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Skate to rise: How Preston Roller Girls are growing

Posted on - 23rd October, 2013 - 8:00am | Author - | Posted in - Recreation, Sport
Preston Roller Girls, picture from Matt | Lea Photography

Preston Roller Girls, picture from Matt | Lea Photography

Preston Roller Girls have been a roller derby team since 2010. The sport, which is already huge in America, is rapidly growing in popularity within the UK, and there are a huge number of reasons why.

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Roller derby is a high speed, full contact sport. Those who play must learn an ever growing and evolving set of skills. It is challenging, time consuming and sometimes pretty scary, but all of it combines to make each player super fit and massively courageous! It’s also great fun, and a wonderful social activity for those involved.

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One of the best things about the roller derby community is how open it is. As long as you are fit and able to play the sport, people from all backgrounds are welcomed. Within all roller derby teams you will find an amazing mix of characters, which can be hugely empowering in a world that can often focus on ‘fitting in’, rather than the distinct qualities of each individual.

A huge number of roller derby teams have emerged all around the country in the last few years. It’s making for a rapidly expanding sport sub-culture for both women and men. People are drawn to the sport by both the physical and mental challenge, and the opportunity to celebrate the uniqueness of ‘you’.

Preston Roller Girls currently practice at Preston College three times a week. As a team, we are always looking for ways to improve our game play and build up our fitness levels (as well as having a ton of fun along the way!). Since our beginnings just over three years ago, in which our very first members wobbled around the sports hall trying to find their feet, Preston Roller Girls has really grown. As a team, we continue to work hard to establish ourselves within the UK derby community. This year we have participated in bouts (that’s the derby term for a game) with teams from locations such as Manchester, Liverpool and North Wales.

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Preston Roller Girls are always looking to grow their numbers. There are two new intakes each year, which is always a great chance to welcome ‘fresh meat’ and give people a shot at seeing what the sport is all about. We also like to participate in local events whenever we can. This year we have been involved in events such as Preston Pride and Ladyfest, which have both raised awareness of causes that Preston Roller Girls whole-heartedly support.

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Back in May, we took part in Skatemania, a marathon that was held at the UCLan sports complex (a wet and windy day as the picture shows!). This made for some pretty gruelling work and there were a lot of soggy skaters by the end of the day, but ultimately everyone was so proud to have participated.

Coming up next for Preston Roller Girls is a bout against Oxford. We will be welcoming the girls from ‘Oxford Wheels of Gory’ to Preston College on Saturday November 23rd. It’s set to be a really exciting event, so if you’re interested get yourself down and see what roller derby is all about.

Christina Crook is the PR manager for the Preston Roller Girls

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