WOMEN’S FLAT TRACK ROLLER DERBY MAGAZINE ISSUE 32, SUMMER 2016
proud partner of the WFTDA
fiveonfivemag.com
fiveonfive contents 30-31
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advice ask ms d’fiant and suzy hotrod!
WFTDA Meet WFTDA’s new Executive Director, Cassie Haynes, and find out how she is adjusting to her new role, and how she plans to help keep WFTDA up to speed with such a quickly evolving sport.
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business league rebranding derby merch basics managing risk for league events
12-15
health and fitness dehydration and heat injury
40-41
16-21 games and coaching blocking techniques
game history for officials: how necessary is it?
26-29 gear
When and how to build your game history as an official. What benefits do certain aspects of your game history provide? Are you adding unnecessary/unhelpful information?
plates 201
32-35
junior derby common questions and misconceptions
46-47
38-39 rookie a question of balance
moving teams Important advice from an experienced coach on how to make your transition between teams as smooth as possible.
40-43
officiating game history: how necessary is it? reflection and realization
phil lackey
50-57 international derby
There are a variety of blocks from both the left and the right side that can be used against the brute force shoulder blocker. Don’t get me wrong, the shoulder block has a place in the game! But, should it be your go-to block? It is a block used when the opponent is already by you or beside you. This is an issue in itself! You want your opponent behind you when any confrontation is completed. Add some depth to your attack and go at your opponent like a prize fighter, using combinations of blocks and footwork
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to control and set your opponent up. John Porky Parker use to say “It’s not how hard you block, it’s about who’s in front and in control after the block!” Add some blocks to your attack. Here are some blocks I plan to dedicate to future articles stressing the blocking techniques: position blocking (figure 8) Keeping your opponent behind you and within the out-of-play/engagement blocking zone. Great position blocking stance and balanced to hit and move quickly.
butt check blocking (figure 9) Keeping your opponent behind you and relentlessly attacking their knees with your butt as they roll up on you. Keeping your opponent behind you and off balance. hip checking (figure 10) Shoulder block, counter block. Recycling and setting up your opponent for a big hit. Get your opponent to commit to your strong side and own them as they try to get by you.
j blocking (figure 11) Shoulder block counter block. Recycling and setting up your opponent for a big hit. Setting up the j block shoulder rotation. We did not catch it on film, but as black #116 unwinds her shoulders and torso into the chest of the white jammer, it was a classic j block. power blocking (figure 12) The big hit! (Kind of like the can opener but with more control and executed from the j block position.) All about the two set up and the simultaneous release of the knees, torso and shoulders into your opponent’s chest.
butt cuts (figure 13) Catching your opponent off guard. Blue blocker started her cut from the outside line and butt cut the black jammer, knocking her out of bounds and then recycled her to the rear of the pack.
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a question of balance K AT E R U N N E L S, S O U T H E R N O R E G O N R O L L E R G I R L S PHOTOS BY ERIC FURRER
“To maintain balance while constantly shifting the body weight is an art few ever acquire.” – Bruce Lee I doubt Bruce ever slid his feet into a pair of skates, but I’m sure if her ever did, he would say it is doubly important and much harder to achieve this art of balance while on skates. I’m going to add to his statement with one of my own that I have used over the years with other skaters: “To have good balance you must constantly push yourself out of balance.” This statement sounds contradictory, but read it one more time before moving on. It is like the age-old question regarding good and evil. How do we know the one without an understanding of the other? In every Yin there is Yang and in every Yang there is a spot of Yin. As adults we no longer think about walking, we just walk; though it is harder for some than others (I am able to bump into door jams and trip over shadows). Even teenagers, while they are not really conscious about thinking to walk, they are still growing, and so, constantly adjusting to an ever-changing sense of balance. If we take the time to watch toddlers, they truly are thinking about the process of balancing – they are purposefully putting themselves out of their balance zone, i.e, comfort zone, to learn how to gain the ability to walk. I watched my nephew once when he was learning to stand and walk, pull himself into a standing position and then wobble there for several minutes. He didn’t fall, didn’t try to take a step, just wobbled. I think he was testing his balance zone as he would bend his knees and move his hips around in a circle, first one
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way then the other; wobbling the entire time. That wobbly feeling is how many fresh meat skaters start out feeling, especially learning to skate as an adult. We could just keep crawling throughout life, but we put ourselves in a precarious position and learn how to walk, or in our case, to skate. You get this same unbalanced feeling again once you get better at skating and decide to loosen your trucks for the first time. Your balance point, your balance reference has changed, and now you must figure out how to move and hold your body all over again. It is there when you try to skate on one foot for the first time, or when you are being especially daring and decide to skate with only your back wheels, or even your front, or maybe with only the inside, or only the outside. This feeling is there when you are with a derby team while balancing the responsibilities of having a job, a relationship, school, kids, or a mix and match of all of the above. These are balancing acts too. Sometimes we stumble, sometimes we fall, but like the toddler we pick ourselves up and try again. And if you are lucky to have a derby team like mine, someone will always be there to help you back to your feet, or to steady you as you trip on that shadow. I’m not alone in struggling at times to juggle and balance a life with derby. At times, some people will have to take a leave of absence from skating. There are some people who can’t get enough derby and skating, and they have no trouble
traveling long distances to skate and be on a team. Every skater’s balancing act is unique to their life and circumstances. As a lifelong skater I have encountered those troubles several times and have had to reassess what is important in my life. I may stumble or fall but I stand back up and find my balance. Every skater feels like a moose or a giraffe on skates at first, wobbly, unstable, and either going to tip over backwards or fall forwards. They feel their legs might go any direction at once plopping them to the floor. I know this feeling. It is exactly how I feel when I put on ice skates to try and either ice skate or even play ice hockey. I’ve roller skated for 32 years, and yet I have had so much trouble trying to ice skate. I have a great video of my fifth time on ice skates and maybe my first time playing ice hockey. I tried to hockey stop and instead spun, landed on my knees and continued to spin. It then took several tries to make it back onto my skates. But I kept trying. Pushed myself out of balance repeatedly, constantly, and I have gotten better. I felt the same at my first full scrimmage. I hadn’t even bouted yet, and I felt lost and unsteady, not on my skates, but in what I was doing and where I needed to be. I pushed past that feeling of being unbalanced. I found my stability and I got better. A wise friend, by the name of Riptide, once said to me, “Everyone wants the skill; they just want to be able to do it and forgo the learning process. And that’s the point where
people get messed up (frustrated). They don’t take the time to learn how to do things the way their own body can. As a coach you have to break it down to fundamentals. Adults have a harder time learning because we, as adults, all expect results immediately but children aren’t expecting that yet.” As adults we see someone else able to perform a skill and we believe it should be that easy for us too. How many times sitting watching a sporting event have heard someone say, “I could have done that.”? Yet when they give it a try they are not able to match it half as well. What they don’t see, what they don’t expect or want to hear about, are the years of dedicated practice that have been spent developing and honing those skills. I see it when people watch me skate. They expect to take the same strokes I take, or glide or jump as I do, and they can get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. I have to tell them that I have been skating for 32 years. But they didn’t have that kernel of knowledge to start with. But I was, and still am, willing to fail and willing to fall and so must everyone be, or everyone would still be crawling around on the floor too afraid to stand up. So if you are a beginner, just know we have all been there, so keep on trying. Intermediate skaters: keep testing your limits. Advanced skaters: push those limits and set new ones. We must all find our balance, but never be afraid to push ourselves out of balance for we never know where that next step or stride might take us.H
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