So if you were at the Glasgow edition of Wintourope, you should probably by now, know your Toe Stop Pop from your Zip Zap Zop. If not, then I'm sorry, all I have for you is an interview with the lovely coaches. Scald Eagle and Lady Trample took the time to chat with me and I must admit, I felt like a fan-girl. These guys are two of my favourite skaters to watch and I'm so glad I got this opportunity.

Lanna- “ How do you guys deal with the fame attribution that comes along with being at the top level within the sport?”

Scald- “First of all, Fame is fleeting. What might be hot now might be day-old news next week. Saying that, I will always do my best regardless of status.

The derby fame is something that you just have to deal with; I can still walk into a 7/11 and no one knows who I am, but you wouldn't see Lebron James walk into a 7/11. However, if I walk in to Rollercon, that’s a different story. Sometimes it’s hard to just make it to the bathroom and back.

So what I've really worked on is to put time aside and do what needs to be done but also make sure I have time to do what I need to do. It's great though: I am more than happy to have those interactions and I love it. It feels just like yesterday for me that I was waiting in line to get stuff signed and having people that I looked up to. I have a lot of patience for it and I love to do it”.

Trample- “ One of the interesting things about, it is there is a level of responsibility, you have to be careful about what you put in the public eye. You are so accessible through social media. However, it also gives you a chance to do things for the community and opportunities to travel and share your knowledge, which I think Isn't really a thing you would see in other sports.

Lanna- “ Mental resilience is something that I personally have struggled with, how do you guys switch off that part of your brain and just get the job done?”

Trample- “It’s something that comes with time; I had a really great coach this year and the main thing he would say to me is to back myself, so much so that I actually got a tattoo of it. It’s a nice memento that I can take with me to remind myself that I've worked hard and to trust my instincts, my pack, my offence, defence and my coaches. If your team are putting you on the line, they believe in you. It takes a little bit of self belief: I played some of my hardest games last year and once I got on that line I just had to remind myself that I've done all the training and to just let it all come into motion”.

Scald- “I think that's where I'm at. In gameplay my cognitive part switches off and my instincts take over, I let my muscle memory do its thing. I don't know how often I have to actually tell myself to continue because it’s more like that's what I have to do, it's instinct. When I think about mental fortitude it’s about getting through practice week to week and living through the dynamics of my team at that level. When you're at that level you don't have the choice to just switch to the next team across town. If you want to play at that level I think the hardest part in my opinion is not figuring out how to deal with your opponents but how you can work well with your team mate”.

Lanna- “ What have your highlights of the Winter Tour been so far ?”.

Scald- “ (adopts an awkward Scottish accent) Shcotland! Och aye ye wee lass, We're in the land of Ootlander an' its ma favourite show and a cannae wait to be here. Its gonnae be a great time. (Back to American) I am super excited to be up here, I've been once before and I loved it. In the US we spent a lot of time re-visiting leagues that I had already been to so it was a lot about going and seeing old friends. We spent our time on the south west but I anticipate that next time round we will head along the east. As far as for the Wintourope Tour, my last name is Buschovik, so I’m really excited to go to Poland. I don't know much what it’s going to be like but it’s going to be an experience. The point of life is to experience new things so...”.

Trample- “ I'm super excited to be in Europe because I've never been on this side of the world. I have a little bit of heritage in Scotland so it was cool to come and explore this place a little bit. Everywhere we are going is exciting to me and there's people who I've been talking to online for the past few years who I'm now getting to meet. They are all coming to our ramp camps and people are travelling all over the world to get to the different bootcamps. Chicks in Bowls is at close to 250 Chapters and it’s amazing I get to meet so many of the Chapter admins and members”.

Lanna- “ And finally, What advice would you give to skaters who want to improve their game?”

Scald - “I think that off skates training is really important, mostly from an injury prevention standpoint. You may not like going to the gym, but going to the ER is much less fun. Having strong quads helps you have strong knees and as women we have naturally weak knees so it's imperative that we strengthen the muscles around them so that they can withstand the torque we put them under. Same with ankles, there's so many baby ankle muscles and foot muscles that we need to look after. If you want to be a kick ass skater and be better than the person next to you then you need to start doing some squats with weight and different things like that. At Rose specifically one of the keys to our success, I believe, is that we have a required gym hour 2 hours a week where we all train together in the gym.”

Trample- “ I don't really do off skates, I know, I'm bad. But I have recently been convinced by Scald that I should be hitting the gym especially to do Pre-hab. I rolled my ankle a while back and I'll do the rehab until its better but then I'm straight back on skates, and it’s not good because a few months later I'll roll my ankle again and it’s because I didn't build up the strength that I needed to help the muscles fully recover and be strong enough to stop the injury from happening again. So I am in a position now where I'm going to push myself to do it”.

Well, there you have it. It was an absolute pleasure to interview these lovely ladies and hopefully you all take something away from my questions. Huge thanks to GMRD for hosting a fantastic event and making sure the day was super fun.

Till next time Much Love.

The next WinTourope is WinTourope Poland, this weekend (21-22nd Jan), followed by Netherlands, France, and finally England.