I am so sorry I’ve been gone such a long time – I mean, when I started the blog, I thought, “All I have to do is write about roller derby – which I love – once a week or so. And practice. And travel to away bouts. And build my startup business. And rehearse and perform in a great big burlesque show in the middle of the season….” No problem, right? Well, crap – I’m not a superhero, no matter what my costume closet says. I got over-, under- and possibly even side-whelmed! Now that the home season is over, I’m back, baby – and ready to lay some knowledge on ya. Because there are still plenty of opportunities to see & support your Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls, starting September 25!

What goes around, comes around: Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls walk & roll with their biggest fan at the Spina Bifida Walk

Jeremy Moses is one of Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls’ most enthusiastic fans – and happens to have Spina Bifida.  We look forward to seeing him at every bout and hearing him scream the loudest during each jam.  He makes sure to give words of encouragement to the players before each bout.  We can’t wait to roll with him during this walk and lead Team Moses to claim the top donation prize!

Join us in supporting him on September 25, from 10 am – 2 pm at the Miami Whitewater Forest Park in Harrison, OH!

sbacincy@sbacincy.org

Season Sendoff: the Black-n-Blue Bash!

Everyone loves a party – and your Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls are no exception. We’re going to be raising the roof with fans, sponsors and friends at the Black-n-Blue Bash at Molly Malone’s in Covington, KY. The fun starts at 9 pm for 21 and older, and here’s what you’ll get for the $5 cover:

Entertainment by Pickle Brothers Sideshow, Switchblade Syndicate and DJ Flip

Karaoke

Rollergirl spanking booth

Team merchandise booth

The girls will be in a partying mood – so don’t miss this chance to mix it up with the team!

-          Hits & Kisses,

Rumble Strumpet

Anyway. Because the Hudy peeps are so awesome and see how much fun it will be to be an integral part of the Black-n-Bluegrass Experience (Jimi Hendrix, eat your heart out), they are our exclusive beer sponsor for the home season. So if 50-plus girls on skates (and in fishnets) hitting each other doesn’t do it for ya, come out for the BEER. ‘Nuff said.

They're excited about the new venue - aren't you?

We had such a great turnout at the first home bout due to the aforementioned happy hour, incredible ticket presales, and great promotion by our partners that we have to move to a bigger place to accommodate everyone! We had record attendance numbers – so an unprecedented number of fans got to see both BBRG teams win on their home turf.

Deets on the new venue and start times are as follows:

Midwest Hoops, off KY-18 near Turfway Rd.

Doors open at 6pm, double-header starts at 6:30

Plenty of free parking, full bar and concessions and lots of room for fans!

Are you Black-n-Blue?
- Rumble

Things I Learned

1. Do not, under any circumstances, put on your fishnets before you embark on a 5+ hour drive, unless you want to be mistaken for a waffle iron later! I wasn’t sure how much time we’d have before the bout to get ready, what the “locker room” would be like, etc. So I went ahead and put on my underthings. Baaaaad idea. I looked like I was ready to have syrup poured over me any second. And it’s sorta painful to get a fishnet brand pressed into your backside.
2. Check out the time zone of where you’re going before you agree to leave really, really early in the morning. Sure, we live at the edge of Eastern Daylight Time, and we were heading pretty much west – but would you think that’d factor in to the travel math for me? Noooooo. So we were there pretty early – and there is more “hurry up and wait” before a bout than you’d think, so we were cooling our heels for more than a minute.
3. Do something really strenuous and physical in the booty shorts you plan on wearing for the bout, even if they’re under a skirt like mine were. If they give you a wedgie during your preliminary tests, they’ll surely give you one while you’re playing – mine turned out to be much more booty than shorts. I’m just saying. Everyone in Paducah saw my butt cheeks. Everyone. And while my teammates were very complimentary (thanks, girls!), it’s a teeny bit embarrassing to find out after the bout that you’ve flashed an entire fan base….
4. It takes a couple of jams (or more) for you to find your legs, especially if you haven’t done this before. Coach T says that everything you ever learned leaves your brain when the whistle blows. Too true! My first couple of jams were, well, ugly. I got out of my Derby stance. I got separated from my teammates. I fell, a lot. I got discouraged, and in my own head too much. Shake it off – don’t let it affect the whole bout.
5. Item 4 leads me to the following: make sure your knee pads are on nice & tight. Not cut-off-your-circulation tight, but tight enough to stay on. I lost a knee pad in one of my first tumbles, and have some lovely rink rash to show for it…. So when you take that first hard hit from a stranger, all your gear should stay in place.

Blue Lightnin' @ Radioactive City

Finally – remember that this is the coolest thing you’ve ever done, and have FUN. You are participating in something that most people are too afraid to even dream about. I mean, I’ve never been in a game for any other sport where the coach asked, “Is anyone missing some metal from their face? They found this on the track….” Every second on that track is precious, glorious, fantastic. Do your best, and leave it all on the track. Repeat.

Skate Hard,

- Rumble Strumpet

This is what all the girls have been practicing so hard for – especially the FNGs. And it is so great just to be nominated. Really. It’s exhilarating, and there’s a great sense of accomplishment that goes with making it onto your first roster for a real-life bout. But…. GULP!
All those things that haven’t quite gotten mastered, but would – you know, someday – really have become Much. More. Important. All those rules that aren’t exactly clear just yet? Ditto. And getting hit by people other than your teammates seems extra-terrifying, even though your teammates hit you plenty hard even at practice, thankyouverymuch.
So, what to do? Skate more. Practice harder. Tie on your skates and get out there. (Because there’s no point in going to the bout if you don’t bring it all to the track.) And, finally – console yourself with the thought that there will be ice in the adult beverages at the after-party if you need to put it on your injuries….
Hits & Kisses,
- Rumble Strumpet

So how GREAT is it that we have awesome sponsors who believe in us enough to put their money where their mouth is? Unbelievably so. We have folks that give us money (mmmmm…. Ca$h!), media that give us promotional time, and businesses that give us swag to use in our fundraising efforts, or promote us while they’re out bootstrapping for themselves. I’m always humbled by how many different people want to help BBRG out, particularly when we’re all – literally or figuratively – flying by the seat of our pants in these trying economic times.

The reasons people support us are varied: some people are fans of Roller Derby in general, and us in particular (yay). Some are supportive of women-owned businesses and our Girl Power vibe. Savvy business owners whose target markets align with ours want to get their message out to our ticket buyers and season pass holders. And let’s face it, that’s gotta be more fun than using that cheddar to advertise in the phone book!

We’ve got a full-service salon that helps keep us skating and maintain our (ahem!) natural beauty – and they’re open ‘til midnight, which means we can go after practice. Awesome. We’ve got a great chiropractor to straighten out the kinks – OK, not all of them – when we take one hard hit too many. We’ve got a home-away-from-home for our after-parties, which are legendary, and a home on the radio, as well. Skatewear/skategear sponsors and printing companies help us with swag and glossy pieces, and we’ve even got a tae kwon do studio backing us up if we ever need to learn more ways to hit people!

Point is, we can’t do it alone. So be a mensch – visit our sponsorship page and patronize the folks that help us out. Or become a sponsor yourself! It’s remarkably affordable, and really rewarding – and not just because you get to hang with the Roller Girls…. Check it out at http://black-n-bluegrass.com/sponsors/. You’ll be glad you did, and our sponsors will thank you.

Skate Hard,
- Rumble

p.s. Want to sponsor BBRG, or know someone who might? We’d love to hear from you! Hit our sponsorship chair up at janet@black-n-bluegrass.com or donate directly from our site. Every little bit helps.

Seriously, though – one of the things that make any activity more enjoyable is the right gear. Please note: it does not make you any better at it. But as an FNG (New Girl), it does let me focus on the basics, e.g., staying upright and close to my teammates in the pack – instead of on that nasty blister that’s developing on my heel… in the first half-hour of practice, no less! These aren’t product endorsements or ads or anything like that. These are just some of the little lifesavers I’ve found that work for me. I’d love comments from all you other Roller Girls out there who have found similar salvos to make skating a little bit better.

1. Neoprene Ankle Sleeves. I love love love them. Usually used for compression and support, mine are used to keep the skin on the inside instep of my right foot from rubbing clean off. And there’s an added bonus – once we started back to practice for real after the holidays, I noticed I was getting an under-the-dogpads blister on the inside of my right heel. I’m a dancer as well (not THAT kind, naughty reader!), and I’ve got serious calluses. But I was getting a wicked sub-dermal ouchie. These cleared it right up. I read somewhere that some girls use a beer coozy with a hole snipped out for their heel – but they must have smaller ankles than I do, because there’s not a chance my Fred Flintstone feet are fitting into the same diameter as a beer can! Mine are about 2mm thick – enough to be cushy, but not so thick that my skates don’t fit right. I paid about $10 each, and I got them a size larger than you would for actual ankle support. (The Pro-Tec ones run small, FYI.)
2. Cushioned Knee/Over-the-Knee Socks. Now that I’m not wearing two pairs of socks to mitigate rubbing (see above), I like my thin-bottomed socks less. I’ve been very lucky to get great clearance finds at Hot Topic; a lot of their socks are, well, awesome, and super-cute, not to mention cushy on the bottom, which is nice when you’re skating hard for 2 hours. I have a real weakness for accessories of all kinds, and I’m not ashamed to say that the fashion element of Derby was a big draw. So: function first, with fashion right on its, um, heels. And while we’re on the subject of over-the-knee socks, I like how they keep my kneepads from chafing my admittedly sissy skin!
3. Ah, Marshmallow-y Kneepads. You know the ones. The pair that makes you laugh in the face of double-knee falling drills. Ha! Bring it ON, you say. Mine are the 187 Pros, and they were worth every penny – and the wait. I fear no floor. Well, not for my knees, anyway. The rest of me, maybe a more than a little.
4. Skate Tongue Stay-Puts. (OK, I don’t really know what to call them.) You know those little tabs on the tops of sneaker tongues that you thread the laces through? Well, my boots are old, and have no such thing. I would look down at practice and my socks would be staring me right in the face. Huh. That can’t be good. So, since my boots were used and inexpensive – to me, at least, they’re good quality – I took an X-Acto knife and cut slits in the existing tongue so that I could feed the laces through. Seems to be helping some. I’ll keep you posted.
5. Used Skates. And while we’re on the subject, I’m so glad that I got my first quad skates at a sports consignment store for $15. Because I didn’t know anything about skates – including what features I would and wouldn’t want them to have, feel like, etc. I’ve just put new wheels on and gotten the cushions replaced, which has been GREAT, but I’m glad I skated on the old beater wheels for a while so I could appreciate what I put on them. Plus, I can always put the new wheels, trucks, and so on onto new boots later if I want. If you’re new, ask other skaters what they like – but be prepared for a wiiiiiiiide variety of opinions on the subject. You’ll never know until you skate in them yourself, and everyone has a different style – and different feet, natch.

Please share your thoughts, tricks and fixes – I’m sure there are very clever ideas that haven’t even reached inkling status with me. (Like I said, I’m new-ish at this.)

Skate Hard,

-          Strumpet

For me, it’s the equivalent of running away with the circus: Best Idea Ever. There are cheering crowds! Amazing displays of athleticism! Skimpy outfits! People flying through the air with the greatest of ease! (Oh, crap. That’s probably just me, splayed out on the track, wishing I could master “falling small.”) It’s a lot like being the new kid in school who just got invited to sit at the Cool Kids’ table in the lunchroom – it might be pretty intimidating, but you’d be crazy not to accept.

I think the fact that the Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls lovingly call the fresh meat skaters FNGs (F*!@ing New Girls) sums up the league – equal parts love, sass, and toughness. BBRG makes you feel included immediately, even if you don’t have a Derby Wife or get all the inside jokes and ‘remember when’s. You have a nickname. (You’re a plebe and you share it with the other new girls, but hey, it’s a nickname.) The more experienced skaters are genuinely concerned about your safety and bringing your skating to the next level. Girls who’ve been on the team a while will reassure you that they, too, spent entire practices picking themselves up off the floor – even if you don’t believe them. And everyone is invited to everything social, of which there is a lot!

Practices are hard. Really hard. And it’s not just hard for new skaters, although skating for two hours at a stretch is tougher than those Moonlight Skates you remember from middle school. That said, being new is no excuse for not pushing yourself at practice, and plus, you want to get better – fast. Just like any other team, the coach and your teammates will call you out if they think you’ve got more to give than what you’re bringing to the track. When you’re new, there are so many things you want to work on – posture, stride, balance, agility, and strategy – it can be overwhelming. I didn’t realize how much strategy and control there is in roller derby before I started practicing with the team. The best players use their skates like an extension of their feet – they are just as agile as they would be in their street shoes.

There are so many more great things about derby than I thought before I went to boot camp. Before I went, I thought: Skating will be fun! I’ll get to wear cute skirts and fishnets! It has that edgy feel of being a badass! I’ll get to pick a cool name! (Another post on that later.)

All those things are still true, but I’d forgotten how great it is to be part of a team again, working toward a common (and challenging) goal. These girls have gone to battle together, and seen each other dejected, victorious, exhausted, injured, elated – you name it, they’ve been through it together. That’s a strong bond. Then add in the amazing Girl Power these fierce, funny, and unique women all bring to every single thing they do, and it’s an experience unlike any other I’ve had. They couldn’t all be more different, and yet they are so alike at the same time. I look forward to every ass-kicking practice, and I can’t wait to play.

Hits & Kisses,

- Rumble