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PJRD Banked Track Workshop – Skip Schoen

Posted by admin on March 25, 2010 in Roller Derby, Roller Derby

The workshop went very well. We had close to 30 skaters show up for this one. The skaters were from the OSDA league in Chester NY, Baltimore MD, Depford, NJ, and Richmond VA. There were also a few skaters who skate flat track under the WFTDA rule set.

Training again was the same as the first workshop. The start of the workshop, stretching, skating around, followed by a 10 minute pace on the flat track, then over to the banked track.

Judy started off telling them that they would find it “different” skating on the banked track, some would have no problems, others no so lucky and could find themselves in the infield very quickly. They might find their leg muscles would be sore from using them differently than on the flat track. It was suggested that they take off their toe stops, but not manditory, since the toe stops just might cause them to fall by them hitting the track. Then after a few more words of what could/couldn’t happen, just to not let themselves get discouraged because they were not adjusting as fast as they thought they should or were doing as well as they thought they should, to just have fun.

Next it was onto the track to learn how to “walk the track”. We had 3 of our skaters doing the demos and I joined in once in awhile, yea, I was back on skates. They tried that for about 5 minutes or so and then moved on to praticing the left over right crossovers to stay up at the rail. They were shown how to do a five stride, how they should skate the track and then it was on to a pace.

Most had trouble staying up near the rails at first but as the pace progressed they started to get the hang of it. After about 15 minutes, those that fell out of the pace were called into the infield while the pace continued. We had our skaters leading the pace and place within the pace line so they could help keep the 5 stride going. Those still in the pace continued to skate with about 10 staying in the pace the whole time of 25 minutes. This pace was straight skating with one, then two then three skaters at a time doing breakaways. After it was just the 10 skaters left, it was just pacing for the last 10 minutes.

We also covered the correct way of falling, jumping then falling and having to get up fast. Hitting the kick rails, hitting the kick rails then doing a spinoff from the rails. There were also some skating in the reverse direction, then after each whistle changing direction, my favorite for playing around. (Bodies flying all over with each change of direction)! There were also giving and taking whips.

Everyone said they really enjoyed the workshop. They said it was a lot harder to skate on the track than what they thought it would be, some saying they did better than they thought they would. They all want their respected leagues to get a banked track now. Everyone said they enjoyed themselves, and cant’ wait to come back and learn more. They also said they had respect for those that skated on the banked track before, but now they’ve gotten more respect for those who made it look so easy to do.

We are now planning another workshop for April 18 from 12-4 PM

Skip

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