I'm not old, I'm well marinated. Derby for the older skater.

I love being the age I am.  I know that sounds a little new age-y but I really do accept that I've been walking around this planet for a certain number of years.  I remember listening to Men Without Hats, I was there when Michael Jackson looked like a human being, and I briefly and unironically had a mullet hair style when I was in the tenth grade.  Don't judge!

Were you expecting a picture?  Hell no!

Every once in a while, I get surprised looks when tell people my age; I am in great shape for an older lady, and I can outrun and out endure women who are almost half my age.  Do I take some pleasure in out-skating the younger folk?  Most definitely! Do I try and talk older, athletic women into starting derby? Hell yes I do!

1. First of all, older athletes generally tend to be better endurance performers because we naturally have more slow twitch muscle mass.  The slow muscles are more efficient at using oxygen to generate more fuel (known as ATP) for continuous, extended muscle contractions over a long time. They fire more slowly than fast twitch fibers and can go for a long time before they fatigue. Therefore, slow twitch fibers are great at helping athletes run marathons and bicycle for hours.  Derby is an endurance sport.  Win!

2.  Older athletes are more susceptible to chronic and overuse injuries than their younger counterparts.  We lose muscle and bone mass as we age, which can be helped by exercise, but we also lose flexibility in our tendons and ligaments.  That's kind of a bummer, but fear not my older derby players!  Low impact and higher endurance sports are better for our age group!  Gee, does that sound like a sport we all share?  Hell yes!

3.  Older athletes tend to have more shoulder injury issues; this is mostly due to having been active since a young age.  The awesome thing about derby is that shoulder hits are slowly going the way of the dinosaurs and everyone is focusing on hip hits!   Derby beats the hell out of tennis for shoulder issues...yea derby!

4.  Having problems with your memory and mental skills? Exercise can fix that, and learning something as complicated as derby can improve your mental fitness  That's right, we have a physical and mental fitness that we need to take care of, so we need to keep ourselves challenged in both of these areas.

5.  Older athletes have a more realistic approach.  Let's face it, we have wisdom and experience on our side.  Most of us have busy lives, and have learned what our limits our and how to reach our goals efficiently.  I know through my own experience that I have a lot less social drama than younger skaters do, and I tend to experience "butt hurt" far less often than my younger counterparts do.   Am I more settled than younger skaters?  Heck yes!  Am I SETTLING for lower performance than younger skaters?  OH HELL NO!

Yeah, you're younger than I am, but I just got around you.  Photo by Joshua R. Craig Photography

Now I know that I'm never going to be an energetic and bouncy person after a night of only three hours or less of sleep, which is the realm of the young.  But to be honest, I'm not really going to put myself in that situation if I can help it, which is the realm of the well marinated!  Three cheers for being a well marinated derby skater!

Some of my favorite skaters are well marinated.  Photo by A Boy Named Tsunami