Softball is over, but there's something better on the horizon (at least more painful anyway...)

Okay, so the softball team totally lost in the play-offs. In the first round. To a really bad team. ☹. Oh well, life goes on. So, I was thinking about it, and I really liked the whole aspect of being on a team and having that support and sense of accomplishment with people who are proud of me. It really got me thinking that maybe there is another team to join. So I started looking for an alternative and I think I found the mother load. ROLLER DERBY. Here me out. Roller Derby is not at all like what Roller Derby used to be. It is not faked at all and it is not over run with huge lesbians (not that there is anything wrong with any sized lesbians). It is a really athletic sport with really strong, athletic women. On wheels. And Philly has a really active team (The Philly Roller Girls), which happens to have bouts really close to where I work.

In case you are not sure what Roller Derby is all about, let me try to quickly explain the basics. It’s played on a flat track by two teams, each consisting of five girls to each team. There are four blockers (one of whom is a pivot who keeps the pace of the pack). The remaining player is a jammer. It is the jammer’s job to skate past and through the pack of blockers and lap them to score points. The jammer scores one point for every member of the other team she laps. The bout (the entire match) is broken up into jams, each either two minutes long or shorter depending on whether the lead jammer ends it early or not. The winning team is the one with the most points at the end of the bout. That’s pretty much it. I left out how brutal it can get, and even though there is no elbowing and you can’t trip or hit the other girls except between the shoulder and the thigh, the players get pretty beat up.

Why would I want to do such a thing? Because it looks freakin’ sweet! And is an all girl sport, which is pretty neat. Also, it is a really great work out. So, here is my plan. I am going to get skates and pads and a helmet and I am going to work on skating. I looked up a whole bunch of different skills you need to know in order to qualify to play and tryouts/workshops are held in November. I think that will give me enough time to figure out if I actually like skating and am as good as I was in junior high school (I was hell on wheels back then. I could limbo and speed skate and stuff with the best of them). Then I am going to start trying to do some of the moves I learned on line that are a little more advanced, like t stops and superman falls and stuff. Then, if I am still into it by November, I will attend the workshops and try out for the team.

I will be checking in with my progress and bruises every once in a while. I will even perhaps post a video when my friends throw footballs at me while I slalom past them.

PS if you are reading this in a reader or RSS feed, you should totally check out the site because T made a new and better than ever banner complete with a little girlfriend robot for the original robot. So cute and bad ass at the same time. He is working on more rocketships and stuff. All in good time!