Ask the rollergirl

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Oakminster - yes, what we do is all real, all sport. It confuses some people, because there is still an element of showmanship. We have fake names, and many of the girls really glam it up with their outfits and on-tack personalities. We are amateurs, but make a little bit of money as a league, from ticket sales and such. It usually all goes back into producing our next bout. Roller Derby is almost entirely do-it-yourself. We pay for the practice space, the lights, the halftime entertainment, the food for the visiting team, publicity . . . everything. I guess theoretically we could sell enough tickets to come out so far ahead that the skaters could make money from it, but I don’t see that happening.

As far as insurance is concerned, many leagues require that you have your own primary health insurance. Ours doesn’t, but we STRONGLY recommend it. There are also sanctioning organizations, such as Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) and USA Roller Sports (USARS). Generally a league will require membership in one of these in order to skate competitively, and they offer additional accident insurance as well as some liability for the league and the individual skaters.

Push You Down - congratulations! I’ve been having fun watching regionals while I’m at work. I mean . . . on my lunch break. I’ll watch for your team when it’s their time!

Zipper - hearing your physical description makes me want you on my team! Obviously, the better shape you’re in, the more cut out you’ll be, but in the two seasons I’ve been with our team, I’ve seen a huge range of fitness levels for girls just starting out. When I started, I was running 4-5 miles three or four times a week. I figured, how hard can this be? I’m on wheels! Well, it’s pretty hard, in that you’re using muscles that don’t get much use in everyday life. Quads and a strong core are essential.

About half of my teammates smoke. It certainly doesn’t help them, but they seem to be managing just fine. As far as exhaustion is concerned, your first week or so, you’ll likely want to die, but it will get much better.

IME, past a basic level of fitness, you’re not going to drag the team down, especially as a beginner. Your fitness will increase as you practice, and you’ll likely be motivated to adopt a healthier lifestyle if you really get serious about it. Part of the reason I joined was to have a fun way to exercise, but now I exercise outside of practice to better my skating!

Also, it depends on your local league. Most are pretty welcoming to new skaters, and will do what they can to train you and get you in condition until you’re ready to bout. If you’re not ready when you first start out (and you likely won’t be) then you just won’t be on the roster for that bout. Many leagues have A and B teams, so that even if you’re not the best of the best, you can still compete. My league only has one team, but we generally only bout against B teams.
**
filling pages** - no we’re not WFTDA yet, though we would like to be!

22

Good luck! If you ever get down to Tally to go up against the local team, I’ll come out and see the match.

23

Is there any sort of health care provided? Or are the players themselves expected to pay for any medical bills if they get injured?

24

Just like everything else in Derby, it’s DIY.
That’s why they require in some leagues that you have your own health insurance. The WFTDA and USARS insurances I hear often described as ‘bunk’ and will really do you no good if you file an injury claim.

25

It’s true - you’re on your own. I’ve heard of some larger leagues exploring group coverage for their skaters, but I don’t know if any actually have it. It’s a calculated risk, and I keep a few days’ sick time saved up just in case I break something.

I don’t have any statistics, but I think injuries requiring medical care are fairly uncommon, given the number of skaters, and the number of hours they are on skates. One thing I’ve learned is how tough the human body really is. I’m small, and have a small-to-average sized frame. Before I started skating, I thought that some of those hard hits would literally shatter my spine. But, now that I’m in it, I just say, “UGH!” and skate on.

That’s not to say injuries don’t happen. In my league we’ve had (that I know of) two concussions, two broken fingers, a broken tailbone, one broken ankle, one dislocated elbow, a bunch of torn ligaments, and more ugly bruises and rink rash than I can count.

26

Is anybody on roller-blades/inline-skates, or is it all traditional skates? Would roller blades be legal?

27

No questions for you, just an open invite if you come to Columbus to play against the Ohio Roller Girls give me a shout and I’ll come and watch!

28

**bup **- I asked that question when I first started skating (cause I had roller blades already), and the way they looked at me . . . you would have thought I’d asked if I could skate on dead baby brains. No. WFTDA rules require “quad” skates.

MeanJoe - Thanks! We don’t have our next-year season set, yet, but Columbus is close enough to be doable.

29

You mean Fruit Boots? Why would anyone wear fruit boots?

The skaters are forbidden in every ruleset from wearing inlines. Refs CAN wear them but would be mocked continously for it.

30

I wouldn’t!
I was just, you know…asking…about…maybe there would be some *losers *that *would *want to know about wearing inline skates.

Ha ha! Inline skate losers!

31

Black Sunshine, how much does the metal ball weigh? Never mind, you said derby, not ball…

How many games are there in your season and how far do you have to travel for them?

You said that there was some money in it, do players in the ‘big leagues’ get paid?

I am in my early 40’s, how much of a relation is there between the roller derby of today and the stuff I used to see on TV in the late 1970s?

You are calling in-lines ‘fruit boots’? Not the roller-disco era ‘traditional’ skates?

32

I dropped by a Kansas City Roller Derby to drop off some DVDs for the band that was playing before the game and during the intermission - the Kansas City Paul Green School of Rock. I was shocked to see that it was a flat track. Sorry, but it just doesn’t seem to be Roller Derby without a banked track - nowhere near as much speed, which was kind of the point.

33

Ike - I’m hoping that rollerball will make a comeback, too. I’ve always wanted to play! We played around 10 bouts this season. The farthest we traveled was about 6 hours away. Mostly we stayed within 3. Actually, most of them were at home.

I should clarify re: the money - I don’t personally know of anyone who gets paid. I’m just saying that theoretically, it’s possible that a league would take in so much from ticket and merchandise sales to have some left over to pass on to the skaters.

I’m in my early 30s. I watched banked-track derby when I was a kid in the 80s. The major differences with us are that we skate on a flat track, wear more protective gear, and that none of what happens is scripted or planned in any way. It’s a true sport. There are also prohibitions against things like clotheslining people, which I recall being a big move back then.

gaffa - yeah, it’s a bit slower without the banked track, but trust me, when I’m out there, I’m moving fast enough, thank you! :slight_smile:

34

It’s a matter of money. Few leagues can afford to maintain a full time track. The Tallahassee crew just mark off a big track inside a warehouse down at the fair grounds, for instance. And yeah, they’re going plenty fast.

35

Roller Derby when I was a kid was at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. That venue was used for concerts and wrestling as well, so they obviously had a banked track that could be assembled and disassembled as needed, and could be taken down for a concert the next night. So it’s probably the cost of the track and the labor, rather than needing a full time venue.

36

There’s honestly not a space here that could hold a banked track that they can afford to rent, and that’s a common problem. Flat tracks simply allow more people to play, because of costs.

37

I think Sunshine and I are able to give good varying points of view.

There’s Banked Track Derby and Flat Track Derby.
There are over 400 flat track leagues all over the world. There are 6 or 7 banked track leagues.

Flat Track is very egalitarian. All you need is a long open space, a tape measure and some chalk and you’ve got a track.

Banked tracks are made out of laminate and steel and wood… and cost thousands of dollars to build and maintain. Now add to that the cost of storing and transporting the track or housing it in a permanent home. Banked track overhead is daunting. I imagine our monthly budget is larger than most flat track leagues annual budget. Still nobody gets paid because it is super expensive to do it.

No offense to Sunshine or other flat track people, but flat is slower, almost methodical game. Banked is just over all faster. The average speed for a flat track jammer is between 15-20mph. The average speed for a jammer skating on a banked track is 30mph.

A gameplay benefit of flat track is that having an “infield” and an “outfield” allows the game more variety in action. It can move more laterally.
The same things that make bank track faster- gravity and well, a bank- also makes the game funnel down. Sure you can hit an opponent into the highside, but unless they go flying over the rail, that player will most likely be back in play rather quickly… knock them down and into the infield, you’ve taken them out of the pack and out of play. In flat you can hit someone out of the track completely and into the crowd… which is pretty cool.

38

Do the leagues get much coverage in local media? Maybe a show on public access TV?

39

Nothing to add but cheers for roller girls… those ladies rock! I’ve only managed to make it to one bout, but holy crap was it fun.

40

These http://www.archrivalrollergirls.com/ are our local grrlz - they’re great fun.

Black Sunshine - Do you have any mother - daughter pairs in your league?

Does anyone play another sport, volleyball or ice hockey or ???

Do you have groupies? Male or female or both?

Have you ever been recognized in civvies, like at the grocery store? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?