The first thing I could notice was that I could sense my breathing and my mind and my body felt free and at peace.

I could just concentrate on the game that I had loved for 15 years, but never in a way that I had experienced it before.

I've never been sports oriented, but roller derby has always looked like it just makes sense to me.

Its just there's an energy there that you don't see in too many other sports.

The idea for the sensory friendly bout really came in passing.

I was just spit balling things and just being like, roller derby, sometime it really sucks how, ta ta ta ta ta ta... and my friend Harper decided like, no Im going to manifest a reality in which those needs that were unmet for me are met in one bout this year.

A typical roller derby bout, it's loud, it can be hard to pick up at first because there's so much going on.

Its a controlled chaos is what I would call it.

And basically we try to control that chaos even more because roller derby can be extremely overwhelming.

Whether it's your first time or maybe it's your 12th time and you just have sensory issues.

We try to bring the sound level down by capping the number of spectators, about a third of what we would normally have.

Instead of clapping, we do like the deaf clap and we wave our hands.

We provide headphones for those who are also more sensory seeking.

They can play music or the announcer.

We change the rules of the game.

Officiators will allow more time for skaters to process instructions and penalties, just trying to make the audience aware that not everyone experiences social constructs and norms the same way, and to allow leniency, space and grace for that.

We created this bout hoping that we could be more inclusive to neurodivergent skaters who oftentimes experience roller derby as like extremely overstimulating, overwhelming.

Now it's still roller derby, so there's still a lot of hitting, knocks, and some exciting moves, but it's a lot more, I think, accessible for many, many people in the community who otherwise might find roller derby to be a little bit too much.

I think striving for inclusivity in every single step that we go, I think that should always be the goal.

It doesn't matter what past experience is, it doesn't matter, you know, what your body type is.

This is a sport that has a place for everybody, which is really cool.

It's very body positive.

And whoever you are, wherever you are coming from, you can play to your strengths and find a way to succeed.