Things that happened in the last six months or so: I transferred leagues. I broke my hand. I had surgery. I went back to skating. I played mostly for a B-team. I served mostly as a blocker. I got a concussion during a bout. I underwent physical therapy for my neck. I went back to skating. My derby writing was published in a book. One of my prior Call the Jam posts was published in the new book Derby Life: A Crash Course in the Incredible Sport of Roller Derby, which is both super duper cool and also made me feel super duper guilty about not writing more here in recent months. Each of the above bullets could probably be a post in…
Reflections on roller derby
Posts from the “fresh meat” Category
[….] We caught up with [name redacted], a skater with a roller derby league in [city redacted] who is on the cusp of finishing her fourth season on the flat track. [Name redacted] writes a blog about her experiences with derby, but we haven’t heard much about her season or the specific games her team played this year, so we were thrilled to connect for a recap. Interviewer: I’m glad I could catch you right at this moment, after the conclusion of your home bouting schedule, with just a single match remaining before your off-season. It seems like a good time to review some of the highs and lows of your derby experience this year. Skater: Absolutely. I mean, I’m not sure why…
Some say it takes a year before derby starts “clicking.” It may take longer for you. It will seem like an eternity. You will have lots and lots and lots of jams in which you have no idea what the fuck is going on. You will have to focus on one thing at a time and not let yourself get overwhelmed. After scrimmaging with veterans, you will come off the track many times apologizing to them for making mistakes. They expect you to make mistakes — there’s no need to abase yourself. Ask what you can do better. Listen and try hard and don’t beat yourself up for your inadequacies. That’s not to say that there’s never any need to say sorry. Some people…
I may be the oldest maid in derbydom. Yeah, the whole derby wife thing just passed me by, and now I’ve been skating for two and a half years as a single lady. If you know me in “real” life this may not be a surprise. Not just because I’m flying solo these days. My historical ambivalence about actual marriage is well known among family and friends. I also tend to make friends slowly, keeping people at a skeptical distance for awhile. However, once I consider you a friend, I will probably keep you forever. I’m not a joiner, I don’t quickly adopt traditions I don’t understand, I’m cautious in forming alliances. So I didn’t really get the derby wife thing. It’s supposed to…
So everyone in derby seems to have some story about how the sport changed her (or his) life. It seems to come on something like a tsunami. Suddenly you have a million friends. You start celebrating milestones like skating 25 laps in five minutes without barfing. That thing you hated about your body your whole life miraculously fails to matter anymore and, in fact, you’re cavorting around in public in glittery panties, unashamed. Your friends, coworkers, strangers even, give you approving nods of respect when you mention you play roller derby. Ta da! Life transformed. It wasn’t like that for me. I became a fan of roller derby after seeing my first bout between the Windy City Rollers’ home teams at the Cicero Stadium…