Why do you wear so much stuff?

 As far as I can tell, based on the pictures you see to the right, protection in Roller Derby is something that has been added over time. We went from skates and clothes, to skates, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, mouth guard and a helmet.
We, like any other athlete, need to be protected. Of course, accidents do happen, like in any sport. However we do our best to try and avoid major injury. That's just common sense!
So why do we wear so much stuff?
Well, I have seen girls in my league slam themselves off the floor, the wall and any other surface they can find that may cause concussion fairly regularly. I myself, have had many a bonding moment with the wall at our practice space, and often tell people of our close personal relationship. Without the safety of my elbow pads, I definitely would have cause very serious injury to my arm by now, and my knees are pretty rotten to begin with, so the more protection I can get the better.
The helmet has saved numerous girls in my league alone from some pretty serious damage. I once watched Crash N Turn slam her head against the wall. Just boom, top of head meet wall, wall, meet top of head. It looked incredibly painful with the helmet on, I can't even imagine the damage that would have been cause with it off.
I myself tried a fancy little maneuver last night where I got caught up in a teammates wheels and came down on my left side. I hit elbow first, then the rest of me followed. I can't be sure because it happened so fast, but it felt like my face missed the floor by well, I guess centimeters would be the unit of measurement I could use. And the entire left side of my body ached through the night from the crash. If I had not been wearing wrist guard, elbow pads, and knee pads, I would not be up walking around today, so I for one am very happy they are there.
Roller Derby is a full contact sport, and we do our best to train so we can avoid injury. We do what we can to protect our bodies as much as possible. We are not making millions of dollars doing this, we pay monthly dues, and spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on equipment for a sport we love. So while the padding may get in the way of the booty shorts, and fishnets, if you wanna continue seeing us out there, then we need to make sure we have it!