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A review by queerandweird
Brace for Impact: A Memoir by Gabe Montesanti
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
My favorite roller derby memoir so far as a 14-year derby veteran! Fun read, well-written and recalled, and very authentic as a queer, low-class (read poor AF) white athlete with a fraught maternal relationship coming into this badass sport of roller derby that is led and dedicated to women & trans & queer AF spaces.
All bodies are welcome and can succeed in roller derby, unlike most other sports. We truly are unlike most other sports culturally, and I celebrate that.
Spark/Gabe writes beautifully about her past and how it fueled her future as a roller skating athlete. Ugh, her injury and recovery were brutal to relive, I'm sure Arch has improved their incident practices and rates of CPR-trained coaches since her spiral fracture - but holy gods that was a dumpster fire of an injury response and let it be a lesson to ALWAYS call 911 with a broken leg.
Rant ahead: Broken legs are WAY too big a longterm and LIFE risk to leave a skater alone for 20+min as you wait for an EMT-trained friend to tape up the break with a f*cking pizza box, for a ride in the back of a bumpy car without pain killers. nonono. My horror. Please ensure your leagues have skaters at every practice who are CPR-certified and informed in injury protocol, omg have injury protocols - esp. for concussions. Loving rant concluded <3
Fortunately, Spark is a beast as so many of us derby athletes are! I remember my spiral fracture tib fib recovery distinctly as well, the joy of walking again in pools - just feeling the weight on my injured leg when I had been so fragile, literally broken, was a lesson in growth, finding my resolve to heal from the mental & physical trauma of split bones. Her book depicted that brutal injury so often faced by athletes on rollerskates honestly and I loved all of the grit in recovery.
What she didn't talk about was the downside of overtraining, that's often why new athletes are injured or folks not balancing their intense derby training & cross-training with mobility, massage, and other active rest practices. It's great, and necessary, to have drive in our sport - it's also necessary to take time for muscles & connective tissue to heal throughout the training week.
Ending with marriage was so sweet! Kelly and Gabe's relationship was heart-warming and familiar <3 Gabe, I hope you've continued to address your eating disorder and improve your relationship with food, ; it can take a lifetime and know to lean on (and be honest with) your community.
The book has conflicting info for where the couple ended up, one says St. Louis and the other says Denton, TX - which, yuck y'all please you don't want to be in Denton, teaching probably isn't worth it and the derby is nooot the best.
Though, I hear through the derby grapevine that they're living in St. Louis as of Spring '23, where Gabe has been performing drag!! So exciting if this is true, wishing the best for your love and happiness.
All bodies are welcome and can succeed in roller derby, unlike most other sports. We truly are unlike most other sports culturally, and I celebrate that.
Spark/Gabe writes beautifully about her past and how it fueled her future as a roller skating athlete. Ugh, her injury and recovery were brutal to relive, I'm sure Arch has improved their incident practices and rates of CPR-trained coaches since her spiral fracture - but holy gods that was a dumpster fire of an injury response and let it be a lesson to ALWAYS call 911 with a broken leg.
Rant ahead: Broken legs are WAY too big a longterm and LIFE risk to leave a skater alone for 20+min as you wait for an EMT-trained friend to tape up the break with a f*cking pizza box, for a ride in the back of a bumpy car without pain killers. nonono. My horror. Please ensure your leagues have skaters at every practice who are CPR-certified and informed in injury protocol, omg have injury protocols - esp. for concussions. Loving rant concluded <3
Fortunately, Spark is a beast as so many of us derby athletes are! I remember my spiral fracture tib fib recovery distinctly as well, the joy of walking again in pools - just feeling the weight on my injured leg when I had been so fragile, literally broken, was a lesson in growth, finding my resolve to heal from the mental & physical trauma of split bones. Her book depicted that brutal injury so often faced by athletes on rollerskates honestly and I loved all of the grit in recovery.
What she didn't talk about was the downside of overtraining, that's often why new athletes are injured or folks not balancing their intense derby training & cross-training with mobility, massage, and other active rest practices. It's great, and necessary, to have drive in our sport - it's also necessary to take time for muscles & connective tissue to heal throughout the training week.
Ending with marriage was so sweet! Kelly and Gabe's relationship was heart-warming and familiar <3 Gabe, I hope you've continued to address your eating disorder and improve your relationship with food, ; it can take a lifetime and know to lean on (and be honest with) your community.
The book has conflicting info for where the couple ended up, one says St. Louis and the other says Denton, TX - which, yuck y'all please you don't want to be in Denton, teaching probably isn't worth it and the derby is nooot the best.
Though, I hear through the derby grapevine that they're living in St. Louis as of Spring '23, where Gabe has been performing drag!! So exciting if this is true, wishing the best for your love and happiness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Medical content, Vomit, Bullying, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Lesbophobia