Yokosuka Sushi Rollers

The two teams....The Mummies vs. The Witches.

Roller derby is on the rise in Japan.  At this time, there are two teams on the Kanto Plain:  The Scary Blossoms out of Yokota Airforce Base and The Yokosuka Sushi Rollers.  In Okinawa, they currently have two teams.  I joined the Yokosuka Sushi Rollers this past summer.  A friend back in Bremerton had told me that her friend formed a derby team in Japan, and that I should check it out.  After months of running into people that were on the team, I finally caved in and ordered my "new skater" package.  I was quite nervous to try this new endeavor, but figured I'd skated in the 70's and 80's, so I knew I could at least stand up on skates.  While I may have had a taste of skating in my past, learning roller derby has been a whole different ballgame.  There are so many things to learn such as:  form, stopping, the correct way to fall, hits, speed, jumps, and of course.....knowing the rules helps.

Last month our team hosted skaters "Ref Handsome" and "Kat-atomic" from Aloha Ciy Rollers in Hawaii to do a two-day skating Boot camp.  The day after Boot Camp was over we had our first bout.  The Boot camp was very intense.  I've never skated so much in my life.  Handsome and Kat were great teachers, and taught us so much in such a short amount of time.  The skills we learned, and the bonding our team did during that weekend was a very memorable experience.  Also joining Boot Camp, and participating in the bout, were some skaters from The Scary Blossoms.  What a great bunch of ladies!  They fit right it, had great spirit, and kicked some booty.

After day 2 of Boot Camp!

The bout was a great learning experience.  Bouts are 1 hour in length.  The jams are 2 minutes long with 30 seconds in between each jam.  Luckily, we had an intermission featuring famed Japanese skater Hiroshi Koizumi and his skaters performing some dare-devil moves.   Although my team didn't win the bout, hopefully with more people joining derby, we'll be able to do more bouts in the near future.

It takes a village for a bout to happen!

Here's a link to videos of our first bout (type in Yokosuka Sushi Rollers in search):

www.vimeo.com

For ladies interested in joining The Yokosuka Sushi Rollers:

http://www.yokosukasushirollers.com/Yokosuka_Sushi_Rollers/Home.html


For additional information on derby rules:

wftda.com/rules/wftda-rules.pdf