Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand December 2014 / January 2015 | Page 29

Life & Travel
JAMMERS, BLOCKERS,
AND HOTPANTS
Roller derby is the best sport
you've never heard of, a fast and furious full-contact sport played by women on roller skates around an oval
track. It’s been billed as the ideal
sport for women who hate sport.
You may have seen the London Rollergirls skate out during the opening
ceremony of the Olympics, or maybe
you’ve watched the corny-but-fantastic roller derby movie Whip
It starring Drew Barrymore and Ellen
Page. In the male-dominated arena
of sport, roller derby is refreshingly
different: competitive yet inclusive
and downright fun! Though the female version of roller derby is currently the most popular, the men's game,
known as merby, is growing fast,
and most of the well-established
women's teams in the UK team have
a brother team connected to them.
So how does it work?
It's got all the hallmarks of a roller
race with a hearty helping
of ice hockey-style body checks
for good measure. Though it's a point
scoring game, there are no balls
or pucks in roller derby. A team
scores points when their jammers—
the point scorers—legally pass
members of the opposite team.
Sound easy? It isn't. The blockers
of the opposing team are there
to stop that from happening.
Both offensive and defensive,
a blocker’s job is to stop, trap,
or knock down the opposing jammer
and to mess with the opposing
blockers to help their jammers pass.
Confused? The first time
I saw a roller derby bout,
I was completely baffled.
It was a YouTube video clip showing
a sports hall and an oval track
made of tape, lit with bright lights
and surrounded by a cheering
crowd. On track, a mesh of women
in hotpants and skates were engaged
in a violent scrum, smashing into
each other with impressive brutality