Amsterdam Derby Dames

Have you seen all those pictures on Facebook, of girls on roller skates? No clue what they are exactly doing? Wondering why your colleague has bruises all the time? Or are you just looking for some excitement and you appreciate a good show? How about coming to our Friends & Family Day to find out what roller derby is all about?

The Amsterdam Derby Dames are organizing a Friends & Family Day on April 14th. This is an excellent opportunity to discover what your friend, colleague, acquaintance or relative is up to a few nights a week. What are the rules of roller derby, how are points scored and what are the strategies? Besides it being a serious sport, roller derby is very entertaining and there is always a great atmosphere. A mini Roller Disco and DJ will bring it to the next level.

The F&F day will be held in Sporthal De Weeren, Beemsterstraat 583, 1024BE in Amsterdam from 11am till 3pm. In addition to the on-skates action, there will be a raffle with fantastic prices. So feel free to buy some raffle tickets! We hope to see you on the 14th April to make this a day to remember, because it just wouldn’t be the same without you….

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!

Just over a year ago we had our very first home bout: the Rollergirls of the Apocalypse came to Amsterdam for AmsterBAM. Saturday, it was our turn to travel to Kaiserslautern, Germany to have another face-off. Unfortunately, we were down three players, so our team consisted of only 9 skaters. We were not too worried: at our last bout we played with 9 skaters and we kicked ass!

From our sponsor Just Like Your Mom Tour Support we got two vans to drive to Kaiserslautern, and after a smooth ride we arrived perfectly on time. It was an absolute pleasure being hosted by RGA, as they are such a well-organised league. We had what we needed in our dressing room and felt welcome.

While the RGA The Night Terrors took on the RocKArollers, the first part of this doubleheader, we found a quiet spot to do some stretching.

The bout started slightly later than planned, but at the whistle, it did start with a POW! RGA clearly set the pace from the get-go. With a power jam against ADD, we were behind with about 30 points after only a couple of jams, but that didn’t stop us: at half-time there was a 1 point difference. The game was fast and intense. The second half was even more exciting, as the lead in points was constantly changing, even tied at some point! At the end we were left with only 8 players after one fouled out. In the last few jams, RGA got back in the lead and scored a large amount of points in a power jam to win the game.

It was an epic bout! A lot of hard hits, quick jammers, impressive tactics and let’s not forget: great officiating (led by the amazing London Derriere). A special thanks goes out to the officials crew who must have had a tough bout to officiate.

ADD All stars and Dominic! With his pink Mohawk the girls thought he should be our mascot:

After the bout we went back to the hotel to freshen up and to get ready for the after party at the sports bar. The RGA girls had prepared capes as awards for best blocker, best jammer and MVP.

For ADD RGA voted best blocker: Abs of Steel, best jammer: Vix Vendetta and MVP: Jamakaze.
For RGA, ADD voted for best blocker: Thora, best jammer: Jumpin’ Jax Smash and MVP NebrAss Kick’r.

We definitely tried winning the after party with a lot of dancing, singing, laughing and even some beer pong.

Thanks again RGA for hosting a great event and making everything run very smoothly!

Furrrocious

And it WAS a bloody valentine yesterday in Amstelveen, but both the B.ADD team and the ADD All Stars gave their all. And had a great afterparty!

For the first time, we played by the 2013 WFTDA rules: since minor penalties are no longer being called out by the refs – only the majors – we saw that many skaters had to do time in the penalty box aka the sin bin. The bout between B.ADD and the Northern Lightning Rollergirls saw three skaters being removed from the track, which resulted in a lot of power jams!

For the NLR it was the very first time they played a bout, and they did it exceptionally well: the final score was 201-109 for NLR.

Picture by Erwin van Dijk

The game between ADD All Stars and B.M.O. Roller Derby Girls proved to be an exciting one to watch: it was very fast-paced and a lot was going on! At half-time, B.M.O. seemed to be the underdog: the score was really far apart. However, these girls showed great character by coming back stronger than ever in the second half: they scored a whopping amount of points and almost caught up on ADD! Nevertheless, the All Stars won the bout: the game ended in a 229-197 score.

Picture by Kees Rijken

It’s Fresh Meat time! Time for the Amsterdam Derby Dames to recruit new skaters!

On 2 March 2013 from noon to 3 pm we’ll be holding a Fresh Meat Day where you can find out what it’s like to roller skate with the Amsterdam Derby Dames.

There will be a lot of information about roller derby, how our league works, and a whole bunch of girls on roller skates!

Sign up quickly because many new girls (and boys who want to be referees) will be joining us that day and we have a maximum we can accommodate.

To join us, send us an e-mail to Fresh Meat. Due to the size of the venue and comfort level of people on skates for the first time in ages, we ask you not to bring any spectators.

After we receive your sign-up we’ll send you a confirmation e-mail with all the information you’ll need, what you need to bring, gear rental details for that day, and much more.

Join us on Facebook and be sure to like us as well!