At a school in Chalk Farm the London Rockin’ Rollers are holding their second ever training session for new members. Women of all shapes and sizes are whizzing round on roller skates, learning how to pick up speed and how to fall over without doing too much damage. Eventually, if they’re good enough, they will take on skate names like Shellfire or Margy Bargy and get the chance to smash into each other while travelling really fast. These are some of the increasing number of women who are signing up to roller derby.
Invented in 1920s America, roller derby has evolved into a predominantly female sport – and one that is fiercely aggressive. Teams take part in bouts and score points by getting their “jammer” – usually their fastest player – around the track ahead of opposition players. They earn a point for each one they lap, but while the jammer is trying to get round, the other team is trying to stop her, using almost any means possible. As a result, the list of injuries sustained by Rockin’ Rollers since the club was founded in 2007 is fairly impressive: as well as the obligatory bruises players have suffered concussion, shoulder injuries and broken bones. But that isn’t putting them off.
The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which promotes the sport in the US, lists 77 clubs and says that across the world the number of flat-track clubs has grown from one to more than 400 in less than a decade. While four years ago the sport was virtually unheard of in Britain, there are now more than 24 established teams (or leagues, as they’re known) from Perth to Plymouth, and more are starting up all the time. The Rockin’ Rollers have been forced to set up a waiting list to cope with the influx of new players, and with a film based on the sport already out in the US and set for UK release in April, it seems roller derby is likely to get even bigger.
Around 25 women joined the Rockin’ Rollers last autumn, and the club now boast more than 80 members. Their local rivals, the London Rollergirls, saw 90 women register for a tryout session at the end of last year. “We have seen a gradual but steady increase in interest over the last three years and have gone from accepting new skaters at any time in 2006/7 to limiting intake to monthly newbie sessions in late 2008 to our current procedure of holding tryouts every few months,” says Rollergirl member Fox Sake, aka Jayne Mahoney. Other clubs across the UK are also reporting an increase in interest and participation.
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In north London, budding Rockin’ Rollers are put through their paces by some of the old hands at the club – although so new is the sport to Britain that even the veterans have only been playing for three years. Jayne Plackett, known on the track as Bloody Valentine, says all sorts of women in their 20s and 30s are signing up. “We get people who run their own business, we’ve got bankers, nurses, piercers, tattooists, people who work in advertising and digital media,” she says. Some women are looking for a way to keep fit that isn’t going to the gym, she says, while others are attracted by the social aspect. Despite the physical nature of the game the players insist you don’t have to be tough to take part, and that many of them are “real pussy cats” off the track.
Most people sign up after seeing a bout or hearing about the sport through friends. “After you start it tends to be all you talk about,” says Clare Jackson, whose roller derby name is Whip It. But Drew Barrymore’s new film, also called Whip It, could change that. “We’re looking for a bigger hall so we can take more people on,” Jackson says.
Alongside customised kits, names are an important part of the game. Players register their chosen names in America, and no two in the world can choose the same sobriquet. As you might have gathered, they tend to be pretty spiky. “It’s a kind of alter ego changing you from where you are normally to where you are on the track,” says Plackett. “If you go out and you have a little bit of a hard name, it can give you confidence.”
Harriet Foxwell, a spokeswoman for the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, says sports that attract women are very welcome. “As little as 3% of women play traditional competitive team sports – that’s compared to 17% of men – so newer sports which are successfully attracting women are a real positive,” she says. “With a sport such as roller derby, where there is a high level of women both in leadership positions and participating, they can help shape the way it’s run in order to make the provision as female-friendly as possible.”
As you watch women crashing into each other at full speed, you may wonder why anyone would want to strap on skates and throw themselves into the firing line. Dr Victor Thompson, a clinical sports psychologist based in London, says the answer is simple: “Adrenaline rush, physical stimulation, endorphin release (the feel-good hormones), the challenge, the camaraderie of working in a team, the common goal … feeling like you are alive. For many, the question isn’t why would you play such sport, but why AREN’T you playing such a sport?”
Dr Thompson says aggressive sports are attractive both to women who take traditional roles but want a form of escape, and those who have broken the mould and want a hobby that fits with their day job. “For these women, sports like roller derby are a good fit to their challenging day job. Having a nice bath and reading a book just won’t do it,” he says.
Louise Esposito, 25, who joined the Rockin’ Rollers in April 2008 – two months after giving birth to her daughter, Isabelle – says she likes the chance it gives her to be herself. “I heard about it when I was pregnant from a friend who had started playing and I thought ‘as soon as I have the baby I’ve got to do that’. I came along and the next day I was out buying skates – I just fell in love with it straight away,” says Louise, or Tanya B Hind as she’s known on the track.
“I’ve always played sport, I like exercise, and I wanted something that made me feel like me again … I’ve stopped going out to the pub with friends but now I’ve replaced it with this. I wanted something different and something that wasn’t being a mum. Here I can just be me.”
• Find a roller derby league near you at ukderbynews.co.uk
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