And... action!

 

There's more to derby than skating around in circles. Blocking brings a lot of technical elements together. You have to be squat enough to maintain a low center of gravity, you have to have your waist and back angled properly, you have to have your feet turned inward in enough of a "plow," you have to keep your arms under control as to not draw a penalty, you have to be able to maintain as much contact as possible to feel where your opponent is, and so on.

Then there are different roles. You might face forward (majority of our players here), or you might face backwards and operate as a "brace," helping your front-facing teammates slow down by placing your palms on their chest or shoulders and using your toestops as a brake (pink shorts). When I played, I was guilty of facing backward much of the time, trying to take on an opponent all by myself (green socks). My coach also called this going "fembot" or "matador."

The "action" sprites are perhaps the first I created. I'm quite proud of them. The butts look especially good, if I may say so. And lord knows derby is all about butts.