More World Cup photos

These are from the Finland-Sweden bout. See whole album here

During the Cup I started getting really comfortable blocking whilst facing the 'wrong' way. I could see what was going on and turn around if needed and apparently somebody facing you can be quite intimidating for the jammer. 

Toronto in photos

Photos by Team Photographer Marko Niemela and myself.

Greenland on the way to Toronto

Toronto from air

On our way to Niagara Falls

The Falls

Behind the Falls

The viewing platform

Trip to Downtown - CN Tower

Fun buses

Tall buildings

Outside the World Cup venue

Cooking noodles in the coffee maker

Singing the national anthem at the Opening Ceremony

Aussie sends me flying

Blocking the Aussie jammer

Flying jammers at Germany bout

We beat Ireland

Blocking the French jammer

My home league supports me all the way

Jamming against Canada

Getting ready to fight for the 5th place

Blocking the Swedish jammer

The winners!

Afterparty in costumes

The frog and the wolf

Leaving Canada

Taking off

Leaving Toronto at night

Good morning Europe

Happy Independence Day Finland!

I hope we made you proud!

Toronto: Day 8 & 9

After the pressure lifted I got ill. This is not very surprising, lots of girls have been complaining of sore throats and many blamed the dusty venue, but I think this is some cold virus. I spent the whole of Monday at the hotel, hanging on the net trying to spy derby gossip and find new photos. I wonder if anyone filmed the opening ceremony when we sang the Finnish National Anthem. It would be great to see and hear it (it's the Finnish Indepence Day today by the way!). I found a picture of me after scoring points for Finland in the bout against Canada. That was pretty cool. Haven't seen any after party pictures yet. Maybe people want to keep them hiding... ha haa... I heard it got a bit wild! I was ill and left quite early, but managed to catch the legendary roller skater Quadzilla in a photo with me. We did the team dance at the party and it was a success, others joining in.

Monday lunchtime I went to a buffet restaurant with my room mates and ate until I could not any more. I'll post a picture of my plate later. It was rather protein rich plate... Two slices of roast beef, steamed fish fillet, stri fried tofu, roast chicken thigh and some chilli. I really needed it. In four days we had bouted six times, no rest for muscles in between, not too much protein rich food available.In the evening we walked to the nearest convenience store and bought crisps, chocolate and other unhealthyness. We drank the rest of our ciders and watched 'quality' Canadian TV.

Today is going home time and I don't want to go! Why can't it be World Cup every day!

Toronto: Day 7

It was a long day! We left the hotel quite early again to get ready for the most important match of the tournament... Finland Vs Sweden! We had bouted against them in October in a fundraising match and lost by some fifty points. We were not quite sure what to think about this re-match opportunity other than that it was going to be one emotionally charged game due to that age old rivalry between the two countries. After a strong start from Sweden we managed to get lead and kept it til the end - knowing that if we let it slip, the whole thing would turn around. We played one of our best games and showed to the World what herrings are made of!

I found my body doing things I did not know it was capable of, spinning around, jumping on my toe stops, blocking backwards and really keeping with my team. I can't wait to see the game myself (check out DNN archives!).

What a feeling being the 5th in the world and the 2nd in Europe after England. The teams ahead us are just plain amazing, Australia, England, Canada and USA.

Toronto: Day 6

Wooo!!!! Finland is now competing for the 5th place! Can you believe this! It will be against our DEAR ENEMY SWEDEN! Scandinavian derby rocks. Who's ahead of us? USA, Canada, England, Australia. Then come Finland and Sweden.

That's all for now, a longer report to come!

Toronto: Day 4 & 5

DAY 4
We left the hotel early for our team practice which was at 10am at the Cup venue, the Bunker. The Bunker is a huge warehouse outside the centre of the city. The floor is really nice to skate on being smooth concrete. It feels really fast - we are so used to sticky sports hall floors. After the practice we came back to the hotel to rest, eat and get ready for the final seeding game against Australia. Back at the venue, having seen Australia to beat Germany 136-53, we knew it was going to be a tough game. I received some crazy star passes from our jammers and a few massive blocks from the Aussies. It was fun. The bout finished at 9pm and as it had been a long day with so much excitement, I just could not go to sleep. My legs seemed to have their own mind, kicking and tensing up as I was struggling calm down. Those star passes kept creeping back and my heart would pound as it did then... Eventually, I fell a sleep sometime after 2am, but woke up at 5am. So I started Day 5 with 3 hours of sleep and stiff legs.

DAY 5
Again we left for the venue quite early and watched some bouts before we had to start getting ready for the Germany match. Our bout against Germany was evenly matched and we felt it could have been either way, but Germany did beat us at the end 104-80. A very special Welcome Ceremony took place in the afternoon. All teams sang their national anthem front of the crowd. We opted to sing a cappella, without the backing track, and it was truly amazing, loud and very proud! The ceremony made the Cup feel like a real thing, not just a derby tournament, but a World Cup, skaters competing for the own country... oh so emotional... New Zealand performed a haka and it was WOW! After the ceremony we were told that our next opponent would be Ireland. We liked this outcome! If we'd beaten Germany, we would have bouted New Zealand on Saturday morning and we all liked the idea of playing Ireland more (just because some of our girls have special bond with Ireland - of course we like the Kiwis too!).That Ireland game was so cool. You can read about it on DNN: http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/2011/12/world_cup_10_finland_upends_7_ireland_148_134

As it was an Elimination game, this means that we now won't end lower than 8th place and are competing for the 5th. I cannot describe how we felt after the win... speechless and full of derby love for everybody!

Toronto: Day 3

We got to sleep late, very late indeed if you take into account the five-hour time difference! We spent the day in downtown, leaving the hotel about 10.30am and returning around 5.30pm. The centre is quite far from here. It took a bus ride and a long tube ride to get there. It was snowing! I saw in the news later that it had snowed several inches... or feet... north of the city. It stopped snowing in the afternoon and the first time we saw the county in a little sunshine. We did a little walk in the city (saw the CN Tower and an ice rink) and people went shopping (I'm not too keen on that). We also bought a lot of food as there are no supermarkets near the hotel and the restaurants are expensive.

The last thing of the day was all teams' meet and greet in the hotel ball room. That was fun! Shame that I've caught some sort of a cold/sore throat bug and feeling a bit run down. I did manage to chat to a few people and everyone so far has been lovely. Team New Zealand did a 'scary' entrance - in all black (of course) bomber jackets and black hats. My team is in blue (almost turquoise) hoodies. It seems that blue is the choice of colour! Sweden and USA also have blue team hoodies.

Now it's actually Day 4, our first bout day... I'll tell you about it later... when it's over and we've won! :-)

Toronto: Day 1 & Day 2

DAY 1
The flight went well and felt really quick even it took eight hours. The hotel is very close to the airport and I got here with the free shuttle bus. The place is full of roller girls! The night of our arrival we went to the gym and the pool and had something to eat, that was it.

DAY 2
The time difference, five hours, has been manageable which is really good. This morning we went on a Niagara Falls tour. It rained the whole day but our tour guide was funny. We had very fashionable yellow rain ponchos given to us and went into a tunnel behind the falls. The Falls were quite impressive but not as impressive as I'd thought. We grabbed something to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe at the Falls. The highlight of the day must've been the black squirrels... The tour included wine tasting and preserve sampling as well. Ice wine tasted weird, strong and sweet. Reminds me of sherry? Red wine jelly was very nice and so was extra virgin olive oil infused with lemon (yum). Too price though, over $22 plus tax for a small bottle. I could make some probably at home? No ATMs so far like my card so I'm cashless. At least the hotel did not take $1,000 deposit from my card and I can still use it - a couple of other girls can't. Crazy. Went to the gym again today and was told by the machine that my fitness is below average. Oh dear. Now I'm trying to figure out where to get some proper food (fresh) and this means I need to find a supermarket. The nearest is some 3km away and it's still raining. Now I'm going to find some food... Bye!

Watch me on DNN

The first Team Finland game is Thursday night 1st December at 02.10-03.00am UK time,  Team Finland vs Australia. The next team Finland game is at 5.20pm on Friday 2nd December UK time, Team Finland vs Germany.


Link to Derby News Network DNN

PS. Here's an online article about my trip (see, it's in the 'Breaking news' section!)

http://www.blottr.com/bristol/breaking-news/bristol-roller-derby-player-set-world-cup-heights

This picture I'll take with me

This sums it up. We will have fun.

World Cup symptoms

I'm flying tomorrow! No sleep, no appetite, totally vacant brain. I took four hours to pack - I went to get something and on my way forgot what it was, and spotted another thing, which led me to think why I was hungry and then I saw my half-eaten bowl of pasta. Where was that list of things to take again? Oh, I only got half way through when I had to go and hang the washing out. Got the picture?

Now packed and ready to slaughter some opponents!

Last minute bout

My home league Bristol Roller Derby's Harbour Harlots will be bouting against Cardiff Roller Collective's Rude Birds this Saturday and I'm playing for the Harlots of course. This will nicely get me in the bouting mode for Toronto, where we may play twice a day against really tough teams. Get your tickets here: http://madamadari.com/crocs/SUPERSLAM/buytickets.htm

Five days to go

Big big thank you to everyone, friends, colleagues, family and companies, who've been helping me and Team Finland so far! Our fundraising efforts are far from over and will continue in Toronto (we'll be selling 'rare' Finnish derby t-shirts to the international fans). Everyone is very excited about our team. Check out how excited Megatron is...

The who's-playing-how draw was done last week (see http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/2011/11/roller_derby_world_cup_groups_set) and we'll be playing against Australia and Germany. Before our games we'll get to watch when they bout against each other (great!). Germany are a tough team, but so are we. Australia is a bit unknown, but we'll have time to figure them out.

Insights from Chick!

Chick Dastardly, my friend and home league Bristol Roller Derby's Vice Chair, has written an really really nice blog post about ME! Check it out: http://chickdastardly.co.uk/rollerderby/blizzard-warning-issued-for-toronto/

Donations still taken!

Something to add to your photoshop fail blog.

Me and Team Finland are still taking donations to help us on our World Cup trip! If you want to donate to me, just click the button on the right. Check out Team Finland page (above) for a link to the team donations button,

Blocking with the bum

This is the 'anchor & pendulum' or 'tractor trailer' position. I'm holding my team mate from behind, helping my balance and getting that swinging motion in. It's cool, it works!

Team Finland practice on Friday 11 November:

"Lihaksia ja Luoteja" mixed bout in Tampere 12 November:

Photos by Marko Niemelä, Team Finland very Official Photographer!

Three weeks to go!

Time flies and this weekend is going to be the last time I see my Team Finland before joining them in Toronto. Three weeks from now and I'll be in Canada. But hey, I am feeling strong and positive:

What can I do in three weeks that will help me in the Cup? I shouldn't over-do exercise and wreck my body. Visualisation is good: the body and mind will learn without killing my muscles. I will practice block evasion techniques with other pedestrians on the street, train my reaction time at traffic lights, wall up in my sleep... I will read strategy until my head hurts.

Donate to Team Finland!

We need you. Show your support to the team by making a donation!

http://www.rollerderbyfinland.com/donate/

We have a team of 20 skaters and coaching staff going to the World Cup in Toronto in December 2011. Flights alone cost each skater between 500-700€. Add a week’s worth of accommodation and food to fuel this team to victory and it adds up to an investement of well over 2000€ each.
How can you help? Are you interested in supporting the team financially?

Dumptruck supports Team Finland

Go Finland!

Sk8 Heaven bootcamp

As part of my World Cup preparations, I spent last weekend in Northampton at Sk8 Heaven advanced roller derby bootcamp. We had over 100 skaters, famous coaches from Canada, the US and the world, and two full days of roller derby action. I joined the camp's All-Star level with other World Cup skaters from Team Scotland, Team England and even Team Brazil!

 

My classes started with one hour endurance drill coached by Pia Mess. It didn't end up in puking despite her reputation "Pain is just weakness leaving your body". I think she was going soft on us.

Bonnie D. Stroir

Bonnie D. Stroir's lectures were inspiring, giving food for thought about the mental game, setting your goals as a sportsperson and using visualisation as a part of your training regime (I'd bee already doing this!). Being in control of your emotions and the mental game is very important in the heat of a bout - roller derby is a fast and aggressive sport and being able to stay clam and perform is vital.

Pitchit

Pitchit brought us default strategy, crystallising the game into four situations and the four default actions against them. Following the presentation, the strategies were practiced on the track. 

Isabelle Ringer

Isabelle Ringer made us sweat off-skates with a combination of warming up, plyometric, core and balance exercises. This was a real feel-good session - she says it has direct derby specific benefits and people attending the session were excited about making it part of their training routines (so am I!).

And there was so much more... Blocking and hitting classes, gear workshop, more entertaining lectures, scrimmage and only one broken ankle (get well soon!).

It was a great weekend with 7am breakfast starts, doing derby till 5pm, followed by relaxation in the hotel's saunas and pool, and without forgetting the crazy after party... which my league, Bristol Roller Derby, brought with mad costumes and madder dance moves!



DIY Wobble board

I'm adding core, balance and agility in my workouts. Balance (or wobble) boards sounded fun and simple and so I decided to give it a go making one myself. Wobbling on the board activates muscles and I get to work on balance that's so important in derby.




I found this board on the floor - it's a perfect size and shape for my Wobble.




I have to attach a wobbly bit to the bottom and its size will affect the lean of the Wobble. More lean means more challenge. I settled somewhere between 18 and 14 degrees.

I found a saw on the floor and some material too to make the round bit for the Wobble. I later found out the piece of wood was actually one of our floorboards and very important. Oh well. Now it'll help me to get to the World Cup!

Once I had sawn the round bits, I marked where they should go and screw them to the bottom of the board.

And that was it! I have a WOBBLE! It's fun and a great workout.