Atlanta Roller Derby returns to the rink with upcoming 'bout'
The sport of roller derby has gone through many transformations over its almost 90-year existence. At one point, it was seemingly staged entertainment, akin to professional wrestling. But since its revival in the early 2000s, the sport has become a showcase for serious athletic abilities. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the Atlanta Roller Derby returns to our city on Saturday, April 9 at the Yaarab Shriners Center. Recently, “City Lights” senior producer Kim Drobes met with two of our city’s star skaters, Anna Benbrook, aka Gucci Maim, and Lisa Sharer, aka Switchblade Siouxsie.
Benbrook began by explaining what exactly roller derby is for the uninitiated. “Roller derby … is a high-intensity full-contact sport on four wheels,” she said. “You have a group of five people from each team that are just skating through, trying to get points, trying to avoid getting hit, trying to get hit.”
She added, “It might be a little confusing, unlike any sport that you’ve ever seen before, but once you watch it, you pick it up easily. It’s just a really fun, really exciting, invigorating sport to watch — just these strong individuals going through and scoring points and making excitement for the fans.”
Sharer has skated with the Atlanta Roller Derby since the year after its inception in 2006. “So it’s been over 15 years,” she said, “I have to say, [it’s] one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.”
Though Sharer grew up as what she calls a “rink rat,” the sport itself welcomes all aspirants. Benbrook joined with no experience skating and learned as she went along. “It was like a baby giraffe — running into walls to stop and just having people help me through it all,” Benbrook admitted. Sharer piped up, “She’s an amazing skater now, by the way.”
Some terminology if you’re new: a roller derby game is called a “bout,” and a “bout” consists of several “jams.” A jam is like a scrimmage, a two-minute period during which both teams’ “jammers” (often recognizable by a star on their helmets) score points by out lapping each other, hindered by the opposing team’s four “blockers.”
“The atmosphere of a bout is a lot of fun,” Benbrook said. “The bouts that we have here in Atlanta it’s family-friendly. We have vendors, we have halftime performances. We typically do a doubleheader, so we’ll have one game, and then we’ll have a break in the middle for people to get food, go to the vendors, whatever the case is, and then our second game. During that middle timeframe, we usually have local entertainment, musicians … We just try to tap in with our local community and provide them a space to just show who they are and what they’re doing.”
More about the Atlanta Roller Derby’s April 9 bout and other information on their upcoming events can be found at http://atlantarollerderby.com.
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