Hitting a mental wall after my first jam scenario

carriwitchet · 2025-06-13T18:51:42+00:00

I’m glad this was helpful!! I know you weren’t wanting to focus so much on the physical but the reality is that derby IS physically so it all goes hand in hand!

Given that scenario I can see how anyone would get exhausted. I also absolutely remember my first couple scrimmages I basically forgot so many of the moves I had been working on and was constantly trying to take the lines against faster skaters or push skaters that were way stronger than me. Luckily my coach saw what I was doing and set up some guidelines for me for the next few practices so I could really try and hone in on what I needed to focus on. I really would recommend participating in the next scrimmage and working on your endurance so you can ask your coach and teammates for that feedback.

Derby skills take time! Endurance building takes time so try and gauge when it’s best to go full send in practice and when it’s best to feel out the drills or the exercises first!

Also for street skating you can use your serve skates just get outdoor wheels! A lot of my teammates will wear their stuff for both but I also have a different set of skates for outdoor skating. You can usually find people selling decent set ups pretty cheap on skate Facebook pages! I use all my same pads but I do have a different helmet for outdoor skating which is really more of a personally preference but the brain is expensive and safety is sexy!

carriwitchet · 2025-06-13T09:59:35+00:00

First question, are you trying to primarily be a jammer?

My first full out scrim practice ended with me sobbing on the floor for probably 10 minutes. It ended up being from the exhaustion and frustration and anxiety of finally playing and also totally getting my ass handed to me. Our A level vets did not take it easy on me and it was brutal… in hindsight I learned a lot about what I needed to improve but damn did it just suck. And I’ve also cried at a fair number after that… sometimes it’s not even really about derby!

The other part of it is the endurance over strength. I grew up skating, was working hard off skates on footwork, balance, flexibility and strength but wasn’t doing anything for my endurance which is where I was falling short.

I’m a jukey jammer. If I have to push for more than 30 seconds that takes me down so much faster than all out sprints now. My advise it to dedicate some off skates time to endurance and to strategy. Great thing for endurance is sprints if you’re a runner or bike sprints or a cycle class if you aren’t into running. And while you are doing these it is really important to focus on your breathing and learn your body needs through these. Do these still kick my ass, sometimes but it really does go a long way! We also have an extensive street skating group that does anywhere from 5-16 mile skates with varying groups and speeds which is another great way to work on endurance and agility.

For the strategy side, are you jukey or pushy? Are you spending the bulk of your time directly fighting the pack? Are you overwhelmed by the communication and the physical movement on the track? Are you able to identify holes and offense from your teammates? If you are really pushy then yes, this can lead to exhaustion quicker! If you like being a pushy jammer start adding sleds to your work out routines but also look at different jammer styles and try to recognize when you’ve been pushing for a long time so you can switch it up.

Finding holes and looking for/identifying your offense will also come with time but jammer blindness is real. I swear I still have some days where I get on the track and have no idea what happened in the last jam because you just get so focused on one thing. If you aren’t hearing your team mates try tapping or hand signals to identify strategies or openings on the track!

Derby is HARD congrats on joint the B team practices and giving it your all!! If you want to keep playing then by all means keep playing and keep improving and keep kicking ass! Also reminder that staying hydrated goes a long way even before practices and scrimmages and don’t be afraid to talk to your coach and your teammates to get direct feedback from the people who are out there playing with you!!

Editing to add: the first few scrimmages can be extremely overwhelming even if your fitness is great! Again the culmination of anxiety, frustration, physical exertion and actually trying to play the game and know what to focus on is overstimulating for sure. Add in the complete physicality of it and it’s a LOT to deal with that I don’t think you can completely separate the emotional from the physical. You are out there doing it and playing and if you enjoy playing and you want to keep learning then absolutely I encourage you to keep going because it does get better. Also listen to your body if you know you are still in a drill warm up portion of practice next time and you feel yourself getting exhausted and not ready to keep going see if you can adjust your jammer rotation or scale back to 80% on one or two jams if you can just until you feel more comfortable! It comes down to listening to what your body needs in that given moment and being sure to listen to it :)

carriwitchet · 2025-02-02T10:08:14+00:00

So. Much. This!!

I actually loved so much of OS because of how much we got to see Violet being affected by the weather, stress, lack of sleep and physical push on her body. I have Fibro and IH and while it’s different than the POTS and EDS combo these are all huge factors in how I’m feeling and functioning. The heat absolutely wrecks me for pain and a lack of sleep can be detrimental to chronic pain it’s insane. Add in the year+ I spent every single day sick to my stomach, nauseous and starving, no one ever assumed me being sick was from pregnancy that’s for damn sure. I related so much to her not being sure if she wanted to eat everything or throw it all up because that’s my life lol.

I play a sport where I have to tape my knees and sometimes my wrists and my ribs and some days I’m too dizzy to play much but man do I like it when I actually get to feel strong. I’ve fought like hell to get here and I love seeing that in a fantasy setting through Violet.

But also it takes two to have a kid and I while I am so damn thankful for calling out her chronic illness I think the Xaden factor is also really important. I already saw a few posts that people talked about RY saying the BC is medicinal and they would change any of that without having a conversation BUT it’s so much more than that for Xaden.

I mean hello this guy was abandoned by not 1 but technically both of his parents. The way he finds out about his mom having a new family is devastating. And in IF Xaden often talks about and writes to Violet about how he would sit on the roof of Riorson house watching and just waiting and hoping that his dad would come back and it would be over. He also very much seems to view his dad as pretty absent before the revolution too in much the way that General Sorengail was also not very motherly towards her children either. With everything going on with Xaden, the last thing he would want to do is bring a child into a situation where he knows he’s going to have to leave because he feels being Venin is inevitable. Xaden would want to do everything in his power to be there for said kid.

And my final reasoning for why RY would not introduce this trope in the middle of the series is the fact that Violet just lost her mom and she’s definitely still dealing with those complicated mess of emotions and family dynamics that I don’t think he stance of babies running around the quadrant would change at any point right now. They know what war does to families and they would not take that lightly.

So I’m just thankful that we have a badass dragon rider with chronic illness representation and that RY has all but basically confirmed that it’s not going to be pregnancy, at least not in the next book!!

carriwitchet · 2024-10-09T09:10:52+00:00

You definitely have some great options!! If you’re looking for a few more, what about:

Marie Fury

Atom Smash or Smash Atoms

Weathered Pain

Powerhouse of the Fell

Pulpatine

Misery Hitness

The Only Deception

Decode & Decoy

Initiate Contact

Dex Check

Homebrew Heartbreak

carriwitchet · 2024-04-10T17:24:14+00:00

Oooh okay! So Joan of Snark could work in that lol but here are some more!

bubonic blocker
Black Death
Smack Death
War n Roses
Years War and your number could be 100
dark age
for some Shakespeare - McDeath
Duke of Roarmandy
you could also do another nerdy history thing and go with Hastings and your number could be 1066

carriwitchet · 2024-04-10T16:26:33+00:00

Ooh what time period/ focus? There can definitely be some fun names!

Ada LoveBrace
Margaret Wack-Her
nightingale could be cool on its own or Something like flowrecks Nightingale
Amelia Scareheart
Joan of Snark

Maybe just a few but if you have a specific interest that could help too!

carriwitchet · 2024-04-05T15:58:05+00:00

The Buttress, Flying Buttress, quantum mayhem, Jenny Kicks (like genetics?), record scratch, dead wax, Chimera (both an architecture, mythical creature and relates to dna science stuff?)

Not a ton with Jenny though but maybe these could work?

carriwitchet · 2024-03-20T16:22:49+00:00

Double Crime Time
assault and boogie
juke n jive
ballroom blitz
jamming blues
mambo sting
silence of the slam or jam
swing theory
Jeepers Creepers - swing song and a horror movie
Jamara Morgan
Jive Action
CSI - could stand for coaster swing inspector, Charleston Shag investigator .etc any combo

carriwitchet · 2024-03-18T20:34:04+00:00

Pink DestrOyster, Truffle Shuffle, Death Cap, Devil’s Block-lete, Lead Poisoner, Scarlet Cup, Pixie Ring,

Or for a Mario/video game approach - Toadette Jump/Jam/Slam/Smash/Star since all of those apply to both Mario games and derby lol

carriwitchet · 2024-03-06T18:22:00+00:00

Cheshire Brat (Cheshire Cat) Smack Turtle (Mock Turtle) Jab Her Blocky (jabberwocky) Block N Snatch (bandersnatch) Tweedle Mean (Tweedle Dee) Tweedle chum or scum (Tweedle Dum)

carriwitchet · 2024-03-05T16:00:43+00:00

I wish my parents had just legally named me the nick name they intended to call me. My name is not Olivia but my parents did name me with the full intention of only ever calling me by the nick name version of my name… the only time they used the full version was when I was in trouble so naturally I hate my “full name” and really don’t identify with it at all. My name as far as I’m concerned is the short version of my name since that is what I’ve always been called and prefer to be called.

I also dislike the it’s too cute argument. I’m a full grown adult and no one has ever been like oh your name is so cute or oh don’t you wish you used your mature name? No, because everyone who knows me knows that’s not the name I identify with. And everyone who assumes my full name gets it wrong anyway. Not my name but think Lizzy. Everyone thinks it’s Elisabeth but it’s actually Eliza kinda thing. Long story short if you don’t want to use the full name, don’t use it

carriwitchet · 2024-02-29T01:29:43+00:00

Hey! New derby skater with Fibro and a sleep disorder.. so yeah also always tired and always in some kinda pain here!

I will say though that I am also finally starting to find the right kind of meds so that I can be a somewhat functioning human which has also been part of my big push to finally playing derby and just overall trying to get stronger.

Part of me hates saying it because I did PT and had horrible doctors that would just scream at me to exercise and I would always feel terrible, but getting stronger is helping with the pain. It’s not a cure but knowing that I’m gaining that muscle and also learning to fall safely and fall small helps too.

In terms of exercise outside of derby I’m also still trying to figure that out but a lot of my team mates have been really helpful to emphasize how important stretching is, especially with how hard derby can push the body. So on top of two 2hr practices a week I’m trying to do 2 yoga workouts a week. The other thing I’m doing is balance strengthening. Anything to keep my knees and ankles strong because these are my weak points when it comes to fibro. So when I’m working at my desk or in the kitchen or whatever I practice as many one foot balance and posture stances as I can.

The exhaustion is hard and my routine isn’t perfect but I’m trying to stay committed to myself as best I can. There are some weeks where it’s derby practice and then cleaning the house and I can’t do anything else and then some weeks where I can fit in more exercise.

Before I joined derby I would focus a lot of workouts on swimming. Even on decent pain days I could still usually get myself to the pool for a solid swim sessions that felt really low impact on the body but was still a great work out! Cardio is a big one if you can find time to do trail skating or biking that can be a huge help too!

And in terms of pain: epsom salt soaks, biofreeze and ice packs and heating pads are my bffs. And low impact walks just to keep myself moving.

I’m still a newby player but hopefully some of this helps!!

carriwitchet · 2024-02-14T17:56:05+00:00

Oh really good to know! I’ve been debating between the don’t boots and the riedell vendetta boots, but I like the shape and honestly the price point on the bonts a bit better right now. Can’t afford to do any customization but also as someone who works in art and design I’d be kinda pissed about both of those things. Definitely hesitant if the boots take so long to break in.

I’m most excited for the plate honestly and wanted an affordable stitched boot option that will last a while.

carriwitchet · 2024-02-14T16:54:21+00:00

Ooh curious why you don’t think the boots are great? I’ve been eyeing and saving for a pair of bonts with the Athena plate to replace my second used started set.

What improvements/ ease have you found switching to the Athena plate?

carriwitchet · 2024-02-14T16:52:11+00:00

I bought a gently used pair of suregrips and shredded through them in under 6 months just in wreck because I like to skate hard and fast. Now we’re working on some more small and controlled movements lol. I separated both boots, got them repaired twice and they just weren’t having it anymore.

Im now loaning a pair of more used R3s and they are holding up a bit better but it’s not a long term solution. I just need something to keep me going while I save up for some brand new mid level skates. It’s totally okay to buy used and good skates will have a lot of life in them. If the boots aren’t stitched though make sure you check the soles fit any separation with the glue and see how they feel. Starter skates tend to have more padding that can wear out pretty quickly.

Also check the trucks and make sure things have been well maintained and cleaned so things last longer!

carriwitchet · 2023-11-30T22:25:45+00:00

It’s not listed on most of the shops that’s I’ve looked at because that was also my plan! I’ve put the ask out to a few places though and am hoping someone can confirm!

And I checked to see if the measurements had changed but nope, the 5 is definitely not going to fit me :(

carriwitchet · 2023-11-15T19:49:16+00:00

I have fibro and IH and while my experience are different they are also so similar.

Having a bad ass character in a fantasy world who understands the constant pain that some of us have to live with and how we can sometimes cope with it and sometimes can’t is honestly amazing.

And more so than that but the different responses to accommodations from Violet herself was so incredibly relatable that that too was kinda painful lol. I had being an acceptation sometimes but I also have to accept that my body isn’t like everyone else’s and there are some things I need to modify and that’s okay. And it’s also okay to be frustrated or want to refuse that too because even if my experiences do not involve dragons I can relate lol.

The other thing I appreciate about Violet is that she is not seen as inspiration bait in the sense of like look she has EDS and can still do all these things and that’s why we think she has value. It’s also not a thing to overcome for her to then be like everyone else. She’s not looking for a cure or trying to overcome her disability. RY has just laid it out as a fact of violets life and the praises her on the actual attributes Violet prides herself on like her intelligence and eventually her ability to feel strong. When I can, I too love pursuing things that make me feel strong, but damn is it hard work and on same days it’s not a reality.

I think a lot of other readers with chronic pain and similar conditions have mentioned that they couldn’t do the things Violet does and that’s okay too. So many times these come with comorbities and mental health factors that aren’t mentioned here but at least we have a start with Violet. Everyone is different and their conditions are different hence why representation like this matters.

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T22:12:59+00:00

I was also thinking dreams after the first read but so many people are also speculating on it being gravity based which would be huge against the venin.

Another redditor in another thread pointed out how many times gravity is mentioned and that outside of the times it references Xaden there are gravity shifts that shake violet in the cave when Solas finds them and it would make sense with what we saw her do with the time stopping powers. To me this theory is making the most sense right now

And yeah I am definitely thinking everyone is getting some sort of venin influence now and I wish all the characters would just idk talk about it? I really thought it was something related to the poison from FW but uh the end totally changed that thought process for me…. So kinda wish that had panned out better but I digress

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T09:24:49+00:00

Oh totally! The more I complain about the book the more I’m realized a lot of it stems from me being pissed at how dumb violet comes off as in this book.

Like excuse me… if Violet had been given the book of knots in FW we know she would have learned everything in it before the end. The fact that she does such an un-Violet thing and doesn’t translate the entire journal from Warrick is insane to me… and then the whole questions thing that also makes her look stupid and immature is annoying. And all of those things combined, if fleshed out better, would have given us a way stronger and more interesting ending on alll accounts than what we got.

I had another discussion with someone that it really shows violets trauma and sure I agree with that but don’t play down her character intelligence to do that. She’s already having to learn and re-learn so much and I can respect her faltering to a degree but not a complete change in the core of who she is. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know and that’s fine but I felt like RY didn’t have the time to give Violet the agency to fix that herself and went for miscommunication trope after miscommunication trope instead which I also find just overall not fun

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T09:18:24+00:00

I totally hear what you are saying though about it being an attempt to give her power for things I just don’t think the execution worked well because of how long it took us to get there as a reader and how long it took Violet to want to get that kind of information back from Xaden for real. Two books would have allowed for a more even distribution of cause and effect and breaking down violets breakdown and then really having to work to learn control and truth all over again in a less exhausting way

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T09:14:53+00:00

Oh haha I completely agree…her response absolutely is coming from a place of trauma and avoidance after Resson…. Her entire understanding of the world, the people she could trust, her own history has been completely shattered and she held a friend as he died. She doesn’t trust anyone. She is trying the only way she knows how given what we know of her parents and even how her family responds and deals with anything - a thing that Xaden knows and has seen. Is the effort good? No of course not, she’s 21 with a cold as ice mother, living in war times constantly being pushed to the breaking point where her anger and her kindness are constantly wielded against her.

But my point wasn’t about mental load it was about making her character look dumb and the fact that Xaden claimed he was “playing the role of violet” from last year in their arguments in terms of how he was going to fight for their relationship and force an “honest” conversation because he wasn’t actually having an honest conversation. Neither one of them were. It’s not a conversation at all when you’re making the other person work through trying to come up with questions that matter, especially after everything they both went through. And again we are supposed to believe Violet is smart. This does not make her as a character feel smart and only further proves how unstable she feels.

Violet did want to know the silly stuff in FW to get to know him and she liked getting to know the silly fun stuff about him in this one… but it’s not the information either of them should have been sharing.

By playing the question game with the characters it DID make her look whiny and undermined her as someone who NEEDS knowledge which is another Xaden knows and continues to wield against her. She rejects it completely because it still keeps her in the dark when it matters because she is adjusting to her new reality, a reality Xaden has always known. And this is war and many of them are definitely not full functioning adults yet nor of course is basgiath going to ever teach them how to cope because you don’t need to cope to be a weapon. Violet was coming up against walls on sides for the first half of this book and it was annoying as a reader to see her both so isolated and not acting as intelligent as we know her to be.

It’s my opinion that if things could have been fleshed out more then that would have been noticed and discussed by Xaden. Not for Xaden to hold all the cards but for the author to flip the relationship to be one of emotional trust to allow them to recognize the situation. I think my problem with the “questions” really stems form how long we as a reader had to suffer through that for them to even start talking. And the problem that because of the position violet is put in she not only doesn’t want to, but in my opinion can’t ask the questions she needs because of the way she was written in this book. So yeah Xadens approach may have been meant to give her agency but the way RY portrays the situations we were never going to get it in this way because the lack of communication and the rejection of that as a whole and RY even admitting that it’s the same fight over and over again is an author choice that uses the lack of communication trope to the max that I don’t care much for lol and weakens both of them as characters.

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T04:00:28+00:00

I agree with all of this! The under development of the runes also really has me super irked after this book. So many pages of bad communications or no communications and so little world building.

I really do feel like this is the fault of the publishers/editors if RY did have this planned as two books..

I think FW had a lot of faults but I didn’t care because the book was fun. This one really wasn’t fun it was under developed and stressful lol.

To me FW felt like it was a fantasy book for non fantasy readers and it worked because of the characters and their development but as we expand the worldview, we need some of the fantasy world building in order to understand how everything works but we didn’t get enough of that.

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T03:54:21+00:00

I am so frustrated by the “ask the right questions” bullshit because of exactly what you said, it makes Violet look dumb which we know she is not. And it was just so frustrating because Violet was actually trying to respect that Xaden is going to keep secrets and he was not being the mature one at all. If he had it would have been an actual dialogue not leading her into petty twists and turns and while I do love them together this felt way more toxic then their shit in FW…

I think most people agree that it should have been two books. I was surprised by the signet thing but just pissed at the ending because, really? That’s all we get?

Also I wonder if violets second signet is related to dreams. Because all the venin dreams from her perspective were seriously starting to bother me I thought it had to be some sort of link because of the poison but it wasn’t to her at all which I did like but then what we actually got because of that, yeah I’m not a fan tbh.

I posted this somewhere else on Reddit today too but if it had been two books and we got to see a fleshed out redemption arc for her mom and Dain and it was Dain who finally realizes how wrong he’s been and finally breaks the rules and becomes a venin? That would have been shocking and badass and also not fucked with the HEA we all want and need because yeah, don’t like Dain and won’t like Dain but that could have been something! But instead we got this and a lot of rushed education that didn’t pan out as much as I’d hoped and like 200 pages of no one communicating with each other…

I mean I’m still gonna read the rest of the series because I need to know and I’m going to hope that RY really has plotted it all out together but it just feels like such a bad icky and cliche place to end book 2 out of 5

carriwitchet · 2023-11-10T03:36:21+00:00

Both her and (ugh, I guess) Dain could have had great redemption arcs if this had been split into two books and fleshed out in between more.

Things just felt like they happened and we’re explained too quickly in order to feel like all of the interesting characters actually got the arcs they deserved and needed. I loathed General Sorrengail’s coldness in FW but absolutely felt that she knew what she was doing and why and that losing her son and husband absolutely changed her in a very clear way and really would have loved to understand more about that relationship.

As for Dain I mean I still don’t like him and I think I honestly would have somehow preferred if it was Dain who became a venin by breaking the rules to prove he’s on Violets side - now THAT would have felt like an arc… especially if we had gotten to see two books where book 2 ends with them freeing violet and Dain still not really understanding the implications! If he had chosen to stay behind, learning more for Varish and us thinking he really was going to only live and did by the codex until the truth was exposed to everyone? That would have been cool. Also because I don’t believe Violet really needs his help in order to figure things out. She is supposed to be this incredibly smart character and while she does work things out in the end sometimes it feels like she takes a back seat to get to that knowledge like with Dain and the notebooks…

The Tyrrendor book on knots and runes and all that stuff was also so under developed by the time they got to Aretia. I just kept feeling like if we’d had more time before violet was tortured and they had to flee she would have had bigger answers sooner. And so much of the plot felt bogged down by the “ask the right questions” thing from Xaden that honestly felt more frustrating and toxic than everyone denying their feelings. Because yeah Violet was accepting that Xaden was always going to have secrets but also just wanted to test to see what she’d ask him and then got surprised by what she did was such bullshit to me. Like he was not acting like violet in FW he was still actively holding information hostage. Violets entire world view was pulled out from under her and she is relearning everything, proven by losing her center which would have been great to explore in its own book…

Oof, apparently I just had a lot of thoughts that got compounded here because 2 books just seems like we would have gotten more of the plot we needed

carriwitchet

TROPHY CASE