I was asked if I could cover a Roller Derby bout here in the Salt Lake area this past Thursday. I have only been to one derby bout and never taken pictures at one, so I welcomed the challenge.
I didn't really understand the rules of the game, but after about 10 minutes it became pretty apparent what was going on. The different teams have people that wear the star on their helmets and those people have to get past everyone that tries to block them and go around the circle and do that before the other teams star head person does.
The ones with the stars on their heads are called "jammers" and the others are "blockers" and a "pivot". When both jammers break free from the blockers, the race is on and when they are neck and neck it can get physical between the two.
The game itself is pretty physical all around. There was one injury during the bout. A bunch of the girls fell on top of one person and snapped her ankle. I wanted to get a picture, but it felt wrong because she was laying there holding her leg up and her foot was just flopping around.
The camaraderie between the two teams was pretty cool. The derby community isn't that big so they are all friends. This specific game was a fun Harry Potter themed game and the teams were made up of players from all the different teams in the area. It was Gryffindor versus Slytherin, so this was more of a fun match and not a normal competitive team match.
In the end Gryffindor ended up winning, but it was a well fought bout between both teams. Everyone involved had a great time.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my post. I hope that you enjoyed it and liked the pictures. I am hoping to get into more sports photography in the future. It is a lot of fun. It keeps you on your toes because you never know when something cool is gonna happen and you always have to be thinking of framing and how the subjects are moving.
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