THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE WOMEN’S FLAT TRACK DERBY ASSOCIATION (WFTDA) VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2, WINTER 2008
fiveonfivemag.com
tracking your league finances With the 2009 season approaching, no time is better than now to start easily tracking your league’s finances. Keeping tabs on each committee’s expenses helps you figure out where all that money is going and also empowers skaters to see where their dues, fundraising efforts and hard work has paid off. Here are some basic tips on organization and making your leagues funds accessible: availability is important Every skater dedicates a significant amount of time and money to her league, and concrete knowledge of where her dues and other league expenses are going should always be available. It may seem like a hassle to constantly update data, but keeping a visible paper trail can save many headaches in the future. On one hand, if your league needs to cut costs at any point it will be easy to summarize what is currently being spent where, while any internal financial questions (“Why do I have to pay so much for dues?” “Why can’t my committee spend x amount of money?” “How much are we really putting into advertising?” “Can we afford this awesome new merch idea?” etc.) can be answered easily. tracking data So, how can you keep track of finances and make sure everyone can access it? find a system – Ideally you want an easy-to-follow and fool-proof place to store your data – a program like QuickBooks (quickbooks.intuit.com) has online availability so more than one user can sign in and check finances or add data for a monthly fee. You may also keep an excel file in Google Docs (docs.google.com) that users can easily access and update from anywhere for free.
keep it visible – If not all users have Internet access or if one person is in charge of entering all of your data, be sure to print updated hard copies to bring to league meetings. If your league has an online Yahoo! Group or some kind of document storage space, you may also make updated copies available there rather than tracking data in a place where it can be easily manipulated by other users (such as in a Google Doc). delegate tasks – The most difficult part of keeping track of finances publicly is being diligent about updating them. It is ideal to either have one person act as a bookkeeper for your league, or have a minibookkeeper for each committee that helps maintain information. Keep in mind that the league member who tracks your finances probably doesn’t know off the top of her head that the crumpled up wad of cash you handed her after practice was for your monthly dues, new uniforms and travel expenses, so be sure to write out a breakdown rather than telling her quickly while heading out the door. If your league goes the Google Doc or multiple user route for updating finance data, be clear about who is in charge of inputting what. Delegate a representative from each committee to keep tabs on expenses and income, that way nothing will be entered twice or not entered at all. Most leagues lack a physical office or even a conventional business structure due to the equal representation of so many members, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t easily keep track of something like finances. With a little bit of organization and a lot of clear communication amongst skaters, you can be sure that everyone has a grip on the economic status of your league.
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health and fitness
being an athlete: an overview B I G F ’ N R E F, S T E E L C I T Y D E R B Y DA M E S
For all you sarcastic derby ladies out there the answer is not that they exercise... thanks anyhow. The first answer is discipline. Many people start to exercise, in any of its myriad forms, and quit very soon after. To be considered an exerciser and receive the health benefits, performance enhancements or the mitigating effects to injuries, you must be disciplined. You must train consistently. How often you need to train varies, but everything starts with the discipline to exercise. No train = no gain. So then, if you have two runners with discipline and they both run five days out of seven, run in the rain, snow and in every conceivable weather condition, run when on vacation and feel guilty
when forced to skip a planned day of running – what starts separating out the athletes from the fitness enthusiast? Goals. Goals are the next piece of the puzzle that stratifies athletes. How detailed those goals are or how often
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they are considered isn’t as important, but striving to not get hurt during derby, to be .4 seconds faster in a five-lap time, to have better leg strength or endurance to force opposing blockers off the track late in the game, are all goals. Now, you have two skaters and they are both disciplined. They show up for all practices, train occasionally on their own and have goals. They want to be the best blocker or jammer on their team, in their league, or at nationals. So what are the next pieces of the athletic puzzle? Planning and training. What specifically is being done by the athletic player to correct weaknesses or become faster or stronger? “I have weaker legs than I would like. So I am going to do 3x3x12 barbell squats and 3x3x12 walking lunges two times per week for the next six weeks and then reevaluate where I am.” Planning and training are the specific steps athletes use to bring about their goals. The final pieces of the puzzle are records and testing. This can be as involved or as rudimentary as you’d like to make it, but it is hard to know what is working if you don’t know where you’ve started. Some managers or coaches keep records of how they trained their teams on what day or individual skaters’ times on tests, but it is really beneficial if you do this on your own. Each of these areas has many sub areas. Discipline when talking about athletic performance, for example, can
be broken down into sub areas such as food, rest, exercise and hydration. If you exercise every day religiously but stay out until 3 a.m. and get up for school or work at 6 a.m., your body will never get the maximal benefit from the exercise program you are doing. Little or no sleep equals poor results from training. Eating nothing for breakfast most days, having a package of cheese crackers and diet cola for lunch and two tacos at the bar after practice while drinking six Corona Lights is not being very disciplined in regards to food. It’s fun and everyone does things like that occasionally, but to make a habit of it reduces your athletic potential. Truthfully, if you play derby you are an athlete by anyone’s yardstick, and you don’t have to do anything in this life you don’t want to do. Derby is still growing, though, and no one knows where it will end up. If you are disciplined, set goals for yourself, plan and train, and occasionally test yourself to make sure the training is paying off, who knows what you can achieve.
Good luck in all your training endeavors.
Kerry McClain.com
What attributes separate an exerciser from a non-exerciser?
gear
traveling light for derby I VA N N A S . PA N K I N ’ , S A N D I E G O D E R B Y D O L L S
does anyone go anywhere without their skates anymore? I won’t go anywhere without my skates again. You can bank on a chance to scrimmage if you come without your gear! Of course the reverse is also true; if you do bring your stuff, you run the risk of hauling heavy skates around and not getting to skate. So the trick is to come prepared, but make it as painless as possible to bring your stuff. After a couple hundred derby trips, I’ve managed to get a long weekend of derby down to one carry-on bag. No lie. Here’s how: street clothes: 1. Check the Internet to see what weather you can expect during your trip. I use Weather.com; they have a couple dozen ways for you to look it up and it’s pretty dummy proof. Use this info to help you figure out your street clothes. If you’re going for a long weekend and you think it’s going to be chilly at night, you could need at least one pair of jeans. But you can get away with just that one – or maybe not bring pants at all if you pack a couple skirts and tights, which take up way less room. Skirts and tights are also great for warm-in-the-day, cool-at-night situations, of course. Bring a hoodie (or better yet, plan on wearing it). 2. Don’t be tempted to bring too many street-wear t-shirts! Wear your team / league shirts in the airport (represent!) and if you’re not seeing people the day you get in, you might want to bring one to wear the first time you do connect. But if you’re anything like most of us, you’re going to end up with a few new shirts on any derby trip; you’ll be buying one from the host l eague you’re visiting or picking up souvenirs at the event... or, hopefully, you’ll get lucky and trade shirts with a newfound BFF. I bring so few – usually three! Yet I almost always come home with clean shirts (coming home with clean clothes in my bag is my personal indication of failure).
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skating clothes: 1. If you’re going for a game, you obviously need to pack your uniform first, including your luc ky whatevers and all that. Tip to toe, everything you need for the game. But for the rest of the time, or for non-game trips: can you use any of those skirts from #1 above to scrimmage? Good girl! Don’t forget the bootie shorts and you’re ready with scrimmage bottoms. I bring a pair of tights and a set of scrim bottoms for each day. I always bring one pair of b-ball shorts (call me crazy but I like a fall back on those days when I don’t want to stand out because of my snappy outfit, for whatever reason). 2. Now multiply the number of days you’re going to be gone times two. That’s how many pairs of panties AND skating socks you’ll need if you’re lucky enough to scrimmage every day. Panties don’t take up much room, so you can afford to have a few extras on hand. 3. Don’t forget black and white shirts with your name on them. Good grief, people! There is just no excuse to not carry b&ws in your skate bag at all times. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, if you can’t tell. But seriously, you want to be the one that shows up at a scrim with just your black shirt, no name on it? You can pin your name on, I suppose, but you’ve still cut your chances to decide who you want to skate with and against IN HALF. Think that one through! You could miss out on a chance to floor your hero! Or whip your secret derby crush. So, for a trip, you want at least one black and one white for each day you think you could get to scrim. I have piles of tanks (instead of tees) with my name already on them just for this purpose. I actually prefer to scrim in a tee, but beaters take up less room in my bag. Be ready to part with some of them (see Street Clothes #2)!
hotels to the event location. The event may have arranged a discount somewhere, so check the host’s website for that. If you’re on a budget, though, you’ll probably get a better deal by shopping around if you’re willing to deal with fewer creature comforts. For bigger savings and a bigger adventure, look for a hostel, or try your luck at couchsurfing.com and make new random friends. Or, check out vrbo.com and share a house with your whole league! If you’re driving to the event, let Google Maps plot your route. If you’re flying, travel sites like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com are your best resources to conduct flexible searches for good fares. Keep in mind that shifting your arrival or departure by a day one direction or another sometimes makes a huge difference in the fare you pay. You can forget some of the old airfare guidelines about a Saturday stay, or 30-day advance rates, or not flying on weekends... the market is much more fluid now. Look for packages, too – I’ve seen airfare + rental car rates on Travelocity sometimes turn out to be even cheaper than the flight alone! Speaking of rental cars, when you’re considering in-town travel, give them a serious look. You can sometimes get a rental car for the weekend for less than the cost of cab fare to and from the airport. Be sure to check with your auto insurance carrier, credit card provider, and travel club to see if you have existing coverage that’ll save you from exorbitant rental car insurance rates. (You are a member of AAA, right? It’ll pay for itself in one dead battery, one lockout, or any number of mishaps that’ll hit you when you can least afford it). If a rental car isn’t in the cards, it’s back to Google Maps for local transit planning.
The day before you depart, check Weather.com to see what highs, lows, and precipitation you’re likely to encounter during your stay. This will help shape your clothing selection. If you’re flying, most airlines let you check in online up to 24 hours before your departure and print your boarding passes from home. If you’re not checking baggage, this will save you a chunk of
surviving First things first: Internet on the road. Most hotels now have free wifi. Most event venues, with the notable exception of the Sportsplex in Philadelphia, have no publicly available Internet. Like it or not, Starbucks is your most reliable source of nearly-free internet, just make a purchase and you’re in. Get some fruit juice while you’re there, you need it anyway. If you
time; if you’re checking one or more bags, pay your checked-bag fee online to get a discounted rate from some airlines. If your seats suck, go ahead and complete the check-in later – sometimes better seats open up and you can grab ‘em.
have the right smartphone, like an iPhone or an android-powered Google Phone, you can get along pretty well without a laptop. For the Internet addict, aircard plans through your cellular carrier are getting more reasonable, too – but don’t count on getting a good signal inside some venues. No matter where you go, no matter what the circumstances, I cannot repeat this enough: when you travel, drink water. Lots of water. Keep drinking water. Climate changes, greater than usual exertions, skating hard, after partying hard – any one of these is a recipe for dehydration. No single thing you do will help insure you feel good and have fun on your derby adventure more than keeping after the water. Don’t forget the electrolytes! Once you’ve sweated out the salts, your body can’t actually do anything with the water you ingest, so work in a Gatorade from time to time to ‘lyte up. No, Red Bull is not an electrolyte – remember that energy drinks will dehydrate you too! Most importantly, don’t forget to eat. No amount of caffeine and taurine will keep you running through a three day derby weekend if your body doesn’t have fuel to burn. Once again, Google Maps will help you find actual nutrition if the venue’s concessions options aren’t up to the task. Don’t forget that grocery stores exist at your destination, too!
packing Please see Ivanna S. Pankin’s excellent article on packing light for derby on page 24. In addition to her tips, add the following to your packing list: • Is the climate you’re traveling to drier or more humid that you’re used to? Pack extra clothes for humid locales like Atlanta (you’re gonna sweat), nose and eye drops for dry climates like Las Vegas. • Planning to cheer a whole lot? Bring lozenges, you’ll need ‘em. • Ibuprofen, it’s like derby vitamins. Good for headaches from too much yelling, good for achy feet from standing on concrete for hours, good for aches from skating, good for hangovers. My doctor says up to 800 milligrams up to four times a day as long as your stomach cooperates, but of course I myself am not a doctor so don’t take it from me. • League schwag! The best way to make friends at a derby event is by showering those around you with stickers, buttons, and whatever other fun stuff you’ve got . • Flying? 3-1-1 for liquids in your carry on. Google it.
May your derby travels in 2009 be exciting (but only in the right ways), and I’ll see you on the road! fiveonfivemag.com | Winter 2008 | 41
Papa Razzi
art and media
(L-R) Under-exposure, proper exposure, over-exposure. Under-exposure results in muddy colors and no shadow detail. Over-exposure blows out highlights, mutes vibrant colors, and washes out dark areas. Aim for proper exposure to get accurate skin tones, vibrant colors, and proper highlight and shadow details.
derby photography 101 PA PA R A Z Z I , FA B U L O U S S I N C I T Y R O L L E R G I R L S
Maybe you’re the only one in your league who has a decent camera. Maybe you’re the photographer-husband who volunteers to document your wife’s derby sisters kick the crap out of each other. Maybe you’re a seasoned pro photographer and are already bored with this article. Whatever the reason, you’ve either volunteered or been elected to be your league’s photographer. Congrats, a whole gang of rowdy gals expects you to make them look their sweaty best. No pressure... Derby photography can be a cakewalk or quite a challenge depending on the available lighting, your equipment, how well your league works with you, and your knowledge of how to shoot action photography. I’m here to help out with the latter. BASIC CAMERA SETTINGS Every camera has its own bells and whistles, so I can’t begin to tell you everything your camera is capable of doing. Instead I’ll focus on some basic functions of the camera and how they work together in action photography. shutter speed – These are the numbers on your camera that are usually expressed in a fraction of a second, like 1/60 or
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1/400. This is how fast your camera is taking a photo and the lower the fraction amount, the faster the shutter speed (1/1000 of a second is a faster shutter speed than 1/60). To stop action, you want as fast of a shutter speed as you can get. The slower the shutter speed, the steadier your hand must be to avoid shake blur, especially with long telephoto lenses. A general rule for long lenses when shooting hand-held (no tripod), is to use a shutter speed equivalent to the focal length of the lens. For example, if you’re using a 100mm lens, you should shoot 1/100 of a second or faster to freeze the action without any blur caused by your hands or breathing. The shutter speed is one of two methods used to control how much light is allowed to strike the film/sensor when making an exposure. f-stop – These are the non-fraction and sometimes decimal numbers, like 5.6, 11, and 16. Without getting into the history of how a lens aperture works (not all digital cameras have them now anyway), let’s opt for an over-simplified explanation. The f-stop is the other method used to control how much light is