Skaters Try Out Roller Derby at “Skate With Us” Clinic

The clinics will happen every Sunday and are put on by the Harbor City Roller Dames.

DULUTH, Minn. – The Harbor City Roller Dames held their first Roll With Us Skate Clinic on Sunday, giving women the chance to try out roller derby.

“It is a contact sport, there are five people on the track at each time for each team. So four of those are blockers, one is the jammer. The jammer is the one who scores the point so they go around the track, past the blockers and for every blocker they get after their initial pass, they get a point,” Leah Kingfisher, chair of recruitment committee said of the sport.

The clinics allow anyone to learn more about derby and try out the basic skills for maybe the first time.

“For people who don’t necessarily have any skating experience to come in and learn what we call minimum skills. And we have minimum skills tests to make sure everyone can stay safe in derby so it’s a good starting place if they want to check out what derby is all about,” Kingfisher added.

About a dozen skaters came out to the first clinic and regardless of their experience level or their reason for trying it, they just were excited to get out there and learn.

“Everybody thinks, oh I could never do that. And the first step is just showing up. I think it was a huge win,” skater Stephany Kline said.

Although the clinic was just teaching some basic skills, the organizers hope the new skills can build into confidence for the skater and for them to keep practicing those new skills to even join the team in the spring.

“I really hope that these women just learn something new about themselves and learn what they’re capable of doing and feel really empowered by these new skills,” Kline said.

The roller derby clinics will be every Sunday for the next few months and you can learn more of those details on their Facebook page.