Real pushing

When I went to see a roller derby meet held at a local skating rink, I expected something with the lurid glamor of, say, pro-wrestling. What I found was a sport of fast pace and physical contact, of honest athleticism unbelied by the punny-iness of the monikers (Come on: Estrogeena Davis? Vixen Tahitya? Hayley Contagious?).

The skates were heavy four wheel roller skates. The helmets were clunky. In between the women were lithe and leggy, with bulky pads on elbows and knees, because this is sport where people are pushed and tumble.

Lots of officials and referees, almost more than the Ohio Gang Green  which was taking  on the Boston B Party. After a player by player inspection to see no concealed weapons were in the joint pads, the teams each slow-rolled in a crouch around the track, an oval 60 feet long end to end, as each player stood up and waved as her name was called.

Then the jam. Two minutes max. Four blockers and one jammer from each team on the track--blockers to obstruct the opposing jammers and assist  their own, jammers to win points by getting through or around obstacles by brute force or exploitation of gaps. Blockers used hips, rear or shoulders, but couldn't link or use hands or trip. So the rhythm was alternately fast skating by breakaway jammers and setting up by blockers in a slow-rolling pack, then collision of jammers and blockers in general melee.

Pushing and shoving, bodies knocked over and off the track (if pushed out of bounds, jammers had to start again behind the furthest back opposing blocker), altogether an exhausting, physical game that rewarded fast thinking and fast feet. One jam over, the next one set up immediately with a new jammer. The pace was relentless and exhausting.

Most of the people in the rink were young, perhaps curious, like me, about this reviving sport which had in recent years almost gone extinct. There is a men's roller derby, but the appeal of the sport is mainly to young women who want to be physical without being brutal. A junior roller derby is based on the idea that this is just the kind of physical outlet and attitude that girls 7-17 like. Speed and physical contact, what a winning combination for a sport--the thrill of the body in top moving form and the excitement of impact.

Good arguments are sometimes like that--the swift flight of ideas and walls of opposition. The adroit turn of a logical relationship and pivot through a hole in the rebuttal. A quick restatement by the objection that closes the hole. The theme-shift end run. The refutation squeeze. The chain of inference breakaway.After a debate like this, intense but not personal, I feel a mental glow similar to what my muscles feel after a workout.and I'm grateful for the match. In fact, I need it if my ideas are not to be too flabby and vapid. Often the service of a  good friend is to agree on the issues but reach alternative conclusions.

There are injuries in roller derby and some of my ideas have been severely bruised in debate. So be it.