WOMEN’S FLAT TRACK ROLLER DERBY MAGAZINE ISSUE 34, WINTER 2016
proud partner of the WFTDA
fiveonfivemag.com
fiveonfive contents 30-31
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advice ask swede hurt and suzy hotrod!
WFTDA A guide to the new WFTDA rules taking effect in Feb 2017.
6-9
business in a world where the fans are in charge make fundraising choices with time as your investment
10-17
health and fitness living with a traumatic brain injury balancing act getting wheely strong
26-29 2016 WFTDA championships
18-29 games and coaching
Read about Rose City’s rise to the top as well as stats and recaps of all the big games during WFTDA’s Championship tournament!
32-33
junior derby 12 step program for parents to be better sports fans
Dave Wood Photography
jam coaching basics hip check 2016 WFTDA championships recap
38-39
rookie tryouts: conquering nerves and getting ahead
sitting on the sidelines Anything can happen on game day... even injury, but being sidelined can still have a silver lining.
48-55 international derby
C Tasmin Brown Photography
40-41
officiating choosing the right officiating spot
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jam coaching basics BITCHES BRUZE, SOUTHSHIRE ROLLER DERBY
The WFTDA rules allow for two bench staff in the team bench area during game play. The best teams integrate their bench staff seamlessly with the team and they work in partnership, while carrying out their tasks. Traditionally we name those two roles bench coach and jam coach. Bench coaching entails running the roster by organizing the exchange of skaters on the track by skill, strategic partnerships, and response to the game - opponent lineups, penalties, and roster strengths. The jam coach bears the responsibility of the big picture of the game and the team. With time and with their team, jam coaches ultimately grow with and participate in developing team strategy and game play. New jam coaches start with three basic jobs: implementing and adjusting team strategies, time management, and officiating communication. TEAM STRATEGIES In order to be a partner in implementing team strategies, the jam coach needs to know the team strategies; what they look like when they’re working, recognize when they’re not working, and being familiar with contingencies for those strategies. Even the newest of teams have a small armament of strategies. If you’re new to jam coaching and working with an advanced team, they’ll help you with this. But if you’re working with a new team, starting this conversation at practices will making using your coaching words in games more effective. Here’s a short list to get you started on organizing a beginning strategy toolbox:
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● Bridges – front and back ● Walls – flat and braced ● How many blockers are on offense, who, and when ● Box management ● On-track partnerships ● Jammer defense ● Calling off the Jam People have written entire articles on each of these concepts, but each team is truly unique working with each of these concepts because each team brings its own unique roster and training regimen and no article will tell you what tools you have. The jam coach looks at these ideas and communicates to the team fine adjustments that need to be made to improve the score. Game time is not the time to be trying a new strategy a team has not practiced. Good jam coaches have been to practice and know what’s practiced and possible. Jam coaches know the team’s or pack’s default and know who can make the small changes and who can’t. For example, if the opponents are forcing a faster pack than the team’s braced walls can manage, suggesting to the pack that’s coming off that switching to partner bracing or flat walls based on what they’re next best prepared for will move the game and improve the team. Encouragement and supportive words when change is needed historically get the best results out of rosters. TIME MANAGEMENT There are three fundamental strategies to winning roller derby games: scoring points, stopping the opposing team from scoring points, and managing time. Practicing with time is important. This means bringing stopwatches to scrimmages where there aren’t clocks and verbally keeping your team and your jammers aware of period and jam time. Here’s an introduction to what the new jam coach should work with when coaching. game/period clock There are two 30 minute periods in derby but an undetermined number of jams. Jam coaches can create more game play time by running long jams or less game
Joe Mac
play time running short jams and using timeouts to have more (calling immediately after jam end) or less (calling 29 seconds after jam time) game play time. jam clock Tracking the opposing jammer’s lap, advising the jammer whether another scoring pass is likely, freezing opposing players in the penalty box for better lead jam opportunities, and recognizing winning or losing lineups fall to the jam coach. penalty time Scoring becomes difficult without earning lead jammer consistently. The lead jammer has the ability to influence the lineups of the following jam by either burning time for their own teammates to get out of the penalty box or cutting a jam short to freeze opponents in the box. Using a stopwatch, jam coaches can track the penalty time for their own key players.
time outs Each team receives three timeouts per game. These may be used for resetting strategies, giving skaters a break, and time management. Timeouts stop the period clock at the time they are called. Each team also receives one Official Review per period which, if decided for the requesting team, may be retained and used a second time. Official Reviews may be used as a timeout and must always last at least 60 seconds. Only the Captain (displaying a C) and the Alternate Captain (displaying an A) may request a time out. OFFICIATING COMMUNICATION Along with the Captain, the Alternate Captain has the ability to call time outs, and request Official Reviews. As the member most able to see the bigger picture of the game, the jam coach also often plays the role of Alternate Captain as it may be assigned to a skater or bench staff. Every referee crew will have a different manner in which they will communicate with skaters and staff. A jam coach actively listens and appropriately communicates with officials before and during the game. fiveonfivemag.com | Winter 2016
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across the pond S I N E A D, L E E D S R O L L E R D O L L S PHOTOS BY JASON RUFFEL
The internationality of flat track roller derby has been growing in strength for several years. As with any nascent sport, the revival saw North American teams dominating the rankings: North America was where roller derby was born and it looked for a long time as though nobody would ever be able to catch up to those leagues that essentially reinvented flat track derby. The WFTDA set the standard that other leagues aspired to play to, and their rules were followed throughout the world, long before the Association first opened its doors to an international league: MontrÊal joined the WFTDA in 2009, and other leagues followed in their footsteps. At the time of writing, WFTDA represents more than 2,000 leagues worldwide. As the sport has continued to grow and change, there has in effect been a plateau of skill that is seeing more and more intercontinental teams competing at a level of ability equal to that of the founding foremothers of flat-track derby. In 2013 London Rollergirls broke the glass ceiling and made their way to the WFTDA championships, breaking into the top 10 rankings. Victorian Roller Derby League had a similarly meteoric rise, getting to Champs in 2014 and in 2015 taking away the bronze medal – the first non-US team to come away with metalwork from the tournament. Since 2015, LRG and VRDL have been consistently in
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the top 5 rankings, and the end of the 2015 season saw teams from 3 continents in the top 3 positions, an unprecedented achievement. The increased diversity in Division 1 and 2 has been welcomed worldwide, and at the time of writing, there are 11 teams from outside of North America in the top 60 teams. But what does it take for non-North American teams to make it to playoffs? All WFTDA teams have to play four sanctioned games throughout the season in order to qualify for playoffs, and these have to be in time to fall within the top 60 ranked WFTDA places by the 30 June deadline. This means that, for intercontinental teams, choosing opponents requires a thorough understanding of the rankings system and algorithms, as well as openings such as strength factor challenges that allow them to play teams far above or below their rankings levels without the fear of losing ranking points. Because a lot of European teams are in a similar situation, they are ranked at a similar level. The downside to this is that, in order to move up the rankings, they need to play North American teams, which can be ruinously expensive. The cheapest, least difficult way to do this is to take part in an invitational tournament, and try to get all four sanctioned games in one weekend.
Leeds Roller Dolls is one of the leagues that has been following the WFTDA ruleset since its inception in 2007. The first roller derby team in Yorkshire, their road to being within skipping distance of D2 began when they joined the WFTDA as full members in 2013, and in May 2015, they played their first US tournament, Beach Brawl. They had to do a lot of fundraising to get to Beach Brawl, and all of the skaters had to self-fund. However, from that tournament they came away with a point differential of 934 across the 3 games they played, and subsequently jumped up the rankings. Leeds carried on their determined path in 2016 and this time rocked the house at Mayday Mayhem (ironically taking place in June, although they got the Mayhem bit right). This time around Leeds were forced to travel with a roster of 11 skaters, for the best and worst of reasons – captain Livid Doll picked up a tri-malleolar fracture to her ankle while playing in a Sur5al tournament to raise funds for the travel team to get to Colorado. On a happier note, Miss Tricksy was unable to travel (boo!) because she was getting married to her wife, Sam (yay!).
Livid Doll explains: “The financial side [of getting to the US] is always the obvious [problem] – not all of the squad could commit to another trip to the States. We’ve not really known anything other than a short roster, for the last 3 years. I genuinely can’t remember the last time we fielded 14 skaters. Luckily, that final 12th skater agreed to come to the States – if she hadn’t, then me breaking my ankle would have utterly goosed up our system. As it was we had enough to play 3 jammers, 2 full packs, with 11. That system went out the window a bit when we had unavoidable expulsions / foul outs / penalty spirals, but we dealt with it well.” Financial pressure is not the only challenge facing the teams travelling across the pond, and training for a tournament brings its own issues. Livid says, “We changed our entire system in how we trained and played games and ran our lineups because we knew we had to be smart with it to make the most of the few months that we had ahead of Mayhem.” Leeds brought in Chuck as a guest coach (former captain of VRDL) who helped them prepare for the games. Between the captains and the coaching squad, they got down to business
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