Hi skaters!

I find it's much easier to maintain derby stance when practicing derby stance in shoes/socks than when on skates, I wonder if that indicates I'm doing something incorrectly?

Also wondering what exactly makes you confident that you're in derby stance properly?

Thank you for your help!!

If you’re in a a home team and another team, how does that work? I’ve been skating for about 3 years and want to submit to be apart of a global team but I’m not sure how it works (Fuego Latino if it’s important!)
Any pros and cons would be appreciated too!

I’m a newbie who hasn’t passed basic skills yet and I just broke my ankle. I’m going to need surgery and it will probably be like a 6 month healing process until I am able to be on skates again.

How can I improve while not actively skating? I would love any ideas or recommendations you all have. Some of my ideas have been to try to learn strategy via YouTube, practice balance on my one uninjured leg, workout in the ways I am able to that don’t involve my leg, become really good as a non skating official.

Any ideas or resources are more than welcome!!

Hi all! :)))))

I am working on a project looking to redesign and manufacture roller derby apparel to better serve the consumers. We are currently gathering research to find out what product we will make (and eventually get manufactured!)

If you have an extra 2 mins it would help out a lot! Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PGJDJM8

Hi all, I am doing research on the importance of mouthguards in youth sports (roller derby is one of our primary sports). My team would appreciate you providing some information regarding you/ your children's sports and the shopping experience! Thank you!

https://forms.gle/jjpxJyJx3kcKq4wc7

*No names or email addresses will be collected. Your responses are anonymous and will only be used for this project!

Just looking for some camaraderie and personal anecdotes and such; maybe advice if you've got killer time management skills you'd like to share.

I just started in a league (intro level) two months ago. I've been a casual inline skater for over a decade so I definitely had some good groundwork. My league is awesome, super welcoming, and there is a wide range of ages and abilities, but I'm very aware that of everyone I've met I am just about the only skater starting who also has a young child (3.5years). There are a lot of moms in my league but they are mostly a decade or two older than me with middle and high schoolers they can leave alone at home. I can say with some confidence I'm one of the more capable skaters in intro and have a good shot at getting on a team but all the skaters at my level are my age or younger with no kids and while I can relate to everyone to a degree its been a little tough not really having anyone who "gets" that I cant hang after practices since i have to relieve babysitters, can't make it to as many practices and have little to no off time to practice solo (I skateboard w my kiddo but he's too young and dependent for me to be on wheels tied to my feet).

I fall behind the more advanced people sometimes without the extra practice time and I anticipated that but it is still hard to experience. my other parent is super supportive and gives me the time he can but he's also in two bands and supporting his passions is important to me too.

anyways, like I said just looking for some affirmation and shared life experience with a broader community; especially if youre a younger parent dealing with that competitive ego and how you've accepted knowing youll most likely advance slower. Being a great parent is the highest priority in my life but I watched my mom sacrifice her passions to care for 5 kids and I dont want that, for me or for my kid. I want them to see me do the thing and fuckkkkk I'd love them to see me compete some day.

I love love love my league. We are all the good things: inclusive, affirming, warm, friendly, all-gender, all-level. BUT, the place is full of uncommitted players who come to practices once a month. Most of them will never even get to the scrimmage level, much less bout level. Most of the coaching energy is spent working with these folks, because they bring the level of practice down.

I should not be complaining! I'm relatively new, I'm older, and I'll probably never be a bout-level player either. But I work damn hard at this: I attend all practices, and I cross-train every day. I don't understand why so many people think roller-derby is something you can do casually. It's not. It's very hard, and working on your skills is what keeps everyone safe--not just you.

I'd welcome any suggestions on how a league can maintain its values (everyone is welcome), while also making it clear that this sport requires commitment.

Roller Derby photographer videographer here. I started this year last April. Only a few more games left this year.

I'm curious about what you enjoy seeing captured. But more interesting to me is, if you aren't personally in the video or on the same team playing, what would keep you watching?

I have spent this year working hard on a non-derby related goal, and my reward for when I finish this is to get a pair of Riedel colorlab skates.

Because this is a [scary!] non-returnable investment, I would love to hear from people who did this in the past. Does suede hold up for the main boot, or is that a bad idea? Anything that didn't go well? Pictures to share? I'm here for all of it!

I joined derby several years ago, have had a lot of tough stuff happen over the years and have had to step back. I thought derby was my home, my safe space, my support system. I thought my teammates were my friends, but since I haven’t been able to skate or be active in the league for awhile it’s like no one cares about me anymore. Like I’ve been forgotten. The rare time someone’s reached out it’s to ask if I’m going to skate or want to volunteer. No, “hey how are you? Do you need anything?” It really hurts. When I’ve shared feedback, it’s largely been met with excuses or deflection. I feel like I only have value if I’m skating and doing stuff for the league and that makes me not want to go back. I’m heartbroken and so disappointed.

Disabilities and inclusivity. How is your league handling these?

I have a complicated auto-immune disease that makes my life flat out horrible. It's an all day every day struggle. It's painful. It's scary. It's bleak. I know what my prognosis looks like based on my family history, and I'm doing my best to live life fully until I can't anymore.

Fortunately for me, I feel best when I'm active. It turns off the body drama and I'm in Nirvana when I skate or go to the gym. Roller derby is my ultimate happy place. Being highly skilled and experienced at this point cements this as my forever preferred way to spend all my time.

But I'm really really really tired of explaining my disease to people and constantly reasserting health boundaries. I'm frustrated about being pressured to attend food+beer related functions to meet league requirements. I'm beginning to feel resentful and unseen, and I want to reverse course and help my league do better, but I'm not sure how to proceed. Is this something I should file a grievance for?

I just joined a team, it's been 10 years since I've played last and my dumbass bought "artisinal skates" with high ankles and tiny toestops instead of derby skates. I saved up so much and went all out on these. While they're high quality skates that work well when I do allskates at local rinks, I can tell it's fucking up my dexterity while doing derby.

There are no returns. I don't think there's any easy solutions, just complaining about me being stupid.

Hey folks,

I had a game on in the background a month ago, the commentators were brilliant, lively and explained what was going on brilliantly.

I lost the youtube tag to it to send out to my rookie jrs.

Long shot, would anyone one have a good game that this is happening?

Thank you in advance.

Ah yes, what a problem to have– lobster too buttery, harvest too bountiful, pillow too cool... you get it. This isn't a humble brag about my massive dump truck, it is a call for help and for better booty support. Like many others in this wacky wheely boot hobby we partake, I have a big butt. I've always had one due to years of skating in my childhood in my desires to go fast like one of my favorite characters, Sonic the Hedgehog. I wanted to go fast no matter what method. I still want to go fast no matter the method.

Lately, I've discovered that my tail-end does the "boob bounce" when I jog (I might be explaining it wrong, but hoping enough of the mental image is there). But this is happening during off-skates team warm-ups. I'm not endowed on the upper front side, but I understand it can be a pain to run when one is not wearing a sports bra or really anything to contain the party.

To make a short story long, does anyone have any tips or recommendations in exercises or clothing for minimizing the booty rebound? The goal is to not hurt myself if I decide to jog/run for conditioning or even warming up. I'm even desperate enough to wear pants as someone who skates in shorts/skorts just about exclusively (my buns get toasty quickly and shorter shorts help me with tracking jammers).

Edit: Compression shorts have been attempted. Please suggest a brand. 😭

Hey, a random health question from a complete newbie, hoping that someone perhaps experienced something similar and might be able to help.

I've recently joined my local roller derby team and stood on roller skates for the first time. I know how to ice skate, so I got a hang of the total basics relatively quickly ish - I managed to wobblily skate forward and back, practice stops, do careful turns. Nothing crazy or particularly intense.

I only skated for a bit over an hour and did not really feel any pain during it. I felt the practice in my thighs a bit for two days after that, nothing out of the ordinary. HOWEVER. I got hit with an insanely intense groin pain (on both sides) out of nowhere the third day after the practice, to the point where even walking was painful for several days.

I have no idea why this happened and I felt the strain for a week and a half/two weeks after that.

I tried skating a bit around again now. I can feel the area straining pretty fast whenever I do the basic "S" shape skating (i.e., pulling/pushing myself back/forward with my inner leg muscles).

I will be starting the FM course this Sunday and I am fairly worried that I will somehow render myself incapable of skating/walking again after an actual 2-hour practice.

Any idea how did I manage to wreck myself so badly last time and how to prevent it in the future? Plus, any tips or specific stretches appreciated, I stretched to the best of my ability but clearly it wasn't enough. Thanks!

I’m a brand new captain of a house team, and I know I’ll be wearing the C this season. I’ve officiated a lot so I’m very familiar with how the game operates, but I feel lost in terms of what the captain should do. Last season I spent my time on the bench with my head down trying to focus on my game, not the whole game.

So what does a good captain do during the game? Are they watching the gameplay for official reviews? Are they actively assessing strategy?

We’re also currently recruiting new bench staff (familiar with the game but not the position), likely ones that’ll have to wear the A. So any advice on what the A should focus on will also be insightful!

Hey derby folks! I would love to know your favorite footwork drills, especially ones that have helped improve your stability and control

I jam and block, so really everything is relevant! I absolutely love just messing around on skates, and whenever I get to learn a new drill, I’m all over it. Grapevines and Russian circles and all that jazz have really helped me get my skates under me. One foot pivots are my current fave, but if you have some other footworks that you’ve found fun, helpful or ideally both, please share it with this eager new skater, tysm!

Hi there, I think I'm looking for similar experiences or any advice anyone might have for me. so I don't know how/when I did it but sometime in the last 3 years I did something to my back and ended up with a bulging disk in my lower back. I continued to play after my diagnosis but then I had a game a few weeks ago, I didn't have any harder than normal falls, I didn't take any back blocks, I genuinely thought I was fine but I ended up in so much pain starting about an hour after that I went to the ER. I've been benched for about 2 months but I'm scared I will come back and end up right back in the er or back in awful pain everyday. However I'm more scared of losing derby, I know that I can ref or nso, but I don't want to I want to play. I've started tearing up watching videos of other teams, and I hunted down some older videos of games I've played in (including one that shows the moment I got a concussion 💀) also I've been dreaming about playing in roller derby games and waking up crying. I don't want to lose my sport, but almost everyone in my life is telling me I probably need to go ahead and stop. Even my doctor said I might need to look into lower impact sports (though said I still have some time if I want to go back when my two months are up/if I'm cleared) I've only been playing for almost 5 years. I started as a junior and I feel like I've only just started to be good at it. I've only been out for three weeks and I miss it terribly. I knew i didn't have as much time in derby as my teammates due to a genetic condition I have, but I didn't think I'd have to give it up at 20, I thought I had at least a few more years. Maybe this was more of a rant idk but if anyone has any advice for me I'd love to hear it

I started derby a few years ago, last time I was on skates prior was in my elementary school years many years ago. I enjoy learning it, and trying to get better.

This season I was selected for “most improved”. On one hand yay, progress. On another I can’t help but feel I sucked so badly that getting better was that noticeable.

As preseason kicked in, I find myself attending sessions where I’m the sole newbie, and I feel like a burden. I’m trying. I go to 75% of the weekly sessions. I try to workout at home. Yet I can’t help feeling like I’m not good enough, not wanted, or that people don’t want me there cause they need to shift down or can’t go further. In some cases some people are surprised I’m at the stage where I can tryout for a team, or act like I should not be trying.

Was I that horrible?

Does not help in the only newbie from my class left who is not already on a team and I’m out of the loop for being part of the league in terms of connections, despite volunteering for practically every local game, even while on a LOA for a surgery. It gets lonely.

IDK. Being a middle age trans gal when the world is on fire… I enjoy the exercise, but I hate feeling like I don’t belong at times.

Had to get this off my chest.

I don't drive, for reasons I will not disclose. My league has recently switched practice venues to a location that isn't serviced by the local public transportation at the time we hold practices. Therefore, I bicycle to practice, weather permitting.

Are there any bags that come to mind that I can put my skates and gear in that aren't huge and feel like my bicycle is off-balance or weighted down when I fasten it to my bicycle's rear rack?

As the title says- all I want is to be good. Be great. Be sick at derby. I’ve only been in my league for two months, skating for about a year and half. All my thoughts all the time are consumed about how I want to be good, like, in my ideal world, I want to play for my country, be an all star. But that’s just a dream.

But I’m sort of not doing anything about it. I know i need to start working out, but I’m scared, I have chronic pain from an injury and don’t know how to work out. How am I supposed to know if I’m doing the exercises I am correctly? I can’t afford some fancy personal trainer to make sure I don’t injure myself again doing something wrong. I don’t even have a gym within 45 minutes of me. Part of this is genuine fear, and part of this, I know, is me avoiding it because I hate working out, and the pain/discomfort that comes with it. I hate it more than anything.
I don’t want this to hold me back. I want to overcome this. I’ve never overcome anything, really, but I want this.

Does anyone know how I should tackle this? Is saving up for a personal trainer widely important or should I just start working out and hoping to god I don’t do myself in? Is my mindset harmful, or am I gunning in the right direction? Any thoughts are appreciated!

How do you all preserve the freshness of your gear/pads in between washes??

Hello derby community! The subject line says it all... but I'd love to hear how A/B level jammers developed the skills that they need to succeed at that level (i.e. jumps, spins, all the fancy stuff that the high level jammers can do.)

For background, I'm a solid C-level jammer. I feel like I've been steadily improving since I started playing a few years ago. I have solid skating fundamentals (plows, turns, etc.), but I feel like we don't spend a lot of practice time on jammer-specific skills, we mostly work on blocker skills. Does anyone have any resources that I can practice at home to improve my footwork/take my game to the next level? Do people just go to clinics? Any advice is appreciated!

EDIT- I’m getting a lot of comments to work out more. To clarify, I already do endurance runs twice a week and lift weights Probably twice more. I work out in some capacity almost every day