Rock&Ro Roller derby is back with a new purpose and a new attitude. by Lisa Anderson
They're moms, daughters and wives. They're baristas, librarians and teachers. They're roller girls.
By day they are regular women with jobs, kids and families, but by night they are kicking ass and taking names. The women, ages 18 to 35, punch and get punched, push and get pushed, and they skate like it's their job.
From the original roller derby leagues of the 1930s to the revivals of the 1970s, the sport's past has been less about athleticism and more about making money. Typically owned by corporations or promoters, roller derby was just another staged show to please audiences. Now, there are more than 130, all-female, flat-track roller derby leagues in the United States, up from zero known leagues six years ago.
The recent "roller derby revival" began in 2000 in Austin. The leagues are now skater-owned and operated and are based on ideas of empowering women, sportsmanship and having fun. Although the try-out is a grueling
physical test and injuries are more common than one would hope, roller-girls are dedicated to their sport. So are the fans. Watching a match is almost as intense and exciting as participating.
Jessica Simmons, Carthage, Mo., Junior became interested in roller derby after watching Roller Girls, a reality television show that aired on A&E last year. She later found out that Kansas City, Mo., has a league. She attended three events this season. Simmons and her friends typically sit in the front row on the floor, five feet away from the track, which is as close to the action as they can get. "There's just something empowering about a group of women getting together and competing." Simmons says. "To me, it's this dangerous, exciting world that's fun to watch and be a part of."
The atmosphere
Parents, children, frat boys, punk kids and everyone in between pack into Hale Arena in Kansas City, Mo. at 7 p.m.on a hot
Saturday night. They are all there for one thing: roller derby.
The Kansas City Roller Warriors Championship bout and grudge match is about to begin. The oblong flat-track is brightly lit. Clad in shades of red, blue, black and yellow, roller-girls take the track. The women are dressed in appropriate roller-garb — pads, mouth guards, helmets, skates and often flashy skirts and fishnets. They skate practice laps while audience members rush to the bleachers with popcorn and beer spilling over onto their hands. Two drag-queen costumed figures dance amid the swirling lights on the other side and a Pat Benetar song blares forcefully through the speakers. Arinouncers, D'nouncer Duane and Absolute Hero welcome guests and introduce the night. Time to rock 'n roller derby.
Ten roller girls convene as a pack at the starting line on one side of the cement track. The track
Competition
is lined with lights marking the boundaries. Wearing pads and their respective team colors, the women anticipate the beginning of the bout or game.
a whistle blows. Eight women
speedily andskillfully skate, counter-clockwise around the track. A few seconds later, another whistle blows. The two women who stayed
side and tumbles to the floor and out of bounds. As she gains her composure, the small, fast woman skates around the pack, repeating the ducking and weaving. She then places her hands on her
"YOU CAN SPEND THE DAY PUNCHING GIRLS IN THE FACE AND THEN WHEN THE DAY IS DONE YOU BUY THEM A BEER AND LAUGH ABOUT IT." KEM ELLIOTT, KANSAS CITY ROLLER DERBY LEAGUE CO-DIRECTOR
behind skate furiously to catch up with the pack. One of them is particularly small and fast. She weaves between players ducking under their arms and slipping past them to get ahead of the pack while her teammates forcefully push opposing team members out of the track boundaries. One of them takes a hard jab in her
hips. The game pauses.
Roller Derby is a contact sport and currently mainta in lesagues in almost every state in the U.S. Every league has a few teams that have been governed under the Women's Flat Track Derby
Each bout is divided into three 20-minute periods. Each period is further divided into jams. A jam lasts two minutes and is the process of scoring points. A whistle is blown to begin each jam. An unlimited number of jams are allowed within each
Association rules since the association formed in 2004.
period. Teams typically consist 14 players, but only five girls frie each team are on the track at time — three blockers, one pla and one jammer.
The women must in completecontrolandcoordinat while skating and taking pusl and jabs the entire way.
The game
Leo Seltzer, entrepreneur formed the Transcontinuer Roller Derby in Chicago in 1930s to attract a crowd an income, according to Roller Derby Foundation. He was successful in his attempts setting up cross-country raft for coed teams. This evolved into actual derby competitions when he incorporated physical cont and a point system to att even bigger crowds. Roller deventually dropped out of public sphere because peo lost interest and attendance ra dropped. Many revivals have be attempted since, often to no avail.
The current revival is noth
08➔ JAYPLAY 10.05.2006