The Body Lock- my new best friend in derby

HI Maehym here, I think I am getting access to the SkateCourt Floor Blog so i can finally talk about skating again.

I joined DRD about 4 months ago and my newest and most useful skill is the "body lock", bare with me because this is a little tough to explain in this format.

What is a body lock?
SO a Body Lock is positioning yourself in a place where you are in COMPLETE control of your opponent. The physical position of the "Body Lock" is where your ass is under your opponent's ass and you use your torso and your shoulder to wrap and hold on to them until you can steer them out of bounds. Does that make sense? I feel like Im more effective doing this to the out side (locking on opponents left side and using your right side to lock and pushing/steering them to the left. As with anything in derby you want to be able to do this to the inside and the outside.

How to do the body Lock?
To define this movement, start by yourself offskates and sit in your derby(yes get low) position and now to a side oblique crunch to the left and then to the right. Do you see the dip/curve your torso makes between your armpit and the top of your hip bone. That will be what you are using to "lock" on your opponent. Now you have to position the lock a little more forward, so your torso is a little more diagonally so you can lock her body from back to front. In this position she can't go anywhere .

The approach
SO this is what puzzled me for a couple weeks but my teammates helped me out with it. There is NO SWOOPING in this movement!!! You almost want to "sneak up" behind you opponent and target the back  outside of their glut muscle with your leg. Think of it as "docking" on her.  You should be low enough to scoop your ass right under her's slights or at least get the top outside part of your leg engaged with the target zone of her outside upper glut. As you engage with your legs, lean forward and "wrap/crunch" with your torso around her, and for goodness sake- DO NOT ENGAGE OR USE YOUR FOREARM OR YOUR ELBOW. with complete physical control of your opponent you can steer/push her out to take her out of the equation.

Thats the brief summary or the Body Lock according to what I learned w DRD

Uses-steer opponent out of bounds, basic control and ultimately toss them off their skates but I am still working on that part.

Some tipe and things to keep in mind
-if she sees you and firms up, bounce lower and get under her further
-you are using your femur as a fulcrum, so depending on how long your femur is compared to hers you may have to adjust where you need to "dock"' onto her. For example, my femurs are mega long so if my opponent is smaller my knee may be closer or infront of hers.

To see "the bounce" please check out this video with my pal Isabelle Ringer
http://youtu.be/BZiziO7FgcI

Please email me RandiMaehym@SkateCourt.com and let me know your thoughts on this post or if I can make it clearer or if you have any questions

FUNdraising- ways to maximize your leagues rev in the off season

Hi everyone,(not finished with this post but you may want to use these ideas sooner rather than later)

I have been working with a couple teams on fundraising and sponsorship coaching and thought it would be a good idea to make some of this stuff a bit more public

Holiday Party for your fans and a chance to sell season tickets for 2012 and sponsorships
There is a couple way to do this, if you have your own space or your rent a time in a rink this could be perfect. The idea is to have a family friendly holiday party for you fans and a chance to sell (discounted) season tickets for 2012. Some ideas to make the party less expensive is to have your sponsors donate the food, you may even want to have a silent option. Also have your sponsorship committee ready to go and information at the ready. The goal of this event is to socailize and meet all of your fans and thank them for their support. If you have the party at your practice rink, ask the owners of they could give a discount for skate orders received during this time and a commission that could go to your leagues rent.


Help out charities while maintaining  ALL your ticket rev
So we work out butts  off to promote bouts but we also need to support the community around us. Some leagues do this by offering discounted tickets if you support the charity, I think I have found a what of "having our cake and eating it too". I propose instead of giving a discounted ticket rate, you should offer priority seating instead. Rope off the best seating in your venue(about 30%or so) and have boxes located (and a derby girl to monitor) at the beginning of the seating area for your fans to deposit the donations they have brought. Seats are still first come first serve, but those with donations get priority. You are still supporting your community but lets face it if you have 1500 fans coming to your event, and 30% of your fans(450 ppl) bring a donations and receive $2 off per ticket. That's $900 off just the door sales.If your league can afford this, awesome but don't feel like the only way you can support a charity is to donate money. You also might want to have the charity set up their own table to raise awareness of their cause. They can even have a raffle with their own prizes and keep that revenue.
Here are some ideas
Area Pet Shelters-Donations of pet food, toys, litter, leashes and other pet necessities
Food Bank-Donations of nonperishable food
Homeless Shelters-Donations of slightly used outerwear(coats, sweaters)
Battered Womens Shelters- Donations of old cell phones
Low-Income Schools- Donations of new school supplies