Slow Derby to No Derby.

A year ago, slow derby was on the rise and the shouting match between the ‘slow derby sucks’ and the ‘it’s just strategy’ crowds began. SDS proponents think derby should be all fast all the time and don’t like any clockwise or slow, stepping action. The pro-strategy group think it is all just part of the game. I’m torn between whether a majority of the strategists really feel that way, or just find themselves feeling defensive. I think I kind of fell into the latter part of that crowd because I felt like derby was mine and anyone who criticized it should just burn in hell.

So let’s review.

In my last slow derby post, the conversation broke down into three main concepts, but the prevailing criticism is about slow or stalled action at the start of a jam that prevents the release of the jammers, and thus scoring points. (The objective of the game.)

The first form of stalled action was after the first whistle blew: team A would move forward slowly or not at all. It might catch team B off guard when they jump off the line, giving A a solid back wall. Then it became about burning time if A had a blocker or jammer in the box. A way to deal with it was for all of B to just skate forward, causing a ten foot separation and no pack; jammer whistle blows. Since this is the beginning of the jam and they are not racing away, there is no penalty given for essentially destructing the pack. B is just setting a speed, whereas A is not really moving.

This counter-action may still eat a few minutes, especially if team A sees it happening and bridges the pack. So in anticipation of a stall, team B can all take a knee BEFORE the pack whistle blows, there will be no pack, and the jammers are realeased right away. Since there was no pack to break at the whistle, and if B resumes standing position right away, there is again no penalty issued.

Bridging 101: Arms do not bridge, refs measure distance from a skater's hips.

During all this stalling and non-skating forward, skaters realized they could skate back towards the jam line before the jammers were released. Now, team B decides A shouldn’t get the back wall every time. When the jam timer declares “5 SECONDS!” all of team B rushes the jammer line and takes a knee. This is usually done if B’s jammer is the only one on the line, so when she is released right away, team A is recovering from the sudden plan change or almost immediately get pushed ten feet out, causing no pack. A will have to stop engaging and the jammer gets to slide right through. It can also be done just to fuck with the other jammer since you’re lining up in her way with an immediate wall.

Team A sees this happen again and again and decides they better line up by the jam line too. If they see B sprint back, they know to go back with them so they don’t get called for no pack so easily. This still takes some scrambling and awareness, so they just beat B to the punch and start the jam back there from the beginning and everyone starts to forget about the pivot line. B sees A at the jammer line and lines up there too. Now we’re back to the stalled starts scenario, only we’re at the jammer line and not the pivot line. Again, a knee can be taken before the whistle to instant-start the jammers, but now they’re unleashed into a mosh pit of blockers.

What if no team takes a knee before the whistle? No one wants to skate forward to break the pack because then they will lose their position. This went on for awhile and everyone stared at each other wondering who was going to make a move first. Born were jams that never were: two whole minutes of skaters standing around as if their skates didn’t exist.

At this year’s Eastern Playoffs, it seemed there was a way to counter-act this stalled jammer line after the whistle. All but one blocker on team B would take a knee and then the last B blocker would casually skate forward until there was no pack. No one is issued a penalty and B still has a strong presence at the back.

At Westerns this counter-strategy didn’t get used and multiple jams went the full 2 minutes without any skating. There were obvious downfalls for each team to not skate, but each also felt strongly enough to stand their ground. Rat knew they couldn’t out skate Rocky, so they ate up time and messed with their heads. So why didn’t Rocky skate? According to some feedback on Derby Deeds, they felt by skating forward they were more likely to get called out of play and that Rat would hold the dominant position at the back.

Do I even need to mention the spiral staircase clarification?

So what’s the problem here? All of the fast, roller derby action is being traded for stopped, roller derby strategy. A year ago, I felt that the kinks would work out and eventually we would all skate again, but instead it got worse. Everyone is still complaining and demanding a rule change, but what should change? My sentiment was to just tell skaters to skate! Don’t get pulled into this stopped strategy by the other team. There seems to be a counter-action for each strategy, it just results in a mosh pit between the jammer and pivot line.

After dealing with this strategy in practices and bouts, and even with trying to move the action forward and counter-act the stalled strategy, I always felt at a disadvantage. Whoever was at the back had the advantage, and I could quickly be called out of play at the front. The most frustrating part is that the other team doesn’t even have to have a goat. It felt like strategy when you had to actively hold an opposing blocker to control the pack, but now they don’t even have to exert themselves to hold the pack slow. How is this fair?

This frustration is outlined in the Windy Man’s post “The Pack Solution.” He completely nails what the problem is with roller derby. It can’t necessarily be fixed with a jam line shot clock, required forward motion or one whistle. The jam might actually get going, but not much else would change. The solution is to not force the skaters to skate but to motivate them to skate. His proposed solution is explained in detail with diagrams and videos and is definitely worth your time to read. It doesn’t go without its own flaws, but it helps you think about roller derby in a different way, or at least it did for me.

In the current strategy style of WFTDA roller derby, you can get away with leisurely skating in a pace line at the back of the pack and that is called offense. You could even have only 2 skaters on the track, what should be a disadvantage, and you can still hold control of the pack. How does this seem fair? I often boast while explaining roller derby to newbs, that "it is a unique sport because we play offense and defense at the same time." We’re losing that strategy and putting stalling and standing in its place. That is the spirit of roller derby that I’m worried about losing. It doesn’t have to be all fast all the time, but I have always enjoyed its complexity and physicality, and we’re losing that.

Roller Derby is broken. The object of the game is for the jammers to lap the pack and score points. Simple enough. When the objective of the game is not being reached because standing around by the jam line is an effective strategy (and it is), something is wrong. When this strategy is used so much that fans don’t even want to watch, something is wrong. (And lets get real, most of our fans right now are die-hard followers or skaters themselves, I’d hate to know what an outsider thinks.)

A lot of people in the derby community get offended by fan criticism because this is “for the skaters by the skaters.” I even fell into this category, but am starting to understand how this whole production works. Matt Faure spells out what he think is wrong with roller derby and it makes sense. “…roller derby is a spectator sport and as such owes a certain degree of responsibility to the people who patronize it.” Yes we own our leagues and run them by democratic principles with a DIY aesthetic and train ourselves... but we also rely on our community to help us grow and improve, and in return we should in the least play roller derby for them.

Just because on some level we need to appease our audience doesn’t mean we have to sell out and put on a variety show for them. Their reaction should just be an indication that something is not making sense and we should address it. It becomes about give and take, and the continual growth of our sport is going rely on us being open to change while maintaining control.

I don’t have any real answers but I hope things change for the better and roller derby continues on its growth spurt across the globe. Now that we have junior leagues popping up, we are becoming responsible for laying the path for these young boys and girls who look up to us. I guess my biggest request is that we all calm down a bit and look closely at the conflict. If you are unhappy with what you see, contact your local league or WFTDA representative. Send in an official rule complaint or change request to WFTDA as they talk about in episode 75 of Derby Deeds. If you feel strongly one way or the other, start a discussion! Write about it. Talk about it. This post was inspired by the growing wealth of words being written on the subject, so please read all the articles I’ve linked. 

Long live roller derby.

My roommate Animal Mother's take on slow derby. "In Defense of Slow Derby"

Eugene Roller Derby Examiner by James Warmels "Why Rat City's decision not to skate was brilliant and why it should be illegal"

RDIT: Guest Writer Persephone of Philly Roller Girls "Victory Through Destruction: A Look at Game Play Destroying Strategies"

RDIT article by Quad Almighty. "One Whistle to Rule Them All." 

RDIT article by Mike Chexx. "The Message: Gotham v. Philly at ECDX"

Harrisburg Roller Derby Examiner by Kristie Grey. "Small League, Slow Derby?"

Even God Wants to Heckle You

Worst Parade Ever

This next blog is by request.

All refs are dumb, blind, liars and biased, right?

In sports, the players get all the glory and refs get all the ridicule. Athletes train to learn the rules and perfect their skill in order to play a fair and safe game, and the refs are there to help ensure that that happens.

Roller derby is of course, a unique sport. (how many times can I say that?) The athletes are amateur, the officials are volunteers and most of an audience for a bout is relatively new to the game. It’s safe to say that not every bout is pretty, especially non-WFTDA sanctioned bouts. For newer leagues, most are lucky if they can find someone to learn the rules and join their league to ref, and even luckier if they can find multiple people interested in reffing.

As I’ve also said before, derby is newest in the Midwest. There have been about five new leagues on the scene in the past couple years; lots of freshly tenderized meat. Of most of these leagues I have seen few with more than one or two regular refs attached to their team. It shows in their playing because they don’t have that constant eye on them at practice to help evolve their game. Newer skaters are going to be sloppy already, but if they aren’t getting the feedback of a ref at home, game day becomes a real eye opener for them. 

I think our league has developed so fast because we can boast a large ref crew. If you check our brand spanking new website, we have 11 zebras listed in our herd. That is more than enough to ref a bout, meaning that we have a full ref crew at almost every practice. From the time our league began, we also had close ties to certified refs which gave us good roots from which our league could grow. Howie Swerve, a level 2 ref, comes around from time to time to help mold our refs and to make sure everyone is on the same page. The Gorram Reaver, also a level 2, has worked with us multiple times and provided us with VERY thorough discussions. Some of our refs have attended the recent officiating clinics to further their knowledge of the rules. I am not a ref, nor a certified WFTDA member, but I feel confident in saying that we have a very good ref crew at our disposal. The lack of refs in the Midwest has also led to a plethora of reffing opportunities for them across a range of skill levels.

The Gorram Reaver is a tough ref, and I may not always like her during a bout, but that's because she's doing her job.

This weekend I was told that I should blog about how one ref was a cocksucker. I don’t find this as an indication of bad reffing, I actually find it quite the opposite. When I hear people complain about the officiating at a bout, I ask them why they thought it was so bad. The response is usually that they made bad calls or they “only called elbows on such&such team and didn’t call ANY on so&so team.” Well… maybe such&such team was throwing a lot more elbows that so&so team? I find that latter complaint usually about teams that are playing on a fresher level. A penalty on a newer skater is going to look a lot different than a penalty on an experienced skater. I might come up behind an all-star skater and run into her back, but she is a strong player so she doesn’t fall down. That is a minor. I do the same on a fresh meat skater, and she might fall down making it a major.

I hear these accusations and usually just step back because it’s not my sandbox. I have a pretty decent understanding of the rules because I make sure I understand them completely when I get called for something. I’ve toyed with the idea of even trying out reffing, to get a better understanding of the rules, but just watching in practice it looks extremely tough to judge impact and intention of action on the track.

Saturday night I got a bit of a peek into officiating from the middle of a zebra pack. I helped jam time at the Your Mom bout in Des Moines against the St. Louis Gatekeepers. I had jam timed for Your Mom once before in a relatively closed interleague scrimmage, but working at a bout with an audience is a whole different experience. The crowd can be vicious and distracting. I fumbled with the whistle a few times in the first half because the roar of the crowd was so overwhelming.

Jam timing is an interesting job, and very systematic. Everything I do is according to a clock: jam time, period time, in-between jam time, time outs, etc. I also have to respond to a few certain ref calls. Jams run two minutes long unless the jammer calls it off. The jammer signals this to the ref, the ref calls the jam, I stop the clock, start 30 seconds until the next jam, which I give a five second warning and then start the pack. The next whistle, per the rules, sounds when the last pack skater crosses the line. Simple enough, right? Well with all the new pack strategy off the line, it gets a little more complicated.

If the black team decides to take a knee, I sound the first whistle to start the jam, and then I must wait for the refs to call no pack, in which I immediately release the jammers. If not everyone takes a knee before the first whistle then a pack would still exist and I must be cognizant to only respond to the call of the refs. It’s a little tricky and takes a lot of focus and attention, and once I pushed the yells of the crowd out of my head it all became much smoother.

My job is not much different than a ref. A wise ref by the name of Umpire Strikes Back once said that a ref “describes what the skaters are doing, they do not prescribe.” Meaning, they take in all of the information that lies before them and respond with an appropriate call. There are also different ref positions that are responsible for making certain calls. A jam ref may see a pack skater commit a penalty, but they are relying on their pack refs to call it because they must remain completely focused on their jammer. (What jammer likes it when they call off a jam but get too much lag time from their ref because they were not making eye contact?) There is a very specific flow to how a ref crew works a bout, and experienced and certified refs have it down pretty well.

There's a difference between team douchebag
and just being a douchebag. Hellarad knows.

I’ve listened in on enough zebra chat to know that most refs have little emotion tied to bouts. They call the penalties they see and they see the penalties they call. There is a check and balance system amongst them, as the outside pack refs call into the inside pack refs to acknowledge that was indeed a track cut or a no pass/no penalty, etc. The jam refs have lots of communication as to whether their jammer got lead or lap points. It’s amazing to experience a ref crew up close and personal and to see the action from the infield of a track.

To hear some of the nasty comments this past weekend was just baffling to me. When they are only booing the calls against their league and only cheering for the calls against the opposing league, they lose credibility when they approach a ref after the bout to claim that they were the worst fucking ref they had ever seen.

Like I said I am not a ref, but from my experience and all the information I gathered through my position on the track, the refs called what they saw, and saw what they called, and a crowd claming differently is going to have no impact on the game. If you disagree, I would like to see you put on some stripes and do a better job. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of how a game goes or what they think of the officiating, whether it’s an educated opinion is a different story. Either way, it is just plain rude to mouth off to a ref in this sport since they are all here voluntarily, and without them our game would never improve. 

Your Mom vs Gatekeepers Pictures by  Maharry Photography

Slow Derby Sucks?

Attending the 2010 WFTDA Championships in person was an overwhelming and exciting experience. Some of the best teams from around the country had gathered to battle it out. Teams whose athletes had worked tirelessly on their own time to build endurance, agility, and explosive muscular strength so they could compete, on wheels, for an hour of full contact chaos. I was thrilled to enjoy a whole weekend of derby up close and watched in awe as skaters I aspired to be took each other on, and they were getting… booed?

As the weekend went on, “Slow Derby Sucks” t-shirts started circulating through the UIC Pavillion and people had signs that either stated the same, or demanded skaters to skate fast. Anytime there was stalled, stopped or slow action on the track, the crowd went crazy, heckling and booing the skaters. Crowds can be very fickle depending on where their loyalties lie, and booing is usually reserved for the referees. I couldn’t understand why the crowd had become so antagonistic towards the skaters in general.

My first frustration with this aggressive attack on a style of play is that it is a generalization of action on the track. My assumption then is that perhaps most people booing may not even know the thought process behind some of these strategies. What is “slow derby” anyway? The website behind the crowd's response, slowderbysucks.com states: "Slow derby is when skaters slow down, completely stop on the track, or skate backwards or clockwise (in the opposite direction)."  Queen of the Rink recently posted about the website and a comment to the post had it right in saying there should be “three separate conversations about three discrete tactics:

1. Delaying the Jam Start.
2. Pushing a skater out, then skating clockwise to force her to come in behind you
3. Generally keeping a slow pace for the pack.”

(A thanks goes to “Ryan” for bringing up this great point.)

Delaying the jam start is when the whistle blows, yet all of the defined pack does not cross the pivot line, thus delaying the jammer’s whistle and wasting the clock. A team may do this because they have the lead and want to burn the minutes that the other team could spend scoring points. They could also do this if they have a blocker, or worse yet a jammer, in the box and want to stall so that their teammate can finish her penalty and join them on the track. It could also be a ploy to confuse or disrupt the other team in order to establish position and control the pack.

Gotham tried skating backwards to create no pack but
Philly moved with them to keep stalling the whistle.

A player may not re-enter the track in front of a skater who knocks her out of bounds, so often the initiator may slow down or stop to slow the movement of the out of bounds skater, forcing her to come in play directly behind her. This has been a common sense strategic move for awhile, but the first time I saw someone skate backwards to force the other skater back further had me nearly peeing my pants. It is such a satisfying maneuver to execute and works especially well against the opposing jammer. The whole point of defense in roller derby is to stop the other jammer from scoring points, and this tactic keeps them out of the pack longer, thus scoring no points. A blocker has to exercise precise movements in order to not fall out of bounds herself, while also keeping an eye on the pack because she must stay in play in order to contain the opposing skater.

A Charm City girl knocked the Minnesota jammer
to the inside and slows down.

Keeping a slow pace in the pack throughout a jam is often reserved for power jams. When the opposing jammer is called off the track, you would want to trap one of their blockers (called a goat) and slow them down to force the rest of the pack to slow down as well. If they don’t they will become out of play and if there is no goat and the two teams split, there is no pack. Slowing the pace allows for your own jammer to make as many five point passes as she can (a grandslam), and leaves the other team scrambling to regain control. There is also a flip side to this strategy. If your own jammer gets sent to the box, you would want to immediately speed up the pack so that the jammer can barely make it through the pack, or not at all. In this fast pack situation there may be little to no hitting or action because the opposing team is just working on trying to catch up. 

Philly traps a Kansas City Roller to help their jammer score points.

The main argument slowderbysucks.com puts forth is that “slow derby” is lazy. To me, as a skater, slowed action intensifies the game. The explosive muscles and agility of starting and stopping and avoiding skaters is at its height more than it ever is in a fast pack situation. A jammer has to be decisive in order to not backblock and blockers are straining to hold position or lean another player out. They also have to keep mental notes of where the pack is, what direction they are skating when they engage, where the jammers are, or if they are keeping a solid wall. To slow or stop and confront the opposing players instead of just skating away from them takes a lot of precise skating and judgment. There is definitely a subtly to this kind of action but I would not call it lazy.

Roller derby is still in its infancy and is growing and evolving all the time. Since the first shared rule set in 2005, derby has gone through many growing pains and revisions. In its fifth edition I believe it has finally developed into a concise yet detailed guideline for the game and will only require small tweaks from here on. The lure of roller derby has always been short skirts, fishnets and hard hits, but as these women cultivate the sport, it becomes more and more purely an athletic endeavor with a feminine shell. Those things all still exist in derby, but the boutfits I saw at Championships were more uniform and streamlined. Skaters still have some of their own certain flair, but most teams just looked solid and well put together on the track.

Gotham looks like a well-oiled machine in just their warm ups.

The game itself has even streamlined and become more about how the game is played and not just the show. Dive bomb hits and explosive take outs have been traded in for booty blocks and effective leans. Skaters are realizing that it does their team no good if they take themselves out with the opposing skater. It is becoming about position on the track and a balancing act of offense and defense, not just an all out war. Big hits are becoming equal to the slam dunk in basketball; it’s a crowd pleaser, but not necessary to the game. Are fans going to stand up in outrage because skaters are using more positional blocking then all out hits?

It’s not that I am advocating that roller derby should become all about slow play, but there’s just something that rubs me the wrong way about this aggressive response and being demanded to play derby a certain way. I get that watching girls standing on the track may be boring or frustrating to watch, but I also get the strategy behind it. There are times that it be used excessively but I feel that as teams experiment with these tactics more and more, they will figure out what works and what is worth it to their game. There were many times I saw it used effectively at Championships and the skaters switched so quickly between tactics that no one hardly noticed. There were also times when it ultimately failed and a team wasted thirty seconds for nothing. The skaters will either become more effective with their use of these strategies, or drop them all together.

The Mad Rollin' Dolls all take a knee to keep
Philly from stalling on the line.

The only change I could see happening would be something equivalent to a shot clock on the start lines. A team could potentially stall a jam for a whole two minutes, which would be ridiculous, but the rules wouldn’t stop them. Stalling for ten seconds to gain another player or jammer on the track seems reasonable, but anything much longer seems a bit excessive. Skaters are already figuring out how to counter act this ploy by kneeling on the line before the jam even starts. If they do it before the whistle there is no pack and no penalties issued, and the jam whistles sounds right away. 

The rest of it is just smart derby. Most of the fans who watch derby are new to the sport and don’t understand all the rules or action on the track. There are lots of die-hard derby fans as well who have been following the sport and are frustrated with these trends in the strategy.  I hope as the sport moves forward, the fans will be patient as it evolves, and have a deeper understanding of what they are watching and be just as passionate.

Playing to the crowd is a double edged sword. Yes, their support helps us keep our DIY system going, and bouts scheduled, but when it comes down to it skaters aren’t being paid. They are there because they want to play and they are in love with the sport of derby. If there were no fans that would not necessarily kill the game for us. I would still strap on skates and find a gym and scrimmage with my teammates for as long as my would muscles would allow. Derby still runs a fine line between being seen as a sports endeavor and as mere entertainment. (Check which section your local newspaper puts the story about your team in; was it the sports or the arts & culture? Kudos to Animal for pointing that out.)

I'm glad fans are taking roller derby so seriously, but it just seems like a selfish argument and I don’t like being told how to play the game. I think the best solution would be to start a discussion, not a petition. The whole campaign of slowderbysucks.com just screams propaganda and feels too political by forcing people to “choose sides” or act outrageously. Roller derby today has democratic principles that propel the mantra of “by the skaters for the skaters,” and it will be the skaters who have the final say. I think the more knowledge and discussion the better, get the conversation started.

-L4D

*Speical thanks to everyone I've chatted with in the last few weeks about this, you helped form these thoughts. Keep on talking.