Blood and Thunder is as well-known for their training camps as they are for their magazine. B&T held a pre-qualifying round for the 2011 World Cup U.S. team Feb.24-27 and two of our Furies attended. Addy Rawl shared her experiences with us.
Texas in February? To play roller derby? YES PLEASE! As nice as it was to get out of the cold Buffalo weather for a few days, that was the least of my concerns as I made the trip along with partner in crime, Lip Service, to test our skills against derby gals nation wide at Texas Blood and Thunder. We went, we skated, we conquered, and we made some pretty rad friends along the way. We went with the purpose of trying out for the 1st round of the World Cup team try outs and attending the classes put together by Blood and Thunder. To say we walked away with new ideas and skills would be an understatement. We came back with so much more. The class sizes were small and the ideas were big. We received a great deal of one on one time not only with skill instruction, but with overall discussion and idealogy, both with coaches and other campers from leagues around the nation, and world. AND! there was a bout that put all the derby campers together for one night of rip-roaring fun! And when I say rip, I mean literally. That’s what un-polished concrete will do to your skin, right? Woo! Anyways, it was, in one word, an amazing experience. Ok that wasn’t one word, more like one phrase. But you follow :)
I am so fortunate to have great family and friends to have helped me along the way, and for a job that was flexible and supportive enough to let me leave mid-week to pursue a passion of mine. I look forward to sharing the info we learned with the QCRG and seeing our continued growth and expansion. I could have easily said eh, Texas is too far, there will be other camps, I don’t want to take off work, I want to stay home with my cat Mr. Bacon…but in the back of my mind would have thought “what if”. I am done with what if’s. I’m about the “what’s next”. So Texas, thank you. Thank you Crude City for hosting such a fanstastic-al camp, thank you Lip Service for being equally as fantastic-al, and thank you roller derby for being one of the greatest things to come into my life, and for those I get to share it with.
-Addy Rawl
PS: did i mention the Oscar Myer Weenie Mobile (LIFE SIZE!) was parked in our hotel parking lot? We unfortunately did not get a weenie whistle, but we chose the same hotel as the weiner mobile driver. So we’ve got that going for us.
