What's in a name?

In the week that letters are no longer allowed as part of a player's number, I thought I'd re-visit the subject of derby names. It's something that I know has been talked about over and over, but the majority of the forum posts and brief articles in the derby press I found in my quick research session seemed to be from a few years ago, when the derby scene was arguably quite different to how it is now.

[Vicky Walters]

One of the posts I stumbled upon was this 2007 beauty from Cherry Rockette on "how to choose a derby name". The "number" section in that post makes me twitch as a skater, I can't imagine quite how horrible it would make officials feel! I think, perhaps a more appropriate question in derby at the moment is "whether to choose a derby name". Unsurprisingly, I can't answer that with a simple yes or no, but I'll put forward a few topics that are doing the rounds at the moment about how derby names fit into the current incarnation of roller derby, and how this might affect new skaters just starting out.

When I started skating in 2012, we were told fairly early on in our rookie program that we had to earn our derby name. It was something of a reward to be allowed to get scrim tops printed with your chosen name once you had mastered your minimum skills and been cleared for scrimmage. We were also referred to the two evils master data sheet, to make sure our names weren't already registered by someone else anywhere in the world. Yup, that was a thing. Fast forward a couple of years to the 2014 world cup in Dallas, and you would have noticed that some of the best known derby skaters in the world were appearing for the first time under their legal name to represent their country. Some skaters are choosing to stick with their given name from the start, and associate their accomplishments with their legal identity rather than an alias. Increasingly, more and more league members, from brand new to veteran, are choosing to forego the alter ego of a skate name and wear their surnames on their backs instead.

[John Hesse]

Arguably, the main reason to do away with pre-established nicknames in this sport is to appear more professional. We're in a position now where the recent champs finals were shown on ESPN  in the US, and more and more coverage is being given to roller derby across Europe and beyond. But are derby names necessarily unprofessional? Well, that probably depends on what your derby name is. 

Recently, some skaters' names were censored by ESPN during the champs coverage from Minnesota. This has unsurprisingly sparked off some discussion about whether it is necessary to censor names, and if so, how is the censorship decided. Ultimately, one should probably assume that names which are deemed to be offensive are unlikely to be broadcast on mainstream media. But the question arises then of what is considered offensive. There's a difference between obscene, indecent and profane, as described in the Federal Communications Commision. Going by these legal stipulations, one would assume that obscene names would never be broadcast, and indecent or profane names might be suitable for televised display only between the hours of 10pm and 6am, which isn't generally when games are scheduled. It's not hard to see how many derby names might face censorship under one of the 3 measures used to decide if material is indecent: "whether the material appears to pander or is used to titillate or shock".

So the situation seems to be that if your derby name could possibly be construed as indecent or profane, then it doesn't have a place in mainstream media, at least in the USA. But is that right? The majority of forum posts about the censorship of names are from a few years ago, although the sentiment seems to remain the same. I broke my self imposed internet rule of never reading to comments to trawl through the hundreds of responses to this post from Ginger Snaps back in 2011. There are lots of interesting points interspersed with expected amounts of mud flinging and trolling. The recurring theme seems to be that if you and your team are hell bent on presenting a totally commercial, vanilla, conventionally athletic image, then legal names are the way forward. If you sit at the opposite end of the spectrum and thrive on being part of an alternative subculture that prides itself on being provocative, X-rated and anarchic, then by all means, choose the most obscene derby name you can conjure up.

The trouble is, most leagues and their members fall somewhere in between these two rather extreme examples of the roller derby ethos. Most skate names are not considered obscene, indecent or profane, however, which brings us back to the question of whether there's any problem with choosing to skate under a pseudonym. People in the "legal names are more professional" camp would argue that other professional athletes don't have nicknames, and that to be considered a "serious" sport, roller derby should look to mirror this. Some commenters on the aforementioned derbylife thread have mentioned that those sportspeople who do have nicknames have earnt them over time, rather than choosing a name themselves from the off. And obviously not using derby names at all removes the question of censorship in broadcast media.

I should mention that I'm a supporter of derby names for those who want to use them, and as such I probably present a more heartfelt argument for reasons to keep them as an option, rather than to drop them altogether. This is probably a result, for the most part, of living with a surname that very few people can pronounce. The thought of hearing announcers trip over my family name as I'm lining up to play gives me a nervous twitch. I also like the fact that derby names allow some people to embrace an alter ego that they would otherwise not have the confidence to present. This probably applies more to newer skaters and leagues outside of D1 where a high level of athletic confidence is perhaps less commonplace. Additionally, whilst I love the fact that roller derby is getting more news coverage and becoming more accessible, I'm not sure it needs to be homogenised to the extent that it has no aspects left of the alternative culture from which it grew. It's understandable to see players ditching the clichéd fishnets and skirts for sleeker sportswear, that's something that has a physical impact to gameplay. However, I'm not convinced that it's entirely necessary to remove all the "fun" aspects of this sport, just to fit in with convention. I could also argue that there are other professional disciplines who use pseudonyms - authors and journalists often publish under different names, and actors sometimes have to change their names for equity membership. Granted, derby names usually don't usually resemble legal names quite so much, but for me, the principle is the same. There are derby players who have personal training businesses built around their derby names - does this make them less professional? Not in my opinion. In those cases, the name is a brand, it's a professional sports persona, it has more impact than a legal name on its own.

Granted, this doesn't fully answer the question of censorship in broadcast media. It could be argued that the classification mentioned above is too extreme, and that we shouldn't be censoring free speech for fear of offending all and sundry. But for me, that's a totally different discussion. One that's far broader than the world of roller derby nicknames.

What are your thoughts on derby names? Have you dropped your skate name to skate under your legal name? Did you choose not to have one in the first place? I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Roller Derby is hard work, and I'm not talking about skating.

My first post about roller derby is basically all about the skating. Getting your head around the equipment, learning to skate, watching games and meeting new people are all important parts of joining the derby community. It's about getting to know your team, learning the rules and setting your sights on passing minimum skills. It's a good idea when you're starting out to offer to NSO for your league. NSOs (Non Skating Officials) are crucial to the smooth running of games and scrimmages; tracking scores and penalties, keeping time and supporting the referees to keep things safe and fair. I can't stress enough how invaluable NSOing is to new skaters. You'll learn the rules faster, you'll see gameplay up close and develop an understanding of how and why penalties happen. You might not yet be at a skating level to be taking part in scrimmage, but I guarantee that when you are, an arsenal of knowledge gained from being part of the officials crew will come in handy.

[John Hesse]

But that's just the beginning. Once you've been with a league for a little while, and you've decided this sport is for you and you're going to stick with it, you'll start to realise how mammoth a task it is to run a league and be part of the wider derby community. Both from an administrative and a skating point of view, there is always so much to be done, which means dedication and commitment are attributes that are really necessary if you want to grow and develop in the sport.

Let's talk about the skating. You've nailed the basics, you've passed your minimums and you're part of your team's rec league or B team. That's great! But it doesn't stop there. Roller Derby is tough, it's a physically demanding contact sport and the top skaters are in peak physical fitness. If you don't already take part in exercise outside of training, you'll probably want to start looking at upping your endurance through regular cardio, or HIIT, or both. You'll find that it's beneficial to have a strong core, you'll want to work on your leg strength too, as that's where your power comes from, so you might look at incorporating weight training into your routine too. Whether you're a gym bunny, a home workout queen or a fan of the outdoors, you'll probably start making time to work hard on your fitness to improve your game.

Then there's the tactics. Going to training each week will improve your skating skills, of course. You'll learn how you work within the team, you'll develop together and build on the basics of defence and offence, you'll work on good skating form, getting lower, improving foot work and agility, adding power to your hits. But there's more. This sport is evolving constantly, and the style of gameplay has changed so much in the last year alone. Learning something new is hard work. Particularly when you've been training for a while, you've worked on tactics with your team, you've played in games together and celebrated victories. Going back to training, trying something new and having to get it wrong a million times before you can get it right is frustrating. It's the only way to learn, but it's hard work. Week after week after week.

Finally, and possibly the most important, is the effort and commitment it takes to run a league. I mentioned before that you might start out by learning to NSO. After a little while, you might pick up some other roles within your league, joining a department to assist with things like creating posters for games, updating social media and looking after merch orders. A bit further down the line, you'll realise just how much hard work goes in to running a league. As this sport grows and teams develop it's clear that for many of us, roller derby has progressed far beyond a hobby and much more into the realms of a part time job. Albeit an unpaid one. My league recently registered as a limited company, and is defined as a not-for-profit organisation. This means we now have to file returns to HMRC, we have to submit accounts and comply with financial legislation. Coaches have to make time to plan sessions and keep the rest of the team in check when things don't always go right. The events team have to cover everything from securing contracts with venues, to ensuring there are enough people to help out on the day, to answering 8 million questions about where tables should be set up and why the poster in the cafe down the road keeps getting turned upside down. I don't even know half of what the directors go through, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I want to. The words "there aren't enough hours in the day" have never seemed so apt. The amount of time, love and effort it takes to run a league is huge, and is a massive indication of how much the skaters, officials and league members are committed to this sport and everything it entails. It's hard work. Sometimes, when we're 2 hours into a league meeting and only half way through the agenda, I wish it would all run itself. But it doesn't, and do you know what, that doesn't matter. Why? Because hard work pays off.

https://www.gov.uk/file-an-annual-return-with-companies-house

Hard work to improve your fitness and your skating abilities makes you a stronger person, both physically and mentally. The health benefits to keeping fit and exercising are pretty widely documented, but on top of that there's an element of pride and confidence that comes with noticing your own development as a skater and as an individual. Whether it's beating a PB for running a distance, or lifting some impressive weights, or nailing those one-footed transitions, seeing yourself improve at something is a great boost and makes the hard work worth it.

[Lianna Brinded]

Hard work to develop tactics is what makes your team great. It's what gives you the edge and means that even if you don't always win games, you know you tried something new and you played the best game you could. It's a way to share the confidence of personal development as a team, when your whole team works together to bring new tactics into gameplay, you can share that confidence boost, you can share the pride, you can share in the satisfaction that the hard work you put in as a team paid off.

[Neil Biggs]

Hard work to run your league is the reason you can turn up every week to train. It's the reason you can play this sport. It's the reason you can travel, and have other teams travel to you. It's the reason you meet people, make friends, play games, share victories and defeats together, share the good times and the bad. In addition to life within the derby community, the skills that you use to help run your league can cross over to other walks of life. People skills, finance skills, organisation, PR, management, the list goes on.

The old saying "you get out what you put in" couldn't be more true. Being an integral part of a roller derby team requires you to put an awful lot in, but you get so, so much back, that, for me at least, it's worth all that hard work. Every time.

[Neil Biggs]

An introduction to my life on wheely shoes

Sometime during the course of 2011, I became aware of a sport called roller derby. I'm not entirely sure what came first, whether it was walking past adverts for London Rollergirls games at Kensington Olympia on my way to work, or meeting an LRG rec league skater on a night bus after pretending to know her to save her from a dodgy drunk guy. Or maybe it was Whip It. Any which way, this full contact team sport on rollerskates was very much on my radar. Going to my first ever game with my then partner (LRG vs Sioux Falls at Earl's Court) cemented the idea that I wanted in. 

Roller derby is not the cheapest of hobbies. Looking at a super basic start up kit of skates, wheels and protective gear I worked out I'd need a couple of hundred pounds worth of kit. So the Christmas list became entirely skate related and I picked up a couple of cheap bits myself (I actually kept using my original £1.50 gumshield for well over a year). Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and looking back I would 100% suggest buying second hand skates and spending a bit more on a decent helmet and knee pads. But my starter kit was good enough for someone who hadn't been in rollerskates since the heady days of the 90's in strap-on Fisher Price beauties.  

On the first Friday of 2012, I took my shiny new skate kit to work with me and shuffled up and down the carpeted office for a few minutes. My colleagues thought I was super cool. It's a good job they didn't know any better. That evening, I went to my first ever open skate session in North London, and tentatively wobbled about on my wheels for a couple of hours. It was here that I first got to experience the sense of community that is Roller Derby.  Everyone was kind, a few people were as nervous as me, a couple of people were sweet and helpful and supportive. Nobody laughed at me. Nobody judged me.

There were no intakes for any of the London leagues around this time, so for a few months I gave up boozing with colleagues on Friday nights and went to skate in a little sports hall in Chalk Farm. I met a few of the skaters from the November LRG intake, who were keen to brush up their skills in the hope of passing probation and progressing to the rec league. I had it in my head that I would go for the next LRG intake, my confidence boosted by learning to stop, fall safely, and crossover around the track in the required skating style. The tryouts were scheduled for May, so I had a target to aim for and boy was I looking forward to it.

Fate clearly felt I wasn't destined to be with LRG, however, when the tryout date was moved to the weekend of Download festival.  Despite my excitement to join an actual roller derby league, and the anticipation that had been building for months, I wasn't quite ready to bail on another passion of mine for a few hours skating that may or may not have got me a place in the fresh meat program for new skaters with LRG.

Not prepared to wait for another 6 months minimum (they couldn't tell me exactly when the next intake was but said it was most likely the following year) I looked around for other teams to join. LRR had an intake in November, that was 6 months away, and Croydon Roller Derby had an intake next week. NEXT WEEK! I could make it. I'd been practicing. Quite quickly I had to Google Croydon. I'd heard of it, I'd got a train there once to work a godawful student night at Tiger Tiger, but I wasn't sure how practical it would be getting there from New Cross. 12 miles. A 40 minute drive or a little longer on public transport. Going by the London commuting 'rule' that anywhere accessible within an hour is acceptable, I decided to go for it. 

The day was Sunday May 27th 2012, and this was the day I was to become a member of Croydon Roller Derby. Not knowing about a parking situation, I navigated the tube, train and tram to arrive at the sports centre on a blindingly sunny day. I think I was the first there. A couple of skaters started to appear and told me the person in charge of the new recruits was Daylight Throbbery, who turned out to be a friendly Northern Irish lady who didn't seem to quite know what we were supposed to be doing. We soon discovered that the person who was actually supposed to be meeting us had not yet arrived, and the team had a game to prepare for so were understandably excited and not overly concerned with some bright-eyed,  bushy-tailed newbies. After a few more nervous faces appeared, our trusty recruitment boss lady (otherwise known as Sheila) had gathered us into a group of around 10 potential recruits to meet our late running but excitable coach, Rolling Thunder. Throbbery went to join her teammates and we were left sitting atop a grassy knoll and being given the Roller Derby lowdown by Rolling Thunder. It transpired that basically because we'd shown up, we were in. Immediately, I think it was clear to me that I would probably fit in better here at CRD than I would as part of the behemoth of a league that is LRG. We were taken through some basic off skates warm up exercises in the baking heat in a basketball court, whether to 'test' our fitness and competitive nature or just for something to do, I'm not quite sure. Later we got to watch the bout on that day between CRD and Big Bucks. I have no idea what happened, but I know that it was brilliant. I skipped merrily (probably sauntered casually) back home and tried to quell the excitement that in just a few days time, I would be heading to my first ever roller derby practice as part of a real life team.

Fast forward almost exactly 3 years and here I am. Rostered for the A Team, having played all over the UK and in Europe, and about to embark on a slightly impulsively booked trip to Vegas for Rollercon; an international roller derby convention. Roller Derby has taken over my life, in the best possible way, and I honestly can't imagine who I would be without it. There's been joy and heartbreak, the ecstasy of winning and the agony of injury. People have come and gone, there have been really tough times both mentally and physically and I've considered throwing in the towel more times than I've taken to the track. But I wouldn't change it for the world. There will be more challenges, more highs and more lows. But I'll face them with my team, and that's what matters. I am a skater. We are CRD.