Member Of The Month, July 2010-TEAM ZEBRA!

Congratulations to our referees, Team Zebra, who were voted July’s Member Of The Month!

What the league had to say:

“I think sometimes they can be overlooked, but their presence at practices and scrimmages alike is so crucial to our development as a team. Without their time and dedication to the league, I don’t think we’d have as good of a grasp on the rules as we do- nor would we be able to scrimmage as much as we do, which helps to make us better competitors. They have a huge role in our growth as well-rounded derby girls and they certainly deserve a big thank you from all of us”

Member of the Month – June 2010

Congratulations to Fire Chicka Boom!!!

She has been voted our June 2010 Member of the Month!

Here’s what the league had to say about her:

“Our resident EMT!! She has been wonderful in taking care of our bumps, bruises, dislocations and broken bones. She is an amazing team player and extremely supportive of the rest of her fellow freshies. While skating with her, I find that I am pushing myself a little bit harder to keep up with her and also to make her work harder too! She has graciously volunteered her home for a couple different events and has come up with some really good ideas for how we can all become better. I am so glad that Fire Chicka Boom is a part of DDG!!”

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Tales from the Fresh Meat Locker – RipTide Ride~Her

Still rolling on at 40….yeah, it is the new 30!

Trust me, my 40 year old body is feeling every second of being fresh meat! It’s a P90X on 8 wheels! I should be in great shape soon…thanks to our coaches! Trust me, roller derby is not for the weak and you will find that out on the first day of boot camp! Through all the blisters, sweat, bruises, and sometimes tears…I keep going back for more!

This is actually my second time around with the DDG. I had to leave the league a few years ago due to loosing my health insurance….I was a proud St. Brawlie Girl for a short time!

So here it is…my story. I grew up in Newport News, VA. My passion for skating started when my kindergarten class went on a field trip to Plaza Roller Rink. It was my first time on skates and I really sucked! I ate the floor many times but simply fell in love with skating! It was all I talked about, all I wanted to do! My mom enrolled me in lessons and before I knew it, I quickly became a “rink rat” at Denbigh Plaza.

The rink became my home away from home. I started working in the snack bar making pizzas and cotton candy. I guess they felt like they had to give me a job since I hung around 6 days a week! I made some fantastic friends growing up at the rink…friends that I still keep in touch with to this day. One thing is for sure, the rink kept us out of trouble!

Of course I watched the classic roller derby on TV. Yes, my hero was Joan Weston AKA “Blonde Bomber” I loved the Bay City Bombers and I dreamed of knocking a chick out while on skates! I had no idea that I would ever skate roller derby and had no idea that it would also be so hard mentally and especially physically! You have to devote time and energy to roller derby and it does not happen over night!

Why I do this…because I freaking love it, it’s a major stress reliever from a hard day! I am able to do this because I have such an awesome supportive family….my handsome son T.J and my life partner Kathy who just so happen to be my biggest fans…well, only fans! They give me support, love and most important time to dedicate to derby. Without them, derby would not be possible for me. I would like to thank them very much and tell them I love them!

I work in the medical field as a manager and by the end of the day…I can take it out on the track and not my family and staff!! This by far is the largest accomplishment that I can say I did for myself. I am proud to be part of such an awesome league and proud to skate with the best chicks in the world!!!

RipTide Ride~Her
(formerly FM Kristie)

Tales from the Fresh Meat Locker – FM Christy

Wow, how the heck did I get here?

1st, let me say that I am 15-20 years older than the vast majority of the women of the DDG, which makes my story even more weird and uber cool!
I loved watching Roller Derby on Saturday mornings when I was a kid! It amped me up even before I knew why. My dad took me to a bout at Scope when I was around 9 or 10 and I fell in love with all of it! He did the play by play for the Tidewater Red Wings hockey team and I went to every game and became seriously hooked on the speed and complete bad-a**ness of the skaters and knew I wanted to skate fast and hit hard, even at that tender age (with my face pressed to the Plexiglas just praying for someone to get slammed in front of me).

I started roller skating in white high top Roller Derby’s at Aragona Skating Rink at around 12 or 13. When I realized that only boys had cool low top black skates and wide wheels that were so much faster than mine I had to break out of the Danskin skirt/figure skater girly thing and find some small footed cutie who would let me try out his speed skates…that was it for me!
Girls simply didn’t speed skate and I took a lot of crap for wearing men’s skates and got thrown off the floor for speeding way too many times until I started coming to speed practices and showed my skills and “poof”, I was in. The only girl speed skater on the team-though I was not allowed to compete since there were no girls and no girl officials, etc. I pretty much lived in skates and at the rink for the next three years or so, until I started dating high school boys and my focus shifted a bit-as a teenaged girls’ focus tend to do. I hung up my Kangaroo boots and Blue Spruce wheels (still have 7 of the 8 wheels), but never forgot my love of skating fast.
Many, many years and three grown kids later my Fiancé told me he was doing some web work with “the coolest girl and she skates Roller Derby”! That planted the seed. When the boot camp rolled around she reminded Nick and said I should come see what it was about (then we rented Whip-it and something in me fell head over stupid for the whole idea that I could actually do this). When I walked in Jason’s Deli that day for the boot camp meeting I felt very old and intimidated, to say the very least, but the skaters were so cool and appeared to be normal everyday women only in really cool clothes (love black-love pink-love stripes and skulls) and for once I wasn’t the most tattooed girl in the room!! I fell in love-dreamy imagine the possibilities love, went to a bout that weekend, and never looked back.
I honestly feel that this has been what was missing in me all these years, but I was not ready (physically or mentally) to peek behind the curtain until now. Kids are grown, Nick is amazing and so supportive (and I think he likes the tough girl thing a lot too) and I can finally focus on myself. Now I wake up and think “do I get to skate today?” and just packing my gear case and taping up my right quad (so I don’t keep tearing it during fall drills) gets my heart racing and puts a big smile on my face…even when the two hour practice starts at 9pm after working all day. By the time it’s over and I am heading home (sometimes with a blister and a limp-always sweaty, hungry and red-faced) I feel so alive and so proud of myself just for showing up-not to even mention skating my butt off and doing drills over and over until I don’t even have to think-just react.
Coming in we are all different ages, socioeconomic levels, lifestyles, stages in life-but once we say hello and start gearing up and hit the track we are all one-one big awesome roller derby skater. We knock each other down (physically only) and pick each other up (mentally AND physically) and sometimes don’t even need more than a look to know exactly what we are feeling and getting one back that says “me too, but you are doing great and you can do this-and even if you can’t-it is OKAY and I will help you”.
I’m closing in on the end of my Fresh Meat run and preparing for evals really soon-the time has flown by. Next up, who knows? I will go wherever my coaches tell me to go, because I trust them and love them and most of all respect them like they are my blood!
Words can’t express how grateful I am for this opportunity to be a part of this sweet, fierce, tough (really tough-I have the bruises to prove it), strangely close-knit, funny and dynamic group of people and I love them all!

Member of the Month – May 2010

Congratulations to aero go POSTALe!!!

Here’s what the league has to say about her:

“She has shown great dedication to the league by teaching FM’s the NSO side of roller derby. She is very knowledgeable and patient with all of us. I’m sure she helps out more than us and she is definitely a great asset to DDG (how many people/non-skaters know all her duties so well?)!”

AND…

“I think she works hard at the NSO’ing and takes it very serious. It is sometimes probably a difficult position especially when you are accused of fudging the numbers”

AND…

“She is always willing to give a helping hand off and on the track, coordinating our NSO staff, baby sitting spawn when desperate derby moms are in a pinch, and lending moral support to all league members. She truly is an asset to us all.”

Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work!

Tales from the Fresh Meat Locker ~ FM Shannon B.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to be that tough, hot chick you see in the movies. I was a tomboy, who was kind of into sports. I did swimming and tried soccer and football, and recently trained in Muay Thai Kickboxing. But until a little over a month ago I never really thought about roller derby.

I found out about the team by seeing a car with ‘Dominion Derby Girls‘ written on the back in window chalk, but I didn’t do anything with it besides glancing over the webpage. But I filed the information away in the back of my brain. And in January that information came to the front once again, my best friend and I started talking about how we would like to be a roller derby girl. And one night the fated words were uttered, “Shannon, let’s do this.”

And here I am.

I bought skates and gear, and went off to the Pre-boot meeting; and off to boot camp I was! I’ll tell you right now, I couldn’t skate for the life of me. I moved ten feet onto the rink and my tailbone had it’s first of many meetings with quite an unforgiving wooden floor. I could barely move a few feet without falling, and continued this new tradition through the time trials. I only made six laps, but with the help of Photon Pixie during those laps I was very slowly getting maybe just a tad bit better. At least I started falling forward! Either way I didn’t finish the rest of boot camp. I was in severe pain and had your tell tale red and puffy I’ve-been-crying-eyes, but I stayed to watch the rest. I stayed and I came back.

I found out that derby isn’t easy, but as everyone on the team says, “If you want it, you will have it.” And I am. I haven’t missed a practice yet, and only a month in I can tell I’ve gotten so much better already. The combined encouragement from the coaches, refs, derby girls, and my fellow fresh meat have helped me come back, and keep coming back. I know I’m not among the best, or even the good skaters out there at the moment, but I’m not letting that stop me.

With every practice I’ve learned that this is more than wanting to be ‘that hot, tough chick’. I’ve learned a lot about myself, about why I want to do this. I want to be a part of this team, of this family; because that is what they are. A family. These girls are already my sisters; the guys, my brothers. They are all such great people. I want this. I will have it!

Why I Volunteer ~ Sasha Kenzan

When I sit back to write this blog and chronicle my experiences as the new announcer for the Dominion Derby Girls, one recurring thought comes through my mind… what took me so long to get here?

I was first aware of DDG in January of 2008. I was entering my ninth year of being involved in the pro wrestling business, and had spent nearly four years behind the microphone as an announcer. I had just been booked for a science fiction convention in Williamsburg, as the convention head wanted to bring some fresh programming and colorful characters. I was scheduled to give a panel on pro wrestling’s connection with science fiction, and while trying to figure out just what the heck I was going to blather on about for an hour, I got a phone call asking me if I would mind sharing a panel with a few girls from roller derby. Apparently they were booked as well, but there wasn’t enough space on the programming calendar for both of us, so we were combined.

I was flummoxed, to say the least. I had never seen roller derby, and I barely knew what it was. When I arrived for the panel, I noticed that we weren’t even listed on programming, so nobody knew we were there. That’s how I spent an hour having a conversation with Molly Shipwreck in front of six people wondering what this badass woman was doing talking with a dude wearing a lucha libre mask and a ton of eye makeup in the convention center about roller skates. My curiosity was piqued to learn more, but I never got the opportunity, as I had just started co-hosting a television show and my mind was swamped with that.

Flash forward about two years. My show was off the air and I was working for a new startup in central Virginia, and I happened to see someone having a vivid conversation about roller derby with one of the wrestlers… and that’s how I met Frankendoll. The next month, Frankendoll asked me if I was interested in helping out with DDG, and I said that if an opportunity presented itself, I would definitely be up for it. I planned to come to see the home bout against River City in February as a fan and, if I was interested, she would help me find something to do to help out.

Plans are curious things. A few days before the bout, Frank sends me a message… “are you able to help us announce?” Well, definitely. Yelling into microphones is what I do! “Can you come to practice tomorrow? We need someone for the bout.” One thing I’ve learned in my life is that if an opportunity arrives, don’t turn it down because you might never see it again.

I came to practice and I was amazed. I had only heard about the athleticism involved, but to see it was mind-blowing. Everyone spent time with me to make sure I was prepared and ready, and the sense of community and the energy was contagious. After my first bout, I knew I had made the right choice and became a member of the league a few days later. On top of the new challenges that announcing derby presents, I have been welcomed into a family, and I am so proud to help contribute towards helping this sport grow.

Tales from the Fresh Meat Locker ~ FM Christine

I have a new obsession–it is ROLLER DERBY.

When I told my friends and family this, they just kind of looked at me and said, “yeah…okay…”. I guess to them I am not the stero-typical girl they remember seeing on the television on Sunday mornings when roller derby was a televised event–throwing clotheslines and knocking girls over the wall. I will be the first to admit–I didn’t think that I would actually go through with this. I get all keyed up about something, participate in it for a little while and then get bored and quit. With derby, it’s different. I researched it, took notes, printed out the WFTDA rules, track requirements, ref signals, etc… After numerous emails to ThunderLips & Frankendoll, I attended a Saturday practice. OH MY GOODNESS…these ladies were hardcore, yet extremely approachable. I ordered my gear, went to the pre-boot meeting and waited for bootcamp day. That was an adventure–during our first time trials, I fell 3 times, had to quit because I knocked the wind out of myself, but I didn’t give up competely. Bam Bam & ThunderLips skated next to me during my laps and cheered me on. After bootcamp, I went home feeling exhilirated and couldn’t wait for our first practice! Even though I bruised my tailbone during bootcamp, I kept coming back for more–working through the pain, knowing that I could do this.

As the weeks have gone by, I have seen an improvement in my skating skills (thanks to a few coaches who helped adjust my skates & gave me pointers!), I have made new friends and I have found a new family. I would do anything in the world that I could for my derby sisters. I hope to one day be able to skate in a bout and hear the crowd cheering for me and the rest of the DDG!

–FM Christine

Member of the Month – April 2010

Congratulations to Momma Ruffian!!!
She’s the Dominion Derby Girls’ April 2010 Member of the Month!

Here’s what the league had to say about her!

“I love me some Momma! She is one of the members that help form the backbone of this league. I am sad to admit that it’s taken me at least two years to recognize all that she does for the league and how much she is actually there for us – both literally and figuratively. As a non skater she is at just as many practices as the captains and coaches and more than some of our skaters! She is always willing to help with whatever we need. She signs us skaters in, wrangles kids that get too loud during practice, hold the inside line so we don’t cut the track in warm-ups (risking her own skin, I might add), she helps our bench coaches with drills, time keeping, penalty tracking, ticket sales, Fresh Meat committee, she is our Chairlady and a fine one at that. I mean, just look at that list, I could go on and on!! But the most amazing thing about her commitment and dedication is that she does it all b/c she love derby and she loves us all like a “Momma” should. I really appreciate her help, time, dedication and passion for a sport that we all love. We use the phrase “Couldn’t do it without ya” to loosely sometimes but for Momma, it’s truly perfect, we really couldn’t do all this without her!”

“She has been constantly encouraging to me as I learn more about the inner workings of roller derby and has been a huge help any time I’ve ever had questions. I always know that if I ask Momma about something, she’ll either know the answer or know exactly who I’d need to talk to, and that’s a huge help for me at my level of experience.”

Thanks to Momma Ruffian for all the good work!

Coaches Corner Volume 3: Cutting

Cutting

Cutting is an essential tool in a derby girl’s bag of tricks.

What is cutting? Cutting is the ability to make sharp turns in a limited area of space. This “craft” helps with juking and agility skills, effective hits, and missing oncoming crashes. All of these skills are necessary within a bout.

Step one: Loosen the trucks. Loose trucks help you in moving and cutting more fluidly. Some girls have an initial fear of loose trucks because of a feeling of being out of control. Try loosening the trucks gradually at each practice so that a comfort zone can begin to be established.

Step two: Once the trucks are at a comfortable setting and movement is less awkward, try to skate in a series of short diagonals, shifting ones weight from side to side.

Step three: Once the diagonals are down, try hitting the inside then the outside lines of the track within the series of diagonals, while keeping derby stance and staying in bounds. These movements are the basics to the “caterpillar drill”, which is a great way to get you cutting. When moving side to side, have toes facing in the direction in which you want to turn, because where the toes go, the body follows.

Step four: Try doing turns with 6 wheels on the floor, where one foot has 4 wheels down and the opposite foot pivots with the 2 rear wheels down and 2 front wheels up.

When warming up try doing a few cuts in isolation and when the mood strikes and a certain boldness starts to blossom, try throwing a hip or shoulder into the cut. When throwing a hip or shoulder into the cut this makes for a doozy of a hit.

Cutting helps you move from one side of the track to the other lickity split, putting you in front of the opposing jammer or into a blocker to make a hole for your jammer. Practice practice practice and master this skill!