Chatham Roller Derby players urging more to join inclusive sports

A Roller Derby club in Chatham, known as the Apex Predators - a competitive group demonstrating a new and more intense take on rollerskating.

Transcript

00:00 Lace up those skates and fasten your helmet, as this is no ordinary roller skating disco.

00:05 It may be a sleepy Sunday here in Chatham, but I'm with the Apex Predators who are here

00:10 to show me their skill, strategy and strength in a high intensity game also known as roller

00:14 derby.

00:15 This fast paced sport of endurance was revived in the early 2000s where self expression and

00:20 showmanship were encouraged through unique derby names or flashy outfits.

00:24 Established in 2013 as a non-competitive team, the Apex Predators have flourished their talent

00:30 and now compete in a variety of tournaments such as Eastbourne Extreme or the Super 7

00:35 Smackdown.

00:36 Roller derby is a very strategic game, there's a lot of thinking involved, it's a very mental

00:40 game.

00:41 It's a bit like chess on roller skates, it's very very strategic.

00:44 Basically you've got jammers and blockers, the blockers are trying to, they're like the

00:48 defensive players to be going with and they're trying to stop the jammers from scoring points

00:51 and the jammers are trying to get around the track as fast as possible and they score points

00:55 by passing other players, so that's kind of the main game rules.

00:58 It is a compact sport and it can get kind of quite aggressive, quite hitty, but when

01:02 we're teaching people how to play it we always start with like the really basic skating skills,

01:05 those kind of things.

01:06 The adrenaline filled spirit here amongst the Apex Predators is certainly alive once

01:10 that whistle blows.

01:11 This sport may seem intense at first, but at its heart this game encapsulates the fun

01:15 camaraderie and teamwork between its members.

01:18 It means community to me, like it's a really inclusive space, as a queer person it's actually

01:23 quite difficult to find a space that is completely inclusive, that you feel like you can just

01:28 be your true self.

01:30 Roller Derby is for everyone I think, literally is for everyone, particularly in the current

01:33 climate of various sports getting less gender inclusive or less inclusive to kind of our

01:39 trans friends, so I think to me it's a very important part of the team.

01:44 After watching the game I think I'll keep my trainers on, but I'll stick to finding

01:48 out more for the Apex Predators members themselves.

01:50 I do a lot of combat sports anyway, so yeah getting here I'm kind of used to that, so

01:54 being on skates makes it even more interesting.

01:57 I think what drew me to derby was no running, obviously there's a lot of like energy that

02:03 you need for skating, but it's just a lot more fun and it has that sort of like a lot

02:08 of energy that you can burn.

02:10 It's really not going to be thrown in at the deep end, and if you think actually do you

02:14 know what, playing isn't for me, there are still so many ways to be part of the league

02:17 that just come along and be part of it really.

02:19 With an open day in sight this September, I hope that Apex Predators continue to expand

02:24 their community of skaters and keep on rolling through their future endeavours.

02:28 Allegra Webb for KMTV in Chatham.