Last week’s session was filled with so many amazing new Raw Meaties! It was fantastic to meet you all, and I hope you all come out again this week. We will continue to work on roller skating fundamentals (derby stance, knee falls, stops), and if every one is very good and eats their broccoli, we will introduce some new skills, such as baseball slides, 180 knee falls, and even a pace line or two.

Raw Meat Homework:

Yep, there’s homework!

Part 1: I challenge all of our new skaters to put your roller skates on at least three times this week. The more your wear your skates, the faster you will improve. If weather permits, get outside, but if you have to, put your skates on and duck-walk around your apartment. Be sure to wear your gear, though! However dumb you might feel wearing a helmet in your kitchen, you will feel significantly dumber conking your head on your own stove.

Part 2: Squats! Improve your leg strength, and your skating will improve. This is especially important if you want to try out for roller derby one day. Try doing two or three sets of 10-15 squats on three separate days this week. For bonus points, try Coach Drop Bear’s daily conditioning workout: http://www.rawmeatvancouver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Raw-Meat-Daily-Conditioning-single.pdf

If you are new to working out, make sure you go at your own pace, and do only what you can. You don’t get any points for pushing past your limits, and benching yourself with an injury.

The Basics of Raw Meat Lamb Sessions:

At our Lamb sessions, all levels of roller skater are welcome, but we will focus beginner skaters (Lambs) through the summer. If you are a more advanced skater, don’t worry, we’ll have lots of challenges for you, too.

This is the lesson to come to if you want to practice your basic skills. We will teach you all the fundamentals to skate safe and build your skill level in a fun, no-pressure environment. You will learn roller skating and non-contact roller derby drills. Turning you into a bad ass is our specialty. If you are already a bad ass, you have found the right place. We like bad asses, but we don’t allow ass hats. It’s an important distinction.

Raw Meat Lamb sessions run for two hours (5 -7pm)  every Saturday, with a special three hour edition (5 – 8pm) at the end of each month.

This session will be $5. Fees are subject to change and are attendance dependent.

Who Can Come to a Raw Meat Lamb Session:

Anyone who isn’t an Ass Hat and wants to skate with some great people.

Raw Meat Lamb Sessions have no skating skills requirements. As long as you have all the correct gear (Quad skates, Helmet, Knee Pads, Wrist guards, Elbow Guards and a Mouth Guard) you are welcome to attend and skate with us. It is also a requirement of our venue that we use white or light toe stoppers and cover your knee and elbow pads with white or light hockey tape to avoid marking the flooring. No gear, No tape, No skate.

Don’t be afraid to attend these sessions if you are a complete beginner. We will teach you everything you need to know. On the same token, if you are an advanced skater, come on out! We’ll keep you hopping with our evil floor worms. Want to know more? You’ll just have to show up!.

The Rules:

We have two simple rules at Raw Meat: 1. Don’t be an Ass-Hat. 2. Be Safe. There is zero-tolerance for breaking these rules.

We operate in a strictly non-contact environment – no hitting, pushing or overly aggressive skating. But we will cover roller derby drills that involve safe touching of teammates and hip/arm whips. If you’re not ok with touching people, derby may not be the sport for you, but you won’t have to worry about getting shoulder checked with us.

We also run an advanced session on Saturday mornings. To attend these you must pass some basic skills testing. If you would like to attend one of these sessions and you are not a currently certified TCRG league skater please contact us or come to one of our night sessions and talk to us about your skating level.

See You All Saturday!