Safety Equipment for Roller Derby

Series Summary

Roller derby is a contact sport, started in America, and a form of sports entertainment based on formation roller skating around an oval track. While traditionally a professional sport for both women and men, roller derby has developed a predominantly female, amateur circuit with a emphasis on do-it-yourself methods. Most modern roller derby leagues are all-female and self-organized, and formed with an independent aesthetic. These leagues use traditional quad roller skates and dress in a way that gives homage to punk rockers. Many leagues are legally incorporated as non-profit organizations, and most compete on flat tracks.

If you're interested in joining a roller derby league, or just curious about understanding the sport better, these video instructions will teach you all you need to know about the contact sport on skates. Our expert will show you what equipment roller derby players use, what slides and skating moves they employ, and how to block and push your way to score in roller derby. It's a physical sport that requires toughness and endurance, an extreme amount of passion, and a few wheels on your feet. Learn techniques and tips to make you a roller derby champion today!

Video Transcript

"In this clip we'll talk about how to choose the basic safety gear for Roller Derby. Before you ever step on to the rink with a new league you're going to have to have all the gear that's required to keep you safe on that rink. First of all you're going to have to invest in a good helmet, and a good helmet is going to have a solid foam core in it. Some helmets just have a basic plastic lining. That's not going to keep you safe if you fall on the concrete. You need to protect your brain, it's the best organ you have. So make sure you get a nice solid core helmet, something nice and sturdy, solid on the outside. Also, just as basic tip you might want to get something that has some smooth parts to it, because you're going to want to put stickers and your name and all sorts of things on this helmet. Next thing you're going to need to get is a mouth guard. Mouth guards can be purchased at your local drug store or sport's supply store. A mouth guard will need to be boiled and formed to your teeth. You can also go to your dentist and have one custom made. That's going to be a little more expensive but the mouth guard should fit snuggly on your teeth like this. It's not pretty, but it will keep that smile pretty. Next you're going to want to invest in some good wrist guards. A common injury in Roller Derby is falling on your wrist and either spraining or fracturing that wrist bone. A very solid wrist guard will keep you from injuring that wrist. You want to make sure that whatever you buy, especially if it's an S-curve wrist guard, has a really nice solid piece of plastic in it that's going to take a really strong impact. Also you're going to want to get some elbow protectors. Again go with the more expensive ones. Don't go cheap on any of your gear. You really want to make sure you're being protected. An elbow protector will have a nice large area covering the elbow and this molded piece of plastic that's going to protect you if you fall. You might talk to a local sport's store; check out the junior football section to find a hip protector. A hip protector is going to have padding on the hips and on the back side around the coccyx to protect your tailbone, again really good if you're doing a lot of slides, if you're doing a lot of falls, you want to protect yourself. Knee guards, these should be as big as possible and you want to get something that's created for dropping into a swimming pool if you're a skate boarder. Talk to them about that, it's usually either skate park gear or street gear. What you don't want is the little children's hockey gear with a tiny circle on it that will not protect your knees. In Roller Derby we have a tremendous number of knee injuries mostly caused by not having the proper gear."