The great gliding epiphany: Finding liberation and delight with Pioneer Valley Roller Derby

Taica Patience enjoys many activities and appears far younger than her chronological age. Whether she’s singing, working on her memoir, creating visual art or harvesting and juicing greens, Patience lives vibrantly.

Two years ago, she had an epiphany after joining a roller derby league. “Roller skating helps to strengthen me. I’ve had chronic pain most of my adult life, and the gliding motion loosens my joints without making them hurt,” she said. 

Patience, 61, skates on both ice and on wheels. Ice skating outdoors is one of her passions, but she hadn’t roller skated as an adult until joining Pioneer Valley Roller Derby (PVRD). The Northfield resident now roller skates weekly. 

Pioneer Valley Roller Derby, founded in 2006, welcomes people from all walks of life. For Taica Patience, the group has become like family. Roller derby may seem an unlikely choice for a Transformational Breath facilitator and spiritual growth workshop leader, and readers may wonder how a raucous, full-contact sport can be appropriate for someone with longtime chronic pain. But in PVRD, “it’s not just about competing,” said Patience. “Some of us are involved just to build skills and have fun.” 

I recently witnessed two PVRD practices at the Greenfield YMCA on subsequent Thursday evenings. The visits exceeded my expectations. For one thing, the group is highly disciplined, yet also obviously fun-loving. The biggest surprise, however, was the palpable sense of mutual support. Some participants are highly skilled, yet there’s a marked absence of superior attitudes. Safety is facilitated through clear communication. Each participant wears colored tape on their helmet, signifying their current level: red for no contact, yellow for beginners/light contact, blue for medium contact and green for those who welcome full contact. Green tape signifies the heavy hitters, quite literally. 

While it’s impossible to fully cover roller derby history, rules, and regulations, here are the basics: competitive roller derby is a contact sport played on an oval track. There are two teams of five skaters, and contests, or “bouts,” consist of two-minute “jams.” Each team has one jammer — wearing a star on their helmet — and four blockers. Basically, a jammer scores a point for each opposing blocker they lap, and blockers play defense by hindering the opposing jammer, as well as offense by maneuvering to aid their own jammer. Roller derby is one of the only sports where players simultaneously play offense and defense. 

The sport came about in the 1930s and was televised for a couple of decades starting in the 1950s, but its commercial popularity may have backfired. Like pro wrestling, it became staged and theatrical. There’s been a grassroots revival in the last 20 years, however, and roller derby was under consideration for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Skaters wear protective gear over nearly every major joint in the body, as well as mouth guards unless they’re in the no-contact group. 

One of the hallmarks of the sport is the phenomenon known as derby names, highly descriptive monikers; participants often don’t even know each other’s legal names. PVRD member Caroline Moore is known as “Bash,” short for “Bash-it Hound,” a double entendre referencing her ability to skillfully bash opponents and the fact that Moore is a professional dog trainer. A 10-year roller derby enthusiast, Moore is one of a handful of PVRD members still on board from the time before COVID temporarily shut down the league.

“I love learning how to work with teammates effectively and coming together as one perfectly oiled machine,” said Moore.

Another longtime participant is Alex Kapitan, whose derby name is “Peter Pandemonium,” or “Pan.” Kapitan emphasized PVRD’s spirit of inclusion: “We’ll take anyone. In fact, it’s an advantage to have a diversity of body types. We need larger people who can take up more space as well as people who can wiggle around the side and into smaller spaces.” Kapitan added that roller derby isn’t like soccer or basketball: “There’s no ideal body type in this sport. We need everybody.” Kapitan, who identifies as trans, is a community minister and works for a collective called Transforming Hearts. When moving to western Mass. from Boston about a decade ago, Kapitan was thrilled to learn of PVRD, “a truly inclusive community.” 

Like Patience, Joseph Milone is among the older members. “I was a fan of roller derby in the 1970s. I watched it on TV,” he said. “But I’d never roller skated myself until 2014.” Known as “Saint Joseph,” Milone loves the physical contact and the thrill of being in a jam. Having played basketball and baseball earlier in life, he’s no stranger to team sports, but he appreciates that, in roller derby, no one questions his age. Like Patience, Milone, 62, appears remarkably fit.

“My goal is to learn to skate so well that I can’t be knocked down,” said Patience, who sometimes participates in light-contact drills. “I’m improving. I fall down less and can do things that felt beyond me, like one warm-up where you skate with one foot in front of the other, with the front skate on just the two back wheels. Eventually, the goal is to hold onto your toes while skating in that formation, to stretch your calves.”

She noted that turning 180 degrees while skating from frontward to backward used to feel out of her reach, “but now it’s super easy for me.” For Taica Patience and many others, skating with Pioneer Valley Roller Derby brings liberation and delight.

Eveline MacDougall is the author of “Fiery Hope” and can be reached at eveline@amandlachorus.org.