Roller Derby

A couple of years ago, I tried my hand at the sport of Roller Derby (not writing ‘foot’ as an unforgivable pun just then took a lot of restraint). Roller Derby is an all female two team contact sport on quad skates which originated in America. The premise of the game is for the two teams (comprising 7 members) to skate around an oval track while the chosen ‘Jammer’ in each team tries to lap the other as many times as possible. The role of the other members of the team (lead by the ‘Pivot’) is to block the opposition by using their shoulders, elbows, hips and bums and to facilitate the passage of their ‘Jammer’ through the pack, often by flinging them forward using the ‘Whipping' manoeuvre. It’s not a sport for the thin-boned women, if you ever go to watch a bout, you’ll probably spot an out-of-action Derby girl on crutches sporting a neck brace and cheering on her team mates from the sidelines.

Unfortunately, after a few months with the London Rolelr Girls (who are very nice ladies by the way) I realised that Roller Derby was not for me. Firstly, it seems to appeal to hard-core punky tattooed third-wave feminists which isn’t exactly me and secondly it demands a lot of commitment, Roller Derby isn’t something you do as your weekly source of exercise, it’s an entire lifestyle... your boyfriend becomes a ‘Derby Window’ and your profile picture on Facebook will most probably be of you “in action”. However, I did like the fact that you get a name like Kamikaze Kisses of Polly Pummeler... or Speedy-Go-Faster (that was mine... it was meant to be ironic but it wasn’t).

Despite my exit from the world of Derby, I was still happy to see that the adorable Drew Barrymore has made this:





Actually... after watching the trailer, I must say I wanted to give it another go...