Open borders for Roller Derby

Being a member of a sports federation would greatly benefit the development of Finnish roller derby as a whole.  However, the prevailing foundation of federations and associations is Finland is so solid and old fashioned that it will take time and persistence to break through it.

Difficulties booking practice time at local sports halls since traditional sports take up the best practice times? Complaints of marks left on the floor and a ban on using tape to mark the track? Constant questions on what kind of sport it is and whether bats and balls are used? This is what a roller derby aficionado typically keeps hearing.

The situation is quite understandable since derby is, regardless of its continuous growth, a fairly unknown sport to the general public and also to administrators who decide on practice times. However, times are changing. Last autumn an umbrella organization for Finnish roller derby called Roller Derby Finland ry (RDF) was founded and they are working extra hard on improving derby’s position in societal debate. The aim is to gain a sturdier foundation for derby within the core of the sporting world.

RDF is currently undergoing negotiations with the Finnish Skating Association on whether roller derby could be a part of their range of sports. However, discussions with the Skating Associations Managing Director Sauli Pollari and with the different committees have been going for a long while now and have taken up a tremendous amount of time over the years, says RDF chairman Raisa Siivola.

Being a member of a  sports federation has been an aspiration for Finnish roller derby ever since it took its first steps. It all comes down to nothing less than the Olympics.

Who dictates the rules?

- The International Federation of Roller Sports has approached roller derby organizations with interest, keeping an eye out for the 2020 summer Olympics demonstration sports, Raisa Siivola says.

- Everyone is of course excited about it. Question is, which ruleset would be used.

Derby is played around the world with many different rules. In Europe, bouts are played according to the WFTDA's (Women's Flat Track Derby Association) rule set, which is also widely used in North America. In the US, however, there is also another influential association  USARS (USA Roller Sports), which has its own set of derby rules.

- The rules, which will be selected to the Olympic range of sports, define what rules the game will be played to in the future – thus the worst case scenario would be that the USARS rules might overrun all others, Siivola explains.

- WFTDA is a kind of a driving force for modern roller derby. Its members are associations and sports clubs, and it has been created to oversee that the primary decision-making power will always be in the hands of its members. USARS co-operates with businesses, and roller derby is just a roller sport for them.

Siivola points out that WFTDA updates and supplements their rules all the time.

- It reflects expertise and passion for the development of the sport. In addition, WFTDA seems to make a genuine effort to understand the varied field within sports club activities in Europe.

Thus RDF wants derby to be played with the WFTDA rules on both Olympic and international levels. And the Skating Association is the only party in Finland that has contacts in the matter with the decisive European umbrella organization, the International Federation of Roller Sports or FIRS (Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports).

Therefore RDF is so persistently aiming to become a part of the Skating Association's range of sports.

- When national sports federations have enough derby clubs in their league portfolios, FIRS will have to unify and formalize the derby rules used by its members. Naturally, RDF, as well as all the other national parties want in on this discussion, Siivola says.

Roller derby - not just for those who skate

The only documented time I've been on skates.

I am one of those rare people who got into roller derby without the desire to skate. My depth perception is 50 shades of fucked up - I rarely catch any objects thrown my way, I stumble down the stairs weekly, I'll never be allowed to drive a car, I've more than once accidentally biked straight into a wall because I didn't realize the wall was there. So putting me on roller skates and making me hit people, not the best of ideas. But I was living in a small town, I was utterly bored, and needed a project, so naturally I jumped on the chance when my friends headed over to Helsinki Roller Derby open skate on a cold Sunday in March, 2012. The very next week we started our own league, and I was elected as the president.


What followed was 4 months of filling out forms, opening up bank accounts, trying to find practice spaces, recruiting new people, starting Facebook groups, and just generally trying to make everything work. While I was busy being an enabler, the others were learning the basic skills, squeeling over their brand new skates, and coming up with far too punny derby names which would later down the road be toned down to names we could actually pronounce. I was there too, in that 200m2 hall, every single practice, watching and taking notes, and roughly 4 months in, I started coaching.

I'd read what felt like every single roller derby blog on the internet, and watched every single derby drill video on YouTube, I'd taken 2 notebooks worth of notes, and as much as I thought I did, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I had never coached anyone in my life, I was one of the least athletic people I knew, but suddenly I had 15 people paying attention to me, trusting I knew what I was doing. And so I took on that role. I whistled, shouted, instructed, gave feedback, and saw progress. I read books about coaching, and against my own odds, actually got a hang of what I was doing.

At times I found myself mentally exhausted. I was constantly surrounded by people who were learning something new and exciting on skates. They were speeding around the track, they were getting oh-so-cool bruises, jumping the apex. They got to feel like flying. I was there, standing in the middle, not quite belonging. I couldn't share the excitement. I felt inadept as a coach - what right did I have telling anyone what to do, correcting them, when I couldn't do any of that myself? Yet I kept at it, practice after practice, because I didn't have anything else to do either.

The day I fell in love with bench coaching.

It took me more or less a year to come to terms with being a non-skater in derby world. It wasn't until I got properly excited about bench coaching that I felt truly at home. I realised that I actually had something important to give quadless, something I could learn and get better at myself. I could challenge myself, I had a role in roller derby that was for me. I wasn't there just to help others anymore, though granted that's exactly what I am training myself to do.

On game days, whether it be a full bout or a mixed scrimmage with 10 players and 4 referees, that's when I come alive. I don't need quads and a mouth guard to play the game. I'm not a jammer, but I can still make points. I don't get to hit anyone, but I still play the other team. With every scrimmage and bout I grow, and I find new opponents - my own team, the opposing team, the referees, the non-skating officials, the clock, myself. It's a never-ending process and I'm enjoying every moment, making up for all those moments I spent feeling sorry for myself.


Sure, I still don't feel like flying, but man, I do get the high.

// Anna Miettinen