Hard Core Hitting

If you live in New York you have been witness to a pretty brutal winter this year. Temperatures have repeatedly been below 20 degrees and snow has been falling often and in abundance. To make matters worse, that little furry guy known as the groundhog, went and saw his shadow on Monday, therefore granting us another 6 weeks of bone chilling, uncomfortable weather. This week it snowed enough to have to call off one night of practice.

Captain Morgan made up for this by holding a three hour practice in one night. As always, we performed various exercises, some new and some oldies but goodies. In addition, half, if not more, of the night was devoted to hitting drills. Captain went over the physics of hitting. How hits should not be executed using your arm or your hip, but rather by using your entire body. A hit should come from your core. She explained this more in detail and told us why crunches and squats are imperative to strenghten the muscles needed to hit well.

Coincidentally, yesterday , Rei Zerburnn posted a very descriptive article on her blog all about hitting and blocking. It was informative and thorough and she too spoke about the importance of using your core. She even went as far to talk about different size players and what type of blocking skills would work to their advantage. This article is definitely something any derby player could benefit from reading. I would even recommend it to a jammer. It will give you a better idea of things you should be looking out for when trying to get through the pack.

xo
Etta