So what is Roller Derby?
Only the most fun you can have on eight wheels. That’s right on roller skates; with helmets, elbow and knee pads, wrist guards, and mouth guards. The girls play two thirty minute halves, split into two minute periods called jams.
With five players from each team on the track at once, four blockers from each team form a pack, and one player from each team plays the position of jammer. The jammers must skate through the pack and score a point for each opponent they pass.
So how do the blockers stop them? With shoulders, hips and booty! Elbows, tripping, blocking or overtaking while out of bounds will earn skaters a one minute stint in the penalty box. At the end of each jam there is a 30 second break and then it all starts again!
Roller Derby first began in Chicago, USA in 1935. Created and founded by Leo Seltzer, Roller Derby was intended as competition for dance-offs, which were popular at the time. The first ever Roller Derby bout was actually an endurance race and was not intended as a contact sport, but a sportswriter named Damon Runyon noticed that when the skaters collided the audience loved it and he suggested to Seltzer that changing the way the game was played could increase audience attendance. This is just what Seltzer did, and Derby evolved into the sport it is now recognised as.
Roller Derby’s popularity grew during the 1940s right through to the 1970s and gained a reputation for being rough and aggressive. Players and teams also developed famously intense rivalries. By the 80s, theatrical elements were devised similar to professional wrestling, and eventually the public interest waned. However, classic Roller Derby never completely disappeared. A few teams remained active after the sport’s decline, and some leagues formed to keep the traditional co-ed format alive. Today, the sudden explosion in roller derby’s popularity has centred on women only leagues using a flat track.
The first of these leagues formed in Austin, Texas in 2001. Since then it seems a new league is forming every couple of weeks somewhere else in the world! Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby is indeed one of the fastest growing sports on the planet!
Roller Derby is evolving and growing, and chances are there is a league in your closest major city. Most current leagues play on a flat track, and adopt the rules of the USA governing body – the Womens Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). Leagues usually have at least two teams that compete in public bouts, which can attract massive crowds of up to four thousand. Recently in Australia leagues have starting taking their best players and forming all star travel teams to compete against other leagues.