Fresh Meat Delivery!

Authors: Hell Cat, Geordie Racer & Lady Mactuff

Tunnel of Love (Photo Credit: Steg O Soar)

Bath Roller Derby Girls' annual Fresh Meat intake (usually running June through to October) sees us take raw recruits and teach them everything about roller derby from the ground up. Skating, safety, gameplay, attitude, rule book – it's an intensive course that takes plenty of guts, drive and dedication from our newbies, and this year's intake have risen to the challenge at every step of the way!

On 31st October, we were thrilled to throw them a Halloween graduation scrimmage (and subsequent pub crawl!) to celebrate all they've achieved and welcome them to the ranks of Bath Roller Derby Girls.

We asked a couple of freshies (now rookies!) to write a few words about their experience on the course, as it draws to an end and they start on their Minimum Skills, training with the league :)

– Hell Cat

Team Screaming Skulls (Photo Credit: Steg O Soar)

Centre: Grand Reffed Auto - BRDG's newest baby zebra! (Photo Credit: Steg O Soar)

It’s the first week of Scrim 101 and somehow I’ve ended up wearing the jammer panty. We get the five second count. Four blockers are lined up in front of me, ready to stop me passing them any way they can. To say I’m nervous is an understatement. Then the whistle blows.
 
If a lot of that sounds like a foreign language, don’t worry – fifteen weeks ago a lot of it was to me, too. In fact, fifteen weeks ago I had to ask one of our coaches how you stand up wearing skates.
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It’s been a long three months since then. We’ve progressed from learning how to skate without holding onto the walls (OK, that was mostly me) to essential skills for skating safely to being taught how to play derby. We’ve taken a battering, both physically and mentally. We’ve swapped photos of bruises; shared our fears and frustrations.
But we’ve also shared our pride – in ourselves and one another – as we pulled off moves that were once seemingly impossible. We’ve danced the Cha Cha Slide in our skates and had 100-comment-long Facebook threads discussing puns (both good and very, very bad) for potential derby names. It’s been one of the most difficult, but also most rewarding and enjoyable, things I’ve ever done, but I don’t think I’d have got here without the support and laughter of the coaches and fellow ‘meaties’.

The whistle blows. The nerves suddenly give way to some mixture of excitement, adrenalin and sheer bloody-mindedness that gets me to the other side of the wall – and then I almost stop skating in disbelief: three months ago I was been dragged around this track by the (incredibly patient) coaches, and now I’m skating around it as lead jammer in a scrimming drill. There’s still a long way to go before we’ll be ready to skate out in our first ‘real’ matches as Bath Roller Derby Girls. But for now this is enough to make me feel like I could take on the world – or at least the opposition blockers, one more time.

– Lady Mactuff

Team Vampire Bats (Photo Credit: Steg O Soar)

It’s safe to say my love for Roller Derby has been a slow burner. Fresh from a move out to the South West from London, my heart belonged to Crossfit. Imagine how I felt when I got home from work one day to be told we were swapping lifting and a daily WOD (work out of the day) to skating… in Bath… every Sunday… for the next 15 weeks!

I don’t consider myself to be strong and I spend most my time evading rather than putting myself in the line of fire. After a particular session I cried in the car on the way home as every part of my body hurt and I was no longer finding it fun. I just wanted to skate around and feel like I was 10 again, I didn’t want to endure being hit and panicking every time another skater came towards me.

I think the turning point for me was going to watch a match. I realised that it wasn’t just our coaches that were kind, supportive and motivating – that’s the positive qualities the sport lends itself to – and that is something I want to be part of.

– Geordie Racer

Zombie cheerleaders Vs. undead coaches! (Photo Credit: Comic Slams)