Beat Me Halfway co-ed bootcamp 2012

Got an invitation to visit a co-ed bootcamp in Missouri. Since I am collecting all the US State magnets (what a nerd) and I hadn't been to Missouri before, I decided to give it a go. Coach Spanx and Bat Wing (my new favorite skater boys) are going to publish a new derby magazine "ROLL OUT", and I got to write a review of BMH2012 to it. Here it is, uncut:
(photos by David Strong & Ken Mitchell)

I am Tigre Force, I skate for Helsinki Roller Derby and love my team to death, but I’ve got one weakness: traveling. I fell in love with USA when I attended RollerCon in 2010. We visited Los Angeles for a week with my teammate Ice-S StoneArm before driving to Vegas, had a fun practice with the LA Derby Dolls and got to try out banked track.

Danger Girl, SummerStorm & Tigre

RollerCon was an experience that got me hooked up with roller derby for life. I made a lot of connections in there, met my close friend Danger Girl (founder of Rolling Sturgis, Black Hills Wildfire and Black Hills MudRun), invited Hunter S. Toss’Em (Rat City Rollergirls referee) to Helsinki and the list goes on.

scrimmage

After a year I came back and traveled around USA for two months. Got to skate with Oly Rollers, Rat City, RMRG, Denver Roller Dolls to name a few, went to 9 different States and learned a ton to get ready for the first Roller Derby World Cup in 2011. Team Finland (I was the assistant coach and a skater) was placed 5th out of 13 teams.

Year 2012 I went back to USA twice. Spring 2012 I got to see a Men’s Derby triple header in Fargo, ND. Men’s Roller Derby is still taking it’s first steps in Finland so it was good to see the level of Men’s gameplay in the US.

Recently the eye-opener and an unforgettable event that I attended to, was Beat Me Halfway co-ed BootCamp in Jefferson City, Missouri (November 2012). I didn’t know what to expect when I got the invitation from Coach Spanx via Danger Girl. So far I had been to 17 States, met the best leagues in the US, played against Team USA and attended who knows how many bootcamps around the World, and still this event blew my mind.

tough men & women having a break :)

The basic structure of each day was 1-3 clinics from the morning until afternoon, and non-stop mini scrimmages all the way till the end of the night. Meaning, you could skate as much as you physically could. For three days in a row. The whole bootcamp, clinics and scrimmages were taught and played by the new WFTDA rules. However, there was a scrimmage played by MADE rules as well. Quadzilla was there to pump up our agility skills, Streak and Meow taught some fancy footwork and basics of jam skating, Magnum P.I.M.P. broke in some new drills that will help all the participated skaters and their leagues to kick some serious ass in their upcoming season. PitchIt (is it ok to include a heart in here?) was whooping ass at two Default Strategy clinics (they were the loudest class!), Coach Spanx made sure everybody started to move their feet as they were blocking, and the cherry on the top was to watch Team Xtreme (National All-Star Co-Ed Team) beat up another all-star co-ed travel team, Berzerker.

speed, power, agility...

The skating skill level at this BootCamp was very high. It was the highest I’ve ever seen. Yes, there was a beginner class and yes there were novice bouts, but none of them looked like rookies were on the track. The intermediate level was definitely advanced, and the advanced scrimmages were fast, tough, rough and awesome! If you are not a fan of slow derby, Beat Me Halfway is your kind of a bootcamp. If you like to get your ass kicked and get inspiration from the fastest and strongest female & male skaters in the States and push yourself to the max, go to BMH 2013.

figuring out a hip hook :D

With the experience I got from the three years I’ve been doing roller derby, this was absolutely my favourite BootCamp. Again, made some new friends, got another magnet to put on my huge US map, and am planning my next trip to Missouri. I heard it’s gonna be amazing.

EROC - 4th annual European Roller Derby Organizational Conference

 all photos by Michael Wittig

EROC IV was the perfect way to start the (derby) year 2013.

What's so great about an European Roller Derby Organizational Conference? Let me tell you:

1. it's held in Berlin, my favorite city in Europe
2. it's hosted by Bear City Roller Derby (since 2009!), one of the best teams in Europe and true troopers of this event
3. it gives you the best check in on the status of European derby
4. it is simply awesome

So many people!

Bloody Mary & Pantichrist came to represent WFTDA and did an excellent job in giving European derby all the correct info we need in order to plan the future within WFTDA.

Master Blaster... no words to describe this phenomenal human being, she is above all awesomeness! She was my magical host, took care of me even when she had her hands filled with work throughout the weekend. Working at Quad Roller Skate Shop and EROC at the same time didn't even seem to make her tired!

We had a short scrimmage at the end of the weekend. It's always fun and challenging to play with people you've never met before. It also gives you a chance to skate with your idols: Bloody Mary, Stefanie Mainey... I partnered up best with an Icelandic skater, go figure!

EROC IV program

HUGE thank you to Bear City Roller Derby for hosting this event AGAIN! You did a kick ass job.

...until next time!

Atlanta - WFTDA Championships 2012

Hello HOTlanta!

The Hydra

Me and Danger Girl flew to Atlanta to watch the WFTDA Championships 2012 and to meet my cousin.

It's always good to travel for more than one reason, and I hadn't been to Georgia before. It was a very warm day on our arrival. We were very tired since we had driven to Denver from Rapid City pretty late the previous evening and woke up after 4am to catch an early flight...

Best burgers in town

We went to The Vortex to eat the best burgers in town, loved the crazy decoration and yes, the burgers were yummy!

Though we were exhausted, we managed to drop our stuff to my cousin's place and drive to the city to see some derby! I had been to the West Regionals last year so I pretty much knew what to expect of a WFTDA tournament. The venue was huge, and it took forever to walk from the parking lot to the actual trackside. When we finally got there, the game was already on and we had to squeeze ourselves in to get a seat.


Jerry Seltzer, Minnesota Rollergirls activity book  & me


Managed to shop a bit, as always. Found some awesome Minnesota Rollergirls goodies (t-shirts and the most awesome activity book ever!). Got to meet Jerry Seltzer as well, and to thank his love towards our kick ass promo video (published in 2011).

Since Team USA had just been to Helsinki, it felt comfortable and normal to just go and say hi to everybody: Suzy Hotrod, Varla Vendetta, Juke Boxx, Joy Collision, V-Diva... brought some sisu -pastilles to Suzy, since she's hooked to that candy now...

Game on!

To me, the most breathtaking and exciting bout was the 3rd place bout: Texas-Denver. Both teams played hard and both teams have got some pretty legendary skaters. Not going to even compete with WFTDA or DNN write ups of the tournament, I will leave that to the professionals!

It was also good to see my friends from Team Argentina. It was the coolest thing to see them come all the way to Georgia to watch the tournament.

Hard Rock Cafe Atlanta

We had the after party at Hard Rock Café Atlanta. Wasn't quite as crazy as at the Westerns with the Rat City crew in 2011, this time no one got to talk me over to wear a cheerleader outfit, but I did participate on a fanny pack pop dance contest. Didn't win, wasn't dirty enough, but got to do some proper push ups on stage to show off! Helsinki Roller Derby represent!

Parking lot at Atlanta, GA

On Sunday after the bouts we saw a crazy football party at the parking lot we had our car at. They had a game going on that night, and it was the first time I had been surrounded by the atmosphere of getting ready to a local football game. There were million dollar buses with barbeque parties and even if they might have had tickets to the actual live game, people were ok with just watching their tv's and having a party of their own. At a parking lot.

A random guy spotted my HRD shirt and asked if I play for Hurtta Lottas.. I almost freaked out! Seriously, meeting someone in Atlanta, GA, on a parking lot, that had been to Helsinki to watch one of our Home Team bouts?! It's a small world after all!

Gillette, Fort Collins, Cheyenne/ October 2012

My history with Coal Miners' Daughters goes back to March 2012 when I subbed for Madhouse Madams to play against BisMan Bombshellz (read about the bout here). I met Lylie Weeks aka Karma Suture, who later on asked for some drills to help out a brand new roller derby team. In her words: "your drills have helped me from just being a skater to a coach! I am just starting a team, and the drills have helped me so much! it would have been super scary...but you have helped build another team...Thank you!"

This kind of a feedback keeps me going. This is why I do Roller Derby. Whenever I learn something, I want to immediately teach it forward. In this case, Helsinki Roller Derby's excellent Freshmeat Training Period plan, created by Estrogeena Davis & co, was the basics of how I got to help the 'Daughters' out. Karma had also been searching for the right drills from All Derby Drills -blog, where I recently posted about the Skater Progression Diagram. That breaks in pretty well why you can't just start playing roller derby but you have to practice long and hard in order to get to play.

explaining swooping

I traveled to the US again for three months and Karma invited me to come meet the Coal Miners' Daughters and coach them. Of course I said yes, and so began my first road trip by myself!

Coal Miners' Daughters

I ended up staying in Gillette, WY for 4 days, and continued my travels to Casper, WY to meet some local derby chicks from Casper's Deadly Ghosts to drive with them to Fort Collins to a Triple Threat Derby Girls -bootcamp (hosted by Choice City Rebels). SumMo Payne, PBR and Camel Joe did a kick ass job coaching a bunch of girls who showed up despite the recent tragic where one of their teammates was shot in the head. The donation is still on and I wish her the best recovery.

Team Orange!

From Fort Collins we drove to Cheyenne, WY to play in a public mixed Halloween scrimmage, hosted by the Cheyenne Capidolls. I played in team Orange and we handed out pumpkin flashlights to the audience on our team intro. They had a junior derby exhibition scrimmage in between the two periods and I have to tell you I've never had so much happy tears in my eyes!

The famous butt -picture with my ankle supports in my pants.. pretty!

From Cheyenne we drove back to Casper, handed the Team USA manager's Vivien's teammate (A'Salt Creek Roller Girls) her laptop that she forgot to Helsinki when Team USA was visiting... picked up my car from Amy's house and thus began the last bit of my solo road trip back to Rapid City.

...and by the way, Coal Miners' Daughters won their first bout ever. Just saying!

Plymouth and Bristol, my little UK tour in September 2012

Bristol Temple Meads

Our league's info mail received a request having me to guest coach at a Bootcamp in Plymouth, Southern England. I was shocked, pleased and excited at the same time and of course I said yes.

EVERYBODY!!!

The bootcamp unfortunately didn't happen, but I decided to go anyway. We had a small but awesome two-days training session with a scrimmage with the new rules at the end.

Tenerife or Plymouth?

My hosts were beyond awesome. My local mommy Charl Shred aka Shreds fed me delicious food and tea (naturally) and I was in heaven! Then I got to stay in a big house at Kathleen Hamma's. Love her derby name btw, riot grrrl bands have got a special place in my heart, thanks to Suvi Hokkari who introduced me to that world and got to step out of my "grunge only" phase.

No shit, Sherlock!

Had a good time, got to see a new part of England, had only been to London and Manchester before. Lovely people, rising derby stars and a lot of hot tea.

on our way to dinner

From Plymouth I went to Bristol to visit Team Finland's skater The Blizzard! Again, the English hosting was way too nice to comprehend! Got to hang out with her room mate Chick Dastardly and we had a good chat about the future of roller derby and how Men's derby could be included to it. Had the idea of suggesting WFTDA to change their name into "World's Flat Track Roller Derby Association", to play with words a little bit.

Graffiti art

Met Kevin, who's previous sports was underwater hockey. Say what? I did not know that sport existed until I met her! Check it out from this video.

Pretty Bristol

It was good times to spend before my 3-month trip to the USA. Glad I got the opportunity to do it, and would definitely do it again! Thank You Plymouth and Bristol, you kick ass!

Team USA in Helsinki

Team USA in Helsinki, Finland

September 1-2, 2012
pics: Marko Niemela, Anu-Maaria Tuominen

Jacuzzi time

So... do you believe in dreams? Do you think that even the wildest dreams can come true? I can tell you that one crazy idea at least came true in my roller derby dream world! Over a year ago I made a two-month trip to USA traveling around and ending my trip to New York. I had missed my plane so arrived to the city one day later than planned so I missed all the derby practices I was supposed to go to.. but luckily Fisti Cuffs was nice enough to meet me for lunch. Justin came with us to have a beer and we joked about getting Team USA to Europe some day.

good times

Exactly one year later it happened. Team USA traveled to Helsinki, Finland to play against Team Finland and Team Sweden and coach a two-day international bootcamp. Helsinki Roller Derby was the hosting league but we had guests all around Europe that weekend.

Team Finland meeting

Team Finland didn't prepare to this bout much, we had two poor practices but not enough time to re-build the team. We had another tryout to add 4 more names to our roster, since we had lost a skater or two to zebra team, injuries or pregnancies. We decided to play with heart and our team goal was to score more points than Sweden, no matter how big the point differential would be.

That goal didn't quite happen, as TF scored only 6 points against Team USA (losing the bout by 633 points total) and Sweden scored 29...

Tourists in Helsinki

There are no words to describe the feeling having Juke Boxx, Tracy Akers, Suzy Hotrod or V-Diva wandering around Helsinki taking tourist photos and checking out what's up in Finland. Not to mention the feeling playing against these legends! Blocking Teflon Donna for 2 seconds felt like I was the world champion of Roller Derby. There was no way to hold Bonnie Thunders down... we tried though!

2 seconds of awesomeness

My personal goal to the bout was not to fall. I didn't quite nail that one, but I am proud of myself having the sense of being on track of what was happening at all times. I knew what we did good, where we failed at and where the jammers were. It didn't feel like they slaughtered us, Team USA played a smart strategic game with no extra hustle with big hits to tell us who's the boss. I loved the smart tactics of the game and even if it was a huge defeat and pretty fast derby, I could still enjoy every minute of it and give it my best shot.

If you ever ask me how do I get to do all of this cool stuff, all I have to say is that I don't wait for things to happen to me, I go and make it happen myself. I don't question which of my dreams are too crazy to make come true, I don't find things impossible to do. It takes determination, good heart and some talent to succeed in getting what you want.

Suzy put a spell on me...

I want to thank Team USA one more time for coming over to Europe, showing us your support towards developing roller derby even in the Nordic countries, which otherwise are quite isolated from the rest of the continent. I must admire the whole team with their excellent coaching skills, perfect attitude towards traveling, staying at peoples houses, giving their 110% to this crazy idea. I respect every single skater, coach and manager that makes Team USA such a working machine without forgetting where we all come from and that we all start somewhere and even if they are superstars, they can still smile at you and tell you you're doing a good job - and they will remember your name next time you meet them.

There's no other sport like this.

Team USA, Team Finland & coaches

Though I sometimes have my downhills with this sport, I have to say it loud and proud: I love Roller Derby. It allowes dreams to come true. Even the craziest ones.

Summer skate trip to Porvoo

You can travel in a lot of ways in the name of Roller Derby, sometimes you can take it a bit easier and just enjoy skating instead of playing derby.

On a nice summer day, what better things there are to do than to go out to skate? Well, why not grab a few friends with and take it all the way to Porvoo, roughly 40km east of Helsinki?

Tigre & Sue

The further we skated, the faster we went... the rougher the roads became, the faster we went... I think we did the 40km skate in 2,5 hours...

Meisseli, Gsus, Ice-S, Ina & Trixie

Was pretty happy when we finally came to Porvoo. It was a rough journey but had lots of fun! Porvoo is a very beautiful town and we got to visit the local candy shop. Mmmmm.... candy....

Porvoo

Came back on a old steam boat, had salmon soup and some white wine... and of course went to sing karaoke afterwards! Such a perfect day!

J.L. Runeberg