Luludemon Forty Four, the roller girl behind the Pivotstar brand and a member of the Terminal City Rollergirls’ travel team, dropped in to coach a Thursday night practice for the Birmingham Blitz Dames on a chilly January night recently. On an extensive roller derby tour of her native UK, Luludemon’s enthusiasm for playing and coaching roller derby was still evident mid month when she reached Birmingham.
Sleazy Rider and Roisin Roulette had skated with Luludemon before, on a boot camp in Washington State in 2010, and she’s a ‘facebook friend’ of Bitter Sweet and other Dames, so it felt like having an old friend come visit.
After a lane drill warm up and stretch, we moved into the jammer skills coaching we’d asked for. Luludemon is one of those jumpy jammers with quick feet who create openings for themselves by dodging from side to side and she soon had all the Dames hopping and jumping from one foot to the other with fierce concentration. We then moved on to perfecting our cross-overs and skating form to maximise speed round the track; some of the Dames remembered working with a speed skater last year on many of the same points while there were some genuine breakthrough moments for others.
We practiced working as a blocker with the jammer to draw a wall to the inside or the outside, toe stop starts and running on toe stops; and Luludemon talked us through her tips for jammer confidence and how to take control of the jam from the starting line. Some of the Dames were entranced by Luludemon’s wise words and obvious skating skills; others were just entranced by how cute she is and how good she looks in Pivotstar shorts. There was a bit of a rush on the Pivotstar merch table after practice as a result!
So we were delighted to welcome Luludemon to our Thursday night practice, and will be repeating her drills over the next couple of Saturdays for those Dames who couldn’t make it.
~ Roisin Roulette #N17
Also, check out Luludemon's own blog about her visit to us!
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