[treetree]

I'm thinking I'd like to try out roller derby. I'm eager to try out a sport now that I'm feeling human again, but I suck at ball sports and don't want to be outdoors. Roller derby sounds good. It's fast, requires flexibility (which I have) looks fun, and is not in the sun and there is no ball! I really think I could do it. There's also one really close by.

Am I crazy thinking I could do this after having five kids and being so old? (34) I'd hate to embarrass myself. The local place has beginner classes, with the first one free (equipment and skates included) so I'd lose nothing trying, apart from possibly my pride!

Only real drawback is adding more to my way too busy week.

Does anyone do it, or has tried it? I'd hate to get there and be the only old person! Maybe I could ask the average age of the group before I go.

[indigogirl]

You are reading my mind! I'm thinking roller derby might be for me too....but I am 38 (soon to be 39 gasp!) so way older than you OP! I'll be stalking this thread for peoples experiences but in your case I say give it a go! It sounds like a wonderful sport to me!

[amabanana]

I have 2 friends who are your age and do roller derby. They love it! I'm tempted to do it myself but I'd need to get fitter first. Oh, and there's the slight problem of me being a giant wuss bag.

[dynamitee]

I've seen a friend of a friend compete and she is 48. It looks like a lot of fun but after having a chat with some of the girls, I realised it probably wasn't the sport for me.

Apparently in their league, they had to train for six months before they could compete. Training was about three times a week which immediately eliminated me. The real problem though was the amount of injuries these girls were sustaining. Broken bones were not uncommon (from the sounds of it, either you had a broken bone, had had a broken bone, or were soon to get a broken bone).

So for me, a working mum with two kids, it just wasn't going to work. But it sure did look like fun.

[daturah]

A few years ago I joined the local roller derby group, and found it really, really fun. There was a woman there about your age who had 5 kids, she loved it and was a die-hard roller derby addict.

I stopped when it became time to get serious and start being competitive. The last night I went to the training, a girl broke her ankle just from doing basic skating in the warm-down at the end. Some of the other injuries I heard about were horrific.

You have a six month grace period with the training to decide whether you can fit it into your life, and more importantly, whether you love it enough to risk serious incapacitating injury. i didn't love it enough; but, to provide a comparison, I definitely love snow skiing enough to risk injury. Clearly it's different for everyone!

Hope you have fun, whatever you do.

[living~in~the~no...]

Roller derby sounds good. It's fast, requires flexibility (which I have) looks fun, and is not in the sun and there is no ball! I really think I could do it.

Ahhh but most importantly . . . .can you SKATE>>>>>

[treetree]

Yes, I can skate! I wouldn't just jump right in. I'd do a bit of practice first! I'd be nervous enough as it is starting. I'd hate to get there and fall over just getting on the rink.

But I think the class I looked up is not competitive. It's for beginners, so I imagine you have plenty of time to decide if it's right for you before you're in an actual match. The group is just once a week? So I don't think tit's preparing you for a team.

[Dabri]

As an ex-Derby player, I can tell you that you're definitely not too old to play! I was 28 when I quit, and was probably sitting just below the average age - we had a couple of girls in their early 20s, quite a lot between 25-35, and quite a few above 35. Our oldest, a ref, was well into his 50s, and our oldest player was late 40s. We also had a lot of players with children.

The one thing I would say though is to tell you the reason I quit - pure and simply, I found it was taking too much of my time and energy. Our league had a rule that you had to attend six training sessions per month in order to be eligible to even practice bout at trainings, purely for safety reasons, and a training session was two hours and occurred twice a week on a weeknight and on occasional weekends. If you wanted to actually make the team to bout publicly, six training sessions weren't enough - it was competitive, and you needed as much time on the track so that you could really learn the game, you could be seen by your captains, and so others could learn your style and how to work with you. With both DP and I involved in the league, it got to the point that I was rushing home from work twice per week, I was barely seeing DD on those nights, was throwing food down, throwing my gear in the car and getting to training - and calling in a lot of favours from my in-laws to babysit so we could both attend.

As I said though, I know a lot of girls in our league had children, and with supportive partners who weren't also in the league they were able to participate and do really well. However, if you're already stretched for time, then it's not something you can do on a casual basis or that you undertake lightly.

Definitely give it a go - you'll love it, and you won't know whether you can arrange to fit it in until you try!

ETA: And yeah, just to address injuries - I was lucky in that I got through my entire three year derby career with nothing serious. We probably had two or three broken legs per year, a few concussions etc but never anything horrific - but I have heard of some horrific injuries, and it can happen to anyone including the best player in the league (we had our best two both injured one season). As a girl in our league learned the hard way, make sure you have private health insurance or at the very least ambulance cover before you join - and that even a minor injury isn't going to significantly impact on your work or quality of life (eg one of our girls was a waitress as well as a student and lost her entire earning potential).

This post has been edited by Dabri: 03/02/2013, 10:19 PM

[Mrs Optimus]

Did you do it OP?

We just had out first bout of the season on the weekend and im still fired up! And I didnt even skate...!

[treetree]

I bought skates, started skating every single night. I can go pretty fast, stop fairly quickly and go for a while. I also started exercising every night.

Then I got sick. The doctor believes I have arthritis, possibly rheumatoid, most likely psoriatic. I see a specialist next week for my official diagnosis. I couldn't walk, let alone skate. I couldn't even get out of bed for a few days.

BUT, it has settled, and from what I can tell, it's okay to skate even with the condition (obviously not during a flare up though) and I have started skating at night again. I'm going to start when I feel more confident in my legs (it was my knees that were mostly affected), hopefully within the next three weeks.

The class I looked into seems good. It's for beginners, so you don't go right into it. And they say you don't even have to be a great skater as yet, so I feel confident I can do it once my legs are fully better (at least for now)

And I guess I'll just have to take time off if I have a flare up. First thing I thought of when the doctor said arthritis was 'Crap, I won't be able to skate'! But I think I still will.

So I am still really keen, and jealous of you! Do you have any recommendations for safety gear? I am just using really cheap ones at the moment, but want to get something better. Especially as I am skating on a road every night!