Is derby my thing?

Yes. Absolutely. Most definitely. And you know how you can be certain of that? By joining one of our open-training nights.

But I’m not sporty/coordinated/(your excuse here)

Doesn’t matter.

Doesn’t matter what your body looks like or how good it is at sports. You’re not too old, too weird, too clumsy or too unexperienced in sport. It doesn’t even matter if you can stand up on skates because we will teach you.

What matters is you and your attitude. Come to practice with an open mind, ready to do something new and challenging. The more skating skills you have to learn, the more you will have to celebrate when you finally nail them. And we’re ready to celebrate with you, every stride of the way. Everyone can play derby, as long as you are stubborn enough (that doesn’t mean we’re horribly stubborn people, we’re quite nice actually).

In short: if you are 16+ you can join. regardless of your fitness, background or gender.

Okay, so how do I start?

We’ve got three options for you:
– Come to a sneak peek practice
– Join one of our open practices
– Sign up for the beginnersprogramme

We have two open weeks per year. These consist of sneak peek practices and open practices. This way you can see and try roller derby and figure out if this sport is something for you. At the sneak peek practices you can see what a normal practice is like. You can also meet our members and ask them ALL of your questions. During our open practices you can actually put on those skates and DO it! During these practices we’ll teach you how to actually stand on those skates, how to break and how to fall.

Following those open weeks we’ll start with the beginnersprogramme. Here we’ll prepare you to actually play derby. Check our calendar for the upcoming sessions, and sign up to let us know you’re coming so we have skates and protective gear ready for you.

Fresh Meat?

Fresh Meat is the roller derby term for skaters who haven’t passed their skills tests and therefore aren’t allowed to play matches yet.  To teach you those skills we offer a beginnersprogramme twice a year. This programme starts right after the open weeks.

The programme consists of skating skills and derby skills. In skating skills you’ll learn to skate. Not just skating laps, but derby skating. We’ll teach you the proper stance, being stable, falling, braking and everything you’ll need to be safe on the track. Even if you have experience skating, this is quite the challenge! After 15 weeks you’ll be tested (if you want to). Pass the test? Then you can move on to derby skills.

In derby skills you’ll learn giving and taking hits, strategies and all the cool moves you’ll need. Mastered all these skills? Then you’re allowed to play games!

If you’ve read all this and are still a bit scared: don’t worry. You can do all these things at your own pace. All of this is supposed to be fun, nothing more. 🙂

Do you want to sign up for the beginnersprogramme without visiting the open weeks? Please send an e-mail to freshmeat@rollerderbygroningen.nl.