In that vein, earlier in June USARS announced derby would form part of the 2016 version of the latter.Īustin-based WFTDA takes a more skeptical viewpoint, believing in developing derby from the ground up. “The sport would first have to be better recognized.” Progress might mean stepping stones such as the Pan-American Games and the AAU Junior Olympics, Epp mused. “We are pretty far away from that,” she says.
Roller derby Texas Photograph: Peter ElliottĪJ Epp, USARS roller derby coordinator, is circumspect. But faint hopes derby could make an appearance alongside other roller sports at Rome 2024 seem to have abated. Attempts for Olympic inclusion have been mooted. Recognized by the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports(FIRS) and the United States Olympic Committee, USARS seeks to unify the various forms of derby – juniors, men’s, women’s as well as groups who continue to play on the traditional banked track – under a unified umbrella. USA Roller Sports, or USARS, the national governing body of all roller sports in the United States, is the chief foe of WFTDA. There are different nuances to the rules depending on the governing body along with diverging rites of passage. Which is where things get a little complicated. More than a decade into a Renaissance, there are competing governing bodies laying various claims to primacy. Roller derby’s Dark Age witnessed violence on a brutish scale. Yet the worst of the faux, lowbrow visage that characterized this piece of Americana in the 20th century are fading. But old truisms that it is staged, the results pre-determined, stalk participants. Points are scored for each opposing team member passed by a jammer. Teams of five, one jammer and four blockers. Still today, derby is often viewed through a WWE-like prism. The re-boot spawned the new Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), a governing body that claims hundreds of local leagues worldwide. I don’t think we play to try to intentionally get injured, but it’s the risk that we take.” It’s kind of common but it’s a lot safer than it used to be. You know, we’ve had broken ankles, concussions. So I feel like it’s safer in the sense that it’s not all, ‘I’m going to punch you and pull your hair’ or anything like that. You can only hit each other with certain parts of your body, so there’s no throwing elbows or punches or anything. “We serve penalty time in the penalty box.
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“We have rules, we have regulations,” says the 29-year-old marketing professional from Plano. But this go round, sport and competition reign. The occasional set of fishnet stockings make an appearance.
Or as Amanda Warner puts it, flat track still exhibits some of the sartorial flourishes of past renditions. Rooted in bootstrap feminism and sporting integrity, here gimmicks, elbows and unabashed fighting no longer apply. This new iteration involves the new world of a flat surface.
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But not on the traditional banked track of derby, the kind that invaded TV screens in the 70s and 80s. Assassination City Roller Derby, a league of four home teams, is part of a grassroots movement that emerged out of Texas capital Austin in the early part of the 2000s. The kitschy world of roller derby.īut this is neither your mother’s nor your grandmother’s version of the sport. But the renewal owes much to its chastened old bedfellow, the muscular emblem of the roller rink that in many minds is cloaked in female fury, smeared with their blood and dotted with their bruises. But the humble roller skate is experiencing something of a resurgence. The 1970s, disco-infused heyday of roller-skating faded with the economic and cultural winds of change in the 80s. Successive owners have struggled to keep the suburban arena a short drive north of Dallas open for some years. The dank yet cosy ambiance as the girls of Assassination City take to the floor of this 40-year-old Plano institution seems to belong to the 1980s. Tarpaulin sags from the roof over a rain-induced hole, the intermittent streamers shimmering overhead seemingly an antidote to the unsightly spectre. Gaudy hues of luminous green and blue stripe the interior walls in two thick banks. I t’s an austere scene inside Thunderbird Roller Rink.
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