Playing the Mental Game

So I learned a couple of important lessons this week about the skating world. The Brisbane roller derby community had some visitors in the shape of VRDL's Queen Bees team last weekend. They were tough competition, bouting against BCR, NBR in a double header on the Saturday night, and then PCRD and SSRG in scrims on the Sunday morning. They were exceptional players, and excellent sports people- willing to give feedback, advice, and have a laugh at the end of the game. They even had time to check out quite a bit of Brisbane before heading down south (soaking up some of our sunny weather no doubt). Before they left, however, myself and Verucassault (Saulty) took the opportunity to take the Queen Bee's captain Bianca Sciaretta down to the Gold Coast to check out some of the skate parks. Bianca was excited to be outside – the ramp skating in Victoria is usually based indoors, because of the weather. Pizzey park was super busy, and it was tough getting a clean line, and for slightly newer people to ramps – picking your drop-in time was challenging. The bowl cleared out (yay), so we took it over. Pizzey park is great for beginners and experienced skaters, because it has this little lip area at about 4ft – so you can still drop-in (but not from the top at 7ft! Scary). I was due to drop-in and meet Bianca in the middle to practise pumping and turning... when shit got rough. This is why extreme sports require so much practice – because it's about 85% mental prep and then 10% muscle memory and then 5% confidence (which really belongs in the mental prep)... I'd dropped in before, but something wasn't quite the same with how I dropped in this time (muscle memory)... my brain told my body that what I was doing was wrong somehow, so I over-corrected, stuck my hand out to brace a fall... and that was that, broken wrist. When skaters are attempting tricks they warm their brains up by doing similar tricks on a smaller scale – showing their body what they're able to do (and still end up with bruises and breaks) Lesson learned, skating with friends is always a good idea – if I was by myself at the bottom of a 7ft bowl, it would've been a whole lot worse. Having company and someone to drive to the local hospital (and help remember the doctor's instructions) – these are amazing things. Second lesson learned – breaks and injuries are part and parcel of this recreational choice, I'm lucky that this has happened at the end of my season, but it'll take some time before I'm mentally prepared to go back to a skate park. I'll be back to it though – I'll defeat Pizzey Park, and prove that I'm not a complete dumby with dropping in. BY ANNAWREXYA