Sixthman and Roller Derby -
As some of you may know, we have a few women in the office who play roller derby. There are 4 of us actually. We all skate for the Atlanta Rollergirls. I get the question a lot as to whether we knew each other through roller derby first, or if we all worked in the same office and together decided to try roller derby.
The answer is the first. I started at Sixthman after tour managing the Rock Bus in 2006. As we grew we needed another person in the call center and I referred my league mate, Elle Beaux (aka Barbara), who has since moved into marketing here at Sixthman. After that we picked up Spazz Attaque (aka Joy) and May Q Beg (aka May) in the call center. We have 3 of Atlanta Rollergirls 4 home teams represented in the office.I think at first, the rest of Sixthman didn’t know quite what to think of our extra curricular personas. It was fuel for many jokes of course, but even though roller derby is the fastest growing sport in the US, a lot of people still envision the version that started in the 1930′s during the Great Depression.
The recent resurgence has brought a different version of roller derby to light. We wear elbow, wrist and knee pads as well as helmets. We practice 4-5 times a week, 2 hours at a time. We work with a speed skating coach. We follow rules (lots of them) which include no fighting, tripping, using hands or arms below the elbows, no elbowing and no hitting on the back. We usually have around 8 refs for every game tracking points and penalties.
To learn about the scoring and how the game is played, check out this
In the last year, Sixthman has caught derby fever. We now always have at least a few Sixthman folks at every bout (that’s what the games are called) cheering us on. Everyone in the office has requested to have their own roller derby names, which many now do (in varying degrees of office appropriateness) and we’re working on the others. But I knew we had really won them over last year when Andy was introducing me to a business associate. He didn’t say “This is Laura, she works in Operations,” or even
“This is Laura, she is the crazy person who tries to keep up with Red”. He said
“This is Laura, she plays roller derby.”
There are more than 200 leagues around the country today. I’ll bet your hometown has one too.
Support your local Rollergirls!
Hugs & Bruises,
Machu Beatchu (aka Laura)
Elle Beaux (Barbara) & Machu Beatchu (Laura) in the 2007 season – Photo by Frank Mullen www.matteblack.com