ARCHIVE APRIL 29, 2019: The Not-So-Technical-and-Still-Incomplete Guide To Watching Roller Derby

** originally posted on Win Column Sports**

Ladies and gentleman, I’ve watched my first Roller Derby game in over a decade, and only have one question.

How the heck does it not get more fans in attendance?!

My wife and I attended the Oil City Roller Derby Lotus Invitational this past Saturday. Admittedly, there were three games that night and we only caught one; however, we will definitely be back on June 15th for their next event. We were armed with just the basic premise of the game which is the “Jammer” – the player with a star cap pulled onto their helmet – scoring points for their respective team for breaking through the pack and doing a lap(s) around the circuit. After catching the game, I wish to expand on what you are going to see so that you are not left asking the same questions I was asking as I worked through the first half. No fancy words or terms, just a fan explaining what he saw knowing that he still has a lot to learn.

Just arrived at the Sportsdome for the big game.Len Nunes | wincolumnsports.ca

Each team designates a “Jammer”; think of it as a quarterback in the shotgun position. The PA Announcer mentions who the respective Jammers are before they try to break through the mass of humanity in front of them.

What you need to know though is that if the Jammer is knocked out of bounds, they cannot simply keep going. Unfortunately, they must go back to the beginning of the pile. The keyword there is “pile” as they do not need to go back to the starting point – only behind wherever the pile of blockers happens to be when they were knocked out. On this night, we saw so many different techniques:

• “piggybacking” – a smaller Jammer following tightly behind a bigger blocker waiting for the opportunity to escape
• tiptoeing the line to freedom
• similar to a running back in football, they would attack the middle and shoot into any holes their blockers opened for them
• passing the star cap forward to a teammate making them jammer and having them escape

On the blocking side of the game, this aspect surprised me. As much as I tried to rationalize the sport as “just like football”, the focus in Roller Derby is not the bone-jarring hits. The focus is body position to force the Jammer out of bounds. If not out of bounds, to keep the Jammer stuck in the pile of bodies. Roller Derbiers are not allowed to use their hands to reach out and grab someone. Many times we saw three blockers on the same team hold each other’s hand to form a moving barricade.

When a Jammer breaks through the pile, you will hear a whistle. When the Jammer for the other team breaks through the pile, you will hear another whistle. The respective refs who blow the whistle follow their respective Jammer around the circuit to judge if they stayed in-bounds and to keep track of the points they earned. What we saw was 4 points for every successful lap. A more thorough breakdown of the scoring will follow as I continue to learn about the game.

A Jammer cannot just keep doing laps around the circuit as there is a 2-minute limit on “jams”. If the word “jams” scares you, think of it as 2-minute periods or quarters, whichever word you are comfortable. During these two minutes either Jammer can call it off early by putting motioning their hands on their hips – if you watch hockey, it’s the same sign referees use to call a misconduct. The referees will then play the whistle four (4) times to signify the end of that jam/period/quarter. The Jammers then hand off the star helmet jammer designation to new players and we start all over again.

Len Nunes | wincolumnsports.ca

GAME COMMENTS

Lurch, number 31, and Aviatrix, number 32 for the Blooms caught my attention the most. Aviatrix was the Jammer that brought the team back from 40+ down to bringing the game down to its last jam. It looked like team black was going to take a late lead with Lurch as jammer but a 30-second penalty for presumably a hit from behind on Sour Cherry ended the threat. Lurch unofficially led the team in hits. As I learn more about penalties in this game that information will be passed along.

Sour Cherry, who last year skated with Team Indigenous at the Roller Derby World Cup, had the biggest hit of the game early in the festivities. Accelerati, number 11, and Boney M, number 12, made a night of collecting four-point jams dancing along the out of bounds time after time for the Petals. Every time I figured that was there next move, either one of them would fearlessly go inside and bounce through the Blooms team defence.

I hope this not-so-technical guide to Roller Derby helps convince you to come to check out a game. My wife and I literally only knew one rule going in and were able to easily piece together what was happening. Sure, there are many questions left about scoring and penalties, but the premise of the game which I explained hopefully allows you to check out a game.