Try to stay out of Scootaloo’s way when she’s feeling rowdy—when she gets amped up, she’s been known to hit, hard. But that’s a good thing. You could kind of say that’s part of her job. Lindsey “Scootaloo” Lyford has been skating with Minnesota RollerGirls for seven seasons, and by now she’s found her own personal style when it comes to playing roller derby—one that includes pigtailed rainbow hair extensions. “I love the chaos,” she says. “I really like the big hits, rather than playing strategically.”

By now, most people have heard of roller derby, at least in passing. You know it’s a sport, played on roller skates, often by women; it’s a little rough and it’s poster child is the pint-sized Ellen Page, who fights her way onto a roller derby track in the 2009 movie “Whip It.” But roller derby has had a presence in Minnesota since 2004, when a pair of sisters from the Twin Cities caught the derby bug in Austin, TX and brought it home with them. Now, Minnesota RollerGirls is composed of four teams (the Atomic Bombshells, Dagger Dolls, Garda Belts, and Rockits) of about 20 players each that play in interleague bouts, and an all-star team made up of the top players that travels and competes nationally.

Oct. 6 was bout night at Roy Wilkins Auditorium (home to all the roller girls’ interleague bouts), and despite this being a preseason tournament, it was bustling. Fans—ranging from young hipsters to old grandmas to families—started lining up over an hour before the doors opened. You would never think that an event like this would attract such a diverse and energized group of fans, but Scootaloo (who is a blocker for the Garda Belts, by the way) says that’s really not the case.

“We have students; we have lawyers; we have nurses—I’m a seamstress. We cover all bases,” she says. And, especially toward the end of the season, “It’s electric. It gets loud.”

The regular season of interleague play begins Nov. 10, so for those who may be interested but lack an understanding of the game, here’s the nitty-gritty.

Roller Derby: The Basics
Roller derby actually stretches way back to the ’30s, where it got its start as a spectator sport. It’s changed a little throughout the years, and has seen a resurgence in popularity since its heyday in the ’50s-’70s. Today, it’s still played on good old-fashioned roller skates, but the rules have been tweaked and formalized by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), the national governing body for female-only, skater-owned, flat-track roller derby leagues. Here are a few basic terms you ought to know:

Jammers: The only players that can score and end the jam. Each team has one jammer playing at a time.
Lead Jammer: The first jammer to lap the pack and pass all players without stepping out of bounds. The lead jammer can call off the jam at any point before the two minutes are up.
Blockers: Everyone besides the jammers. They skate in a pack and try to prevent the other team’s jammer from scoring.
Pivot: A blocker who can become a jammer if her team’s jammer becomes tired or injured.
The Pack: The largest group of skaters from both teams. Skaters cannot engage with members of the other team if they are more than 20 feet ahead of or behind the pack.
The Jam: The two-minute-or-less period in which teams can score.
Bout: A game, essentially. Each bout is generally broken into two 20- or 30-minute periods.

Scoring
Jammers are the only players that can score. They do so by lapping the pack, and gain points for each member of the opposing team that they pass without going out of bounds. The lead jammer remains the lead jammer for the duration of the jam, and can call off the jam at any point. She might call off the jam, for example, if she falls behind and sees the other team has a good chance of scoring. Points are cumulative through each period, and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Getting Rough
Roller derby can get rough, and players do actually get hurt. It’s legal to check opposing players on the front or side, and although it’s illegal to elbow, trip, grab, or hit opposing players, that can happen, too. Players that make illegal contact take a break in the penalty box.

As a whole, roller derby is an intense, team-oriented sport made up of highly athletic, empowered women. The Minnesota RollerGirls hold three two-hour practice session a week, and players must make it to at least two out of three to be eligible to play. It’s also very tight-knit group that forms very real friendships.

“It’s one of the most cohesive groups I’ve ever been a part of,” says Lissie “Winona Collider” Starr of Minnesota RollerGirls’ Dagger Dolls. She’s a lawyer by day and got onto the team this season after reffing and trying out for the previous two seasons. She wears pink fishnets over her black leggings and pink zebra-striped hot pants.

“Even though we go out there and we hit each other and we try to knock each other down, at the end of the day, we all go to the same after party and we all hang out and we give each other hugs,” she adds.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement, though. And sometimes it’s easy to get carried away.

“At the end [of the bout] the other jammer got sent to the box,” says Scootaloo, “and this one blocker was like meh meh meh, like nagging at me and then came up and hit me, and she hit me pretty hard, but then I was like (can I swear?) just, you get like—all of a sudden this switch turns on and the aggression comes and you’re like: ‘Fuck you, you’re a bitch. I’m going to hit you really hard.’ And we know each other! Once that switch turns on, it’s like all right, here we go.”

Minnesota RollerGirls and the other local league, North Star Roller Girls, have their full schedules posted online. Each league has six bouts remaining this season, spread through April. Visit mnrollergirls.com or northstarrollergirls.com to learn more or find out how you can get involved outside of fanship. In addition to players, leagues need volunteers of all kinds to keep the game going—this isn’t a big moneymaking enterprise and the players don’t receive compensation.

They’re in it for the fun—and for the energy. Scootaloo says she loves to see the crowd get riled up and to see smiles on the fans faces when they leave. Her team, the Garda Belts, eked out a narrow, dramatic come-from-behind victory in the third place bout against Winona Collider’s Dagger Dolls. It put the Garda Belts on the right track as they compete for the elusive “Golden Skate” awarded to the top team at the end of the season. The Garda Belts finished last season 1-4 and have never won a Golden Skate. Maybe this is the year. . . .