WOMEN’S FLAT TRACK ROLLER DERBY MAGAZINE ISSUE 29, FALL 2015
proud partner of the WFTDA
fiveonfivemag.com
fiveonfive contents 4-5 advice ask ms d’fiant and suzy hotrod!
6-7 business creating a fundraising plan for your league
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WFTDA This year, WFTDA celebrates its 10 year anniversary. So much has happened in a decade. Find out what WFTDA has planned for the next 10 years and get a full recap of this year's annual meeting.
health and fitness vitamin d: it’s not just for bones anymore broken leg tips
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games and coaching what competitive really means derby in good time strategy power jam
26-29 gear tools
46-47 SkateSafe Skatesafe is a nonprofit group of volunteers from across the derby community that provides resources to everyone at roller derby events to help keep them safe. Find them at upcoming tourneys and ask them how you can help.
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junior derby pouncing around with pushire cat
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rookie derby diplomat pursuing the mysterious beast
58-65 art and media
54-57 RollerCon 2015 recap RollerCon founder Ivanna S. Pankin provides a debrief of this year’s RollerCon, including tons of statistics and a sneak peek of next year’s event.
what competitive really means P U N C H Y O ’ G U T S, R E S U R G A M R O L L E R D E R B Y
I’ve had many conversations-slash-debates-slash-arguments about what it means to be competitive. Just about every skater says they are competitive and their team is competitive, but they seem to mean different things. I’ll give you an example. Suzy Skater and Jamie Jammer are on the same team. Suzy wants everyone to have equal playing time. Jamie does not and claims they play on a competitive team and that means they can’t have equal playing time. Suzy believes you can be competitive and still have equal playing time. They are both right. It’s difficult to accept that they can both be right because we are so set in our definition of competitiveness. We think and talk about it as being clear and objective, but the word “competitive” is subjective. There are many levels of competitiveness, and most of us fall somewhere on the scale. People are complex and cannot be summarized into a few basic categories. My scale is not scientific, and it doesn’t embrace all realities. It does, however, offer a starting point for this discussion. At the lowest end of the scale is refuses to compete and competes occasionally. Both categories describe people who have little to no desire to compete. This kind of person probably feels a high level of anxiety when you
mention the word competition. Neither of these people could realistically consider themselves competitive. The next level is competes only to play, which describes the skater who enjoys competing, but doesn’t care about the outcome. This kind of skater values the joy of training and playing the game. They enjoy learning and refining their skills and emphasize having fun as a priority. They prefer to play on a team in which everyone has equal playing time. They consider themselves competitive. A little further on the scale is the skater who likes to compete and wants to win. They are willing to put in significant training time to develop individual skills and team skills. They care about the outcome of their games, but it’s not going to make or break them. This skater values training and competing, but also wants to have fun. They consider themselves competitive. A team at this level of competitiveness is one that usually allows everyone on the roster to play, but with different amounts of playing time.
The next level of competitiveness is similar, but with one distinction: a skater not only wants to win, they try to win. For a team, trying to win means they do everything they can to win. There is not equal playing time because the team wants to field the best players as much as possible. The team’s priority is to train to win, so they train like it’s their job. They cross-train, analyze and emulate the best skaters and teams, and strive to be the very best teammate they can be. They understand their role is to help the team win, even if that means sitting on the bench when they’d rather be playing. Skaters at this level consider themselves competitive. Even further on the competitive scale – competes only to win – is the skater who only wants to play if they think they will win. They often get very agitated if they are not winning, if they aren’t performing their best, or if the score is close. This typically leads to individualistic play and anger misdirected at teammates. Skaters at this level consider themselves competitive.
the competitive scale Refuses to compete.
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Competes occasionally.
Competes only to play.
Likes to compete and wants to play.
Likes to compete and tries to win.
Competes only to win.
Competes to the detriment of self and others.
Joe Mac
At the furthest end of the competitive scale is a skater who competes to the detriment of self or the team. They are often wildly talented and admired for their talent, but have an ego that does not allow for failure. They usually value accomplishments and praise over friendship or teamwork, which leads to selfishness and loneliness. Skaters at this level consider themselves competitive. With exception of the first two levels, every skater who falls somewhere on the scale considers themselves competitive. There is not one definition of competitiveness, though most people have a myopic view of it. If we can acknowledge the different levels and clarify what we mean when we use the word “competitive,” we will save ourselves from a lot of miscommunication. Be specific with your language. Subjective words, like competitive muddy up a discussion. You can’t avoid using the word, but you can clarify meaning. When someone says “I am competitive” or “my team is very competitive,” ask them for specific details. Find out where they are on
the competitive scale, before you move forward in the discussion. It’s imperative to do this when discussing how competitive your league is (or wants to be). You can’t just claim: “we are a competitive league.” The phrase is utterly meaningless without explaining how the league’s competitiveness impacts decision-making. Does that mean you want to play a dozen games over the season, or does that mean you plan to schedule three? Do you have more than one team, and do those teams operate at different levels of competitiveness? Does one allow for equal playing time, while the other does not? If so, the league’s level of competitiveness varies by team. Instead of saying “my league is competitive,” you would say: “my league offers teams that train and play at different competitive levels.” Also, simply describing your team as competitive does not clarify how decisions are made. Everyone may agree that the team falls under “likes to compete and tries to win,” but each skater may have a different idea about what they are willing to do to win. Some skaters discuss committing
“smart” penalties in order to win, while others believe you should never commit a penalty on purpose. Some skaters believe their team should not play a team that is ranked significantly lower because it could negatively impact their ranking, whereas others might want to help out that team by offering to play them. We don’t have to agree on what “competitive” means, but we do need to acknowledge that it means something different to all of us. Suzy Skater and Jamie Jammer are both competitive skaters, but to different extents, and they are arguing about who’s definition of competitiveness is right. The real problem is probably either leadership hasn’t properly communicated the team’s level of competitiveness or leadership has and one of the skater’s values is not in line with the team’s. Either way, if Suzy and Jamie are focused on an argument about competitiveness, they’ll never get to the core of the problem. Clarity is crucial! Ask questions and be specific with your language when you talk about competitiveness, so everyone knows exactly what you mean.H
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How do you maintain the integrity of a neutral call while still imparting the action and energy? As announcers, we are not to demonstrate a bias toward a given team. That said, in nearly every game, there are many story lines and each storyline has its given hero. For example, every blowout game is a David and Goliath story. The call is still neutral if we announce every little triumph for David and focus on the superlatives of Goliath. When one team on the track is undefeated, the integrity of the call relies on the announcers discussing the impact of the opposing team breaking that run and being excited when their play leads us to believe it’s possible. A call with integrity is never completely neutral but it is without personal bias. Like any story, action and energy come through when there’s discourse; when the expectations are not met or are profoundly exceeded. The thing I find most challenging in keeping a call neutral is when I or my co-announcer are more familiar with one team than the other. It’s occasions like that where teamwork becomes critical to keeping the storylines balanced. My overriding goal is to love derby above any team or individual. When I announce a game, I announce it for the sake of the audience’s love of derby. As long as I do it for derby, I can’t go wrong with the bias of my call. How do you use technology tools like Rinxter to enhance the call without getting lost in it? I get a lot of cross training with this in my job as a college computer applications instructor. Working the very right-brained data of screens displaying rosters, penalties, points, positions, and screens timing out or buttons accidentally being pushed while actively
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describing a sports game some distance away from you colorfully using your left-brain in a conversation with another person that you have to actively listen to takes practice. Rinxter has been the stats tracking software used in supplement to the statsbook paperwork. On the feed, we have a terminal and can read everything the Rinxter NSOs are entering in. At Playoffs, the Rinxter staff is carefully selected and highly trained. I use the markings that tell me who is on the track to aid in determining what blockers must be in a wall – sometimes not by seeing who is in the wall but seeing the more visible players not in the wall and reading the rest of the names off Rinxter. When there are lulls in the story on the track, I’ll turn to the Rinxter screen and share who has the most box trips or the most points scored on each team.H