There is something transformative about the act of a high five. Seriously. Find the nearest person to you and hold up your hand with a smile on your face and see what happens. Lately my team has been talking a lot about our goals, both as individuals and as a team. Not just general goals – “I want to be a better jammer” – but quantifiable ones we can examine after we bout. How often am I going to get lead jammer? How few times will I go to the box? How many times will I execute a certain skill or strategy per period? It’s an excellent exercise — clarifying some of my personal goals and also becoming aware of my teammates’ goals…
Reflections on roller derby
Posts from the “teamwork” Category
The last time I won a trophy it had a fish on top of it. The year was 1985 and I had managed to defend my 1984 title of children’s champion in the annual fishing contest on Lake Memphremagog in Newport, Vermont. I was quite the angler in my youth. I’m sorry to say that my two championship fishing trophies did not survive one of my many moves over the past fifteen years or so. Otherwise I’d be displaying them on my mantle along with the handmade MVP jammer trophy I won last weekend. It’s a small thing, winning an award for playing one position in one bout, and further, a post-season travel match that turned out to be a slam dunk for my…
When your ass gets handed to you, take a moment to think philosophically about your off-season goals
Emily Udell
Posted on October 10, 2012
Things turned pretty meta on the jam line last weekend, when one of the opposing blockers asked me before the jam start whether I was going to blog about the scrimmage. She’s a former teammate of mine who transferred to the league that boasts the top team in our region. Was I going to blog about the scrimmage? Indeed, I laughed, and what followed was an absolutely abysmal jam, where I ran out of gas and barely made it out of the pack before two minutes expired. Here I am, blogging about it. A loss can show you where your weaknesses lie as a team — an opponent’s coach said this once a bit smugly after besting us in a bout during our 2011…
Dear teammates, especially those on the roster for June 16, 2012, I am writing this letter because I have a confession to make. It pains me to admit this, but I think I did not believe in you. When I say “you,” I include myself. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I did not believe in us. We faced a really hard team last Saturday. It was a team that beat us two times before — the first year badly, the second year soundly. I’ll never forget playing them in their city two hours south last summer in a crowded, seedy, humid roller rink. The opposing blockers pummeled our jammers as theirs handily lapped our defense. I vividly recall getting…