Blog Post

Train to Take a Hit

Kimberly Wheeler • April 23, 2024

Become so stable you never go down

You’re speeding around the track, dodging blockers and feeling successful! But next lap, you get rocked. You saw it coming, you braced, and still, the hit knocked you out and down. Slowly getting up, you skate back onto the track, a little more wary this time around. What can you do differently to not go flying next lap? Avoiding being hit altogether is the best option, but not always doable. The good news is that a combination of off and on skates training will help you stay up and skating after taking a hit.

On skates training is going to be beneficial when you see the hit coming and can’t dodge it. Seeing the opposing skater coming in gives you time to react and adjust your position. When I work with new skaters and see them brace for impact, they often tighten up their muscles and hope that by being a rock they will be too dense to knock over. In actuality, you want to be relaxed and fluid. The fluidity of your body will allow you to change your center of gravity to compensate for the impact. Imagine you are catching a fly ball in baseball, you don’t leave your arm fully extended out and tighten all your muscles. You keep your arm relaxed and allow it to cushion the ball’s momentum as you catch. While a person coming to hit you is much larger than a baseball, the same idea applies. So when you see that skater coming in to hit you, relax. To practice this, partner up and skate around the track hitting each other. Work on staying relaxed and allow your body to move with the hit. Start slow and really take note and feel how your body is moving. Even better, discuss it with your partner or team after to hear how everyone is experiencing the movements.

The next thing you can do to help you stay up against a hit, especially the big ones where the opposing skater comes rocketing across the track at you, is to take away their control. We aren’t all physicists on the track, but we subconsciously know what is going on. That opposing skater has calculated and determined exactly when and how they will hit you. Their body is responding based on their movement and yours. You can take that control away by moving towards them. Surprise! You will still hit each other, but now the timing they were using is all off. Essentially you are moving to hit them first.

Off skates training comes in when you are surprised by the hit and you don’t see it coming. Above, I talked about staying relaxed and allowing your center of gravity to move with the impact. This is much more effective with the right off skates training. You need a strong core, but more precisely a stable core. The difference? A strong core would be holding a plank position nice and straight for a really long time. A stable core would be holding that same plank position while moving a leg or an arm. Stability is what you want in athletics. This is the ability to engage and use your core while under motion.

If you are new to training, start by building a strong core. You need to have the basic holds mastered before you move to stability training. Work with a partner (or you can hire me!) to watch your form and help you. A few goals are to hold a plank perfectly straight for 15 seconds and to get up from a half kneeling position while keeping your torso straight.

Once you’ve got that strong core built up, you can start to train your core stability. This is where things can get fun! Balance boards and BOSU balls (a domed yoga ball with a large flat face) are great tools to easily train stability. You can do pretty much any exercise on them and it forces your core to work on stabilizing you. It’s great for combo training and saving time. For example squats, shoulder press, and push ups can all be done with a BOSU ball. Your goal when adding in an unstable surface is to not fall off and stay as in control as possible. Engage your core and shift your weight as you need to stay on and steady.

Sample Workout

Recommended 3-5 sets, rest between exercises. Stop if you are feeling fatigued and no longer engaging the core. The main goal is to build stability in the core.

Move	Reps
Plank Hold with Contralateral Leg/Arm Extensions	4 reps each side, keep shoulders and hips steady, avoid rotation
BOSU Dead Bug	8 reps
BOSU Single Leg 1 Arm Row	6 reps each side
BOSU Push Ups	8 reps (if too easy, try one hand on floor)
BOSU Reverse Lunge	6 reps each side (front foot on BOSU)
BOSU Squat to Shoulder Press	8 reps

Ready to hit the next level and build your core stability? Check out my Off Skates Training Offers HERE

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Exercises for New Skaters

By Kimberly Wheeler • August 24, 2023

Build up your strength, stability, and confidence on skates

Training Intensity for Roller Derby Round 2

By Kimberly Wheeler • June 24, 2021

In my last blog post , we went over how to judge the training intensity of a specific workout. But that’s not the only intensity you should track for your training. Your entire training schedule should have a cadence to it, and if rests aren’t built in, your body will begin to feel the fatigue of constant training. For athletes, periodization training is the go-to method to schedule long term training. Periodization training works by breaking down your year into different sections, aiming to be in peak condition for a specific major event or events. Periodization training is divided into cycles, to better plan your time. These are called Macrocycles, Mesocycles, and Microcycles. The Macrocycle covers your full year, it will show all the training plans you have. The Mesocycle is a specific training block; often designed around a training period, like pre-season, or a training goal, like endurance training. Each Mesocycle is typically 3-6 weeks. The amount of weeks will depend on the individual workout intensities of your plan. For example, if you are training for increased power and doing a lot of plyometric workouts, you will likely only be able to do those for 3 weeks before needing a rest. Finally, the Microcycle is a single week of training. This is where you will break down your daily activities and add in your active rest days.

Training Intensity for Roller Derby Part 1

By Kimberly Wheeler • April 14, 2021

You have a training plan. Maybe you made it yourself, found something online, or purchased it. Regardless, now you have a plan and you are seeing it through. However, an often missed component with most workout plans is the lack of direction regarding intensity. If you are looking for that kind of direction, you’ve come to the right place. Intensity is measured via your heart rate zone and your perceived level of work. For this blog I’m going to break intensity down into Low, Medium, and High: Low Intensity will be defined as being able to easily maintain a conversation while doing an activity. Stretching is a great example of low intensity. Medium Intensity is being able to have short exchanges during activity. Jogging for many people falls under medium intensity. High Intensity will be impossible to have a conversation during activity and only being able to say a few words during your rest. One last definition I want to give is Training. Training is doing an activity/workout that directly relates to your sport and goals. Cleaning your house is an example of activity that is not training, whereas sprinting is an activity that is more often training. Now that the definitions are all squared away, let’s get you to the right intensity. Does all training need to be high intensity? No! Absolutely not, and it shouldn’t be. Instead, the important thing is to match the correct intensity to the workout.

Transitions and Spins at the Gym

By Kimberly Wheeler • March 11, 2021

Being able to transition (switch between skating forward and backwards) on roller skates is a fundamental skating skill. But how you learn as a rookie skater does not exactly transfer to what you do on the track. A casual transition is smooth and often you are standing fairly upright, with perhaps some dramatic arm-twirly flare! In a game your transition becomes more of a spin, you use it to get around an opponent, dodge a hit, or to catch up and get back in front of an opponent. In all of these scenarios, you want to be stable and low so no one knocks you off your feet as you turn. The fundamentals of transitions involves shifting your weight from foot to foot while also turning. It sounds simple enough, but where most people struggle with this skill is the weight shift. As we all have a dominant hand, we also all have a preferred leg and putting all of your weight on the other leg feels wrong and uncomfortable. So a big skill you will want to work on while off skates is balance and comfort level being on each leg individually. Any and all single leg exercises will help with your balance and ability to shift your weight between legs. Bringing the transition over to an in-game spin will add on height changes, ie getting low, as well as center of balance. Remember, in-game you are often spinning to avoid being hit, so stability is key for spin moves.

Stronger Backwards Skating Off Skates

By Kimberly Wheeler • February 11, 2021

Although the majority of roller derby is played in a forward motion, backwards skating is critical for pushing your game to the next level. Backwards skating can be used by blockers to catch a jammer or support a team mate. Jammers will use backwards skating to escape a hit after spinning around an opponent. No matter what position you play on the team, you will find yourself skating backwards at some point. Practicing the technique and working on skating backwards is your best bet for training, but you will also need to train on your backwards skating and balance off skates during the off-season or because you don’t get much on skate time to work on it. The main focus areas for off skates training will be on muscle building, balance and movement in a backwards direction. We live our lives facing forward, which can make moving backwards feel uncomfortable. So let’s get uncomfortable!

How to Improve Your Balance and Stability

By Kimberly Wheeler • December 7, 2020

Remember watching that amazing game and seeing that great skater take a huge hit and lose their balance? But the REALLY amazing part was that they didn’t even fall! They were able to take that hit and recover so fast the opposing blocker didn’t have time to reset. In order to understand how they were able to stay up, let’s take a look at the physical aspects, specifically balance and stability. While linked, they are not the same thing. Balance is your core ability to maintain equilibrium against outside forces. Stability is the ability to maintain or return to a desired position when hit with oncoming forces. To give some examples specific to roller derby, the skater staying on the track while riding the curve on one leg is balanced. The blocker skating backwards with their feet staggered when they get hit is stable, whereas the blocker skating backwards with their feet together will get knocked over. How do you train balance and stability? To start off with success, you want to have a strong core and good posture. Balance is about making sure your body is perfectly aligned. Take a moment to try the following exercise: Stand up and hunch over, have a friend push you from behind. Notice how you felt and how you absorbed that push. Next do the same thing but stand with proper posture. You should be able to feel the difference in your stability between the two. To train better posture, you need to find your weak points. There are professionals that can give you an assessment. Main areas most people need to focus on are: increased abdominal strength, less reliance on their lower back, and stronger shoulders. Some great exercises for these are Planks, Plated Twists, Scapula Push Ups, and Back Flys.

Returning to Roller Derby

By Kimberly Wheeler • June 30, 2020

As COVID-19 restrictions are starting to be lifted, a lot of us are excited about returning to roller derby practices. However, before we can dive head first back into practices it’s important to review what that means for your body. You, and your entire team have been away from practices for 3 or more months. That’s the same as being off skates for a minor injury. So what could this mean for your return? Injury risk is going to be higher. While you may have been doing some home training during the break and may even feel fit, you should still consider: Were you consistent with your training each week Did your training start to dwindle in the last few weeks Was your training as intense as a full 2 hour practice or scrimmage Was your entire team training as hard as you One of the leading factors to injury is fatigue. We have all been in those practices where near the end the coach calls the drill off because everyone is getting sloppy. That sloppiness is the fatigue built up over practice and can lead to foggy heads, slower reaction time, mistakes and ultimately injury. Taking fatigue into consideration, when you are returning to practices with your league consider making them shorter or keep the overall intensity low. It will take weeks of consistent practices for you and your team to return to the intensity level you were at pre-COVID-19.

What Your Coach Really Means When They Say "Get Low"

By Kimberly Wheeler • June 1, 2020

We’ve all heard it before: “Get lower,” “You’re standing too tall,” “Bend your knees!” So you bend down and squat as low as you can and your muscles start to burn. Your skate strides become short and awkward, so you stand back up. But here’s the secret: your coach doesn’t want you to squat as low as you can. So what do they really want from you? The simple answer is that they want you to have more power in your legs. This does come from a lower stance, but not the LOWEST possible stance. Think of your leg muscles like springs. When you’re standing straight up the spring is at rest. When you get lower, the spring is compressed, ready to snap back once you let go. If you get too low the spring is crushed too far and can no longer snap back into shape.

Workout Your Plow Stops

By Kimberly Wheeler • April 17, 2020

The plow stop is one of the two basic stops you learn to pass minimum skills. But just because it’s learned right away doesn’t mean it’s not important! If you can’t stop in front of a jammer, how do you expect to stop them? Here is the WFTDA Minimum Skills video showing the plow stop. In this video they show a one footed plow stop, and how that is advantageous when blocking with a teammate. Skaters should be able to do a plow stop with either foot forward and entirely even, because sometimes you don’t have a friend to block with. How can you improve your plow stops? First and foremost, is to keep practicing them on skates. But what can you do off skates?

Sprint Training and Skating Starts

By Kimberly Wheeler • December 12, 2019

In order to improve performance. all athletes should be focusing their training to specifically enhance motions utilized in their sport or competition. With regards to Short Track Speed Skating, race times are heavily affected by a skaters start. Ice skating sprints starts have a similar motion and acceleration as dry land sprint starts. It is therefore surmised that training dry land starts will benefit on ice starts. Researchers from Australia worked with nine elite and trained short track speed skaters utilizing a four week dry land starts training program to test on ice start improvement. Athletes completed both dry land and on ice sprints to gain a control number followed by specific sprint start training and then re-doing the dry land and on ice sprints. Figure 3 below shows a comparison of an athlete’s dry land sprint time, to on ice sprint time. Both sprints were measured at time to cross 14.43m. The open circles and dashed line show the results during the control period and the black circles and solid line show the results after specific training.