
Purchase
The Insider's Guide to Roller Derby
Soft Skull Press
July 2010
On Sale: July 13, 2010
224 pages ISBN: 1593762747 EAN: 9781593762742 Paperback
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Sports
When most Americans hear the words βroller derbyβ today, they think of the kitschy sport once popular on weekend television during the seventies and eighties. Originally an endurance competition where skaters traveled the equivalent of a trip between Los Angeles and New York, derby gradually evolved into a violent contact sport often involving fake fighting. But after nearly dying out in the nineties, derby has been making a comeback. From a mere handful of leagues in the United States just a few years ago, there are now more than 17,000 skaters in more than 400 leagues around the world, with hundreds of thousands of die-hard fans. Down and Derby will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the sport. Written by veteran skaters as both a history and a how-to, Down and Derby is a brassy celebration of every aspect of the sport, from its origins in the late 1800s, to the rules of a modern bout, to the science of picking an alias, to the many ways you can get involved off skates. Informative, entertaining, and executed with the same tough, sassy, DIY attitude β leavened with plenty of humor β that the sport is known for, Down and Derby is the first and last book on derby youβll ever need.
 Media BuzzMorning Edition - August 31, 2010
|