She loves jumping, cats, and traveling. You know and love her: this month’s featured skater is none other than Kitty Twister!

You were nominated by stella stRAnGE who wants to know how you have the confidence to do all of your jumps and how you learned how to do them.

Confidence-wise, I just like to learn by trying things, and that’s just how you learn. If I mess up, I don’t care, and I guess I’ve done it so many times now that I don’t really think about it. How I learned— just tried it, just jumped!

How would you describe your derby playing style?

I don’t know, how would you describe it?

I think you kind of bounce all over the place, wherever you see an opening.

I was gonna say “erratic,” but I didn’t know if that was an appropriate answer, because that’s what it feels like. A lot of times I don’t necessarily have a plan, I just bounce all over like you said.

When I think of you, I think of you as a jammer, but you have skated as both a jammer and a blocker. Do you have a preference between those two?

I definitely like jamming. You have so much more freedom, and you don’t have, I know it’s a team sport, but I only really have to worry about myself as I’m going around, and I like that. I really like blocking too though. I love hitting people, but it gets boring to me because it’s a lot of just kind of waiting and standing. I like to always be moving. So definitely jamming is my thing; I’d like to get better. A lot of people say I’m better at blocking, but I want to be better at jamming so I can be a jammer.

What are some skills that you’re still trying to master on the track?

So many...is this for physical skills only? Because I think my biggest challenge is mentally, just trying to keep my mind calm and focused. That’s my biggest challenge, but I don’t expect to accomplish that one any time soon, or ever. I don’t know, it’s been so long since I’ve skated that I’m struggling to think of something specific. I definitely want to get good at hockey stops. I want to be able to stop on a dime, jump even higher, skate faster, and utilize whips.

So back in the world when we would skate in bouts, do you have any pre-bout rituals?

I always like to brush my teeth before a game. I don’t know why, I think it makes the water taste colder.

What have been some of your favorite achievements on the track?

I’m very happy that I jumped the apex that first time, because that was always one of my big goals. Seeing people do it, I’m like, “Oh man, I wanna do that,” and then I just started doing it. I don’t even remember the first time, but I’m very proud of that. That’s the main one.

I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at running up and catching escaping jammers, which is something I feel confident in and proud of.

So what brought you to Hard Knox in the first place?

Well, for people who don’t know I have a twin, and she lives in Charlotte, and she found a flyer in some public bathroom, and it said, “Hey, wanna try roller derby?” And she told me about it, she’s like, “Oh, I’m gonna try this,” and I was like, “What’s roller derby? I know it’s roller skates,” but I didn’t realize it was a sport. So she tried it and then she told me how much she loved it, and we’re naturally super competitive, and I was like, “Oh, I gotta see if Knoxville has a team.” So I found Hard Knox, I messaged someone, I still don’t know to this day who it was, I just asked about it and said I was interested, and it happened to be off-season. I just kind of kept an eye on it, eye on the Facebook page, and then it was in March of 2016 on Facebook they used to do Meet and Greets (I think that’s what they called them) where you could just come and skate for an hour before the actual practice to try it out. And that’s what I did, and then I never left! I was hooked.

What’s something you’ve gained from your roller derby experience that you didn’t expect?

Friends? I’ve never had so many friends in my life. I mean, I thought I’d make a few, but the sense of community— I never expected that. It’s made me really happy.

What have been some of your favorite derby moments off the track?

I love the Pride parade, that’s a lot of fun. Ooh, and the Mardi Growl parade, that’s really fun.

Yes! I was so glad we got to do that this year.

I think I missed it this year, I was somewhere— oh, I was in Japan! So I had a legit reason for missing it.

But I just like any time that the team gets together to do something together, I love hanging out with everyone.

I really like our big outdoor skates downtown (which haven’t happened in awhile), but just any time we’re together makes me happy.

So you mentioned Japan— you do a lot of traveling. What have been some of your favorite trips from the last couple of years?

Well, my number one favorite country is definitely Iceland. I feel like I belong there. I love the cold and everyone kept coming up to me and speaking in Icelandic, and I’m like, “Uh, I don’t know what you’re saying!” But it’s just a magical country. So beautiful, naturally. People are quirky and kind of funny, and I feel like I kind of fit in.

But then Japan: definitely second favorite country ever. There’s just so much to do there, and they have every kind of animal cafe you could ever think of. I went to an owl cafe that was so cute. Next time (which there is a next time, I bought tickets for next March), I’m going to Fox Island. Ooh, I went to Bunny Island! They just have all this stuff that nowhere else has.

And the food! Oh my gosh, the best! I didn’t want to eat when I came back. Yeah, I’d say those are definitely my top trips. I’ve been to Iceland twice: if I’ve been somewhere more than once, that means it’s really good.

When did you start international travel? Or have you always been someone who enjoys traveling?

Oh yeah, always. My husband, he’s British, so actually he’s the reason I started traveling internationally. I met him online, not like a dating website or anything, but I played an online game, and I kind of made friends with one of his real-life friends on the game. That mutual friend was like, “Hey, you should talk to my friend Nathan, he’s really cool,” and I was like, “Ok.” So I just started randomly started talking to him on MSN Messenger, and he talked back, and we just never stopped talking for months. I was eighteen, and I thought, “Hey, I can get a passport and go somewhere, and I’m gonna go meet this guy!” And I did, and we kind of fell for each other, and so I was stuck traveling. I had to travel, had to go see him every chance I got, and of course since he lives in Europe, it’s so easy to travel throughout Europe. You can get a plane ticket for $40 to go over to the mainland, and then you can just take a train all around. We did that a bunch and took some sketchy flights around Europe.

So it started with Europe, it was my gateway. And then also I lived in Florida for a long time, and down there it’s so easy to go island-hopping, so I guess I kind of alternated. Once Nathan moved here, my next step was the Caribbean because it was so accessible and you could go for just a few days and come back real quick. Now it’s on to bigger things like Japan and who knows.

I didn’t realize that’s how y’all met— that’s adorable!

It’s definitely a story! We were really young too, he’s a little younger than me, I was seventeen and he was fifteen when we met, so we’ve been together a long time. He’s a keeper.

What is the story behind your skater name and number?

Okay, so I just really like cats, and I kept asking people, like the team used to go out to dinner a lot after practice, and I’m like, “Hey, I kind of want something with ‘kitty’ or ‘cat’ in my name.” And it was Cut-n-Dye, she goes, “What about Kitty Twister?” I was like, “That’s so perfect!” Because I’m really immature, and it’s funny, and also I kind of move around a lot so the ‘twister’ ties into that. It was kind of almost a triple meaning that all applies to me. So that’s my name, it’s just silly like me.

And then my number: it’s the sad story, it’s actually— I really like to clarify this because a lot of people are like, “Oh, how original, 1234,” but it’s actually a time, it’s 12:34 and it’s in honor of my mom who died of cancer. That’s the time on the clock she picked. We asked her before she died, what number, what time should we be watching out for your messages from beyond? And that’s the time she picked. So every time it’s 12:34, my sisters and I, we often text each other, we’re like, “Happy 12:34!” and if I’m doing something like vacuuming, and it happens to be 12:34, I’m like, “Oh, my mom’s proud of me for cleaning!” and stuff like that. So yeah, it’s tribute to my mom, basically. It makes me happy.

I wish she could have seen me skate. I think she would have been a crazy fan. She would have been more entertaining than the skating to watch as a fan. So it’s kind of like having a little piece of her always.

Thank you for a fun interview, Kitty! We’re taking a break for a few months, but we’ll be back in 2021 for more inside looks at the Hard Knox Roller Derby team! Until then, be like Kitty Twister and find the place where you fit in!

-smalls-

Featured posts:

October Featured Skater: Kitty Twister

Name: Kitty Twister

Number: 1234

Travel Teams: All Stars & Brawlers

Home Team: Black Bettys

Years skating: 5