Brains and Bruises: An Introduction

What do you need to be a great scientist? If you had asked this question me at the start of my training, I would likely have told you what most people would say, that a great scientist needs curiosity and courage, patience and persistence, critical thinking and communication, and maybe some microscopes, mice, and mazes thrown in there somewhere. My science journey started many years ago and was pretty typical as far as they go. Throughout this series I will weave in stories of that journey. Like countless others, I poured blood, sweat and tears into my work for a loooong time. I faced many challenges, figured out many problems and conquered many fears along the way. I celebrated some incredible emotional highs and wallowed in the depths of some excruciating lows. And regardless of an experiment’s outcome, I learned to always be learning as I moved forward, step by step on my path to success.

Now what if I told you that in addition to all these things, for me, scientific success came with a helmet and a pair of roller skates?  I predict that most folks would be surprised and I will readily admit that I never expected my derby journey to take me this far or to have such a big impact on my professional life. And yet, 10 years after I attended my first roller derby bout as a graduate student, here we are.

What is roller derby? The answer to that question has changed over time from what is was when it was first started in the 1930’s by Leo Seltzer, a multiday endurance race played by teams of two skaters taking turns doing laps around the banked track. The sport quickly shifted to more of a spectacle as bouts began to focus on the hits and the brawls, the costumes and the crashes, much to the enthusiasm of very large crowds. Fishnets and fists gave way to the grassroots athletic movement that flat-track derby has become when it was again reborn as a competitive sport in early 2000’s Texas.

So, what is it like to be on track for a modern roller derby bout? First, while still a full-contact, rough and aggressive sport, safety is a top priority, with expanded protective equipment requirements including a helmet, mouth guard, and wrist knee, and elbow pads. Gone are the days of throwing elbows or tripping fellow skaters and engaging in unsafe contact will get you a trip to the penalty box. Game play spans across two exhausting 30 minute periods composed of a series of ‘jams’, In any given jam, which lasts up to two minutes, you and 4 other skaters on your team face off against 5 skaters from the other. As the jammer, designated with a star on your helmet, you will juke, and jive, and push your way through the pack on your way to scoring points for each opposing team’s blocker you pass. If you make it passed all the other skaters (called a pack) first, you are lead jammer which is way better than the alternative because you get to control how long the jam lasts. Your own four blocker teammates coordinate to assist you jam while they simultaneously preventing the other team’s jammer from doing the same. So you need to be track aware, listening as your team communicate their plans, watching for holes in the opposing blocker line they create for you to sneak through, and trusting that they will protect you as you take the opportunity. If you just can’t get passed the other team, a special blocker, your pivot (designated with a stripe on their helmet) is ready to take the star from you and become the jammer, so keep your eyes open for them. Oh, and you need to be doing all that while avoiding that blocker charging towards you on a mission to lay you out. In a word, roller derby is absolute chaos.

Sounds fun, right? You bet it is. And that just scratches the surface of what it is like to be a roller derby diva. There is so much more that I will reveal over the course of the Brains and Bruises series.

But, that still doesn’t explain what roller derby has to do with being a scientist. Most people would say very little. When I rolled in to my first day of Derby, I too, was not expecting just how many parallels my derby journey would have to my research one. And yet, the longer I science and the longer I skate, the more overlap I discover between these two seemingly disparate lives. My science journey is in many ways typical of the journey many people take through science. And it has been quite a journey so far. I went to a university (Go Sun Devils!) for my undergraduate studies, pursued my PhD in Psychology, took a postdoctoral fellowship that moved me (and my spouse, 5 month old, and cat) across the country, and began my neuroscience research laboratory in West Virginia (Go Mountaineers!) where I study how the immune system impacts mental health, resilience, and the function of the brain. There have been successes and failures, great achievements and costly sacrifices, incredible highs and devastating lows. My roller derby journey has had similar ups and downs, wins and losses, challenges and set-backs. In this “Brains and Bruises” blog series, I will share these sometimes hilarious, sometimes harrowing, sometimes heart-warming stories. And I will be sure to include tips for success on the track, at the bench, and in life that I have learned along the way, advising you to do such things as:

·      Get low

·      Fall small

·     Practice jamnesia

·      Protect your family

·      And many more!

Even though I never could have predicted how much roller derby would impact my life, nor how much my work as a neuroscientist would shape my derby journey, I hope these stories will inspire and empower you to discover your path to success and well being, however you define it. So check out this new blog at Brainsandbruises.com, stay tuned and stay curious!