If you live in an area where roller derby leagues have sprouted up over the last decade like the many heads of a hydra, transferring to another league may have crossed your mind. Maybe another outfit works better geographically for you or you want to try a different level of competition or your current league no longer meets your needs as a skater. Two years ago, I made the leap from a league I skated with for about five seasons to an older, more competitive league in my town. It was a hard decision to make because I felt like I was abandoning my old league, which had given me so much over the years, and the friendships I’d made there. However, I was…
Reflections on roller derby
Posts from the “history” Category
When I meet famous people in roller derby, I always try to ask them the same question about our sport: Why did it catch on and become so popular when it did? I’m particularly interested in why so many women took to the fledgling pastime and turned it into a movement, and why it became so meaningful in so many individual lives. I always get interesting answers. One derby coach I asked a couple years ago in the parking lot of a general store in Michigan, where I had traveled to attend her multi-day workshop, responded with a quote from the writer Victor Hugo: “You cannot resist an idea whose time had come.” I like this grandiloquent way of responding because it hints that the…
Tagged: community, feminism, roller derby, sports
If you’re in central Indiana, come celebrate four years of Vital Skates — the Fountain Square skate shop catering to roller derby enthusiasts — with this special book reading event! Author Margot Atwell, aka Em Dash of world champion Gotham Girls Roller Derby, will be in town for a reading from her new book Derby Life: A Crash Course in the Incredible Sport of Roller Derby, along with a Q & A. I will read a short essay I contributed to the book inspired by one of my blog posts. If you play roller derby or just have an interest in the sport, you’ll love this unique celebration. Refreshments will be provided, and all of Vital Skates’ merchandise will be available for sale, including skates, gear, T-shirts,…
Last weekend I turned 35. I’ll try not to bore you with any platitudes about aging, but it’s hard not to give in to the temptation of reflection on your birthday. I started playing roller derby at age 32, more than three years after watching my first bout and practice. At the time, I was writing a feature story as a capstone for a class called “Sports and Society” while wrapping up my masters’ degree in journalism. I was 29. I didn’t see myself as a player, either literally or figuratively. I was an observer, a sociologist, an investigator, a writer. This was in 2006, when roller derby was considered more fringe-y than it is now. My professor, Lester Munson — who wrote on legal…
Over Sunday coffee at my friend’s house in Chicago I found this in one of the alumni magazines published by my undergraduate alma mater. Here’s the original article about Varla Vendetta, which was published before the World Cup last year.