Roller Derby - crazy girls' gang at my rink

[Query]

In the summer, my facility closes one of the ice surfaces to run other activities.

This weekend there was a B'more roller derby tournament.

Basically, it's a gang fight, without the knives, and with just enough rules to make it legal, but not enough to prevent people from getting hurt.

The girls - a lot of them big and burly - wear some padding - but not so much as to cover the tattoos.

It looks tougher than hockey.

I'm not too sure to what extent they are trying to look like street gangs, and to what extent they really are street gangs.

[Bill_S]

Our ice rink does the same thing in summer. There's a local roller derby group named The Appalachian Hell Betties who practice there.

Their next event is Betties and Brews at the community center, and you can imagine what's on tap. They will be facing-off against the Silver Bridge Bruisers and the Green Machine in a double header.

[icedancer]

I've never seen it live but some of the sweetest people I know do roller-derby - so maybe there are different levels of intensity?

It also strikes me from seeing their videos and photographs on facebook that they are actually not very strong skaters but maybe it varies by region or level.

I think they do it mostly for the costumes and the comradery.

[Jf12]

It isn't for me because I'm a wimp but I've seen it before and it looks like they're having a lot of fun.  Maybe it's similar to street gangs if your last interaction with street gangs was West Side Story 

[Bill_S]

I agree that they are usually not strong skaters. There were a few who would show up for the now-gone adult roller skating session that I used to attend. They would get into costume, lace on padding and helmets, and skate slowly. I'm sure that there had to be better skaters in the group, but I never saw them.

I also agree that some of the gentlest people I've met have participated in roller derby. Last fall semester, I had two graduate students who were part of the Appalachian Hell Betties team until the time commitment got to be too much. They were the nicest people to have in class, and you'd never guess their pastime from their "street" appearance.

[Query]

Here is a championship level game for flat track roller derby:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYd8jANQUEg

The "girls" look more clean-cut than the B'more crowd. A lot fewer tattoos (or is it paint?).

Perhaps "gang fight" is going overboard. They B'more league "girls" clearly want to look a bit like that, but no rink is going to want to host an event that could develop into the real thing, with guns and knives, etc. But a lot of them are adults, beneath the paint.

I suppose other sports might have a higher injury incidence rates - e.g., mixed martial arts, off-road bicycling. I wonder how it compares to girl's hockey.