Vintage bout posters for Rat City Roller Derby, Seattle, Washington from May 20, 2006 and May 26, 2007. Originally posted on Reddit by a poster collector with the username “deathbike600.”
yesterday was my second roller derby training and within the last 10 mins of practice i lost my balance on the skates and my right leg bent in a very anatomically illogical way. I heard my knee pop, felt a surge of burning pain then i just fell. I WANTED TO CRY SO HARD but this american woman on the team (shes been playing for years in diff teams) who never spoke to me before, walked up, stood above me, asked if i’m okay and after 5 seconds of trying to breathe, i told her i’m not okay, and she just kept standing there. very quietly staring at me with one of the most bitch slap worthy smirks I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know what to do w/ this pain, I couldn’t stand up, and I wanted to ask her to leave me alone because she wasn’t doing anything and I couldn’t let my pain out with her watching over me like that.
خلاصة القصة هي ان im terrified i fucked up my knee in an irretrievable way and I’m really sad about the possibility of missing a few practices because my knee is much more painful and swollen today
do not understand why this urge to cry has been nagging nonstop since; its not solely about the pain (but its a big part lol) but theres a weird sadness i can not reach the base off.
also before all of this happened i was having some major gay vibes with one of my team mates and i was v maksooofaaa but also giddy and she is so beautiful and we were helping each other not fall and i was trying not to be too in her face because what if i come off as weird? idk her yet.
Hey there,
First of all, I’m sorry that happened! There should be a CPR/first aid trained person at every practice. Is this a WFTDA team? if so, it’s required and there is an injury form that needs to be filled out. Either way, you should clarify with the league what the procedures are for when someone is injured and, if they don’t have any, then run far far away lol.
I’m hoping that the person wasn’t judging you and maybe just wasn’t sure what to do and didn’t want to make it worse. Not everyone is good around people who are hurting.
If you are able to see a doctor, specifically a sports medicine or orthopedic doctor, I would highly recommend it. I am not a doctor, but in my experience knee injuries tend to only be surgery worthy if you can’t use it at all. Like if you try to move it and it just won’t. If it’s swollen and painful it’s likely a strained or sprained muscle or connective tissue. Until you can get to a doctor, make sure you wrap it, ice it, elevate it and take ibuprofen to relieve the swelling.
Again, I am not a doctor and knee injuries come in all shapes and sizes. They can be a bitch to recover from but pretty much everyone I know who skates has had one in their career. I had a pretty yucky knee contusion (basically I fell on it too hard and bruised the area behind my knee) my 1st season. It took me 4 months to recover but I’ve skated for 9 more seasons with just a little pain sometimes.
Injuries suck! I hope that doesn’t deter you from skating again in the future. And, if you’re up to it, you can probably keep joining practices off skates to at least learn more about the game.
Michelle Steilen in full hair and makeup on set ready to perform as one of three stunt doubles for Harley Quinn on roller skates in the movie “Birds of Prey,” in theaters now. Photo courtesy of Michelle Steilen.
“I was hired right from the beginning so I was training on how to be a Harley Quinn,” Steilen said. “I was swinging a mallet a thousand times a day and learning how to kick, punch, block and dodge bullets on skates.”
Without spoiling any of the movie, Steilen’s skate stunts make their big-screen debut in the fight scenes on the spinning carousel and the skitching scene.
“All of my stunts were natural. I wasn’t connected to cables or wires or moving platforms,” Steilen said. “At one point, which didn’t make the cut, I was backflipping out of a ramp that was fastened to a spinning carousel, which was pretty freaking difficult, since the floor was spinning and elevated.”
I got tagged by my BAE, @lunaticonice for the photo thing. Pick 10 photos from your camera roll that describe you. So here we gooooo
I’m a slut for food, ready to fight anyone anytime, I play roller derby (and when I dress for practice I try to channel our goddess Hilary Knight) I bruise like a peach and derby gives me bruises that I’m proud af of, I cosplay, my cat is my whole life and I take a million selfies with her because she’s my beautiful baby, and I did a yellow dress photoshoot to capture my progress and conquering of my battle with depression and anxiety. Yeehaw.
I finished my first WFTDA recognized tournament. I was scoreboard operator and was told I did a super job. My only knock was making faces on the live stream and being the laughingstock of the tournament. LOL JK
I made so many friends in Waterloo, ON, and saw a lot of great roller derby as well!
I wasn’t really sure what it was that I wanted to talk about today. This is supposed the be cathartic in nature for me, not clinical for you so I didn’t want to dive into explaining another illness today. So rather than doing that, I am going to show you all something that I do that helps me manage the illnesses that I have… Roller Derby!
This sport has slowly helped me gain confidence in myself, introduced me to a wonderful group of women who are tough, determined, and won’t let me accept anything but the best from myself. For the most part I am a visual person so below you’ll find a video (if tumblr isn’t being dumb today) that explains what roller derby is if you have never heard of it or seen it.
So what does roller derby have to do with my mental health? Glad you asked.
Naturally I am not a confident person. I am hard on myself when there is no need to be and I expect things to turn out the worst way possible. I am scared of EVERYTHING and one of my biggest fears is getting hurt. I am not the kind of person that you would expect to be comfortable with the idea of balancing my body weight on 8 wheels, moving at high speeds, and crashing into other people with the goal of knocking them on their ass. And typically you would be right.
My first practice I fell backwards (a no no if it can be prevented) and landed directly on my tailbone breaking it in the process. This was my biggest fear, hurting myself. I was off skates for a month while the bone healed. But I aced my fear and got right back out there after the month was over… only to fall and hurt myself again the first day back (luckily I just bruised my tailbone this time and didn’t lose any time off skates)!
This sport has forced me to face my fears at every turn. Falling is just a part of the game and once I learned the proper way to fall things became a little less scary. I have now been playing the sport for 7 months and i wouldn’t trade it for anything. It shows me that it’s okay to be scared but it is a healthy fear and that I am capable of facing that fear.
This sport has made me doubt everything that I know about my capabilities as a person. I am presented with a skill that looks impossible only to learn that I actually can accomplish it if I try, and those skills that I struggle to grasp, well I have an amazing team behind me helping me every step of the way.
Derby hasn’t been perfect. I have been injured in so many ways. Broken and bruised tail bone, cuts, bruises, sore muscles, numb feet, hell I have a mole on my arm that got ripped off during contact. I have left practices wondering why the hell I am even trying to play this game any more. And every time my team is there to pick me up. My coaches are there to help me feel better about my inability to wrap my head around something and show me a different way to do something. (This is the first time my height (6 feet) and lack of weight (a whole 140lbs) has been a drawback!)
Derby has given me my “people”, people who build me up rather than tear me down. An amazing group of ladies that I am proud to call my friends. And while I still have a LONG way to go in my derby journey, but I have come a LONG way since my first day on skates too. I didn’t earn the derby name Toxic Coccyx for nothing after all!
On days when I feel like I can’t do anything, that I am struggling with my own self worth, I am scared of failing. Skating helps me work through those feelings in a productive manner.
Want to learn more about Roller Derby, shoot me a message and/or check out this video!
