Preston Roller Girls

Rants and ramblings from Meaner Simone, captain and long time skater with Preston Roller Girls, Lancashire's first roller derby team.

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

Preston Roller Girls present their first home bout: DEBUTANTE BRAWL All-female flat track roller derby! Preston Roller Girls take on North...

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

Surviving long term injury - guest blog post from Mandible Lecture

Huge thanks to Mandy for digging deep and writing this - PRG wouldn't be the team we are today without her hard work and dedication.  She's a proper good egg :-)  MS xx

I have been meaning to write a blog post for a while, but finally decided to commit to it today after being out injured for most of the last six months!

The fateful day, 16th September, the bouting team were preparing for a bout in Swansea which I couldn't make due to prior commitments, so I was giving my all in the opposing team to try and help them prepare as well as possible for the bout. I'd love to say that this led to an amazing flying fall and a trip in an ambulance complete with gas and air or maybe morphine as this would be a much better tale and might even go some way to helping me accept my injury. But no, this was a straightforward simple double knee fall executed perfectly, I did notice it was a hard fall as I let out an 'oooof' as I landed, but I got straight up and rejoined the pack. At the end of the jam I did take my pad off and have a prod as it was sore (I'm a Physio, generally I can self diagnose) and I sat out a couple of drills, but it really didn't seem that bad. Don't get me wrong I knew I was injured once I'd got changed and getting out of the car proved problematic (oh, ok, I got my foot stuck in the footwell and fell onto the floor!), but I honestly thought at this point that I'd maybe miss one session and no more.

How wrong I was, I woke up at half past three in the morning crying. Odd I thought, why am I crying? Then I moved, and lets just say the air turned blue! To cut a long story short, I got to work the following day and after a few frowns from my colleagues, we decided compression bandaging and crutches for a couple of weeks would be the best plan and after a couple of days the muscle spasm had calmed enough to assess it properly at which point (although I already knew deep down) we confirmed a partial tear of my posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). There were a few other issues, like a rather impressive swelling to the inside of the joint and a whacking great internal bruise to the top of my knee. The PCL sits deep inside the knee and basically stops your tibia (the bottom part of your leg) sliding backwards on your femur and helps hold the two bones together. The feeling when I sat without my foot rested on anything was horrendous. It really did feel like my leg was falling off!

As a result it was agreed I'd be off skates for three months! Three months with no skating? What the hell was I going to do?

Well, I've missed maybe five training sessions in all of this time. I've turned my hand to jam timing, line up managing and generally sorting stuff out. It's been ok, but to be honest, every time I've not been able to pull on my skates, a little piece of me has died inside and dragging myself to training some days only to be able to watch has been the biggest soul killer ever. I'm glad I didn't just stay away though. At 37, I haven't exactly got a long derby career ahead of me, so I want to make the most of every second of it. My time off skates has helped me understand the rules more, keep up to date with the drills and tactics that have developed over the last six months and to see things with a much more critical eye. I managed to get back on skates in January and although half the time I had no idea where my left knee was (kinda tricky when doing crossovers) and I've had a little cry/panic attack during one training session when I honestly felt like I was going to die, I have slowly got back into training. I have reffed whenever we've had internal scrims and have focused on line up managing for scrimmages and bouts so I've been kept busy. The worst bit during this time has been knowing exactly what I want to be able to do but not being able to and at times I have driven home after training feeling so low and so beaten by my knee I have considered whether I need to look for a different sport. The biggest lows have to be on scrim and bout days as all my team mates get kitted up and skate out to cheers from the crowd and as bench and line up, you rarely get a mention. At the end of the bout as the teams gather for the team hugs, you do feel like a spare part kinda hanging round at the back of the team and I've got to be honest it hurts, you just wanna be on skates and get that buzz!

However, today was a momentous day. I managed a full training session with full contact! Oh my god, the pleasure and excitement I got from finally being able to land hits once again was the best feeling I've had in such a long time! I CANNOT wait for our next internal scrim - I am all over that beast! I'm sure I won't be able to do exactly what my head is attempting to tell my body to do, but what the hell. Today I made progress FINALLY for the first time in six months and I can't wait to get back for more!

My knee? Honestly? It's still a bit of a mare. I haven't had a pain free day since I injured it, but it's doing ok and I'm strengthening it all the time that I skate so all's good. I'm waiting to see a consultant though to see if I can have surgery so it looks like I'll be back to the bench for a while in the future. But do you know what? Now I've conquered it once, I know I can do it again! My advice? If you are injured, don't run away from your team. There is so much you can do while you're injured. I have learnt so much in the last six months that I'm sure will make me a better skater and I know have helped me be a better coach when helping out with our newer skaters. As long as you accept that it will be hard at times and that there is a heap of pain involved in being here while you can't skate, it will make you a better skater and a better team member overall. 

[palepalms-deactivated20130708]

BRRG’s new logo!

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

wish i was in asheville :'(

[nonnyslist-deactivated20141023]

Happy International Women’s Day

Originally called International Working Women’s Day, this holiday is dedicated to celebrate women’s economic, social and political achievement.

The UN’s theme for this year is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women.”

The International Women’s Day organization has declared the year’s theme as The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum

To commemorate the day, I cannot think of a more famous figure to represent that than ‘Rosie the Riveter’.

A cultural icon in the US, Rosie the Riverer is a strong symbol of feminism now and represented thousands of women who worked in munitions or war supplies factories during World War II.

The iconic poster was designed by Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller in 1942.

[lightfeets]

I worked out how to gif! It’s my game face. Totally evil, right? 

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

loving it ;-)

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

From Sinner to HNSO: my journey

I’ve been asked to write this blog a few times now and have been putting it off for as long as I could muster, I’m not really one for writing thoughts and feelings down and tend to just do things but here goes, I’ll apologise in advance if I waffle on but here’s my derby journey so far!

I hadn’t heard about roller derby until one of my close friends found the sport and became hooked just over 12 months ago, from this I heard lots about the sport and how fantastic it was, having a sporty background I was intrigued, throughout my life I have always been a part of some sort of team sport, from skittle-ball in primary school, through to netball, rounders, athletics and most other sports in high school! After high school I left the running club I was a member of due to injury as I ended up having an operation on both of my shins for chronic compression syndrome and didn’t participate in sports for a while afterwards. Once healed and recovered I joined the gym but was never fulfilled with the exercise or the classes and felt despondent to exercise, it was hard to get into a routine as I wasn’t enjoying it although I continued to go and kept my fitness up to the level I was used to. When I heard about roller derby I was intrigued to know more and watched clips on you-tube and asked my friend lots of questions. When the next sinners course came up I jumped at the chance to join, although I knew I was on the waiting list for fertility treatment I didn’t want to put my life on hold and forgo this opportunity for something that had a 33% chance of being successful, so it was August 2012 I first caught the roller derby bug. I was hooked from the first session and bought my skates and starter kit within a week. I went to Wigan roller rink with a few of the other ‘lambs’ to try and get more experience in general skating to make our training sessions that bit easier, I can’t imagine not being able to skate and then having to learn falls, weaving and all the other amazing things if I thought I was going to spend so much time on the floor!

The team had a bout within our first four weeks of training, for which NSO’s were required to help officiate the bout, for this we had a training session with the head ref and worked over the positions, to help with this we then picked up the roles within an internal scrim to help get a feel for the positions and how they worked in ‘real terms’.

After 5 weeks of the fresh meat course I received my date through for treatment therefore having to suspend my training. I was very fortunate that I was in the lucky 33% and couldn’t be happier for that part of my life, although I was also very sad at the prospect of having to give derby up for 12 months or so when I had just found something that I enjoyed and looked forward to every week.

When I knew of the results I had a chat with the head ref and asked if there was anything I could do to remain as part of the team, from this I expected to continue as a member of the NSO team helping out at scrims and bouts, I was very surprised to be asked to consider the role of Head NSO. I had no qualms about taking on this role except one major part.....what did it entail?!

I looked over the workbooks and read about the HNSO role and how it benefits the team and started to get my head around the idea that that was now my role and tried to think of ways of doing it to help me learn and also to help the team understand the role.

I completed my first scrim as HNSO successfully with the help of a great NSO team and the help and guidance from MissChief (HNSO NWRD) who was also NSO’ing at the scrim, her information and help has been invaluable and will help me to take the role forward for PRG. Hopefully now we have a new fresh meat course I am hoping that more skaters will be interested in joining this part of roller derby, as I feel it helps new skaters learn the rules of the game and become part of the action, as well as reiterating rules and parts of the game that skaters don’t always get to see. I hope that we can build an NSO team that incorporates all members of the team, rather than using injured skaters and skaters yet to pass the minimum skills I hope that the whole team will incorporate not just the skaters, but also the refs and NSO’s equally and that there will be a pool of trained NSO’s available for each scrim and/or bout. Whether these are purely part of PRG or whether they are family and friends interested in the game who want to be a part of the action without having to wear skates.

Although I am hoping to be back on skates in September I feel confident that the NSO team within PRG will grow in strength and that a part of me will now always be a non-skate official.

Stacie West

-----------------------------------------

Acronyms and abbreviations:

HNSO – Head Non Skate Official

NSO – Non-Skate Offical

Ref – referee

PRG – Preston Roller Girls

NWRD – North Wales Roller Derby

[daphnedoesderby]

The Birmingham Blitz Dames are taking part in this tournament on the weekend!

[birminghamblitzdames]

Wish us luck!

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

lots of luck to the blitz dames - show 'em what uk derby is all about!

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

Welcome to the Freshies!

On Meaner’s wheels of steel:  Little Richard – She’s Got It

Excited!!!!  There’s no other word to describe the feeling we at PRG have at the prospect of our new Sinners to Winners course.  Last night we met the newbies, gave them a hug and told them it’s going to be okay.  On Sunday we’ll give them some skates and fire them off into the wonderful world of roller derby.  It may surprise you to hear that it brings a tear to my eye to see last year’s Sinners in amongst our team, throwing hits, pulling booty blocks and whizzing round scoring points for Preston (as they did so excellently at last Sunday’s scrimmage against Bruising Banditas!)

But here at EweHQ we don’t rest on our laurels.  Our team needs to grow and our soon-to-be lambs need our support.  I remember what it was like for me, turning up to my first derby training session.  It’s a scary thing to do - especially if you don’t know that much about the sport.  But if they’re anything like me, the bug will get them early; their lives will be changed for ever.  They’ll go from being ‘Ms X’, to ‘The Incredible Ms X … Roller Hero’, or to put it another way, from Sinner to Winner!

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

New Year New Start

On Meaner’s wheels of steel:  Fu Manchu – Freedom Of Choice

It’s always a rude awakening, that first training session back after a long break.  For me it was hugely frustrating.  I only have myself to blame.  I got injured (mild muscle strain) in the bout against Swansea City Slayers in early October.  I very sensibly stopped skating for 3 weeks and completely dropped my exercise regime.  Full recovery came and I got back on skates, but by this time it was cold and dark outside - no more running for me.  I guess I could have transferred my off-skates to the gym, or even the front room, but I didn’t.  The fight had gone out of this li’l ole derby girl for 2012. 

Shortly following this, I took to Christmas with all the enthusiasm of Will Ferrell in Elf.  I ate (and ate and ate) all the mince pies, Christmas cake and stodginess I could get a hold of.  My usual holiday spare tyre came early and I happily dropped the odd skating session here and there to meet my Christmas social calendar.  By 26th December I was like some sort of gooey blob, struggling to move from the couch.  But 26th December was also derby-wife Xmas for me.  She always inspires me and shames me into pulling myself round.  And so we made a pact: 2013 would be the year where we both get fitter than we’ve ever been before.

So there you have it.  I’ve publicly announced it now - there’s no going back.  I’m aiming mainly to improve my explosive power, but also to get some stamina back (where oh where did it go?) and to build some upper body strength. 

And now we’re nearly 2 weeks into the year, have I given up?  Come on!  Meaner Simone doesn’t give up!  3 runs down (total 11 miles) and a few core sessions achieved.  Next week’s mini-goal - try to devise a 15min plyo workout to squeeze into my busy schedule.

[ponychops]

[scrabblekitty]

Present I made for my buddy! she’s a badass derby girl

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

i'm digging crafty derby girls right now!

Meaner xx

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

Happy Happy Joy Joy

  On Meaner’s wheels of steel:  Luscious Jackson – Rollin’

Sunday is a very special day in the PRG story.  Our second Sinners 2 Winners group will graduate (with honours).  This intake has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Sinners and Ewes alike.  We lost some to injury (get well soon Pendle Bitch!) and some for happier reasons.  A lot of hard work and determination have paid off – the Sinners are ready to join our black n blue!

To celebrate the awesomeness of all this, we are hosting the LRB Chicks for a scrimmage on 2nd December, a chance for our debutants to show us their mettle.  We’re super excited, as we’ve had the pleasure of playing alongside the Chicks a number of times as guest skaters.  Make no mistake though – all friendships will be left at the door.  This one will be brutal!!!

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

Scary times

  On Meaner’s wheels of steel:  Roky Erickson – Night of the Vampire

This week saw the Preston Roller Girls get their freak on.  Creativity ran wild and our girls donned skeleton outfits, zombie make-up and the rather sexy limited edition PRG tees, to celebrate Hallowe’en in style. 

Practice was no party though.  Wheely Whippy had other plans – her ‘bruised’ face fit well with her plan to beat us into shape!  Endurance drills of leg burners, bleep tests, drop and roll and other tortures were in abundance.  By the end of the session the heavy-breathing would not have been out of place for the sleaziest of schlock-horror menaces.

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

=== Heard it from the Zebra: Referees' Blog 1 ===

This week we have some words from PRG's head ref and all-round rules-bible, Al-pocalypse.  He a lean, mean, ginger-headed zebra machine and he can remember the exact clause reference for any rule you care to name.  We love him xx

Having been a keen follower of the Preston Roller Girls blog and the excellent content that has been posted by Meaner Simone, the team and the sinners, I felt that it was time to get a referee's eye view on matters and when better to do that than now as newly elected Head Referee, with my first WFTDA Official Bout this weekend.

So I guess that I should begin at the beginning: How does someone who had never even heard of roller-derby 18 months ago end up as a referee?

Well, to be fair, "never heard of" is a bit of a lie; I knew of roller derby and had the view in my mind that it was an all-female contact sport played on roller skates, so I was quite surprised when, on a dull Wednesday evening, several friends invited me along to a PRG training session. They assured me that, though roller derby is predominantly a female sport, there are also mixed teams, men’s teams and a number of officials are male. So I ambled along and by the end of that first session I had caught the derby-bug.

I was one of the lucky few who knew how to skate from childhood; though, as has been demonstrated by a large number of our members, this is not by any means essential as a majority of skaters new to derby have never even skated before. This gave me a bit of a start but it was immediately apparent that I had a lot to learn, fortunately Meaner Simone and, later on, Wheely Whippy were on hand to get my basics up to scratch, teach me how to block and be blocked, how to jam, how to stay upright whilst in a pack and all the other essential derby skills. Within a couple of months I was ready to scrim and was involved in PRG's first scrimmage against the Furness Firecrackers, which was an amazing experience for all involved.

However, all was not good as far as my fitness was concerned, roller-derby highlighted a chronic injury in my shoulders - nothing to do with the sport but it looked likely to stop my derby career before it even got going. Fortunately, I was then thrown a lifeline by team: PRG had a scrimmage against Newcastle Roller Derby, however Newcastle was short of referees and I was asked if I could step into the breach. So with 2 weeks to learn the whole rule-book I got to work reading it cover to cover again and again in a frantic effort to cement the rules in my mind. Years of cramming practice at university must have paid off as, though nervous, on the trip to Newcastle I managed to recall almost all the rules when tested in the car and, usual beginner mistakes accepted, both Orig-Ian-al Sin and I refereed without embarrassment. After the scrimmage I found that I'd developed an even greater love of derby and, to my surprise, I loved refereeing it even more than playing.

There began my refereeing career, with a succession of home and away scrimmages throughout the summer I was able to take my initial learning from NRD (with thanks to Sven and Daisy Chainsaw) and expand it to the point where I am now ready to take part in a WFTDA sanctioned open bout. So look out for Orig-Ian-al Sin and me in Swansea, proudly playing for the undefeated team zebra!

Al-pocalypse

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

Guest post from Flea, one of our newest skaters...

So, I started Roller Derby, huh? I am what they call in the Derby world ‘Fresh Meat’. Who’d have thought it? When I started telling my friends and family about me starting Roller Derby, I was first met with “Roller what?” and when I explained the concept, the reactions were variable. Whatever their reaction, most people thought I was mental (well they already knew that, but more so) but the odd few thought it was a great idea and wished they had the courage to start this new awesome sport themselves.

So, what brought me to try (and fall in love with) this amazing sport? And here is the honest answer, two and a half years ago my life kind of fell apart. My long term relationship fell apart (turns out he was a douche anyway, so yay) but more significantly, I had a car accident (not my fault) that nearly killed me. I lost the job I loved and had worked hard for because I couldn’t estimate how long my recovery was going to be (I was a teacher and it was close to exam times, so a stable teacher and not a crappy supply was imperative to my students). Ever since, I have found my life at a complete and utter loss. The accident changed every aspect of my personality. Physically I was a bit of a mess but your body physically heals if you give it the time. It was the emotional damage that was hard to deal with. My whole personality changed because of the accident, I was always the fun loving, bouncy, bubbly girl, forever laughing in all the wrong places. My confidence was shot to pieces; my once heaving social life became virtually non-existence as I withdrew from aspects of my life. I felt like the accident had taken away everything in my life. So for the last couple of years I have been at a bit of a loss. Fed up. Down in the dumps. And more importantly, unable to see how to turn all this around. Then came skating.

I had wanted a pair of skates for years and having size nine feet, I could never find any in the shops. Frankly, I hate shopping and I hate online shopping even more (I know, right? A female that hates shopping!). So it wasn’t until I asked someone, earlier this year, who I knew played roller derby to look for some skates for me and she tweeted me back a pair of basic derby skates. Brilliant. And I purchased them. AMAZING! Anyway, this friend very kindly took me out to a park for the first go and had me whizzing around for a couple of hours. She then tried to convince me of the joys of Roller Derby and I just thought I would never be good enough for something like that because frankly, I skated when I was a kid and all I could ever muster was going forwards and round bends. Stopping was not possible without assistance from walls. So I figured I would be useless for it but I told her I would think about it anyway. And think I did. I continued to skate. I continued to be alright at it, occasionally falling, always getting back up off the floor. It felt pretty good and it brought me joy, something I hadn’t really felt for two years. So I started thinking about this thing called roller derby. I googled it. I was intrigued. Over to YouTube and I was impressed. So, that brought me to registering my interests with PRG.

Now, four sessions in, I have started seeing the old me again. Bouncy Flea. Gradually, this mental sport is bringing back the best of me, something I had begun to feel like was lost forever.

Not only that but for once I can actually see me being good at a sport and actually caring about it because from what I can see, that’s what Roller Derby does to you. Everyone I have met that is involved in Roller Derby is full of pure passion for the sport and four weeks in, I feel the same. Sometimes in the practice sessions, my body tells me I need to stop and have a rest; then I think “naaah, just one more lap...and one more...”. I have never been like that for a physical activity before but I genuinely want to be the best I can be at this sport. Sport has always been the one thing I give up easily on, I hung around with some lads in my teenage years, they’d play football and I would join in. The thing is, I was awful at it, so what did I do? I would pick up the ball and I would run off with it.

I’ve met some inspiring people since, like the person that falls over more than most, yet every time, they pick themselves up and try again. Never once have I heard them moan, just sheer determination to do their best. You’ve got to admire that and I think this is what Roller Derby does to people; it makes them determined in ways they never thought they could be. Bravo Roller Derby, Bravo.

Yeah, so every week I go home with a fresh batch of bruises, in fact, I went swimming last week, people stared at me. Probably thought I had been in a fight. They’re right, with the floor. The way I see it, if I am not falling over, I am clearly not trying hard enough. Am I right? And I will continue to try harder than I have ever tried, fall over, get up and maybe one day I will be an amazing Derby Girl like all the other talented people in the Preston Roller Girls.

For now, I will settle for fighting with the floor and becoming the girl that I used to be.  

And if anyone ever asks you “how do you save a life?” Tell them to start playing Roller Derby...

Derby Love,

Flea xxx

[sebastianblock-deactivated20161]

This is what happens when you get tripped and you land on someone’s legs that weren’t underneath them. #rollerderby #derby #bruise #keepyourfeetunderyou (Taken with Instagram)

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

lovely derby kisses, but i'm digging the arty-ness of the midriff :-)

[disasteroid-tnfrd-blog]

Hey! Near Wales and want to watch some roller derby?

Course you do.

Come to this and watch me in my FIRST EVER BOUT!

If that’s not not enough I’ll give you a big sweaty hug afterwards too.

[computeraidedenrichmentblog-blo]

I R XCITE

[prestonrollergirls-blog]

So excited about PRG's 2nd ever bout!!!  And also pretty excited about my first ever trip to Wales!