3 Questions To A Woman I Admire: ISABELLE RINGER

Ringer and I met in 2006. As much fun as we have together, I've always been a little bit in awe of her. She's easily the most confident woman I've ever met, and has a very comforting nature. She's smart, funny and has a really admirable work ethic and ambitious drive. Meet Isabelle Ringer!


Bonnie D:  
When did your journey with roller derby begin, and what about it inspired you to get started?

Isabelle Ringer:
I started playing roller derby in January of 2006. I was 26 years old and in desperate need of a physical
outlet as well as a community. Having worked in a restaurant for the last ten years, I was used to having a community of people I spent my days with.

Every restaurant I ever worked at, all the servers always hung out after work or went out together. That was how I identified myself. Now at 26, I was a full-time freelancer working at home in video production and lived with my boyfriend (now husband) that traveled 85% of the year.

Roller derby gave me a community of people and something to really invest myself in. It kept me from partying too much and the league kept me from getting too lonely.

Bonnie D: 
You've had to overcome a lot of obstacles along the way. Is there one you feel you've learned more
from then others?

Isabelle Ringer:
There have been several really hard ones. I know you asked for one but I’m going to give you two. I learned a lot about my character and self-reflection in the early years of playing roller derby. What I was willing to change to make myself a better person and what was in the fiber of my being and not really changeable.

There were many times in my roller derby career that I was asked to change my behavior. When I was younger in my first couple of years, I was sure that being a passionate person was who I was. It came with goods and bads and the outside world would just have to take me for who I was, for better or worse.

I eventually started to change my behavior, not because I wanted to, but because it kept other people off my case. It turns out, it was not who I was at the fiber of my being. It was just me being self-indulgent and making everyone else suffer.

Looking back now, it was unnecessary but it took me a long time to learn to take things in stride and just brush off the little interpersonal conflicts. I am not sacrificing my character, in fact, I am improving my character.

The second thing I learned is that motivation is a very powerful tool. It is very hard to manufacture
artificially, but when you have it in its raw form, you best run with it. If you truly believe in yourself, in your inner strength and determination, you can make it through anything.

In 2009, I was injured to the point of not being able to play roller derby and required surgery. Having been “robbed” of my sport and identity, I was highly motivated to come back a stronger player than I had ever been. The kind that is far less likely to succumb to these kinds of injuries. I was able to come back pretty quickly and returned to the game a better skater than I ever was before. I was never a slacker, but now I was working out harder, training in more positions and doing more off-skates work.

My injury let me know that my career was fleeting and could be gone again at any moment. I was highly motivated and so I ran with that for the good year or two that energy lasted. I accomplished great things with my training.

If there is somewhere you can dig from, something that motivates you deeply, use that to keep pushing yourself. No coach or teammate can do that for you, a player has to pull it out from inside to really rise. If you are not motivated and do not believe you can become the great skater you “want” to be, you won’t. Life’s just not that easy.

Bonnie D: 
What is the motivating factor for you today? What keeps you driven to do what you do?

Isabelle Ringer:
I am recently retired as an amateur player and work full time as the General Manager of San Diego Derby Dolls.

About 3 days of week I feel like the luckiest person alive and love my job and everything I and the Derby Dolls stand for. And then there are several other days each week where I think I have got to be crazy to put my whole being into this organization and this sport which I don’t even play anymore.

However, I believe so strongly in what we are doing that I know that the bad days are still worth it. We are carving out something new that has not existed before in this form and so that is going to be hard. Being a part of something so special is really a privilege so on the rough days I have to remember I’m living the dream.


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