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The Quad City Rollers will hold a seven-week boot camp for those interested in joining the roller derby team.
The Quad City Rollers will hold the boot camp at the Eldridge Community Center and Skatepark.
When Roxi Schlue, also known as Roxi Balboa, first joined the Quad City Rollers, she didn't know how to roller skate, let alone skate on a track while avoiding a pack of skaters trying to bar her way.
Now, as the captain and president of the roller derby team, she's hoping to help more women learn how to play the sport she loves.
The Quad City Rollers will hold a seven-week roller derby boot camp starting Jan. 9 at the Eldridge Community Center and Skatepark, 400 S. 16th Ave. The boot camp will coincide with team practices, 9 a.m.-noon Sundays and 6:30-9 p.m. Wednesdays.
No skating experience is required, as coaches will take participants through the basics of skating and roller derby. Participants can borrow rental gear if they don't have their own. The camp costs $60, or two months of team dues.
Schlue has been skating with the Quad City Rollers for seven years. She was a recreational rollerblader before she joined the team, so she had to learn a whole new way of skating along with the sport.
"I was walking around some expo in the Quad-Cities and I saw a girl with a roller derby shirt, and I didn't even know what derby was until I went home and looked it up," Schlue said.
Despite what movies may show, most roller derby in the U.S. is played on a flat oval track rather than a banked one.
Each team has a total of five players on the track, four blockers and one jammer. The jammer — the only player that can score points — is trying to get through the pack of blockers then lapping them, with one point scored per blocker lapped. The blockers' goal is to keep the other team's jammer from passing through them.
Jammers also control when rounds end. The first jammer to get ahead of the blockers can end the round at any time by putting her hands on her hips, which can be used strategically to stop the other team from earning points if their jammer hadn't gotten ahead of the pack yet.
Schlue — a jammer — said scores can range from 150 to more than 300 by the end of the game.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Quad City Rollers had around 40 members. They had just come off a tournament win, which helped with recruitment, and were getting ready to head out for an away game in early March 2020 when they had heard it was canceled, like everything else.
For almost two years the team rarely saw each other outside of a few outdoor skates. Now they're back to practicing and playing, and winning and losing is secondary to competing together again.
"You're with these people six hours a week, working together, and then you hardly see them in two years," Schlue said. "And you come back and realize how much you love the sport and being around the people and working on the skills you want to improve. So it's a lot of fun."
However, they only have around 20 skaters right now due to the pandemic — hence, the boot camp. Once the camp is over, participants are welcome to join the team with no tryouts required.
While roller derby is a full-contact sport, Schlue said it's definitely safer than it used to be. Skaters aren't allowed to use their heads, elbows, forearms, hands, knees, lower legs, or feet to make contact with other players. Skaters who violate rules are placed in a penalty box.
The Quad City Rollers includes women from different walks of life, including truck drivers, nurses, and baristas, and ages range from early-20s to mid-40s. Many of the skaters are also mothers, Schlue said, and bring their families to games to watch and hang out with each other. Things like body size, age and knowledge of the sport shouldn't bar people from trying it out, she said.
"One of the things that's cool about roller derby is any size person has benefits to their body," Schlue said. "So if you're maybe small and slender, you can get around people faster, or if you have bigger hips, you might be a better blocker or if you're tall you can cover more of the track as a blocker, or you can jump across the track.
"There's a spot for everyone."
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The Quad City Rollers will hold a seven-week boot camp for those interested in joining the roller derby team.
The Quad City Rollers will hold the boot camp at the Eldridge Community Center and Skatepark.
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