EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing Roller Derby is set to start their season next week.
League president and coach Ali 'Jahrmageddon" Jahr says she's looking to fine tune not only the teams mechanics but their mentality. Jahr has been active in the league since 2011.
"Whatever the pump-up is as a coach, I try to help people find that. For some people, they need to get really hyped up, and they need to get a little bit angry and find that like inner fire, and other people need to keep it cool, calm cucumber and keep it zen because it helps them focus. So, whatever that is that’s kind of the coaching model that I personally use is I do coaching based on the individual," said Jahr.
Individuality is important in this league but so is working as a team, and for many of these athletes, it's their first opportunity to do so.
"I think having a space for women, and non-binary folk, and transgender folk and having a safe space for those people to participate in a sport is really critical to the community, and you would not even know how much this brings to women’s lives," Jahr said.
The derby celebrates individuals and helps guide its athletes, as many of them weren't initially athletes.
"Most people who come here don’t have experience playing in sports, which is surprising to me. There is literally like 80% of people who join our league didn’t necessarily play sports, and they definitely didn’t do full contact sports. So this has been a weird unique situation that’s incredibly awesome," said Jahr.
Entering a contact sport may be overwhelming to some, but Jahr says they focus on the basics first. Then, they test each athlete with a skills assessment before introducing them to physical contact.
They also offer training camps to adults and children.
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