Featured Skater: Sharlotte Patterson #1924

This month we are featuring the wonderful Sharlotte Patterson!

Sharlotte joined ARRG fresh meat in 2012 and quickly proved herself a formidable force. She played for the Leithal Weapons in the 2013 home season, and showed how good her jamming skills were. She progressed up to the WFTDA reserve spot in under a year and went from strength to strength.
After a wee break, she returned and secured herself a place on the Cannon Belles.

Sharlotte is an amazing jammer, a level headed blocker and a super lovely person too! She’s also one of our new board members - and everyone is very excited about what she can bring to the league for 2015!

Home Team Affiliation: The Cherry Bombers

Joined ARRG in: March 2012

Favourite position to play: I really enjoy jamming

Your Derby story: I saw something on the internet about roller derby and decided to see if there was a league in Edinburgh. I was pregnant with my second child at this point and it wasn’t until he was about 6 months that I decided to have a go at fresh meat. I remember feeling quite anxious about going because I couldn’t skate and also I’m like the least sporty person ever. I pretty much have two left feet. After a couple of weeks I totally feel in love with skating and derby and I can’t imagine not having derby in my life. I now skate on the Belles and am a WFTDA Reserve skater. When I get the chance I also like to take part in co-ed derby.

Worst Derby injury: I think I’ve been pretty lucky and haven’t had any serious injuries (touch wood). I have lost three toenails, sadly.

Best Derby advice: I have at times felt like I needed to do it all and do it all now. I rushed myself and compared myself to others. The best advice I can give would be to never compare your skating to anyone else’s and to take things at your own pace. There’s no hurry to get anywhere. I took this advice and also took a wee break, I went away and worked on my fitness; both body and mental fitness and came back stronger and more prepared then before. I feel like I’m in a better place to play derby now and I actually have so much more fun now.

Any funny/embarrassing derby stories: Um, I can’t really think of any.

Derby Hero: I don’t really have a derby hero. I’d have to say that my derby heros are my lovely family, my kids and supportive partner. Without their support I wouldn’t be able to play derby.

What do you do outside of derby: I work as a Social Worker and love my job.

Fun fact about you: I love glitter and all things sparkly.