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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Does Roller Derby Still Exist?

Prior to October 2011 - I didn’t think so. Then I saw this ad in my local news daily email: Join Central Mass Roller Derby for Fresh Meat Class. I was like whoa- roller derby????. I get to skate and possibly hit people? People really still do this? Turns out that they do still and they have been since it started in the 1930’s. While I think derby lost its popularity when I was in my tween years (or maybe earlier?) - I will borrow Wikipedia’s terminology and say that the 2000’s have brought about an “amateur revival”. And that day I thought maybe I could derby and in a spur of the moment decision I posted the news story to my neighbor’s Facebook page and asked if she would be up for joining with me.

Fast forward 3 days later and with that weekend’s Dutch courage in our system we are emailing the CMRD website (now Bay state Brawlers - woo hoo!!!) asking how to join. An email comes back from someone named Lisa, aka. BA, aka. BadAssMama and I get my first twinge of butterflies. Am I actually cool/strong/athletic/bad ass enough to do this? In a flurry of watching YouTube videos the last few days I am not sure, 1. - If I can even still roller skate and 2. Can I wear shorts that short? Never mind that I could possibly break something- where do I get knee socks and those cute little skirts? For better or worse a field trip is planned for several weeks later to the region’s local (1 hour from us) Roller Derby Store, the Bruised Boutique.

I should mention at this point that I have never in my life played a team sport besides occasional subs on my husband’s softball league years ago. And that it has been 6+ years since I strapped on my roller blades and probably 20 years since I was on actual roller skates. Also that although I have lost 35lbs this past year I am still not in great shape and need to lose at least 35lbs more. And that my husband (and rest of the family) thinks I am kidding and / or having some sort of midlife crisis. But I am serious and very motivated to be the next greatest a roller derby chick! Or at least to play in my local roller derby amateur league and not get killed….

This is me being mom & so not bad ass…



From a Fresh Meat perspective- Jaime

1 comment:

  1. Did you ever join a team? I’d like to know if leagues are still active. Good luck if you’re skating around in circles and kicking people on their Asses!

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