TUCSON — Are you a woman with attitude?

Do you like to fly around a hardwood ring and beat up on others like you?

Then the Tucson Roller Derby might just be the place for you.

Roller derby is more than just skating in circles, but the rules are simple enough for the game to be an enjoyable spectator experience, even for the rookie viewer.

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Since its inception in the 1930s, roller derby has gone through a series of peaks and valleys, deaths, resurrections and renaissance. The 1950s and ’60s saw the biggest surge, with teams all over the U.S. and roller derby broadcast into millions of homes by 1969. It began to decline in the next decade, and then evolved into pure television entertainment with a more theatrical, pro wrestling-type presentation in the late 1980s.

Most recently, the sport came back around in the early 2000s, but it didn’t really take off until 2004 when a regulating body began to form. There are a little more than 50 teams currently under the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

The Tucson squad was ahead of the curve, having formed in 2003, with Zoe “Whiskey Mick” O’Reilly and “Sassy Sue” Schwartz among the founding members.

So how exactly does a roller derby match work? The TRD Web site breaks down the rules like this:

“Basically, there are two teams of five chicks on the track during each 2-minute jam. Each team has one scoring position called a jammer, one pivot, and three blockers. The pivots and blockers form what we call a pack.

The pack starts out 20 feet ahead of the jammers and start sprinting at the first whistle blast. The jammers start sprinting a few seconds later, at the second whistle blast.

The jammers have to break through the pack and skate another lap before they start scoring points. On a jammer’s second and future trips through, she gets a point for every opponent she passes. The blockers and pivots try to stop the opposing jammer from getting through, while assisting their own jammer.”

Of course there are more rules. The WFTDA gives specific ones, including skill requirements for skaters, track design, and legal blocking procedure. The skill comes from being able to skate while trying to knock down opposing players.

It seems roller derby has toned down the extreme cut-throat nature, away from a theatrical presentation, and now it aims to thrive as an actual sport, especially for those who never played traditional sports, like Sassy Sue.

“Some of us have played different sports,” she said. “But some, like me, haven’t ever played anything. I liked the aggression of it. There aren’t a ton of contact sports for women, and I think more and more women are discovering that it’s OK to be more aggressive.”

The Tucson Roller Derby consists of four intracity teams — the Furious Truckstop Waitresses, Iron Curtain, the VICE Squad and the Copper Queens. Members from those teams come together to form a traveling team called the TRD Saddletramps. The Saddletramps are currently ranked 13th in the nation in the WFTDA ranking system.

Members of the Tucson Roller Derby come in all shapes, sizes and professions. There are graduate students, bar tenders, elementary school teachers and even engineers.

And they’re always recruiting.

Amanda “Kamanda” Finkl is the co-captain of the Iron Curtain squad, and also a fifth grade teacher. She joined the TRD having never seen a game and not really knowing what to expect.

“Then I took a year off from it for a year and just missed it,” she said. “I think you get kind of caught up in it. I really wanted to come back.”

“Kamanda,” 39, is not only skating and teaching, but is also pursuing a master’s degree right now. She skates to keep in shape, and because she loves to be around her teammates.

“I like to exercise, but it’s a lot more fun to do this than just go to a gym,” she said. “Playing the game just makes me want to condition better. I think with some sports, to do well, you have to have youth on your side, but with other sports, it’s about experience. And I think with roller derby, it’s about having both.”

The TRD Saddletraps’ last home bout scheduled for the year is against the Philadelphia Liberty Belles at 7 p.m. on Sept. 27. All the team’s home games are at Bladeworld in Tucson.