For fun, fitness and self-esteem, be a roller derby queen
SPORT | Rick Wade
“The night that I fell in love with a Roller Derby Queen, Round and round, oh round and round, The meanest hunk of woman that anybody ever seen, Down in the arena …,” – Jim Croce, “Roller Derby Queen”
Used to be, saying somebody hit like a girl was an insult. Not anymore.
Don’t believe it? Then come out to Springfield’s Skateland South any Sunday evening.
There you will find dozens of female skaters suiting up for a roller derby bout. These women of all ages, builds and looks wear a colorfully mismatched potpourri of cutoffs and tanks, short shorts and knee highs, fishnet hose and tattoos. Pads cover elbows and knees, helmets cover heads. Teeth clench plastic mouthguards.
A whistle blows and these individuals merge into a single entity, jostling, jabbing and, yes, hitting – hitting hard – as they whirl around the roller rink.
Another whistle blows and two low-slung skaters – called jammers – with stars on their helmets break into a rolling charge toward the pack, fists gouging the air to grab chunks of speed. The pair hit the pack, quad wheels loudly scraping the floor. Half the skaters, or blockers – hips butting, shoulders shoving – help their team’s jammer aggressively twist and dodge her way through the moving crowd to the front, while trying to prevent the other jammer’s progress.
Nobody says, “Pardon me.” Suddenly, a woman crashes to the hard floor in a tangle of air-spinning wheels and flailing limbs. She bowls over another skater who does the same tumbling routine. Yet another skater immediately pulls up and lends the pair a helping hand. Whistles blow. The pack discharges energy, eases back on the throttle and dissolves.
The organizer and coach of the recently formed Lincoln Land Roller Derby League of not-so-gentle women, Darrel Moore, skates into the midst of the chattering, laughing women, offering a quick analysis of the things that went wrong, and pointers about how to correct them.
Back on the sidelines, Moore talks derby.
“People call it hitting, but it’s actually blocking. You can’t punch, you can’t kick, you can’t knee, you can’t elbow, you can’t head butt. When you hit in roller derby, you’re blocking with either your hips or your shoulders,” he said.
Moore is a veteran speed skater, and plays for a men’s roller derby team in Colorado. Sunday evenings at Skateland South are what he calls “drop-in derby” for new skaters.
“Even if you’ve never skated before, you can come here and skate roller derby the first night,” he said. “We’ll teach you.”
Drop-in derby first involves ordinary warm-up skating around the track, stretching exercises and skating skills, such as starting, stopping, going fast, going slow, falling down safely and getting back up. Then come basic roller derby techniques: blocks, jams, scoring, rules and violations.
