We take everyone with us.

It’s hard to capture what it feels like to be part of this team. The sheer amount of laughing you do. The training, the sweat, the particular smell of a wrist guard after training. The planning. The working together. The in-jokes, the bibs. The stress. The worry. The hard work, the determination. You see each other at your best moments, giddy and laughing or triumphant after a win or a great jam, and you see each other at your hardest, under pressure, up against it. After a tough loss. When you come up short.

It does something to you as a group. You show up for each other. You take care of each other. You put up with each other, even if you’re driving each other mad. It’s close to family, really.

Over a season, over the years, you develop rituals. Habits, traditions, jokes. They layer over each other until you barely know who started them anymore.

Someone will lay track.

Someone will plan training.

Someone will coach.

Someone will avoid wearing a bib at training, claiming their shirt is the same colour so it’s not confusing (it’s confusing).

When we go away for a game, someone will ask if there is a sauna.

Someone will tell the story of when Stef went into a sauna alone in Berlin.

Someone will #finddoom.

Someone will remind DD to put Pony on during our off-skates warmup.

Someone will ask if we remembered the panties.

Someone will (sometimes jokingly, sometimes sincerely) ask if we have time to pee.

No matter how many times you do a head count, someone will always be missing (even though that person is sometimes you).

It’s not ‘someone’ because it’s impersonal, or a chore, but these things are a part of us now. Everyone does these things. They’re as part of our ritual as warming up.

When we get to the bench, someone will put up the bunting. We take it with us everywhere. Everyone on the team has their own ‘bunt’, which means that as the team grows, the bunting grows too.

We started a new tradition this year, when we attended our first ever WFTDA playoffs tournament. Someone got everyone in the league to sign a shirt, and we took that with us too. Because it’s not just us that makes the team. The team is a big as the whole league. Every person who lays track, or stays to NSO, or refs our scrimmages, or plans our games, or sells our merch. We take them all with us.

That’s why being Captain sometimes feels like the biggest thing in the world and sometimes it feels like nothing at all. As long as you plot the course together and you take the team with you, it doesn’t matter who you are. You could be anyone.

They say it takes a village to raise a child.
In that case, it takes a city to play a game of roller derby.

Here’s some* of what goes on behind the scenes of roller derby, and why the Reserves are so grateful to ARRG roller derby community for helping us on our journey to British Champs playoffs:

1. What’s App

Honestly, you can’t leave your phone for 3 minutes to nip to the loo without some ridiculous, hilarious, heart-warming, emotional or urgent appeal for a missing mouthguard pinging your way via team What’s App chats. Teambuilding. It’s not on track, it’s on app.

2. Families and friends, aka my son’s face when I tried to wash him

You maybe don’t know if you’ve not been up close and personal with a skater or ref, but roller derby really smells. We all do our best to wash our kit, but we train 3 times a week and there will be times where your sweaty wrist guards end up sweltering in your stinky skate bag. So, the people who care about get you back from training smelling like some very old potatoes causally sidled up to you and asked to come home. I tried to wash my wee boy’s hair when I rushed back from training one day. He actually cried, “Can Daddy do it, I don’t want the smell on me”.

I can’t thank my family enough for making it possible for me to play roller derby – they support me, do without me, accept that I need to check forums and write emails, and even ask how training was, knowing that I will tell them, in great detail.

3. Reffing and NSO-ing at training

Maybe sometimes you get to have an evening off scrims, or you get to leave after your group’s session? Nope, not for some! Many of our skaters come on evenings when they don’t have to, or stay later than they need to, just to make sure we keep to the rules, which some of us still fail to do. Thank you, officials, and sorry for keeping you so busy.

4. Leadership

When you take on the job of Captain, Vice Captain, Bench or Line up Manager, it comes with a sense of pride and honour at being picked by your teammates. And then you read the to-do list and open the emails…
It’s a given that our leadership team organise travel, accommodation, tactics, training, where we will eat (most importantly), team selection, team development, gameday schedule, “do I have time for a wee?” questions. What you don’t know is that the All Star Reserves’ leadership carry a lifesize version of the whole team on an enormous sheet of paper and display her at different locations to make us feel good and special and part of a wonderful thing. Honestly. Teambuilding. It’s not on track, it’s in the boot of someone’s car being driven to a funny location to have a picture taken.

5. Inters and AS playing against us at training

What’s harder than playing roller derby? Playing roller derby against a team that train together all the time. Kudos to our Intermediate skaters who prove to be amazing opponents for us. And we get the other extreme when our All Stars train against us at scrimmage… They came straight back from D2 playoffs ready to whip us into shape on track. Thank you. I think.

6. Coaching

So, coaching. That’s just running a few drills and blowing a whistle, yes? No. It’s mainly working out where the coaching bag is. Like many leagues, ARRG train in numerous locations at various different times. We have people who book these illusive sports halls, plan the training rota, let the league know where they are meant to be, make a training programme, organise the coaches, invent and bring a track-making device. Then we work out (over an assortment of What’s App, email, Messenger, telegram and owls) who has the essential bag of track tape, whistle, bibs and helmet covers. And THEN the coaching begins.

And if we are lucky, once a year, someone will wash the bibs.

*and I haven’t mentioned fundraising and off-skates training and people driving mini-buses and spreadsheets and comms and google docs and pre-game breakfast chat and….

Auld Reekie, you’re so fine.
 

Next week ARRG’s All Star team head of to WFDTA Division 2 playoffs for the first time. Getting ready has been a huge operation, involving a lot of lists and a lot of bunting, and lists on bunting. Everyone has pitched in, bringing their own skills and talents!

Here’s 9 things we’ve been doing as a team to get ready to take on D2…

1. A UNIQUE APPROACH TO FUNDRAISING.. (by Skinner)

Like many other leagues, we’ve had to raise a tonne of cash just to get our team over to Pittsburgh and our teamies and league mates have worked their socks off to raise funds. We’ve guest coached, put on a feast and flogged cake and merch until we could sell no more. But our most novel fundraising tactic yet….BINGO! Your nan would be proud. All Star teamies headed out to the bingo hall with the agreement that any winnings went into the travel fund. A couple of rule misunderstandings may have rustled some old lady feathers, but it was all worth it for the team bonding and amazing… drumroll….. £52 that was raised on the night! So that’s someone’s hold luggage paid for anyway.

2. THE EPIC TRAINING PLAN…(by Crazylegs)

My focus for Playoffs prep - as well as working out a lot - has been to make sure the team had a custom made all singing, all dancing ridiculously detailed training plan (aka The Plan) to help us feel as prepared as we can be. With only 5 weeks between end of season and the D2 Tournament, the team needed to hit the ground running and feel supported and organised to work on training priorities. Like all good plans - it was built bit by bit, whilst sipping wine on summer hols!

Our goal has been to create an even more confident and unified team in a tiny amount of time, and we’ve shaped training differently to build up a story from session to session, increasing our confidence and improving along the way. We’ve brought common elements to every session for familiarity and routines that we are taking to Playoffs so we all feel focused, energetic, positive, dynamic and above all, teamy!!

Our league is amazing for helping us focus on this and providing extra resources for the team, and the team has been full of resilience, showing up session after session with aching bodies and tired brains and getting through it with silly jokes and a lot of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. We’re coming to the end of The Plan on Sunday, and then we have two whole lovely unstructured days to stretch and sleep and relax until we board planes to Pittsburgh where we shall be following the next plan… THE ULTIMATE TOURNAMENT TEAM PLAN that tells us all where to be and when, and when to pee!!

3. PLAYING LOCAL RIVALS.. (by everyone!)

Playing local leagues Glasgow Roller Derby and Dundee Roller Girls in the last weeks before we head over to Pittsburgh has given us an extra training boost – thank you guys! It’s been a chance to hone our tactics against other leagues, skate on different floors, to work to specific goals for each game and to have fun.

4. TAKING OUR LEAGUE WITH US!. (by Cirque)

Getting to playoffs is a huge achievement not just for the All Stars, but for the whole of ARRG. Every single member has contributed: by playing against us at training, volunteering at games, answering emails and filling in spreadsheets, sharing ideas and the thousand other things that drive the league forward every day. And it was important to us to recognise this in some way. So we are organising a team shirt to take with us signed by everyone in the league that helped get us to Pittsburgh. Once it is printed, we will be collecting signatures from all of Team ARRG 2017. We’ll be bringing a little part of the whole of ARRG to Pittsburgh with us, so their hard work and support can inspire us as we take on D2!

5. OWNING OUR WARM UP.. (by our bench coach, DeeDee)

An on skates warm up is one of the last chances the team gets to warm up their derby muscles and derby brains before the first whistle gets the game underway. It’s a chance for the team to work some adrenaline out of their system and up their focus. It’s also something that other teams watch closely and there’s a big psychological element to warming up publicly, and owning your own game. Early on in our playoff training odyssey, we worked out what worked for us specifically as a team, because each team will choose to prioritise different things during a warm up. We talked about what makes us feel our best as we line up at the start of a game. We’ve run this at every practice from then until we leave for playoffs so that we’re confident, calm and ready when the team takes to the track on game day.

6. REMEMBERING OUR VALUES.. (by Doom)

Amongst all the extra practices and scrims, we’ve also been making time to have some important discussions, where we step back and look at what’s important to us. What are our values in life, and what do we love about roller derby? What do we love about our team? We’ve talked about what, if anything, can knock our confidence and what things help or don’t help if that happens. We’ve talked about how we can support each other. We’ve been honest with each other, talked about some difficult stuff and come out stronger without even putting our skates on. I mean right then. We obviously DO put our skates on a lot, but this has been an important part of building trust in each other so we don’t hold back or worry about making a mistake on track – we just go for it.

7. SETTING UP A TOURNAMENT COMMS HUB.. (by team comms)

We want our league, fans and friends to know what’s happening at D2 and to be involved in the action! And for those who can’t catch the livestream, we’ve set up a tournament page on our website so folk can check out scores and game times. We’ll also be Instagramming away throughout the weekend, for all the LOLs and updates from the tournament floor.

8. PACKING ALL THE THINGS! INCLUDING THE BUNTING! (by… please don’t forget the bunting!)

Tournaments can be crazy places: loads of people, noise, excitement, adrenalin. We have to be careful to let that feed our energy and not drain it. We like to grab a nice quiet spot and make a nice teamy place for ourselves between games. We make sure we have everything we need to make an ARRGy home from home when we travel: with our patented team bunting (grrr…), foam rollers, fave snacks, and Skinner’s never ending flask of hot tea. Sorted. We also have playlists which we train to regularly, to help get us in the right zone when we need to fire up our energy and our brains and bodies to get ready for the next game.

9) AND THE REST!..

Knowing when not to train is a massive part of smart training! – and in the last few days before we head off to Pittsburgh we will be resting, reflecting, ingesting a lot of protein. We’ll also probably accidentally be sewing our team shirts to our legs as we re-do our WFTDA patches and be obsessively checking they are still there - *goes to check WFTDA patches are still there*. We want to be in a place where we feel fresh and ready when we take to the sport court on Friday 18th! So soon!

See you there.

ARRG were recently nominated for a National Lottery Good Causes Award to allow us to buy more free kit for participants of our new skaters programme “Skate Skills 101″. We asked Leah from our current skate skills 101 programme what it means to be learning to skate. We love it! Have a read and please vote for us by CLICKING HERE.

“Though she be but little she is fierce” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A friend recently bought me a mug with that quote on it. I love it. I use it every day wanting it to be true. I am little, but am I all that fierce?

I’m 5 ft tall and I’m not terribly strong. I’m far from athletic. I need an inhaler if I run for a bus. I’m self-conscious and not very confident. I am pretty sociable but new situations make me nervous, people scare me. Oh, and I know NOTHING about skating.

I’d heard about ARRG’s Taster Days and went along for the afternoon. I decided it would be an easy opportunity to find out more about Roller Derby without having to commit to anything too scary. At the start of the day the coach asked us what attracted us to Roller Derby, why did we sign up for the taster?

We went around the room and introduced ourselves. It was a room full of diverse women, of different shapes, sizes, ages, personalities and backgrounds. Everyone there had their own reasons. ‘Meet people’, ‘Exercise’, ‘Just loved the film Whip it’. It came round to me and I was terrified to speak in a room full of strangers. That was my reason. I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone. I wanted to break my weekly routine of Work… Netflix… Pub… Work… Netflix… Pub… I wanted to be active. I wanted to learn a skill and to have an interesting hobby. I didn’t want to be scared to try.

I was provided with skates and kit thanks to The National Lottery Awards for All and ARRG’s Loaner Scheme. It meant I was able to give Roller Derby a shot without having to worry about the cost of equipment. After a great taster day, and without any financial hurdle, I signed up to Skate Skills 101.

With a new-found determination and unwittingly wearing my new helmet backwards I took my first wobbly strides. Although it was tricky and awkward I quickly realized that I needn’t be scared at all. The people I have met at ARRG have been amazing. The coaches are dedicated and skilled. The other beginners are full of support and enthusiasm. The encouragement on and off the track has been absolutely incredible. We all try our hardest, we all help each other to learn and to improve. And we’re all loving being on wheels!

Do I fall? Yes, loads. But I always get back up.

Do my muscles ache the next day? Yes, every time. But I smile because I know how hard I worked.

Do I feel hot as hell in my shiny new skates? Yes, unbelievably so!

So when my photo is put up next to this, I won’t use the pre-practice one. The one with my make-up still intact and my t-shirt sweat free. I’ll use the one from the end of the day. The one taken when I’ve fallen over but I’ve scrambled back up, taken when I’m exhausted but exhilarated. Because that’s the moment in my week when I feel most proud of my accomplishments, when I feel confident in what I have and what I will achieve. That’s when I’m grateful for the motivation and friendship from an amazing group of women.

That’s when I am fierce.

With this month’s WFTDA Rankings release showing our All Stars ranked at number 41 in the World, our highest yet, here at ARRG we’re reflecting on how much hard work and dedication it takes to build a team and support a team -we’re grateful to our league volunteers who work hard relentlessly to help our team be the best we can be, but we want to celebrate one special person in particular today.

Unphased by an unfortunate training injury following two seasons as an All Star jammer, MJ relentlessly hobbled along to team training every week on crutches to assist with training, support the team and NSO her socks off, so it’s no surprise that the team voted her into the newly created Manager’s position when it came up. That’s right, we got ourselves a Team Manager! Level Up ARRG! MJ brought the team tons of in- game experience coupled with a knowledge of all of our quirks (we have many), plus unlimited expertise in street food, bad rap music, horses and the best selection of footwear ever. Who could ask for more?

Having MJ as part of the Leadership team to ‘organise stuff’, has made a huge difference to the team this year, not just in the run up to games but also on game day where she can be seen masterfully operating our new walkie talkie system to relay game information to our bench coach. Captain Sasha says ‘Manager Johnson is the single best Manager I have ever had. Having her there to help steer the good ship ARRG with her wisdom, efficiency and offers to cut a bitch has been the business, we will miss her so, so much’.

With the news that she’s moving ‘down south’ to take up a fab new job, but thankfully continuing her Team Manager role from a distance, it’s a great time to say THANK YOU to Manager Johnson for everything you’ve done this year - we salute you ma’am! We asked MJ a few questions about her role so far…

Team Manager is an unusual role for a league’s travel team to have; traditionally it’s really only been national teams who have a Manager; we kind of made up the rules ourselves for this role, to suit the team needs this season; What prompted you to apply for this role?

‘Simply put, I broke myself. After having done so, I wanted to stay involved because ARRG is a family of sorts and just because you can’t do the role you always have done, in my case jamming, doesn’t mean there’s not a place for you in your league.

I’ve never been a fan of passive healing – I kept breaking and training ponies with my arm in a cast when I was younger (my only other broken bone was also from skating) – and I wanted to have a reason to keep going to practices and scrims. Plus, I tend to have time in the mornings to do the documents, emails, and organising things that goes into the role.’

And how did the team take to you in your new role?

‘My team is great. Full stop. They were 100% supportive and understand that part of this role is to chase them if needs be. Everyone has been on board with having a manager and that’s great.’

There isn’t much information out there for Team Managers; any advice for teams thinking of getting one?

‘Firstly, consider why you need one. Lay that out. Does your team travel a lot? Are your captains and bench crew spending all their time chasing people, emailing and doing small things? Secondly, think about how and where you would recruit? Would you do it in the league? In the team? Would you try to get retirees, or those who are not on a team at all? For us, it happened to work out that I couldn’t play and I was keen, but I wasn’t the only one who wanted to take on the role; competition is good. Also keep in mind what the trajectory of the manager will be. If, like me, they are coming back from injury, how will that effect the skating/manger crossover on game days? If it’s a lower level skater who eventually wants to move up to the top team, think about that too.

Overall, I think it comes down to workload and stress among the leaders, and the team having the knowledge that there is someone who works within the timeframe to get things done in the run up to games. If your team needs this, then I’d say go for it. Set up a year-long role. Trial it. See if it helps.’

What’s been the best moment of the season so far?

‘Watching our team kick everyone’s asses at Euroclash. We smashed it! I was so proud! I yelled so much. I have to say that this is on the back of the games we played at the end of last year, also at Newcastle, and they were hard going! I was quite hobbly then, several of the team were unwell or unable to go…then at Euroclash we turned it around 10000% and showed everyone how formidable a team we are.’

What do you put on your feet as well as skates?

‘Cowboy boots and boat shoes.’

Fave post workout snack?

‘ALL THE FOOD. No, I’m actually quite bad at post workout snacks. The adrenaline usually takes any hunger away until later and I need to actively think of getting food. That being said, I love a cold, crisp apple and yogurt after a run’.

And the question on everyone’s lips… who is the hardest team member to manage??

‘My lips are sealed!’

The sole of discretion; she’s got everyone’s back