Amsterdam Derby Dames

How lucky are we to have hosted a two-evening bootcamp with the amazing Ballistic Whistle! This man has built up quite a reputation: trainer of the London Roller Girls and Team England during the 2012 World Cup and captain of the UK Merby Team Southern Discomfort.

It’s hardly surprising that the spots on these evenings were all gone in no time! Derby girls from all corners of the country made it to our training location after a long day of work or studying for another three hours of serious skating. A great bootcamp was had by all, as it was a fun and excellent learning experience.

On the first day, the focus was on super-tight transitions, jumps, juking, and some cool blocking drills aimed at beginners. Day two was totally different and featured a series of specific wall drills for both blockers and jammers, situational drills, backwards skating awareness, and a crash course in how major teams counter power jams.

In a nutshell: it was very inspiring being coached by Ballistic Whistle. Thanks to all participants for making it a great success!

So why wouldn’t you give it a try? You will either find out it is nothing for you (don’t give up too soon, though) or you will love it as much as we do and decide to join our league: whether it is as a skater, referee, NSO (Non-Skating Official) or coach/trainer: we welcome you with open arms.

The Fresh Meat Programme will run from 25 September 2012 to January/February 2013.

Interested? Sign up via freshmeat@amsterdamderbydames.nl to attend the try-outs on 22 September from 12.00 ’till 15.00.

We would love seeing you there, soon-to-be freshie!

Those who attended the May 2011 bootcamp in Rotterdam, will surely remember: Fist Fucker of Malmo’s Crime City Rollers and the torturous yet amazing off-skates training she gave us that day. Well, get prepared! Next week she is in town again….

Whereas Sunday 20th – intended for beginners – has been fully booked, a few spots for the advanced bootcamp on Saturday 19 May are still available.

Jump at the chance to meet this notorious Swedish skater and get in touch with interleague@amsterdamderbydames.nl to find out how and if you can attend.

Just one of the unbelievable stunts Fisty pulls off

For the third time, European Roller Derby is meeting in Berlin at the European Roller derby Organisational Conference (EROC).

EROC is an event where leagues from all over Europe get together to learn from each other about subjects like fundraising, equipment, bout organisation as well as training trainers, on and off skates. There is even a whole separate section for Referees and Non Skating Officials (NSOs), so all the different areas of Roller Derby are touched upon.

A few years ago when the Amsterdam Derby Dames went to EROC for the first time, we hardly knew how to skate, but learned so much about how to organise ourselves and our league. Last year we also went, and four of our girls played their very first (mixed) scrimmage at EROC, taking home a ton of information from all the different workshops.

This year, EROC has grown into an amazing size: no less than 57 different leagues/teams will be present. As they sum it up on the EuroDerby website:

• 77 Refs & NSOs
• 165 players
• 7 Rooms & halls
• 39 workshops
• Party
• Drinks
• Roller Derby

This year we can bring 4 skaters plus Refs and NSOs, so the Amsterdam Derby Dames will be represented by a slightly bigger delegation: San Solo (Captain), VIx Vendetta (Co-Coach), Jamakaze (FM co-coach) and Furrrocious (President and Inter League relations) will be the skaters on ADD’s behalf. For our refs, our Head Ref Belle Anger and Asa Spades take in all the information. Last but not least, our Head NSO Red Peril will be learning the best organisational tricks from more experienced Head NSOs.

It will be an inspiring weekend and we are very excited about being part of the community of European Roller Derby!

Special thanks to Bear City Roller Derby for again organizing this great event (http://bearcityrollerderby.com/)

For more info: http://euroderby.org/news/135-eroc-2012-outlook

First off we had an old fashioned hard warm-up and scrimmage with the Gent Go-Go Roller Girls in Gent, Belgium’s first team. Thanks girls for kicking us hard, we loved it!

Then despite a flat tire, the girls finally got back to Amsterdam to meet up with the world famous Mo Quadzilla Sanders who jumps over rows of people at derby events, designs wheels and so much more.

And on Sunday some of our girls stayed in Antwerp for the Blocking Bandicoot bootcamp hosted by the One Love Roller Dolls. We saw their male coach on skates for the first time and there was some ‘merby’ (male roller derby) as well. We went over the basics of blocking, following through and going in for more.

Check out pics of the bootcamp with our girls and many more from the Netherlands and Belgium.

Cheers!