A Trip to the Roller Derby - A Healdebeest Writes

Of course, I had seen the film 'Whip It' some years ago. However, my first encounter with roller derby was when Jess started working for WCVA. I remember her saying at interview that she needed a job so that she could earn the money to pay for her roller derby gear. Having seen the prices that this gear sells for now, I can confirm that WCVA was not paying her enough.

My knowledge of roller derby was small though. I knew that it was a rough contact sport for women and that those taking part adopted 'derby names' (in WCVA Volunteering we were part of a survey as to whether Jess should be 'Electric Phoenix' or 'J K Rolling' (her initials were 'JK'). I knew that it took part on roller skates and had two teams competing against each other.

I seemed to recall that an interest in tattoos and accumulating bruises could also be involved, but otherwise my knowledge of roller derby was small. Then I could not make a booking to have my hair cut. This is not sounding typically like the rough and tough world of roller derby, but it was my failure to book the barbers one Saturday that led me to have a free Saturday and the chance to see Bridgend Roller Derby in action.

Derby day started with a mess up on my part. I had looked at the Facebook invite and it seemed to say 'be in Swansea for 11 a.m.' and so I knew that I had to get moving quickly that morning. Unfortunately, I had read the invite wrongly and 11 a.m. was the start of the set up time. I arrived late (so I thought) only to find an empty warehouse and a group of women sitting by the door wondering who I was.

However, these women were okay with a strange man walking in and saying that they knew a member of the team and asked if I wanted to help set things up. I can tell you now that if you arrive early at Old Trafford, they do not ask you to paint the penalty spot (and shame on them for it).

I will admit that I played safe and introduced myself to the only other man I could see. He must have soon grasped the limit of my knowledge when he asked me things like could I 'set out a bench for the opposing team'. I had no idea what I was doing really but seats were soon set out, along with tables and some tape on the floor.

My friend did arrive after a while but what I found quite touching was that even after I had spoken to her, one of the roller derby team spotted me on my own and came over to ask if I knew that she had arrived. They really did come across as a very friendly bunch of people ... off the track.

Having been helpful, I set my task on talking to people and trying to work out what was going to happen. Luckily the entrance booklet had a brief explanation of the rules. The whole atmosphere was not just friendly, but family-friendly too. There was a bouncy castle for the children and the children were notably well-behaved!

I have been accused of liking roller derby because of the number of competitors who are well-built, tattooed women. This is not true and actually misunderstands the whole sport. I watched with interest in a mixed game later on in the running order as a rather slightly-built woman beautifully rounded a large, burly man who was intent on knocking her off the track. It is a sport with tactics as much as force.

Before Bridgend Roller Derby played their match against Birmingham (the top of the bill match), I asked for a few pointers for spectators. Should I chant? I was told that 'BRD! BRD! BRD! was acceptable, but to watch out because the opponents were 'BBD'. 'In other words,' I asked, 'I have to watch my 'Rs'?'

I was shown to the 'suicide seating'. Teams of women on roller skaters would be travelling anti-clockwise around a track and if they came off the track then this was an area of mats where they would land. You were advised to sit there at your own risk. I decided to ask an obvious question -

'If a woman comes flying towards me, should I try to catch her?'

A BRD team member walked past at that point and heckled, 'Try to kiss her!'

My advisor thought about this and said that she felt that it depended if the woman came at me skates-first or face-first.

I will admit that I had been a little naive about just how tactical roller derby is. A huge simplification of the rules is that two teams skate anti-clockwise and one person on each team is the 'jammer'. Each team's jammer scores points by passing members of the opposing team as she skates around. Her team mates are involved in a dual task of letting their own jammer through and trying to stop the opponent's jammer passing. As you will gather, force is required to do this!

If you are looking for a comparison, think football. Consider how the best players are aware of their team and the opponent's team and look to place themselves in the most advantageous position - 'movement off the ball' is key. I watched as BRD's jammer skated towards the Birmingham pack and thought that she was in for a tough battle. In one moment, all the Birmingham players were knocked out of the way by a set of body checks and blocks by the rest of the BRD team and the jammer skated through without having to touch anyone.

I knew that this analysis was right during the second game. The Birmingham team came and sat in the suicide seating to watch the game (a mixed match which, I have to say, was not as interesting as the all-female match). At one point, I watched the Birmingham team watching the match. There would be points where they all jumped backwards. It would take the rest of us a few seconds to work out what was going wrong, but as roller derby players they were attuned to watching a situation and knowing that someone was about to come flying off the track in their direction.

If you see roller derby reported on, there tends to be a focus on the violence and the names adopted by each player. As you may gather, each person competes under a 'derby name' and I rather like that principle. It kind of underlies the whole idea of being someone else when you are competing and then returning to your regular self off the track. It is certainly more original than naming footballers as Robbo, Danno and Jammo (cricketers, as you know, add 'ers' to their names). I think that this is because the people who write about it are still having a hard time with women doing sports that require a great deal of physical strength and aggression. If you think that female tennis players who grunt with exertion are branded somehow 'unladylike' then you are going to find your sexist models of gender seriously challenged by women knocking each other off the track at thirty miles an hour.

It helped that there was a scoreboard so I knew that BRD were winning. There was a lot that I did not understand and some things that I had to make up - for instance, when the lead jammer raised her arms up and down it seemed to stop all the play and so I called this move '**** this for a laugh' (it may have a technical name). I also had no idea why some people were sent off (they appeared to cool off in an area of seating that I had set out earlier) and why and when the teams swapped members.

However, I went away a decided fan of BRD. As I said online, I know in every sport which team I support and in a fight I would also support whichever side roller derby players were on. I will also think about it again next time someone tries to tell me that women are not naturally competitive creatures and are not able to be forceful or aggressive.

Years ago, I had a t-shirt (as did my brother) which had the slogan 'The Healdebeest'. I have no sense of balance and so a career in roller derby is not for me (though I appreciate that that is rather like saying 'I could have been a top sprinter but for my inability to run 100m fast'). However, if I did then I am sure that that would have to be my derby name.