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I am at home in full gear: kneepads, elbowpads, wrist guards, mouthguard, helmet and of course, the skates. The skates themselves are the root of my home and the center of my belonging. I listen to them and they listen to me. With them, I feel the rush and energy of a burn pace, the excitement of a good hit, and they are with whom I share most intimately the victory of a triumphant jam. This is my place, this is how I live, this is who I have become. This is the person I have embraced, and who I am proud to be.

I am myself on the track, and I judge myself only by my own limitations. I don’t compare myself to others, or think, ‘Why can’t I be more like her? Why can’t I be as pretty or skinny as her?” None of that is relevant. Though I know I could be better, I also know that wishing for it is no way to make it happen. Wishing and dreaming isn’t the same as doing, and I know that the more I push myself and the harder I train, I will reach my goal one day. It will come, eventually, with practice. Hours and hours of practice. A great skater once told me, “In order to have endurance, you must first endure.” I think that could not be more true. Fighting that internal battle of “Am I good enough?” is irrelevant, because I will only ever be as good as I allow myself to be. If I stop halfway through, I am only hurting my ability to endure.

Who am I? I am every skater who believes in herself. I aim to capture the spirit of the ambitious skater. Though I don’t always match up to my highest expectations, I work as hard as I possibly can to improve. The pain I feel in minor injuries only fuels me to skate faster, train harder, and get up quicker from a big hit. If I can improve, even only by a little bit each day, then I am succeeding.

- Lana GetDirty #450

Exciting Time of Year

It is officially my favorite time of year - the end of summer, leading into fall is such a wonderful time. The colors start to change, the air gets crisper, you can buy pumpkin flavored things everywhere!, and school is back is session. It also means new fresh meat  and the Bay State Brawlers continuing to grow! We have a great group of skaters that started practice on Wednesday. Here they are after their first night of practice...still smiling.

September 2012 Fresh Meat Class

It also means that our bouting season is nearing its end. April seems so long ago and as a league we've grown in so many ways since then. Our first season bouting as the Bay State Brawlers has overall been a pretty successful one. We've had some ups and downs with all our teams - close wins, big losses, and everything in between. The Petticoat Punishers are looking forward to playing their 2nd team from a WFTDA league this weekend when they take on the Yankee Brutals of the Connecticut Roller Girls. We have played against leagues from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine so far this year!

Punishers showing great teamwork vs. MARD

The Brawlin' Broads are the only team that has ended their season. With a team of almost all brand new skaters they finished the season 3-0. It was a fun season that provided me an opportunity to try my hand at coaching. There is no way I could have done that without the fantastic Ashlee Juggz as Bench Manager. 

2012 Broads

Our 3 home teams have also had a great season playing each other throughout the season this year. The Switchblade Sallies are 2-0 on the season and have an automatic bid into the championship game on Oct. 27th. The Bluestocking Bombers and my team, the LumberJackies, will be competing on Oct. 12 for the opportunity to face the Sallies for the home team championships (and bragging rights for the whole off-season).

It has been an amazing first season as a league and we still have 3 bouts to go. Hope to see you in the stands for at least a one of the last bouts. Tickets are available online so get yours and come cheer on your favorite BSB team!

-Sandra Mean

Into the Meat of it

Practice two on an unseasonably warm November day I feel a little more like I am supposed to be here. I strap on my skates and pads with the other fresh meat, slightly segregated from the vets.   My legs, thighs and buns aware and prepared this time for the pain they soon will experience.  We are expected to warm up with the group which actually scares the bejesus out of me, and I join them skating slowly and cautiously on the outside.  I do not attempt any of the transitions, knee pops, butt kicks, knee raises as I struggle right now with simply staying upright.   After stretching and introductions we head to the coned off area at the end to practice our falls. 

For anyone thinking of joining a fresh meat class you are going to learn basic skating skills, how to stop and fall properly.  This is to get you ready for your level 1 assessment where you have to demonstrate all these skills before you are cleared to hit.  (I am mildly disappointed that I don’t get to hit people right away.)  Skating and hitting –that’s why I signed up for and you actually get to do very little of either to start. Katherine Hipburn, our esteemed trainer, is actually teaching her first fresh meat class.  We would be Hipburn’s first students. (Thank you Hipburn-you really taught me how to kick ass with attitude!)  I am not going to bore you with much detail YET but here are the basics.  We need to master single knee falls, double knee falls (also called rockstar), baseball slide, 180 slide, toe stops, tstops, sticky skate, crossovers, and gliding on one foot.

The first of 4 these all involve going to your knees while skating.  I feel like a fool of course but you can’t imagine how hard it is to throw yourself on the ground on skates.  You have to tip forward and literally force yourself to go to the knee.  It’s entirely mental at first.  Your mind does not want your body to pitch itself to the knees.  If I did this without pads I know this would be extremely painful and so does my brain.  Until you learn that your knee pads will protect you, your instinct is to resist that falling motion and you end up with an awkward bump to the floor. (And a sore back)   Overall I think the Rockstar slide is the easiest as it takes less balance than the one knee fall.  I also cannot imagine where I will ever use the baseball slide? I am certain it is illegal to kick someone with my skates even though I have not read the entire WFTDA rule book.  Yet I really feel like I am about to kick someone every time I attempt this slide.   The 180 is more like a 90 turn when you start out.   After practice, I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching videos of other derby girls fall with ease and wonder if I will ever get there?    

From a Fresh meat perspective- Jaime

How to Prepare for Your Next Fresh Meat Class

      Our next fresh meat class starts up on May 9^th!  If you ever thought about taking the plunge into roller derby-dom, here’s some tips on how to get prepared. 

1.     Do your homework.  Not just with gear or what’s the newest trend with knee socks, but with the game.  There are a lot of great websites that will teach you about the history and rules of this great game.  Here’s some examples:

·          www.wftda.com - Women’s Flat Track Derby Association website.  A lot of leagues follow this rule set and you can download the PDF rule book for your viewing pleasure along with practice tests.

·          www.derbynewsnetwork.com - DNN is your one-stop shop for all your derby news needs.  Even better is that they stream select bouts throughout the country for free.  They also have a schedule of Derby bouts happening in your area.  One of the main ways to understand Roller Derby is to watch Roller Derby.  Related: Their sister site www.derbylife.com, which feature columns and advice from fellow derbyists.

·          Read this book.  Roller Derby is a nice short book that will give you an overview of the history of Derby and basic rules. 

·          Get pumped up by watching movies about real Roller Derby (a.k.a. not “Whip It”).  If you have Netflix, “Brutal Beauty”, “Blood on the Flat Track” and “Hell on Wheels” are all available on streaming.

2.     Research your gear.  Online shopping is great for the convenience, but you never know what would actually work for you unless you try it on.  Lucky for us Bruised Boutique is a great derby shop right around the corner in Nashua, NH.  They have great knowledgeable staff and one of our very own skaters (say hi to BA!) there to help you with everything you need to start your Derby career right.

 3.     Skate as much as you can.  You can get a head start by going out to the park or rink and get comfortable on your skates (plus dodging little kids is sort of like Derby).  There are at least five skating rinks in the Boston area and we hold Meat and Greets at Roll-on America every month. 

4.     Reserve your spot for our next Fresh Meat class!  Our next class starts on May 9^th and is a 12-week program designed to help you become ready to skate and hit with the best of them!  For more info contact us at info@baystatebrawlers.com.

We’ll look forward to seeing you on the track!  Now go study up!

  

-       Scandinavian Flick Off (300hp)

Freshmeat Class begins… 

                So the entire month of waiting has brought me to the first fresh meat class with excessive trepidation and much hype in my own mind.   Of course I have only put on my brand new skates 2 times in the 3 weeks that I have owned them.  The first time was in my kitchen the very week I bought them, where I then fell and kicked my 3 year old, bringing her to tears.  She lectured me for days that “we are not allowed to wear skates in the house”.  The 2^nd time I put them on was right before driving to this class to pose for a photo in full derby gear for Facebook.  

Optimistic in my new gear!

So it is here I find myself walking into Roll On America for the first time ever, not having actually skated in 6 + years.   Open skate is happening and I stand around looking lost near the entrance with my neighbor until a roller girl finds us there and points us in the right direction.  We are taken to a dark, cold, crowded (slightly scary) back room where a group of girls & women are already gathered with paperwork.  And yes I am exaggerating but not for the last time I wonder if I am in the right place. 

                We, the fresh meat, are introduced to a few of the vet skaters, a Bad Ass Mama, a Juggz and a Meanie.  As someone who is psychotically organized I find the meeting mildly confusing with several folks chiming in with different opinions. (I later attribute this to recent changes in the league).  The girls around the table seem to regard each other with bewilderment or possibly this is my own reflection?  As I size them up, most appear to look much more badass than me and all look far cooler.  After introductions, in which one future skater introduces herself as having been shot recently (WHAT!?), I again wonder if I am in the right place.  But I join the rest of the group in strapping on my new pads and lacing up my skates. And try not to throw up on the floor.

                Cautiously we make our way onto the rink and I think possibly I will never be able to do this as I watch the leveled up derby girls. They race around the small track with such determination and turn in a blink to the whistle.  I am in awe of them as I struggle to just stay upright on my skates and learn about derby stance and using my toe stop to stand.   This is much harder than you would imagine, not using your hand to get up when on skates.  My thighs are not prepared for these any of these moves and protest in agony.   We learn basic moves that night, a variety of knee falls, toes stops and the impossible t-stop.  I will go into details later about learning these moves but the highlight of that class was stealing glances at the real practice.  I can’t imagine popping off me knees like they do, or sprinting and hitting.   But as my immature, weak legs find their derby balance, I yearn to let go and skate the track. And I know that in my heart I am in the right place.

From a Freshmeat perspective- Jaime

Derby Shopping...

So Roller Derby is actually an expensive sport.  But are any sports ever cheap?  Originally when Bad Ass said in her email about the fresh meat class that it was just monthly dues to sign up and annual insurance fee I was like, Score! This is cheaper than when I took yoga.  But her email also said that we needed a helmet, kneepads, elbow pads, wrist pads, and a mouth guard. (Oh and of course roller skates!)  We could borrow the equipment to start but my overactive imagination imagined the sweat of other past derby skaters that used that equipment and I chose to buy.   So one uneventful Saturday afternoon my neighbor and I, along with my 3 year old daughter drove the hour to the Bruised Boutique in Nashua, NH.  Of course we checked out the website but both thought it was best to actually try this stuff on since we had 0 experience with any of this gear.


I had done my homework ahead of time, checking out gear guides and recommendations online and knew where I wanted to spend my bucks.  I wanted better than good knee pads as I knew I would spend a lot of time falling on them.  And I also wanted a skate with a leather boot and a purple helmet.  Did I mention that I research things to death before I buy?  In the store we tried on helmets first.  And of course I have a giant melon and could only get an extra large helmet which meant – noooo purple! Boo!  It was white or black for me so armed with my new white helmet we tried on skates.  We tried on the base package skate first but my wide feet objected to my squished toes.  So I went with the next Rebel skate up which by no coincidence came in PURPLE!! At that moment, I decided Roller derby was definitely fate. 

My Purple Skates!!!

After that it was on to the pads where I settled on the basic Triple 8 elbow and wrist pads.  But for the knee pads I upgraded to the Scabs.  I embraced my inner derby and passed up the basic black for the Psycho pattern.  Then I picked up my least favorite accessory, the cumbersome but very necessary, mouth guard.  Tip on the mouth guard for other newbies- Buy a couple!!!  Heck by 3 or 4 once you find one you like.  This mouth guard and the one after would fall to tragedy quickly. After all the equipment was settled on, my daughter helped me pick out my first knee socks.  I am not yet ready to brave the tiny shorts and derby miniskirts just yet.  Knee socks, tights & equipment in hand, I slap down my visa debit– committing myself further to pursuing roller derby.   




From a Freshmeat Perspective - Nelly