Over the past four months, I have been on a journey to find a new me. I was overweight, lazy, and never wanted to go out. Last February I was fired from my PhD position and settled for a masters degree with another group. While my new group is amazing, I was really down. So I ate. And ate.
I was an three sport athlete in high school: Baseball, soccer, and track. I blew my shoulder out my junior year, stopped running track, and limited myself to just soccer. I wasn't good enough to play in college, but was always played all the intramurals. However, I do not have the time/desire to play with 18-21 year olds. So I filled this time with computer games eating. And eating.
I blimped up to 300 pounds. being 6'4" and still having some athletic features, that wasn't horrible. But my gut was starting to be an issue. My knees hurt too badly to run. Didnt want to take my shirt off to swim. I was stuck.
Fast forward to September. My sister has played roller derby for the past 6 years. Her coach found out that I really wanted to be part of a team. He used to live in the same town as me, where the local team cracked the top 8 in the USA. Well the coach asked me to come by and just see how I liked it. He was cleaning the bathroom when I came in, so a girl ran to get him. He turned the corner look at me mid chest, looked up at me and said, "damn, you ARE huge". He went through his shpeal about how great derby was blah blah blah. However, the loaner gear he had only went to size 11 skate. I am a size 15. So I had to make the decision to invest a lot of money into a sport I have never done, or just be miserable. That night, I had chest pains and went to the ER. It turned out to be stress and HBP, but at 27, I thought I was having a heart attack. That made my mind up. I was doing derby.
I started in a class with a bunch of girls. The class was broken up into 3 levels. You must test out of each level before going on to the next. Some girls had been there a year. I thought to myself that I had just wasted $300 on gear on a sport I hated. Level 1 was boring as shit. Learning how to fall and stop. After going to practice twice a week for 2 1/2 months, I tested and passed to level 2. Level 2 was all about endurance, skating backwards, and jumps. I skated there for two weeks when one of the travel team guys happened to be there, since it was teh last practice before Christmas break. He came to me and told me to come to the men's practice. I was super nervous since everyone had been skating for 5+years. Everything was fine. I just went and tried my hardest. They let me come back until Christmas break was over since they had a different schedule than my class. I found out that they had tryouts for the travel team at the beginning of January. Even though I wasn't cleared for contact (had to be in group 3 for that), I went. I busted ass. It was fun. I ended up making alternate for the B team. I beat out some guys who had been skating for the last 7 years, so I was stoked.
Fast forward to now. I have been practicing 3-4 times a week, both with the girls for endurance/footwork and the guys for contact. I have worked my ass off. I have had to sacrifice a lot. I have had to watch what I eat. I have had to smoke less
. I have had to buy less cigar/pipe baccy since I have had to upgrades to better skates ($850 since they had to special make my skate), pads, and jerseys. I have had to stop playing video games, in order to still see my wife. HOWEVER, I would not change my work and my results. I am currently the same weight as I was, however, I am down 4 inches off of my waist. I can now run up stairs. I can pick my wife up with one arm. I am strong again. I am now squatting 400 pounds ( I was up to 520 at the peak of soccer). I am happy and my wife can tell. My love life due to both endurance and size (of my belly!) is better. It was also paid off in terms of my team. The B team usually consists of 10 guys. Whenever they skate, 4 A team guys play and all the B team. However, for our game on the 31st, they rostered 11 B team guys, including myself! This is just the beginning of my derby carrier. It is promising for the rare size/speed combination I have, on top of the willingness to practice. Few things have affected me this much. Meeting my wife, going to school, BOTL and now derby. Derby has saved my life from health problems. It has also given me passion I have not had in years.
This post my have seemed random, but I just need to tell how much derby changed my life. I must brag on the small community (even smaller than BOTLs) and how much they stick together. Also, if anyone is interested in derby, let me know and I'll do the dirty work of digging for a place for you to start. There is a 65 year old dude that skates in Seattle, so yall aren't too old.
PS If anyone is interested in watching, here is the facebook page. There will be a live stream posted immediately to YouTube afterwards. https://www.facebook.com/events/1532643836985993/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
I was an three sport athlete in high school: Baseball, soccer, and track. I blew my shoulder out my junior year, stopped running track, and limited myself to just soccer. I wasn't good enough to play in college, but was always played all the intramurals. However, I do not have the time/desire to play with 18-21 year olds. So I filled this time with computer games eating. And eating.
I blimped up to 300 pounds. being 6'4" and still having some athletic features, that wasn't horrible. But my gut was starting to be an issue. My knees hurt too badly to run. Didnt want to take my shirt off to swim. I was stuck.
Fast forward to September. My sister has played roller derby for the past 6 years. Her coach found out that I really wanted to be part of a team. He used to live in the same town as me, where the local team cracked the top 8 in the USA. Well the coach asked me to come by and just see how I liked it. He was cleaning the bathroom when I came in, so a girl ran to get him. He turned the corner look at me mid chest, looked up at me and said, "damn, you ARE huge". He went through his shpeal about how great derby was blah blah blah. However, the loaner gear he had only went to size 11 skate. I am a size 15. So I had to make the decision to invest a lot of money into a sport I have never done, or just be miserable. That night, I had chest pains and went to the ER. It turned out to be stress and HBP, but at 27, I thought I was having a heart attack. That made my mind up. I was doing derby.
I started in a class with a bunch of girls. The class was broken up into 3 levels. You must test out of each level before going on to the next. Some girls had been there a year. I thought to myself that I had just wasted $300 on gear on a sport I hated. Level 1 was boring as shit. Learning how to fall and stop. After going to practice twice a week for 2 1/2 months, I tested and passed to level 2. Level 2 was all about endurance, skating backwards, and jumps. I skated there for two weeks when one of the travel team guys happened to be there, since it was teh last practice before Christmas break. He came to me and told me to come to the men's practice. I was super nervous since everyone had been skating for 5+years. Everything was fine. I just went and tried my hardest. They let me come back until Christmas break was over since they had a different schedule than my class. I found out that they had tryouts for the travel team at the beginning of January. Even though I wasn't cleared for contact (had to be in group 3 for that), I went. I busted ass. It was fun. I ended up making alternate for the B team. I beat out some guys who had been skating for the last 7 years, so I was stoked.
Fast forward to now. I have been practicing 3-4 times a week, both with the girls for endurance/footwork and the guys for contact. I have worked my ass off. I have had to sacrifice a lot. I have had to watch what I eat. I have had to smoke less
. I have had to buy less cigar/pipe baccy since I have had to upgrades to better skates ($850 since they had to special make my skate), pads, and jerseys. I have had to stop playing video games, in order to still see my wife. HOWEVER, I would not change my work and my results. I am currently the same weight as I was, however, I am down 4 inches off of my waist. I can now run up stairs. I can pick my wife up with one arm. I am strong again. I am now squatting 400 pounds ( I was up to 520 at the peak of soccer). I am happy and my wife can tell. My love life due to both endurance and size (of my belly!) is better. It was also paid off in terms of my team. The B team usually consists of 10 guys. Whenever they skate, 4 A team guys play and all the B team. However, for our game on the 31st, they rostered 11 B team guys, including myself! This is just the beginning of my derby carrier. It is promising for the rare size/speed combination I have, on top of the willingness to practice. Few things have affected me this much. Meeting my wife, going to school, BOTL and now derby. Derby has saved my life from health problems. It has also given me passion I have not had in years. This post my have seemed random, but I just need to tell how much derby changed my life. I must brag on the small community (even smaller than BOTLs) and how much they stick together. Also, if anyone is interested in derby, let me know and I'll do the dirty work of digging for a place for you to start. There is a 65 year old dude that skates in Seattle, so yall aren't too old.
PS If anyone is interested in watching, here is the facebook page. There will be a live stream posted immediately to YouTube afterwards. https://www.facebook.com/events/1532643836985993/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
