Some Summer Funzies

Our team, the Pair O' Dice City Rollers take two breaks during the year.  Once at the holidays, because everyone likes to spend time with family, and then again at the beginning of official summer to let players get their kids settled in to camp, to take vacations, etc.  Our summer break is actually going on right now.

Just before our break, though, we got to do a really fun practice...one that both reminded us of the sheer FUN of skating and how much we'll miss getting together for two weeks, and one that was just silly enough to make us feel less guilty for wanting to enjoy a little break from regular practices.

So what did this "FUNZIES" practice consist of, you ask?

Some of the POD players playing the "road kill
ball toss" game...

Skill-building fun games, of course!

First we played freeze tag...with a twist. We divided up the playing zone into two distinct areas.  In one, you could only skate forwards, and in the other, you could only skate backwards.  It was hilarious! Awkward at first, but soon we were all zooming along without even thinking about our skating and transitions from one direction to the other. The tricky part was actually having to army crawl through everyone else's legs to unfreeze them! Believe me.

Soon, we took this to the next level and played it as "zombie tag." When playing this way, the original "it" doesn't just freeze their prey, they convert them into "its" as well, until it's a case of last skater skating!

After some decent reydrating, we moved on to a game that doesn't have an official name.  In some places, it's just a ball toss game, in some it's played with a stuffed toy rather than a ball, so it's called, "road kill."  In any case, we divided into teams of three and had two objectives as we skated round the track.  One was to pass the ball at regular intervals between our own teammates and second was to try to intercept the other team's passes.

More of the "road kill ball toss" game.  

Again, we got so into it that we totally lost track of all the practice skills we had to employ in order to make the game work! We were transitioning, orbiting around one another, creating mini-walls, and throwing in mini-hip checks all over the place.  It was a blast!

Finally, we ended practice by taking turns on a quick obstacle course.  The more veteran skaters were aiming for not only speed, but challenging themselves to work harder on each skill, while some of us newer skaters were just trying to make it through without falling, LOL! The course started out with wide, tightly angled slolams leading into a jump.  Then we had to plow stop before doing some kind of fancy footwork weaving through cones.  Next, we had to run on toe stops through a narrow gap and then sprint for a hip check on an "opponent."  The final challenge on our turn around the track was to weave through a mini landmine field of helmets as if they were an opposing pack.

I'm proud to say that on my third time through, I managed to complete each obstacle successfully...if not necessarily as gracefully as some of the other skaters. *grins*  All in all, it was a night that really reminded each of us of how FUN it is to just skate and to hang out with each other, which really are the best parts of being on a derby team, after all!

-Nikki Tesla #134