The crowd is full of energy but silent, sitting on the edge of their seats, watching the dark-haired beauty as she picks up speed. She is neck-and-neck with the other jammer. Her face is full of determination as she rounds the bend. In a moment, she is in the lead. Seconds later, the opposing team’s jammer is lost in the dust behind her. She is Kristi Yamagotcha and she is a sight to behold. If you haven’t been to an Angel City Derby Girl bout, you are missing more than just fantastic skating.
After watching Yamagotcha skate, I am hard-pressed to believe that according to her, she was horrible at derby in the beginning. “I tripped over my wheels, I bounced off people when I tried to hit them,” she said. “I tripped people because of my long figure-skating stride and went to the penalty box all the time.”
And that’s another thing that makes her so special – as a girl she was a figure skater. Now that is something I can believe with ease.
Figure skating and derby skating are two very different animals and with sheer stubbornness, Yamagotcha overcame her challenges. “I hated being so bad at something I liked so much, so I picked one thing at a time and started fixing my bad habits one by one. I still have a long way to go, but I love the process of getting better. And if I can do it, anyone can,” she said.
So how does a figure skater find her way to the game of roller derby? “Back when I lived in Detroit, a co-worker skated with the Detroit Derby Girls,” she said. “I went to a bout with friends and was instantly excited about it. The concept of contact sports was pretty foreign to me, so while I wanted to give it a try I was super nervous about the ‘getting hit’ part. But I dragged a friend to tryouts with me despite my fear and the rest is history.”
Yamagotcha spent the early part of the season recovering from a knee injury, but as Culver City residents know, has came back with a vengeance. She received the MVP award for the Scarlets’ dominant win, 187-81, over the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (which also secured the Scarlets’ invitation for Western Regionals in the fall) because her skillful and feisty jamming played such an important role in the game.
Yamagotcha is not only a skilled jammer, but also a blocker. “One of the reasons I love derby is that every position is challenging in different ways and there’s always something to work on. Jamming is great because you can be really focused on a singular goal, and it makes you work on your agility and skating skills. Blocking has less pressure, but requires so much more teamwork and multi-tasking,” she said.
She says that by far the best thing about derby is the built-in community that comes with it. “For someone who did individual sports for so long, having this great group of people pushing you, inspiring you and celebrating with you is amazing. Also, I finally have an excuse to buy all those argyle knee highs I’ve been coveting,” she said.
Catch Kristi Yamagotcha and the rest of the Angel City Derby Girls on Aug.13, when they take on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells. It’s a night you don’t want to miss.
ACDG plays at Culver City’s Veterans Auditorium, 4117 Overland Ave. For more information, go to AngelCityDerbyGirls.com.
