My Derby Experience

By Toxic Bomb’her

I learned about roller derby by watching a few documentaries on Netflix. I watched “Blood on the Flat Track: The Rise of the Rat City Rollergirls “ and “Brutal Beauty: Tales of the Rose City Rollers“. I learned about junior derby through a friend of a friend and I decided that I just had to join. After talking my mom into it on such a short notice, ( the first register date/practice was four months away ) and persuading my grandparents to buy me my gear, I was officially ready to join roller derby!

My first practice was October 2, 2012. I honestly never thought I’d get this far in such a short amount of time. One thing I know is that I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am not if it wasn’t for two girls on the All Star team, Kid Vicious and Smartie Mcfly. Kid helped me just figure things out when I first started. She helped me with cross overs and balance, and whenever I had a question she’d try and answer it for me. Smartie helped me in a lot of ways, but she did it differently. During the free track time we have before practice starts she would hit me and tell me to get back up and she’d tell me to counter block, or she’d form a wall with other skaters and have me try and break though. I’m not really sure why she chose me to pick on, but I’m glad she did. Because of her I’m no longer scared of hits, I take them head on and I hit back. I learned transitions and plow stops because of her. She’s always having me try things I don’t think I can do. First it was being pivot, then trying out jamming, transitions, skating backwards, and doing the diamond back. I don’t even really know if she knows how much she’s helped me, because we don’t really talk besides when she is helping me, but I’m really grateful for it.

Now I skate with the level twos and threes, and hopefully I’ll be moved up to be a level three skater soon. I have amazing coaches ( Shadi Layne and Les Brawl ) and amazing teammates and I’m really proud to be a member of the Indianapolis Junior Roller Derby.