© Ian Rwb

So, our 2nd bootcamp in a series of many was a huuuuge succes! *yay*

On January 22nd,  >50 skaters (female + male) showed up at our practice hall “De Meerminnen”  for a completely sold out Blocking Bandicoot Bootcamp. Also, we were very proud to have organised the very first Benelux bootcamp where men could fully participate, ending with a Men’s scrimmage. In order to participate to our bootcamp, skaters had to meet the WFTDA minimum skills requirements.

© Ian Rwb

Our coach, Sir SkateALot, made sure we worked our butts off in a 4h intensive training session on our amazing wooden floor! Since we had 2 tracks, we were able to focus on developing speed and agility techniques, skills & strategies that make us better blockers: positional blocking, booty blocking, speed up to slow down, upper body management, building walls and destroying them, and many more. Ending with a full hour scrimmage with all the girls!

Check out our official photo reel over here (©Ian Rwb)!

I’ve met up with a couple of our male skaters, to pick their brains about their experience on our bootcamp

• What did you think about the organisation in general (payment, subscribing, welcome, venue,…)?
  [Huge Refner] Charming, as usual! Mostly, the beautiful girls caught my eye
  [Natas] Totally flabbergasted!

• 

  © Ian Rwb

  We organised the first Benelux bootcamp, where you and other men could fully participate, was it what you expected?
  [Natas] It was more than I expected, learned some new moves and also met a lot of new derby friends.
  [Huge Refner] It was way better than expected! Mostly the Men’s scrimmage, nice to have been a part of it & give (and receive) hits for a change! A certain C.C. Titmouse did give me a couple of well earned bruises. I like to treasure them, like a present.

• What was your favourite excercise? What was the least exciting for you?
  [Natas] My favorite excercise was the Men’s scrimmage at the end because I think that was the part were we men had the most to learn. I always try to do every excercise when we train with our league, but to actually use those skills in a scrimmage is something else. The least exciting excercise: warm up because it made me realise my stamina sucks big time
  

  © Ian Rwb

  .

• Things you’ve missed and you’d love to learn more about on a next bootcamp?
  [Natas]It was a good allround blocking training. I can’t come up with something I missed.
  [Huge Refner] I’d like to have had more strategy classes for Men’s Derby, but we’ve got a great introduction already thanks to the OLRD girls!

• Would you be interested in a Men’s only Bootcamp? If so, what would you like to learn there?
  [Natas] Hell yeah, but I think we don’t have enough men yet for a Men’s Only Bootcamp.  I hope more men get interested in the game and want to try it out themselves. I would like to get more scrimmage experience, so come on guys! Join the Men’s Derby Team Flanders!

• How’s it going for Men’s Derby in Belgium? What are your future plans/schedule?
  [Huge Refner] I’m always willing to scrimmage, I just don’t have the time to implement extra trainings to my schedule. I wouldn’t want to give up practicing with the girls neither, since they need their refs at practice & I love being a part of their community as well.
  [Natas] Personally, I’d love to compete with other Male Derby leagues. So we need to grow first & then someday soon I would really like to participate in a European Championship sometime!

© Ian Rwb

So for all the skating men out there, we’re always looking for referees! For information, send us an e-mail through info@oneloverollerdolls.be & check out the official Men’s Derby Team Flanders-page!

If you want in on the action, I’m afraid the next OLRD Bootcamps are all sold out, but you can still register, if you want your name to be on the waiting list!
- 13 November 2011: Pump up the Jam!  (past)
- 22 January 2012: Blocking Bandicoot!  (past) – sold out
- 15 April 2012: Newbies Track Attack! – sold out
- 3 June 2012: Smack the Pack! – sold out

© Ian Rwb

Xx²
C.C. Titmouse
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© Ian Rwb

Wow, my very first OLRD blog entry , thrilling !

I’ve been skating with the OLRD for 6 months now (unfortunately, still no nickname :s) and I was really looking forward to this scrimmage. I was very nervous the weeks before, on top of that I missed a couple of practices in December due to sickness.  As a compensation, I bought a pair cycling shoes so I could train on my dad’s home-trainer to improve my endurance.

As The 15th of January approached  our team ‘New Generation’ seemed haunted by bad luck. The weeks before the scrimmage a few team-mates got sick or injured & couldn’t compete. We ended up with a team of 10 (utterly superb) players. Brussels had some problems with gathering a full team as well, but they added some players from the Bad Bunny Rollers (Menen)) so everything was well balanced out after all.

© Ian Rwb

After weeks of preparing/planning/stressing out, the big day was finally there!
We arrived at the venue at noon for a debriefing  in order to get everything ready. Here, I would like to add a special thank you to our ref Natas for borrowing me his wheels, because mine were so worn out that I was gliding all over the place. THANK YOU NATAS!

After a briefing & warm-up by our Coach Sir SkateAlot, it was finally time to do what we trained for: our very first scrimmage!

It was over before we knew it! Since, there weren’t many of us, we got a lot of playtime. Which I liked, because I really don’t like  waiting and sitting on the bench. I loved the way our team played! We were like one big front, everything went well and I had the feeling we were really playing together. Although  the second half went a bit less smooth, because the exhaustion took a hold of us (+it was terribly warm), I still enjoyed every second of it.  The Brussels Derby Pixies played a great game and were so much fun to compete against.

© Ian Rwb

In retrospect this was a  great day  and everything went well because of the efforts of the whole team! Special shout-out goes to Skullcrusher Lottie! She worked so hard to make it to the OLRD’s New Generation-team and had to back-out the day before the scrimmage, due to a leg injury :s. She never let her spirit down & showed great organisational skills, which led to an amazing scrimmage #Regelteef!

Now that we’ve got the first scrimmage experience in our vains, I can’t hardly wait for our next scrimmage (or bout :0)!

xoxo
Nina #5

© Ian Rwb

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We’d like to thank everyone who cared, shared & gave a little! It’s so heartwarming to see the derbycommunity work together for a good cause. We’ve got reactions from allover Europe!

Belgium, The Netherlands, Tenerife & a special shout-out to the UK-leagues who supported as well! Thanks to Rollin’ News for sharing our message across in the UK!

Special thanks to SckrPnch, our favourite derby owned & operated webshop, who donated a new set of wheels & to Rollerschool Brasschaat for their general support. Check our their show “Umbrya“, a roller skating production!

All together, we raised €352,5, to benefit Eve’il X‘s cause. We’ll keep you posted on what she’s done with the money, but we’re sure she’ll be choosing skates & gear in no time!

More to come!
Xx²

One Love Roller Dolls

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On January, 31st (8PM), all Eve’il X‘s derby gear, skater for the One Love Roller Dolls was stolen in Ghent (Belgium)!

© Ian Rwb

© Riedell & Pro Designed Inc.

It was a grey backpack ‘Chrismo’, with her helmet attached to it. Inside she put her Riedell ‘She Devil’ roller skates, with red ‘Radar Tuner’ wheels (92A) & black/white striped laces. She had ‘Pro Design.Inc’ knee pads, wrist guards, and ‘Bauer’ elbow pads & ‘Rucanor’ volleybalpads. Exact location: Sint-Annaplein, near the ‘Studioscoop’ in Ghent.

If you have any information, please contact us! > info@oneloverollerdolls.be

We’re also gathering money, so she can buy herself new gear. She’s one of those hard working skaters, who never backs down. She’s a student and saved up a long time for her beloved derby gear. Eve’il X has put a lot of effort in her roller derby carreer & into our league & we feel this is the (unfortunate) occasion to give back. She’s one of our star jammers, & we want her to be fully ready for our next game, so let’s get things going! Roughly counted, she lost around about €650 worth of gear, so every little cent counts!

• black Riedell ‘She Devil’ roller skates (new: €350)
• red Radar Tuner wheels (92A) (new: €59,95)
• knee pads & wrist guards ‘Pro Designed’ (new: €147)
• elbow pads ‘bauer’ (new: €20)
• black helmet ‘scott’ (new: €45)
• Volleybalpads ‘Rucanor’ (new: €8)
  —————————
  total value (new): around €650

The OLRD was already contemplating a fundraiser within the league, but we decided to broaden the reach to the whole roller derby community. If you have anything to spare, help her out. Any amount is welcome!

Hit the “Donate” button & let’s show everyone what the ‘derby-spirit’ is all about!

Thanks in advance!

xoxo

One Love Roller Dolls

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©BearCityRollerDerby

How hard can a Monday SUCK!!? Back to the real life, when I can’t let go of the derby-high, since last weekend. EROC 2012 was THA BOMB! It was a first for me, but surely won’t be my last!

Being the Head of OLRD’s PR, Media & Events committee, I’m always looking at things from a PR-point of view. Networkingwise, I could drool over the attendance list, but I didn’t (I can control my urges!) .

When I looked at the programme, it was very clear on which workshops I wanted to attend & I was confident to take it all-in, process the information and come back with a suitcase full of ideas, tips & tricks!

Friday, January 27th 2012

© C.C. Titmouse

Wham! Bam! Wonterjam! & myself took the plane to Berlin around 4PM, whilst Lolli Chop, Cherry Moshpit  & our Head Ref Face First had already arrived. Our coach (& representative of Men’s Derby Team Flanders) Sir SkateAlot was on his way by car! Not only Antwerp, but Belgium in general was well represented at EROC! Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp & Charleroi united, yihaaa! ^^

© C.C. Titmouse

Once we arrived, we caught up with our teammates & joined  Miss Miyagi, Veronica Fever, Sandra Buttblock & Grace S. Melly (Ghent Go-Go Roller Girls) at Tiki Heart Cafe for cocktails and burgers! (Most.Yummie.Burgers.Evah btw!) After having checked the whole cocktail menu, we headed over to Wowsville, where the official EROC “Warm Up” was hosted. A lot of familiar faces there, seemed as if The Netherlands brought quite the delegation as well *yay* Lowlands! . We had a modest little party, since we had a full schedule planned for Saturday! Workshops, Workshops, Workshops!

Saturday, January 28th 2012

Saturday morning, BRIGHT AND EARLY! For people who know me, it’s a challenge to get me to be somewhere on time, so I was quite proud I arrived on time for breakfast & a warm welcome by MasterBlaster (Bear City Roller Derby).

© OLRD

I tend to go all hippy on yer asses, when I go on these derby-weekends. It brings me a certain comfort, knowing all these people come together with the same goal in mind. We’re putting Europe on the roller derby map & we’re all a part of it (ooooooooh!) .

My day of workshops started with “Interviews, Tips & Tricks” by FoXy Führer (Bear City Roller Derby) & was followed by an exhilarating class of “Merchandising & Branding” by Sarah Hipel (WFTDA Referee Training and Certification Coordinator & skater for Texas Rollergirls)! Although, she filled in for a sick speaker, it turned out to be a very inspiring & useful class. After lunch we had a little brainstorming session about “Sponsoring & Fundraising” by FoXy Führer (Bear City Roller Derby), where I outed myself as being the “Easter Egg Girl” :0. Since we were talking about easy ways to raise money, I addressed our little Easter Egg Campaign, which raised a few eyebrows. But hey, sometimes you don’t have to overthink it; buy low, sell high! #BAM!

© Michael Wittig

I was very curious about the “Conflict Resolutions”-workshop by Bloody Mary (WFTDA Executive Director & skater for Texas Rollergirls) & since we don’t (yet) have a CR-committee I found it to be very intriguing! Spreading the good love & peace around doesn’t always cut it, so I was very happy to hear the constructive methods of avoiding/handling internal & external conflicts! In case of derby drama it’s better to be safe than sorry aight!

I ended the day with the “Recruiting” class by Jam Pain (Ref for Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz) and was pleased to find out we’re doing a pretty good job at recruiting & training our Fresh Meat already! Still, we’re always looking for new talent & refs! SO GUYS, GET YOUR LOVELY LITTLE BUTTS OVER TO ANTWERP, ‘cause we need to work on those elbows & backblocks #DoIIIIIIIIIIIT!

A lovely derby day, filled with interesting classes & people. Tiring & cold (always manage to pack the wrong clothes when I go on a trip), but satisfied .

© Dire Wolff

We hooked up with the other attending Belgian leagues for a Belgian meeting over dinner. And planted the seeds for the future, over pizza, how cool is thàt?!!! Yes, I can be overly excited, but I can’t help but loooove the way Belgium is coming together, derbywise.

After the obligatory cocktail, we hit the sack! We’re such goodie goodie’s! But EROC meant business for us, we wanted to take in as much as possible, we’ll party when the work’s done (good intentions aye) ;P.

Sunday, January 29th 2012

Another early morning & again, on time (SCORE!)
Today was the day we got to scrimmage. We dared to sign up for the advanced one, so we had to earn our place!

© Parliament of Pain roller derby league

Although I’m very proud of our league, I couldn’t believe I was standing on the same track as several roller derby veterans (in a sexy, non old way of course ;p). My confidence took a dive downwards and it took ‘till halftime to get over myself, but I managed. In the end I’m not completely happy with my performance, in the sense that I let a lot of chances untapped. It was fun to share the track with our sisters from Ghent & lovely to kick some ass with Team White! #HappyDonuts!!!

© Michael Wittig

Still, I couldn’t help feeling our little Antwerpian league belonged out there. Since we’re always looking for leagues to scrimmage/bout against, it’s good to get noticed whilst playing. I’m happy, & proud!

We ended our derby weekend with a European Discussion, which I had to cut short, since I had to work in the morning (bweurlgh!). So I’m waiting eagerly for my team mates to give me the update on what’s been said!

EROC is a wonderful platform for Europe’s roller derby leagues & I can’t wait for it to be EROC 2013!

Thank you Berlin Bombshells (Bear City Roller Derby) for hosting such a wonderful event; bringing leagues allover Europe together in order to encourage, support & push Euro roller derby!

Xx²
C.C. Titmouse

© Michael Wittig

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As I already came to say: a lot has been going on for the One Love Roller Dolls and we’re all quite happy about that.

©OLRD

For starters: we played an awesomely fun bout “Rien à Bloquer” against the girls from Roller Derby Metz Club (France). On Sunday, 11^th of December, we invited the girls over at our venue “De Meerminnen”- in Beveren. We had to be there pretty early (I don’t like early) to set up the track, prepare locker rooms, place team benches and the dreaded  penalty box, etc. All of our girls put everything to work to make sure this bout was well organized so skaters, NSO’s, refs and off course the public would have an exciting day. And it was! The Metz girls played a good game and although they didn’t win, they showed us how a fair game is played. They never gave up and they came back really strong during the second half.  RDMC surely thought us a lesson in “fighting spirit”. The audience loved the bout and shouted their lungs out for their favorite team. The highlight of the game for me was when my little nephew – Joppe, 11 years old – went over to the DJ boot to say he was really proud of his niece!! *melts* Speaking of the DJ – our very own “Suzy Cute” -  did an awesome job once again! Also a big shout out to our announcers – “Starsky Zoolander” and “Saxia F” who fought the horrible acoustic and added to the greatness of the game.  It was a lovely day and every minute of work we had put into it, was surely worth it!
Look at our official ‘Rien à Bloquer’ photo reel over here!

©Ian Rwb

A few weeks ago, on January 14^th, a few girls of our league went over to Eindhoven to play alongside the girls from Brussels “Brussels Derby Pixies” in Pixie Spankalot’s Birthday scrimmage.  Here we played 30 minutes scrimmages against some familiar leagues.: RDMC, Rockcity Rollers & Eastside RocknRollers and “The Avengers”, with players from different German leagues.  Although it was quite cold outside, a lot of warmth went out from all the skaters, refs, NSO’s and the public. It was overwhelming to see how many people traveled several hours for one of the most amazing birthday parties I’ve ever seen.  We had the chance to play with the Brussels Derby Pixies and it was amazing to see how much they grew during the event. On top of their skating skills, they are also fun girls to be around. So despite of the alleged problems between the French speaking and the Flemish speaking Belgians, we found no trouble in communicating with each other and playing together. On the contrary: it turned out that this “Fremish” alliance worked great. We won two out of three games and came close to winning the third, but not close enough. After we played our last game, we went out for some French fries and watched the last game together. No I know why my family and friends are always hoarse after cheering on one of our bouts.

©Bear City Roller Derby

Next stop for me, “C.C. Titmouse”, “Loli Chop”, “Cherry Moshpit”, our headref “Face First” and our beloved coach “Sir SkateALot” will be attending the European Roller Derby Organizational Conference (EROC), hosted by Bear City Roller Derby in Berlin this weekend. I’m really looking forward to meeting new people, seeing some others again and being plunged into an entire derby-related weekend with workshops, on- and off- skates classes, discussions and hopefully some spontaneous party outbursts.

So keep your eye on our website, ‘ cause I’m sure one of the attendees from our league is going to blog about it

Wham! Bam! Wonterjam!

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©OLRD

Last Sunday, January 22nd the One Love Roller Dolls gathered materials to support the “Save Animals From The Cold“-project. This goodwill-project is run by a group of volunteers who organize collections of things for dogs and cats for shelters in Belgium, South and Eastern Europe.

In these cold times, our best friends can benefit from a helping hand. This is why OLRD gathered money & materials to benefit this magnificent initiative!

Together with all our (international) friends, who attended the Blocking Bandicoot Bootcamp, we collected several things such as blankets, sheets, pillows, warm clothes, benches, medicines for animals, shampoos, and so much more.

©OLRD

At 5 pm we invited the volunteers to sports court ‘De Meerminnen’ in Beveren, where loads of skaters from different leagues and countries were scrimmaging; Menen, Amsterdam, Namur, Liège, Enschede, The Hague, Charleroi, Eindhoven, Gent, Utrecht…

We collected 4 cars with stuff: benches, baskets, food for cat and dogs, blankets, toys for dogs, and so much more!

We’d like to thank evereone who helped gathering materials, evereone who showed their support in any way! Thanks to every league who supported the cause and collected so many things. Because of your warm hearts, we can help a lot of animals throughout Europe, who are suffering during the cold winter.

Please know that this action was not solitary. The project is collecting the whole year through! So if you have anything else to give them, feel free to contact them: http://reddierenindekou.yolasite.com/

Xx²
C.C. Titmouse
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©GGGRG

Saturday, the 17th of December 2011, Nina & I woke up early for our first Rookie Bootcamp with the GGGRG on the site of Tour &Taxi’s in Brussels. In the beginning there was a little problem with some men who were laying carpet on our skating floor (aaarggh), but the girls from GGGRG came up with a quick and good solutions and made two tracks. We put on our gear and started with 50 rookies from 17 different leagues to do what we came to do: skate!

©Jeroen Van der Meeren

We started in one big group and warmed up avoiding some cracks in the floor. The warm-up was intense, for example 1min sprinting and 1min skills as step turns, cuttings, falls, backwards, stops, squaaaat, … the GGGRG girls named this exercise “the black widow” because it is deadly tiring. Nina & I tried our best cause our coach Sir SkateAlot was watching.

©Jeroen Van der Meeren

After the warm-up we split up in two groups A & B and started some exercises on positional or booty blocking, giving and receiving hits and we also learned “the hammer & nail”, goal? One positional blocker slows the jammer down and try to keep her on the inside line, the second blocker (hammer) hits out the jammer (nail). Mission accomplished!

©Jeroen Van der Meeren

After the blocking exercises we practiced on jamming, speed, skating in a pack. We all had the chance to try different positions: leading the pack as a natural born pivot and screaming directives to your pack or skate through it as a agile galloping jammer.

©Jeroen Van der Meeren

At 12h30 it was lunchtime. The GGGRG girls made us some really delicious and healthy power food. Spaghetti, broccoli, meatloaf, tofu and lots of vegetables. During lunch we could listen to MissMiyagi from Sckrpnch (our favourite, european derbyshop!) who informed us about gear, plates and wheels! After lunch we spend half an hour on rules (with Referee Dire Wolff) or on strategies such as defense and offense (with Veronica Fever). Then back on track for some more skating. We trained on making walls with two or three girls as strong as the Berlin wall and learned “the waterfall”, when coming out of the corner blocker one jumps to the outside line and takes position of blocker three. We also practiced a lot on communication, which I learned is very important when playing roller derby.

©Jeroen Van der Meeren

After a 15min break we did a scrimmage with the entire group. We made a white and a black team, wrote some number on the back of our shirts and were ready to show what we had learned today. There were some very fast jammers and some knock-you-out blockers but most of all we tried to work as a team, communicate with each other and help one another, cause when playing roller derby, it is all about teamwork!

©Jeroen Van der Meeren

Thanks to GGGRG girls for the training, thanks to all girls for a fun day, I can’t wait for the next Rookie Bootcamp!

xoxo
Ellen #22

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©OLRD

The One Love Roller Dolls, played their first official bout against the Ruhrpott Roller Girls from Essen on the 30th of October 2011. It was a great bout, perfect organization, the team fought for every point and played a great game, there was a huge audience and they enjoyed every minute of it. It was an event we could all be proud of!

You can watch the official photo album over here!

©Ian Rwb

But why did it take so long to write a blog about it? Why can’t we find a volunteer to write this blog and is it up to the coach to do it? I don’t know, let me guess…

It was great, but it wasn’t perfect, we left with the feeling we didn’t gave it our best. We learned a lot about ourselves and about how to play roller derby, and some of these lessons took us long enough.

©Ian Rwb

We were well prepared for this game, had trained hard and gone through every possible strategy we could handle. We were so well prepared that we already thought it would be an easy win. But when the game started, we immediately noticed Ruhrpott was also well prepared, we were not the only ones playing hard and smart. So we learned Lesson 1: you’re only the winner at the end of the game.

©Ian Rwb

The first half was really exciting, lots of lead changes, two teams playing clever roller derby. The German team did build a strong wall, and we had problems tearing down those walls. I called for a counter strategy, and when I had done my explication, I saw the German coach, from the corner of my eye who had listened to everything I said. (Lesson 2: don’t yell out strategy, the “enemy” is listening). At the end of the first half, Eve’il X jammed in a rough full length jam, was completely beaten up, and was out for the rest of the period. Lucky for us she came back in the second period. (Lesson 3: it’s good if you can take a lot of hits, it’s better if you can avoid them). At halftime we were in the lead with just one point.

©Ian Rwb

Second half started and Ruhrpott took a little lead. We tried to catch up, but little by little we let panic take over. (Never let panic take over, that doesn’t even qualify as a lesson). We started to take more trips to the penalty box and had to adapt our line-ups almost every jam. And there was Lesson 4: make a plan for when things are difficult and stick to it. We were sending in almost always the same players, because we thought the other ones would not be good enough. One month later, in our next bout those same players showed us we were completely wrong about it. (Lesson 5: thrust your teammates, all of them).

©Ian Rwb

Antwerp has a reputation as a team that is working together, but at that time we forgot. (Lesson 6: Teamwork! Always! Also when under pressure!). But still, up to the very end of the bout we had a chance to win. Chicka Lee got a powerjam and looked ready to close the gap, but unfortunately she was sent to the box herself, leaving it to the Ruhrpott jammer to take a decisive lead. (Lesson 7: In Roller Derby, penalties can decide the outcome of the game).

©Ian Rwb

In the end, we lost, 154-111. Not bad, but it felt we could reach for victory and just couldn’t get it. That’s frustrating, and we had to deal with that frustration. Ruhrpott was the better team, they kept it together, they played together and never gave us the opportunity to play our game. So they deserved to win. And that’s the most important Lesson 8: no matter how good you are, if the other team is better you lose, nothing wrong with that, that’s sport.

©Ian Rwb

Learning something makes you humble, and being humble makes you stronger. In the end we are proud of ourself. It was a great first bout, perfect organization, good game. And those lessons, we learned them all right, which was clear from our 2nd bout (against Metz Roller Derby Club (France)). But sometimes it may take a little time to understand and deal with it, and then the readers have to wait for their blog.

Ruhrpott Roller Girls, congratulations and thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn, we’ll get back to you on that rematch soon .

©Ian Rwb

 PS. We won the after party, that’s for sure

Sir SkateAlot,
Coach
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Pic by Limpin' Lilly (ADD)

Time-management-wise, this was a good one for C.C. “never on time” Titmouse. Since it was a weekday and most of us have to work during the day, it was a rush-rush kind of evening with a lot of traffic (2,5h drive from Antwerp to Amsterdam). But finally arrived ‘only’ 1 hour late (SCORE)!

Last weekend, my carkeys got stolen (companycar, who the f*ck cares, right), except the fact that both mine as Wham! Bam! Wonterjam!’s derby gear is still in the trunk of this very car. Unfortunately, we can’t hover above the car to make sure no thief can steal our (new) skates. If we could, WE WOULD #VultureStyle!  We’ve been living in constant fear ever since and it seems that I won’t be receiving a spare until Friday. As you all know, we have our FIRST Official Bout on Sunday, so I’m ready to go Colombine on the company’s Ass if I do not have a key on Friday!!! ><

The first time I ever heard about Montreal was at the “Anarchy in the UK” tournament in London. Those New Skids On The Block came out, wearing their signature Neon-coloured Spandex Outfits, straight out of the ‘80s. With the coolest skate-out ever, all this ‘show’ should be a reference to their game too. Oh, but did they deliver #InstantFan! It’s always fun to see Montreal play, therefore we watched the East Regional Play Offs very closely. And to have 2 Skids over in Amsterdam and being able to learn a thing or two from them, was something we couldn’t miss.

So eventhough nor Whammie, nor myself had any gear, our fellow Roller Dolls made sure we were able to borrow gear (which wasn’t easy, since I have a massive sized head!) and we got out our old(er) skates so we could benefit from a little Canadian lesson!

Both Georgia as Tease bring a lot of humour to the rink, but in the end we all take it very seriously, we all want to ‘get there’, whatever it takes. I personally loved their “breaking-it-up” method, since it’s easier to learn difficult movements if you break it up in little pieces. I’m having troubles with the hockeystop & the powerslide for example and their little session made me successfully do the hockeystop! (Or at least, it didn’t look like the ‘Fantasia’ballerina at the verge of doing a very painful split, not stopping. at. all.) So *yay*!

Overall, it was great seeing our friends from The Netherlands again. If it was up to me, the bootcamp could’ve lasted all night, but seeing my zombie-face in the mirror right now, this was a nice first encounter.  Evil plans to lure them into Belgium have been set into motion (“Come to the dark side, we have beer and chocolate!”) .

11 Dolls & Refs gathered and drove 2,5 hours for an awesome bootcamp. Lovely to see that kind of teamspirit & dedication on the eve of our first official bout. One Love!

Xx²
C.C. Titmouse

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©Garry Bryan Jr.

So, last Thursdaynight the Rotterdam Death Row Honeys were kind enough to host OLRD’s AllStarTeam for our first scrimmage of this season. Since we’re playing our FIRST official bout next week, we considered this to be the perfect practise opportunity, and as you all know; practise makes perfect!

Despite the rain and what I consider to be a comparable climate to Antarctica, our troops showed up to Rotterdam in tiny European cars filled with players, refs and NSO’s ready to make Antwerp proud (and secretly go to Burger King after the scrimmage).

©Garry Bryan Jr.

Despite initial hesitation on our end about the weather conditions and playing on an outdoor track, Death Row’s enthusiasm and eagerness to play showed as their girls dried up their court with “squeegees”. They “really” wanted to play and I immediately thought they just wanted my team and I to kill ourselves by skating on a super wet, slick track…. But I was WRONG .

©Garry Bryan Jr.

Anyway, back to the scrimmage. One Love came out on top from the start with some solid defense opening up holes for our faster than you can say “toy boat” three times jammers. Chicka Lee, Wham! Bam! Wonterjam! and Eve’il X racked up the points with some sweet lateral movements and of course, speed.

That being said, I think now is a good time to talk about the importance of communication (and how good we were at that last night)! Communication within the pack AND from the sidelines was an incredible source of encouragement and leadership. It helped us play like a team rather than individuals. Lolli Chop & C.C. Titmouse were calm and collected but to the point and clear. I even heard Wham! Bam! yelling from the sidelines at one point and thought to myself “That class act knows what she’s talking about. I better do it.”

©Garry Bryan Jr.

Last but not least, because of our Coach’s and Line Up Manager’s sweet organizational skills no one was confused about when or where they were going. Men can sometimes get a bed rep for not expressing themselves enough but ladies do not fear: Sir SkateALot is changing all of that.

Due to the weather conditions, we had to reorganise the scrimmage into 3 x 20 minute-periods. Rotterdam forfaited after the first 20 minutes, and we continued with mixed scrimmage excercises. Rotterdam have another scrimmage coming up this weekend (against our sisters from the Ghent Go-Go Roller Girls) & we have OUR FIRST OFFICIAL BOUT to think about, so we didn’t want to take any risks. In the end, scrimmage is all about learning and that’s exactly what we did!

All in all, that night’s scrimmage was soooo legit. We had lots of support and  gracious hosts who even had a bottle of champagne ready at the end of the scrimmage! More importantly, we had fun with one another. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

©Garry Bryan Jr.

©Ian Rwb

Love,

Champain Brunch
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