game, stayed at the hotel instead of going to the after party and decided then and there i needed to quit the very thing I was good at and loved more than anything. So as soon as I got back from the trip I told everyone I was done, I was still helping but I wouldn't skate anymore and that was my plan until last night. Because of my birthday and other personal events I won't get into on this blog my mom took me and my little sister to Virginia to visit my parents in hope it would level my emotions out and put me back on the sane track that I was loosing hold of (thankfully I did). While there and doing some random looking around the internet I saw the Dominion Roller Girls were playing the Carolina Roller Girls saturday and I had to go. I can't even remember the first game I actually watched without being involved in so it was a treat to just be a fan. I have to say watching both of those teams play made me realize how much I love the sport, how I can't stay away and how i want to and need to be better. So my assumed long break lasted a week. Lucy Ferocious is back.

Fresh Meat

I guess the easiest way to start a blog is with a quick introduction? So hi my name is Lucy Ferocious (Laura Bank, to those who want to know my real name) I'm a 24 year old girl from Auburn, Alabama who has skated with the lovely ladies of the Burn City Rollers for a year and a half now. Alright, with that out of the way lets move on.

So, the whole idea behind this is to simply document my thoughts, ideas, experiences and other tidbits of being a roller derby girl in her second season of playing. I really wish I thought about doing this when I first started because it was during that season that I discovered who I really was on and off skates. Last night BCR had a fresh meat night and as I watched our newer girls still wobble on skates, and hold back their bodies from falling that I realized how far I've really come as a skater. I remember my very first practice where we did a back to front drill and how hard it was to just skate and how hard it was to let myself just fall and be okay with it. It seems falling is the hardest thing for everybody and maybe it's because as adults we're so afraid to get hurt because getting hurt means you have to go get it looked at, then you might have to miss out on work because you're injured and then it just seems to hurt 10 times worse the older you get. Eventually you get over that fear though, you learn the correct way to fall without getting injured but still I have to admit even after knowing how to fall correctly there has been a few times I've had to stop, breath and do a quick inventory of my body just to make sure I'm not broken.

I have tons of respect for Fresh Meat, they have heart and a drive unlike no other and I can only imagine how hard it is to come into an already established team of bout ready skaters just barely knowing how to skate. It makes me realize how lucky I was to join the team when we first started, when we are all fresh meat with only the help of outside skaters to push us to where we are today.