Me: What about a paint night? What about a pedicure? What about a movie?
Clare: What about roller derby?
Me: … Yes! Let’s do it!
That’s how it started when trying to figure out what to do for a girls night out in Cincinnati with my dear friend Clare – we’d go watch the Cincinnati Rollergirls. I highly recommend finding a local roller derby team for a girls night with your friends, or a date night, as it’s a celebration of bad ass women.
First, we discussed what to wear. Everything we know about roller derby came from Whip It. We knew that we weren’t cool enough based on that exhaustive educational experience. Clare opted for her go-to outfit, a shirt and cardigan with jeans. Having a slight flair for the dramatic, I thought about my Hogwarts Corset, but then found out it was Super Hero night and chose my Hufflepuff shirt that comes with a built-in cape.
Side note: For anyone else not feeling cool enough… Everyone was there in everything. So IT DOESN’T MATTER what you wear. Just be you. You are cool enough. You are enough.
Once we arrived it was time to figure out the rules of the game… match… game. Yes, game. There are two teams on the rink at a time with five players on each side. One is the Jammer (the points scorer), one is the Pivot (a blocker with special exceptions where she can become the Jammer) and three blockers (who block the other team’s Jammer and try to allow their own Jammer through). Thankfully, the Cincinnati Rollergirls had sheets and information in their programs about the game and how points are scored.
Here’s an infographic from Pinterest to give you a little more information, but really until you watch a game it’s hard to quite grasp all the rules. I also asked a few ladies around me who seemed to know what they were cheering for, including a player from a later game.
One thing we noticed right away was that it seemed much slower skating than when we watched Whip It, but heard why during the commentary. Roller Derby has changed a bit and become more strategic, slowing down the circling of the rink by the teams.
During intermission we enjoyed some dinner from Hungry Bros food truck. I had the Vladimir Poutine (minus the fried egg) and Clare had the Violent Lamb Gyro. I also had a slice of deep fried cheesecake which was delicious.
We also watched all women’s group Dance Flash Fusion perform between games.
We got to watch a double header the night we visited. There were two 30-minute games between the Cincinnati Black Sheep and the West Virginia All Stars. Then there was an intermission between games and after that we watched two 30-minute games between the Cincinnati Violent Lambs and the Chicago Outfit Shade Brigade.
The final 2-minute Jam in the final game was amazingly exciting. The points were back and forth and the Violent Lambs used the Pivot to score points as the Jammer. Our teams won one and lost one but it was a fun evening.
Overall, it was a great night out. Tickets were only $12 each. The food from Hungry Bros was awesome. We learned a new sport and spent time bonding. I’d highly recommend finding any roller derby near you to watch (or try out and participate in), but especially catch a game by the Cincinnati Rollergirls if you find yourself in Ohio.
Leave a Reply