Objective: To prepare skaters for the WFTDA minimum skills test; to build endurance; to practice pacing yourself; to practice proper skating form
Typical length of drill: 5 mins
Materials needed: A properly laid down track
Skill level required: None
Description: This is basically just skating your hardest for five minutes straight and counting your own laps; like a time-trial without the pressure of an actual time-trial. All the skaters spread out around the track and on the first whistle start skating. Each time they pass their point of origin they count one lap. Skaters who have done this drill more than once can use this as a way to gauge their own improvement. Skaters should also be using this drill to learn how to pace themselves, meaning, not necessarily pushing at 100% from the start because then you might be skating at 50% in the last two minutes because you're so exhausted.
Additional notes: This drill is aah so simple yet so effective. Great filler at practice because it's nice an' short but still good for endurance. This is one of those drills that I came up with myself but since it didn't require the least bit of brain-power I don't think I deserve any credit for it (it can be called "Lazy Coach" for a reason...). When I was including this drill in practices on a regular basis I noticed that skaters really appreciated the opportunity to check in on themselves, they liked doing this drill more than once and being able to count their own laps to see if they'd improved since last we did it, or to push themselves to do better than they did last time. It became sort of a confidence booster.
Please note that if you want to know the definite number of laps that a skater can do in five minutes (like when you're doing REAL time-trials for WFTDA testing) you need to have someone who is NOT skating counting the test-takers' laps because most skaters lose track after about lap 12 (or lap 3 if you get as distracted by the good lookin' refs as I do).
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