Roller Warrior

When planning the hours before derby practice, which includes, of course, dressing, I realized I feel like I'm preparing to go to war: thigh brace, ankle brace, shin guards, knee gaskets, all of these things are donned BEFORE I get to practice. At practice, I put on giant, tissue box sized knee pads, on top of my knee gaskets, as well as elbow pads, wrist guards, a helmet, and mouth guard. I usually wear leggings, not tights anymore, and certainly never fishnets (although this is much to my roommates' chagrin, one of which bought me a pair for Christmas - but I don't feel guilty for never wearing them since I happen to know she bought me the gift a few hours before we were set to exchange them), this is to combat the ever present danger of rink rash. I don't fear it, or, if I do, I fear it just the same as any other cut or abrasion I've had. Like paper cuts. I take certain precautions, but outside of that, I abandon all worry. Hence, I still get such things (had rink rash twice), but it happens a lot less.

One of my fellow fresh meat fell on her ass rather hard while we were skating backwards a few weeks ago. The result has been a broken or bruised tailbone. I bruised mine a few months ago as well. I was jamming and, for no reason I can explain, after breaking through the pack and gaining lead, I felt on my skate wheel in just the right, or wrong, way. It hurt, but the real pain came later. I was able to finish off the jam with 8-0 differential. Afterward, sitting down hurt. As the hours progressed, it hurt more and more. I should have iced it right away. I know better now. My ass still hurts, more than two months later, if I sit a certain way for too long. Sometimes I wonder if it will always hurt, or if it has ever not hurt. Mostly though, I forget about it. And, in spite of this injury, I have elected not to wear, much less purchase, crash pads. Perhaps I will regret this decision. I hope not. I think I would wear them if everyone in the league did.
Once I got kicked in the shins and it really hurt. I looked around after that and noticed a lot of vets I respect, Perseph, Sunny, Mo, etc, wear shin guards. So I bought a pair and wear them during scrimmage.