Aside from the fact that I’ve been buried trying to get grades out for graduation, which was yesterday, I have not yet been able to write about my daughter’s performance at Beach Brawl last weekend because I’m not sure I’m quite finished processing it.

Beach Brawl was a 3-day, 3-sanctioned bout women’s flat-track roller derby event held in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  This year was the first time for the event.  My former partner, my daughter’s other mother, put it together.  It was extraordinarily well done.  So much so that the governing body rep asked her if she would do the upcoming nationals tournament.  It was held at the Ft. Lauderdale Civic Center and was the first official 2014 Team USA derby event, with a contest between Team USA and a team made up of international skaters.  Over the weekend there were two tracks, live streaming on YouTube,  and, as the banner announced, 3 continents, 6 countries and 24 teams.  Each US team got to play against an international team and there were no eliminations. It was awesome.  And I’m not even what you would call a derby fan.  It’s just that my daughter plays.  

I should have known this was going to be special when I walked into the event and there stood a near life-sized cut-out poster of my daughter in her Team USA uniform. Neat!! 

In addition to the Sunday night bout she skated in for Team USA, my daughter also skated in the three bouts for her Ft. Lauderdale team. Since she belonged to the host team, she also had to volunteer doing work during the event. I can’t imagine how tired she must have been.  Nevertheless, her team won 2 of its three bouts, and Team USA won its bout by over 400 points.  

But, my daughter was truly the star.  I am not just saying that because I am her mother.  Watching her skate and manage her way through packs of women determined to not let her through to score was exciting for everyone.  On Saturday night, the night before the Team USA event, my family watched the Mayweather-Maidana fight to unify the welterweight championship at a popular Ft. Lauderdale Sports Bar.  It was packed.  I thought the $10 cover charge was pretty low.  By the time the fight was over, I felt it had was overpriced.  As someone who was used to seeing people like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Mike Tyson, I thought the Mayweather fight was boring.  It never really got to the point where it was good and either fighter showed what made fighting exciting.

The next day, watching my daughter skate, I realized my assessment of the fighters had not been my imagination.  They could fight, but they never made the fight exciting by showing any real skill.  I realized this as I watched the Team USA bout. All the skaters could skate and do derby well.  To get to the point of being on Team USA, they were great.  

By my girl took it to the next level.  She made watching it absolutely exciting. That’s not to say that there were not others who played well also.  But my daughter stood out.  She made it worth driving ten hours in a Volkswagen Beetle worth every mile.

Contrary to what many believe about roller derby (including me before she began to participate), it is not made of up fringy he-women brawling it out on wheels.  These are hard working women who are doing things that run the full range from being doctors and lawyers, to working on their masters degrees, to working minimum wage jobs.  Their movements may look random and aggressive, but players are tightly constrained by the rules as to how they can contact other players.  In all the bouts I’ve attended, I’ve never seen anything even approaching a fight on the track.

After lining up at the starting line, five per team, one person on the team, deemed the lead jammer, must be the first to break through the pack to become the one who earns points for the team by getting through the pack as she comeback around the track once again to the pack.  The number of points depends on the number of players she gets through to continue skating around the track.  Keep in mind that if you are the lead jammer, your team is intent on guarding the other team’s players to allow you to do what you need to do to get through, and the other team is intent on not letting you get through.  All while the other team’s lead jammer is trying to gain on you, overtake you, and become the point-maker for her team.  

As you can imagine, as a lead jammer, getting through a pack intent on not letting you through can be absolutely daunting.  These women have practiced untold hours just to keep that from happening.  The courage it must take to even skate up to the pack and attempt to get through is beyond the pale.  The strategy it takes to find a weakness in the pack and exploit it within the rules to make your way through takes tremendous vision, concentration, determination, strategy and skill.  The determination to keep trying even though you are blocked at every turn is extraordinary.  

To manage to do it all with so much panache that you make it look easy is taking it to the next level.  

That’s what my daughter does.  

You watch her go up to a pack and before you can fix your eyes good to try to see where she can get in, she’s through them all and the ref is holding up his or her hand with five fingers extended, indicating to the scorekeepers that she has gotten past all 5 players on the team.  Seeing her agile enough to go around a block, or jump over a fallen player, or use her hips to powerfully push someone blocking her out of her way is amazing.  No wonder other teams hire her to come in and conduct boot camps.  She is great.

When she straps on those skates and steps onto the track, she is in another world.  Her aching body doesn’t hurt.  Her confidence knows no bounds because she knows without a doubt that she will do what she needs to do. She is, and always has been, tremendously competitive.  She hates to lose and will do what it takes to position herself and her team to win.  When she is in a bout, her ability to strategize, lift team spirit, and find a way to put points on the board is all that is in her head.  She does what it takes to make that happen.  

She doesn’t just play. She plays hard, she plays smart, she’s not afraid to give up the body, though she strategizes to keep that at a minimum because she knows it is her equipment and instrument, and she does not make excuses.  For every move she makes, she has practiced and practiced and practices to perfect it.  I have watched her do it over and over and over again ad nauseum because she wants to get it right.  How she does it, I do not know.  She goes long past the point where I would have given up.  In fact, approaching a pack of women intent on keeping me out would make me head in the opposite direction.  Not my girl.

All of it is part of why she beat out 600 other great skaters to be on Team USA.  That spirit and performance and determination is why the crowd reacts so supportively toward her.  

She doesn’t just skate.  She takes it to the next level.  

And that, is exciting to watch.