Business is Boomin'

Things should seem simple enough for roller girls. Skate fast, turn left, hit hard and stay on your feet. Though this seems easy enough, anyone who has played can tell you there is a lot more involved. Pack awareness, strategy, and the finer points of not breaking the rules complicate things when there are nine other women on the track that are doing their best to make you lose your head. How can you help yourself out? Train the way you want to play. What I mean is that you should be training at 80% or above at least three days a week in order to prepare for game time. In the gym, get in and go hard. in practice, push as hard as you can as often as you can. Here is a workout for you . Enjoy!

J

5 min warm up
2 min of jumping rope
15 burpees
3x 10 pushups
3x 8 pull ups (lat pulls if you can't do pull ups)
2x 50 meters of lunges
2x 15 sec side plank (each side)
25 meter bear crawl 5 min cool down

This Is Important

When we are discussing workouts there are a few different aspects that need to be taken into consideration. One of the first things is how well prepared your body is for any and all movement. A few of the categories you may need to consider are strength, speed, agility, power, quickness, flexibility, and stability. Up to this point I have been designing primarily strength, stability, and low level agility and quickness workouts. Today we are going to change that up. Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on lifts that will dramatically increase your speed, quickness, power, and dynamic flexibility (flexibility through motion). One quick caveat; executing these lifts with perfect form is a must. While these motions can be the best for you, they can also injure you quickly if not done properly. Today we will start relatively basic by adding in the deadlift and the upright row. I have included links to videos with proper form and instruction for you. If there are any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers,

Jon


5 min warm up
Stretch
4x 8 push up
4x 8 upright rows   Upright Row Form
4x 8 back extensions
4x8 deadlifts    Dead lift form
2x 10 full sit ups
2x 10 reg crunches
5 min cool down
Stretch

The Wrap Up ?

Championships are over and we have a top team in the land. Congratulations to the Gotham Girls on their win and to all of the others that skated their best. So now what? Tournament season is over and for many that means taking a break for awhile. I can't say that I blame them after an eleven month season.  A week or two of rest is probably in order for your body but can be detrimental to keeping good habits happening. If you are planning on taking a break, I would strongly recommend staying active during your break.

For others this time of year is the perfect time to start amping up your off skates workout so that you can come into next season in the best shape of your life. Just to clarify, being in the best shape of your life will mean that your body will be ready to perform it's best on skates as well. Whatever you decide remember that there are fans out there that are glad that you skated for us to watch this year and can't wait until the next bout.  That said, lets go to work.

Enjoy,

J

5 min warm up
Stretch
3x 10 spiderman push ups
3x 10 meter bear crawls
3x 10 curl to overhead press
3x 10 bent flys
4x 15 sec planks
2x 10 jackknifes
5 min cool down
Stretch

Insert Cliche Here

Championships is upon us and with that every cliche in the book (not to mention a few that don't even exist yet) will be beaten like a dead horse. Some "clutch " players will be "in the zone" when it all comes "down to the wire". Some players will "psyche themselves out" by letting other skaters "knock them off there game" or will just get "stuck in their own head" and thus never make it out of "the pack".  That won't even begin to cover the cliche abuse but it's a start and, for that matter, the end for me (I hope).

So... to skip right ahead of all of the chatter i have three questions and then a brief workout that will not over stress you (after all it is either tournament time or off-season time depending on how things went for you this year) and then I'm out til next Monday.

1. Who do you think will win this years championships?
2. Who is your favorite skater of all time?
3. Are you doing these workouts and if so for how long have you been doing them?

5 min warm up
Stretch
3x 10 pushups
3x 10 meters of lunges                                     
3x 10 curl to overhead presses
3x 15 sec planks
2x 10 jackknifes
5 min cooldown
Stretch

First and Last

It is the first day of the last week before the WFTDA Championships and we are kicking ass. Still plenty of time to gain some ground before the bell tolls on the season. If you are not playing this coming weekend, you should definitely get to the tournament because roller derby is still awesome and this is roller derby at it's best. Enough promotion. Let's get to work.

5 min warm up
Stretch
3x 10 chest presses o stab ball
3x 10 burpees
2x 50 meters of lunges
3x 10 front squat to overhead press
3x 10 bent flys
2x 25 neg crunches
2x 25 reg crunches
5 min cool down
Stretch

Enjoy

 J

Learning To Adjust

Let me be candid here for a moment. This morning I woke up in a small house less than two blocks from a Target store. I made some coffee, took a shower, and tried to bring myself into the land of the living. I was already running late and there was someone waiting for me. As I pulled out of the driveway and turned around the corner of the sleepy street that is now my home I couldn't help but think of the difference the past year made in my life. Last year at this time I had nothing to do with sleepy streets in the burbs next to box stores. For that matter, I didn't have anything to do with a car as I had sold mine and was solely relying on a bicycle to get myself around. This was not an issue because I was living right in the heart of my city and everything was a few blocks away. A year ago I was pretty happy with the way things were going.

As I sipped my coffee and wound through the suburban streets, constantly on the lookout for lazy cops with nothing better to do than pull people over for speeding, I realized  that I am very happy today as well. There was a point in my I didn't think this would be possible; stuck in suburban hell with a family that is looking to you to be responsible and hold to your word. I found out How wrong I was as everything began to change around me. The only thing that has stayed the same in the past year is me and even that isn't entirely true. I am a much better version of myself today than I was a year ago. I can still have a nasty disposition and no reservations about telling you exactly what is on my mind (whether you are asking or not) but I have mellowed quite a bit in the process. I laugh more than I used to and it is a good thing.

This may seem like mindless rambling to you (as it kind of does to me) but there is a point here. The point is that no matter what's going on in your life you need to have two things. The first is a game plan. This doesn't have to have all of the answers to every possible question, but rather a general sense of where your headed and a few of the markers along the way.  The second thing you need is the ability to adjust, to be flexible, in order to achieve what you are truly after.  This is not very easy, especially when the things that you are doing feel very counter-intuitive to reaching your goals. Roller derby workouts that are not on skates can feel a little off, as though they are not honing the skills that you need on skates, but this is not the case. Having you body in the best possible shape will always yield the highest results. That said, let's go to work!

J

5 min warm up
Stretch
3x 8 Straight leg deadlifts to bicep curls
3x 8 Chest press on stab ball
3x 8 overhead presses
3x 8 inverted rows
2x 10 speed skater jumps (each side)
2x 10 full sit ups
5min cooldown
Stretch

P.S. You may want to check out this site if you haven't already. Great free info for Derby Girls!
http://www.allderbydrills.com/

Here We Go Again

WFTDA Championships are around the corner and I believe everyone is excited. For one team this will mean being given The Hydra, as well as the title of Roller Derby Champion of the World. Best of luck to all teams competing and congratulations to whichever team ends up winning.

That being said, lets get back to the point today. I have been working with Roller Girls for almost 5 years now and along the way have experienced some amazing things. Like many of the skaters there have been times that I have hated roller derby; the politics, the difficulty in getting anything done, the conflicts of personality, and in my case the overwhelming resistance that I have experienced in convincing skaters in the need for cross training. However, like most skaters that I know, this is all far outweighed by my love for the sport, the competition, and the women who play. I personally have never met a skater that was not somehow pushing the envelope of women's sports to a better place. I believe that tearing away the stigma of women's sports being far less exciting than men's is vital and derby girls do that with style. A few years ago when I began writing this blog and posting highly effective workouts for skaters (along with some of my less than worthwhile opinions) to assist in the best way that I know how toward bringing Roller Derby to the mainstream. I feel that to further legitimize the sport in the eyes of the public a greater focus needs to be placed on athleticism in this game we hold so dearly.

Roller derby is no longer one dimensional. It has been constantly evolving into a much more strategic sport that requires it's players to be far more dynamic in their abilities. In short, being able to skate fast and turn left is not enough to truly excel anymore.

Now, to stop rambling and put a point on this, this blog will be proceeding from here(finally) to give tips that can be effective for all skaters in helping their game step up to the next level. Many of the previous workouts posted here have been focused on core stabilization, which is absolutely necessary. Moving forward, we will be focusing on building from that platform to increase strength, speed, agility, dynamic flexibility, and overall awesomeness. This will make you a better skater as well less prone to injury, which are awesome things to be. So without further adieu, lets get back to work with the task for the day!


5 min warm up
Stretch
3x 12 spiderman pushups
3x 12 front squat to overhead press
3x 12 inverted rows
3x 15 meters lunges with med ball twist to the outside
2x 25 ball crunches
2x 10 jackknifes
5 min cooldown
Stretch

Cheers,

J

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