With its hard hits, clever player pseudonyms and rambunctious benches, roller derby may seem a bit intimidating to the uninitiated or unathletic. But anyone, big or small, is welcome to strap on skates and give it a go.Just ask Bonecrusher.“Roller derby is a really welcoming sport,” the deliverer of separated shoulders and cracked ribs says. In fact, the veteran of Steel City Roller Derby , Pittsburgh’s derby league since 2006, is so tough, a teammate lamented that “I hit her, and I broke.” The league’s main team is known as the Steel Hurtin’.Known as Jen Booth in civilian life, Bonecrusher got interested in the sport by watching a reality show that featured roller derby. A bout matches two teams, each with four blockers and a jammer, all on skates. The two teams’ blockers attempt to clear a path for their jammer (while holding off the other team’s). Points are awarded depending on how many opposing players the jammer passes.“I didn’t like the reality show,” Booth says. “But I liked the action.”After seeing an ad on Craigslist seeking female derby skaters, she decided to give it a shot.“I figured it would be a good story about some creep, or I’d play roller derby,” Booth says.She went to a tryout at the Romp n’ Roll skating rink in Glenshaw and fell in love with the sport. The next step was to pick a new persona. Booth decided on Bonecrusher, which was both the name of her favorite Transformer and her favorite hip-hop artist.Chelly Johnson, a.k.a. Captain Crash, participated for four years while a student at Chatham University. She is now working on a thesis on roller derby’s effects on its players. Johnson says an on-skate alias is crucial for any derby player.“Superman doesn’t go out as Clark Kent — he puts on a costume,” Johnson says. “It lets you be a different person, try out a different persona.”That new face — taken more literally by some with the application of glitter and paint — helps the players liberate themselves from society’s stereotypical views on female behavior. That’s part of what drew the Steel Hurtin’s current co-captain, The Kraken, to derby.“There are very few areas of society were female aggression is embraced in this way,” she says.And while a battering may leave a player with a few bruises — or “derby kisses” — The Kraken says she never takes personal offense. In fact, she takes a big hit as encouragement.“If someone plays hard against you, you’re a threat to them,” she says. “It’s a compliment.”That’s what Johnson sees in derby — a place to be free from all of the cultural stigmas surrounding women.“[Society] is trying to tear down women’s bodies, but in roller derby, it is about seeing what it can do,” she says. “This is a sport where your body is valuable for what it is.”