Ask the rollergirl

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Push You Down - thanks for that! I’d love to try a banked track some day, but the things you mentioned, especially trying to hit people “uphill,” make me glad for our nice flat court.

Oakminster - We’ve been in most of the local papers, and occasionally we’ll have one of the radio stations give out free tickets to our bouts. We do what we can to get our name out in the community. So often we hear people say that they had no idea there was roller derby in Lexington.

NajaNivea - thanks! Hope you keep going to your local bouts! Derby is fun, but without fans it would go downhill quick.

LSL Guy - I’m having massive deja vu. Did I already answer you? If not (and even if so) Arch Rivals are AWESOME. I got to watch their A team skate in Evansville this summer and they knocked my socks off. A few of our girls are hoping to travel out there and practice with them (and get our asses kicked) at some point.

No mother daughters at the moment, but one of my teammates has a daughter who is 17 (18 is minimum for us) and already has her derby name picked out. I hope she decides to join.

We’ve got a rugby player and a hockey player who have just started with us, and I think another girl fences. No other organized sports that I know of.

Not only do we have some groupies (male and female) but I have my own cheering section! I’ve only been recognized in public once. I was in the local sporting goods store, buying new wristguards (so that may have been a give away) and someone yelled out, “Good luck tomorrow, Sugar Shock!” I have no idea who it was, but it absolutely made my week.

42

Good for you! My boyfriend is going to the rink today to interview and skate with the Richland County Regulators as part of his TV shows. I hope he comes back with all parts intact.

43

In case anyone cares, I’ve spent a considerable amount of my morning trying to come up with a good derby name.

44

I care! Got any goodies? I don’t know if you saw or not, but in Post #8 on here, there’s a link to all the awesome names that are already taken.

Zsofia - I’ve seen footage of a similar thing from when a local newscaster went out to cover one the leagues not far from us. It was hilarious. I think the reporter’s physical bruises probably healed before his pride did.

45

Here in Seattle we have the Rat City Roller Girls They have a league and traveling teams. This year went to my first bout. Was hard to figure out what was going on at first but when someone explained it I could follow somewhat. It’s hard to keep track of the jammer and who they have passed so I quit trying and just watched the skating. Seems like they have a pretty decent local following. I went to a concert that was a fundraising event for them and it was pretty packed.

Maybe we’ll get the WFTDA one of these days.

I’d say Mean Old Lady isn’t half bad.

46

…and it’s surprisingly not taken. I was thinking of doing some pun with my name and thought of Melicious, but then supposed some people might think it’s a play on Delicious instead of Malicious, which is what I was going for. The second problem with it is it’s lame. The third problem is it’s already taken.

47

I like how the magazine for the “scene” is called Fracture. Thanks Googley ads

48

I think **MeanOldLady **might be a good start all by itself.

49

No, but in another recent thread asking if roller derby still existed I posted the same link. You probably saw that.

Thanks for taking the time to give us all a back stage tour. Rock on, Sugar Shock!!

50

My niece is a Rat City Roller Girl! Actually, if I understand correctly, there are 4 teams and the best players of the 4 teams are on the actual Rat City Traveling team (alas my niece hasn’t made that yet). If we re-locate to the Seattle area, I’m sure we’ll check 'em out.

How are the Rat City Roller Girls viewed as a team?

51

Rat City is a WFTDA league. One of the best. Ranked 10th in the country I think.

Rat City has a great rep. And some of the coolest refs in derby.

52

But have we ever had the finals here? I’ve only been paying attention for this last year and I think we’re in year 5 so I’m not sure. Seems like they do the finals on the East Coast, or does it rotate every year? A lot of interest here on the Left Coast between Seattle, Portland, Sac, etc.

53

Probably harder to hold Nationals on the west coast since the majority of the teams who would be competing are east coast, so travel would be harder.more expensive. Everyone comes out this way anyway once a year for Rollercon in Vegas.

54

Many questions here:
Does your team wear a uniform?
Who gets to decide who is kicked off a team and who joins the team?
Who decides who plays in any particular game?

What physical contact is allowed and what is disallowed?

How does a typical “game” go? Several two-minute bouts with Team A playing against Team B? At the end, team with most points wins?

How many different leagues are there, and is there any interest in having one big organization to oversee all the leagues and teams in the US?

Is there a totally separate league for men? Or do men just not play roller derby?

Would you take young kids to see a roller derby bout? (Let’s say under 10 years old)

55

Ah, welcome to Seattle sports. Guess who logs the most travel miles in the NFL and the MLB?

I see your point though. Is Rollercon an event or a meeting? Is there actual competition or is it more exhibition? Obviously I could probably use the Google to get this info but I’d rather hear the experience and opinion from someone who participates. What is it like?

56

Yay for more questions!

Yes, we wear a uniform, sort of. Most teams either vote, or have a committee in charge of deciding uniforms. It’s hard to find something that everyone can live with. This year, we just went with black tops (you get to choose t-shirt or tank top) with our logo, and black on bottom, so you can choose shorts, skirt, leggings, whatever.

I’m sure it varies amongst leagues. For us, if you show up and pay your dues, you’re on the league, barring some serious rules infraction. We have by-laws that dictate what one would have to do to be off the league. We’ve had a couple of suspensions that resulted in the girls never coming back, but we’ve never kicked someone out.

Larger leagues have multiple teams, so the newer skaters have a hope of ever bouting. Right now, we just have one team. For any bout, you can have a maximum of 14 girls on your roster. A few weeks before the bout, our team captains look at who on the league has met the attendance requirements, and pick the top 14 skaters from that pool.

You can see the full rules at wftda.com. We’re not a WFTDA league, but hope to be some day, so we follow their rules. There’s no tripping, hitting, clotheslining. Roughly, you use the side and back of your torso to impact other girls on the side or front of their torsos.

A game is a bout. It is 60 minutes long, divided into either two 30-minute periods or three 20-minute periods, further divided into two-minute “jams.” And yes, at the end, whoever has the most points wins.

But, keep in mind that in each jam, both teams can score, at the same time. There is not your typical team a offense v. team b defense then vice-versa. Each girl on each team is playing offense and defense at the same time.

There are a ton. I really have no idea. The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the overseeing body. Not all leagues are members, and non-member leagues can still play against member leagues. Only member leagues are eligible to be in the tournaments each year.

Some men play. Some of our (male) referees play with the Midwest Men’s Roller Derby league. Most interested men that I talk to end up being referees.

I would, and my friends with kids have brought them to watch me. The only things I would take into consideration if I were a parent are:

a) It can get loud. Not rock-concert loud, but sporting event loud.
b) Some of the girls are dressed kinda slutty. You’re not going to see nudity, but there will be some cleavage and probably some butt cheek. Nothing you won’t see at the pool.
c) It’s a little hard to follow, so young kids might just get bored. My friend’s three-year-old didn’t enjoy himself because he was mad that other girls kept pushing me down. Once his mom explained to him what was going on, he fell asleep.

There are tons of kids at our bouts, and many of my teammates have children of their own that come to our practices.

It’s a convention. Like sci-fi conventions or what have you. I’ve never been, but I believe people who go can sign up for a number of scrimmages, and there are workshops and such.

57

OK, I don’t get it. What is the difference between a league and a team?
I was imagining that a league was a group of several teams, with each team having a permanent roster of members. The teams play each other to be champions of their league. (like US soccer teams in Major League Soccer).

The way you describe it, what you call a league is what I would call a team.

“Jams”: each game is made up of 30 different jams? Is there any pause between the jams, where everyone goes back to the same start line? Or does the start of a new jam just mean that scoring starts from zero? How does a typical game go? What is a typical score?

58

Push You Down: my friend Google tells me that there are some roller derby players in Orange County (CA). Are they any good?

59

Arnold - yes, it’s confusing. Sometimes I forget. In derby, a “league” is what most people would refer to as a “team.” Different leagues have different criteria for membership. Lexington is a small market, and we take what we can get, so if you show up to practices, pay your dues, and don’t egregiously violate any of our bylaws, you’re on the league.

So, our league is the Rollergirls of Central Kentucky. We have maybe 25 people. Bigger leagues will often divide their members into teams. An A team and a B team, or a travel team, or an all-star team. Membership is semi-permanent, but ostensibly, a league member could be on more than one team. Or a B-team member (think junior varsity) could (and often does) move up to the A team. Sometimes, two teams on a league will play against each other, in an intra-league, or exhibition bout, but most of the time, they’ll play against other leagues. Often, if two leagues have A and B teams of similar skill, they will have a double-header with two bouts. My league just doesn’t have enough girls to field multiple teams. WFTDA is the organization that most closely resembles the NFL or MLB.

The “roster” is made up of the 14 (or fewer) girls who have been selected to play in a particular bout. 14 is the limit, but you can have far fewer. We won our final bout of the season with only 8.5 girls (our 9th got a concussion shortly into the first half).

There are not quite 30 jams in a bout, as there are 30 seconds between each jam. There is no official number of how many jams there should be - just how ever many fit in the alotted time. If the period clock (20 or 30 minutes) runs out 10 seconds into a jam, that jam will continue until it’s natural end (2 minutes, or when it is called off for one reason or another). Each jam ends when the referee blows his or her whistle four times, and starts with everyone back in starting positions. The scoring is cumulative, so if I score 4 points in the first jam, and 15 in the second, my team has 19 total points.

I don’t know if there is a typical score. In my two seasons, I’ve seen scores in the 40s and scores in the 200s. We’ve lost bouts by three points, and lost by over a hundred.

Clear as mud? It is very confusing. I felt like an idiot when I first started because I kept asking questions, and reading the rules, but I couldn’t figure it out. You really have to watch a few bouts, or even better, skate in them, to get the picture.

60

I’m going to geek out for a minute and tell you all how much I love you for making this go to 2 pages. I’ve always been somewhat athletic, but I have never, ever been anything other than remedial at any sort of team sport. I’m so happy that I got involved in roller derby, and I love being able to tell other people about it. Please let me know if any of you decide to go watch (or join!) your local team after this.