Category: Roller Derby

Yesterday some of The Skateful Dead team travelled over to Sporting Edge community sports centre near Manchester. Some of us were there for the beginner training, including me, others to scrimmage.

There was a lesson running when we got there, it looked like skaters attempting their “25 in 5”. There were probably around 30 in our session – I was a little nervous.

The session was supervised by Sausage Roller and he and the others (Pinky Fingaz I recall was amongst them) made the session very enjoyable.

Most of the session covered walls; how they should work, roles of the blockers and recycling. There were two games though that I felt worked really well because of the number of skaters.

The first game was one which involved falling and avoiding the fallen. To understand this it’s useful to be aware that before skaters can take part in a bout they have to achieve a set of minimum skills. Amongst these is the ability to fall and make yourself small and the ability to avoid fallen skaters.

In this game the leader called out the number of people you had to touch. This had the effect of bunching up the skaters. Then the insructors would bump people randomly. On this signal the skater had to hit the deck with a four point fall (AKA pornstar) and make themselves small. With the skaters bunched up there was then plenty of opportunity to practice avoiding those that had fallen.

The second game towards the end of the session was “Monster of the Track”. Everyone started by skating around, including instructors. Phase one of the game was to make the instructors fall or push them off the track. Phase two involved the learners turning on each other to do the same. Last person standing becoming Monster of the Track. I don’t recall who that was, though the last instructor standing was #0 – sorry, don’t recall her name, but a damn good skater.

Also in the session was 5 minutes of skating backwards. That really does work your legs. I also found that I got out of breath a little chasing round in Monster of the Track. Obviously need to step up the aerobic exercise regime!

I big thank you to Manchester Roller Derby for making us so welcome – I forgot about feeling nervous almost straight away :-)

Yesterday, as part of my education in learning how to play roller derby, I went to watch a few bouts at North Bridge Leisure Centre in Halifax. Two local British teams were playing against two French teams from Paris. Having watched way too many YouTube videos of the French on inline skates I imagined that they would be just as crazy on quads. I was surprised!

Hot Wheel Roller Derby vs. Paris Rollergirls

Chatting before the bout I found out that Hot Wheel Roller Derby take the game seriously. Their coach (Jerry Attric) is apparently damn good. They don’t use toe stops so they all learn to t-stop/plough stop. HWRD took an early lead and by the end of the first period they’d extended that to quite a margin. At the start of the second period Paris Rollergirls drew level, due, I think (I wasn’t keep score) to very speedy Kozmic Bruise.

I had read the rule book over the past few days, now I was seeing it in action. Understanding why a lead jammer would want to call off a jam, seeing blockers clear the way for their jammer to pass through. It starts to make sense.

It also changed my perception of the sport. It was a rough and tumble clash of girls beating each other up. One girl got caught in the face by an opponents hand, quite by accident. That was it. The game was really quite civilised. Would the mens bout be the same?

The Inhuman League vs. Panam Squad

After a short break the men’s bout started. I had been told that these are generally a faster pace than women’s bouts. I expected teeth and blood. It was perhaps a little faster, and some of the hits looked harder. I also got the impression that the men fell more, during and after blocks there seemed to be at least one person lose balance and fall.

In both bouts I struggled to follow all of the penalties, something that I suppose I’ll pick up with experience. One of Panam Squad had a major hissy fit at being given a penalty. A timeout followed and then, I think, he got sent out of the bout.

Beat Monkey seemed to be the main jammer for The Inhuman League. Quite pleased with that ’cause he looked skinnier than me – there may be hope for me in the sport :-)

Poupa Test was a popular player for Panam Squad – the audience chanting every time he came on.

The bout was owned by The Inhuman League, they lead from the start and finished with a lead of about 100 points. It might have been expected that the audience would have sided with the local teams. Not so. Every time Panam Squad had the lead jammer there was a cheer. A really good atmosphere, both off and on the rink.

I really enjoyed the event. There were stalls selling skate gear, jewellery, stickers and badges. The announcers (El Toupee and King Crazy) were entertaining and explained what was going on. Looking forward to being on the rink in future :-)

• Photos on my Flickr stream
• Bout report by The Inhuman League
• HWRD vs Paris Rollergirls on rduk

 

This evening was my second practise session with The Skateful Dead.

Sally was running the session. There were more people there this time, probably about 12 of us. We started with warm up exercises whilst skating round. I’m still a little unbalanced in quads and I very much felt like the new kid as others whizzed past me.

Then we practised “walls”. I still know hardly any of the rules, but what I do know it this. There are five players from each team on the rink during play. Four are blockers, the fifth is the jammer. The jammer has to try and get past the blockers. There are quite strict rules about grabbing other players, use of elbows and generally foul play. The blockers can either play defensively – by stopping the other teams jammer – or offensively – blocking the other teams blockers thus allowing their jammer through.

After some practice with three person walls and “cyclops” walls we moved on to something more like a proper game. The blockers form two rows some distance ahead of the jammers. Then all hell breaks loose as you try to block the opponents jammer, stay within the track, avoid falling over, resist getting pushed too quickly, only push with shoulders and hips and listen for penalty calls! It’s crazy!

I felt I did okay. I fell over quite a few times, made it past the blockers a few times, though apparently with various penalties – I suppose I had better make a start on that 65 page rule book! Very grateful to those that explained what I’d done wrong. It seems that they are a very friendly bunch :-)

I also thought I was quite fit, what with regular running and some training. I was glad that I took water – you get really warm really quickly – and I found that the gum shield made my mouth dry. I also discovered that I need heavier duty pads – elbow, backside and knee have all sustained impacts. My arms, shoulders and legs are already starting to ache. Best of all I have a couple of minor grazes on my arm – my first roller derby medals! :-)

After the session most of us called in at the Dusty Miller to replace lost fluids. We talked about training. I also found out that our first bout is in six weeks time – against a team that gets away with manslaughter on a regular basis by the sound of it. By then I need to have passed all my basic skills. Oh, and then in July we’re entered in the European championships down in Birmingham. Holy sh**!

 

Last weekend I bumped into a couple of old friends, Lawrence and Carly. I know them from when Imogen and I were skating at the YMCA.

They said that they were setting up a male roller derby team. The practice sessions are on Wednesdays at the Mytholmroyd community centre. Would I be interested? How could I say no?!

So I ordered some “quads” from Rawk, rush delivery, and on Wednesday last I went to my first practice session. I was such good fun! There were only a handful of us there, which worked really well for me as it was a nice easy start. I immediately found that my previous knowledge was useful – I know what “lemons” are! We practised falling, single knee, two knees (rockstar), knees and elbows (pornstar), slide and some others. Then slalom, jumps and ending on cross-overs.

Gillie (our instructor for the session) asked if we wanted to do anything else. I quietly suggested cross-overs going clockwise. I was amused when the idea was declined; roller derby is played on an oval, skating anti-clockwise. Why would we need to practice going the wrong way! :-)

Looking forward to more training and hopefully making it on to The Skateful Dead team some day :-)