British Roller Derby

Roller derby is a sport with many faces, all across the world. It's got its own little culture which is part of what makes it so fantastic.

What derby means to people differs from country to country, league to league and person to person. For me there are three things I love about roller derby, which hooked me in and kept me coming back again and again and again.

They are fitness, skating and the people.

Fitness

In my fresh meat days, Mimey Vice, while putting us through an excruciating round of Circle of Pain, told us that "you don't do derby to get fit, you get fit for derby." Be that as it may, the health benefits of derby cannot be overlooked. Derby wakes up muscles you didn't even know you had. It gives you an intense cardio workout and most importantly, it's about 1400% more interesting that going to the gym.

When I first started skating the three hour session on a Saturday would wipe me out for the entire weekend. Now I hardly feel it.

I also enjoy feeling smug whenever I hear about how unfit the rest of England is.

Skating

I've liked skating since I was a child, but there's something about the sport of roller derby that I just love.

Maybe it's playing a team sport, maybe it's skating fast, maybe it's shoving someone so hard they fall over. Either way, I always leave a session smiling.

Amazing people

Never in my life have I met a more interesting, powerful or supportive group of people. Sometimes outside of derby I don't speak at all because I have used up all my words chatting to people at practice. And I have a lot of words.

Roller derby attracts a subsection of women that are incredibly varied, but uniformly awesome. If you've ever wondered why everyone around you seems so uninteresting, it's because the good ones are busy beating each other up on the roller derby track.