“Don’t apologise – it’s what you’re supposed to be doing”

Kathryn Welch, 39, member of New Town Roller Derby

“I fell into roller derby after meeting someone from New Town at a local Pride march. I went along for a tryout last October and found the team to be the most friendly, welcoming and generous bunch of people, but they are also incredibly competitive – they really want to win.

“I hadn’t been on roller skates since I was a child, so I started from the absolute beginning. I had to learn how to stand up on skates and then learn the physical side of roller derby, because it’s a full-contact sport. That’s part of its competitive nature and it’s been good to experiment with my own toughness. It feels powerful. When I started jamming into the other players, my immediate reaction was to say ‘sorry’, but the team’s response was: ‘You don’t have to apologise for this; it’s what you’re supposed to be doing.’ That aspect of the competition has taught me to be less apologetic in other aspects of my life, especially when I’m doing a job I need to do.

“Being competitive is framed as something where you have to shove people down in order to win, but, being a team sport, roller derby has completely changed my view. Being a team, supporting and looking out for each other is part of the sport and being kind and generous can be part of your competitiveness. These things don’t have to be in opposition.

“It’s also taught me a lot about patience. I have high expectations and put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed, but when you learn something from scratch at 39, you realise that you can’t be brilliant at everything on day one. Sticking with something through the struggle is how you get good and become competitive. I’ve learned that part of competitiveness is having patience with yourself. It takes a while to learn something new and you can struggle with it. But, that’s not failing, that’s how you win.”

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