Official Reviews-How, Why, When

It happened, you are standing at your bench and that gosh darn OPR just missed a cut call on the opposing team's jammer. You are angry, frustrated, and gosh darn it you are going to do something about it! Time to use that official review. But wait, should you? Are you prepared to effectively challenge that call (or no-call)?

First of all. Do you know the rule? If you can't explain the infraction you claim was missed, then you have no business wandering into the center of the track. You should be able to describe every bit of what you saw, who was involved, as well as why it was a penalty. Racing up to the head ref to yell, "she forearmed my blocker" is not going to get you anywhere. Many times teams will ask for a review on something where there was no impact or their skater initiated the contact that caused the thing they are questioning. They waste their review on a call where they did not even clearly understand the ruling they were contesting.

Secondly, is there actually a chance that an official other than the one that called the penalty (or didn't) saw the thing you are contesting? If not, your chances of winning that review are almost zero. Without extra eyes on the call it is pretty difficult for a ref crew to discuss and assess whether the ruling was appropriate. Once again, this is why it is so important for you not only to explain exactly what happened, but also how you feel the rule should be applied in the situation. If you can do that there is a slight chance you could get a reversal of call but it is still unlikely. I have avoided using my review on a number of occasions because very simply, only one ref saw it.

Next, does it make sense to use your review? I always go into reviews with the assumption that I will be unsuccessful. I do this because I am assuming that I will no longer have a review. With that assumption, what can I hope to gain if I actually win? Did my jammer go to the box and then get released before the end of the jam? I can't get the points the other team scored back with a review, so probably a waste because my jammer is already out of the box. Ultimately, situations involving jammers end up being a large percent of official reviews. It only makes sense. Large point swings can come from a jammer being in the box. If you were pretty sure the other team's jammer cut the track and it was missed, it is probably a good situation to use that official review. This is not to say that reviewing calls or no calls on blockers is useless, just overall less effective in the grand scheme of an entire game.

Sometimes there are other reasons to use an official review that don't involve one specific rule infraction, called or not. Per the rules now an official review can be used as just another timeout if a team so chooses. (I will admit I will miss coming up with pointless things to review to use my OR for like "are the other team's numbers big enough on their jerseys." but that is just me.) Another one I have often used my official review for in the past has been to make a point and force the ref crew to have a discussion. I will do this when I feel like the same call is either being called or missed and I feel like the head ref hasn't given enough credence to the situation. One recent example I can give was a game where one of the jam refs continually awarded points to the opposing team after the four whistles when their jammmer wasn't even close to passing my blockers. After it had happened multiple times I used my official review to ask that the points be removed that had just been awarded. They weren't but we also did not have that issue for the remainder of the game.

The last, and probably most important part of an official review, is your behavior towards the refs and somewhat more specifically the head ref. It is my belief that when it comes to an official review the way you treat the people in stripes throughout the game matters. While it really shouldn't affect how they call a game, respect goes a long way. Approach the head official with a calm assertive manner. Don't yell, don't scream. It isn't going to impact their decision and it just makes you look like a jerk. None of us make money doing this but that does not mean you shouldn't treat the situation as a professional.

Without video replay, official reviews in roller derby will never be perfect. You are working with nothing but the human element. Remember this going in and heed my advice and you may not always be successful but I bet your rate of retained reviews will grow.

What is Your Bout Day Ritual?

As a former athlete, I don't recall ever having much of a game day ritual. I never really did anything differently on game day that I didn't do otherwise. As I have grown into my role as a roller derby coach I have found that there are certain things I need to do to be ready for the game physically and mentally. I know as a coach it might sound weird that I need to prepare physically, but I find it is just as important!

1. My prep starts weeks before a game. If we are playing another league I try to learn as much as I can about them. I look at Flat Track Stats to see how they have fared recently. Compare common opponents if there are any. Dig for any bout footage I can find, even if it is old (I make note of skaters that skated then as well as now and how they played, assuming they will have improved).

2. One or two weeks before the game I will write my lineups. I may tweak them daily all the way up to the day of the game but I still like the feeling of having something written and ready to go.

3. During bout week I mentally run through EVERY possible scenario I can think of.

What would I do if we were down by nine points with two minutes left and one timeout? What will I do if skater A fouls out? How will I handle it if the other team gets an early lead? What am I going to say to the team at halftime if we are winning by a bunch?

This way I feel ready for anything once the whistle blows.

4. The night before I try to get as much sleep as possible. Sometimes with travel games we pull in pretty late so I will try to get to bed as quickly as possible.

5. On bout day I like to get up and get moving. I have found that the best way for me to do this is to hit the gym. Thankfully for me just about every city has an Anytime Fitness for me to head off to. These gym sessions are never for targeting muscle groups or hitting fitness goals. All I do is go in and throw around as much weight as I can, burn off the bout day anxiety, and focus my mind. I have found this to be a huge key for my preparation. Recently I lost my cool at a game (which is VERY uncharacteristic of me) and I think the fact that I didn't get my morning gym session in that day played a big part in that.

6. I like to get a big lunch in because often bout times fall into a meal time for me so I need something that will get me through to the after party.

7. Between those two things on bout day I like to boot up the computer and watch some inspiring games. Personal favorites are Bay Area/Denver and Texas/Gotham from last year's champs in Milwaukee.

8. Once I am at the venue I like to get in game mode. The captains warm the team up off skates and I will take everything in. By the time our team track time rolls around I like to be all business. I want to set the tone for my team and our attitudes from that point forward.


I am curious to hear other people's rituals. Please comment below!

The Role of the Alternate on the Bench

In roller derby a coach has many responsibilities on the bench. Lineups must be called, jammers need to receive instructions during jams, and skaters need to be coached up on the things they are doing on the track. Most teams have two bench staff that are tasked with these and other responsibilities during each game. The roles and their divisions are different depending on who you talk to. What I would really like to focus on in this post is the role of the alternate in roller derby.

Obviously wearing the A gives someone certain rights and powers during a game. Basically they are the same as those of the Captain. The main difference is that in most cases the person wearing the A is not a skater playing in that game, they are one of the bench staff. (I have seen skaters wear the A but I think it is a terrible idea to do for reasons I will specify below.)

WFTDA rules dictate that the alternate (A) has the ability to call time outs and call for official reviews. These are vital things when it comes to a game (really in all sports that have those two things). I mentioned that I feel like a skating alternate is a terrible idea and this opinion revolves completely around focus. Generally a captain is going to be a skater that plays a lot. Oftentimes they are even one of the "go to" athletes when it comes to crunch time. You would not want that person to have to be focused on clock management while on the track. At the same time, a captain may never even see a potential incorrect penalty call because they are focused on what they are doing on the track. This is where the alternate needs to come in. They are the eyes on the track at all times and should have a much better opportunity to watch things like the clock and referee calls.

On your bench, ideally, your alternate is going to be the person who has eyes on the track at all times. In the past I myself have taken on multiple roles on the bench at once including calling lineups, coaching jammers, as well as wearing the A. To be honest it was not the most effective situation for me to be in. Oftentimes I would be in the process of calling the next line and miss a penalty on the track or look up to find that my jammer was out of the pack but not lead and had no idea why not. It was always a terrible feeling having to take my eyes off the track. Now with our travel team I have a designated bench manager that holds down lineups so I can focus on the game. This has allowed me to become a much more calm and effective bench coach. I am able to approach my official reviews with all the information possible and I am able to manage the clock with precision because I can focus on it between jams.

Moral of this blog is, put everyone involved in the most effective possible position they can be in. The A isn't about ego. The A is about management. There are really only two reasons I could see putting it on a skater. 1) The bench coach is very green and doesn't know the game or rules very well.
2) The skater wearing it just wants to have the legal right to argue with officials and say, "Look I am the alternate!" (Check your ego, you will win more games.)

I will cover that sticky subject of how to approach an official review in another blog.

Work Hardest On The Things You Hate: How I Learned To Embrace Leg Day

There is a sad truth in life. Many of us work the least at the things we hate doing. Unfortunately oftentimes those things are the things we are the worst at. I don't think I am alone in being guilty of this. When it comes to roller derby, and much of life for that matter, if I am not very good at something it is tough to enjoy doing it. I absolutely suck at plow stops, especially if I am moving at a pretty fast clip. I am much better at doing tomahawk stops and hockey stops/power slides so I do those all the time trying to perfect them. I use warm up times and water breaks to get lots of reps in on them but I never do plows. Why? Because I hate doing them. Why do I hate doing them? The answer is simple, I am rarely successful at them, I suck at them.

The logic here is terrible. Things I do well, I practice more than things I don't do well. Shouldn't it be the other way around? When I write practices for my team I don't have us work on stuff we are amazing at, we work on stuff we need improvement on. I think we are all guilty of this at some point or another.

I came to this realization myself recently when I found myself looking forward to leg day at the gym. In the past this has been something that got minimal attention from me and often I would skip it if I missed a few days at the gym. Why would I do that? The answer is simple, I was better at lifting for my upper body. I can bench press a solid amount of weight. I can do lots of pull ups. Frankly I just plain felt more successful at the gym doing those things.

For a long time now I have had pretty bad knees. This has made me paranoid about doing lower body lifts as I am always concerned about them. Many years of this paranoia has led me down the path of being the typical gym guy who over works the upper body and rarely hits the legs. (This is why many huge muscly gym guys wear baggy workout pants, they have scrawny chicken legs!) The recent turning point for me was actually kind of silly in the grand scheme of things but it has changed my attitude. Outside of derby I play on two softball teams during the summer. I have been a first baseman for many years and for those that know baseball generally that is where the biggest, slowest guy gets put. (Not to toot my own horn but I am there because I am a damn good first baseman!) This year I was asked by one of my teams to play center field instead. I was happy to but I knew I needed to get myself ready to be at my best. I decided I needed to improve my speed and explosiveness out there so I could cover as much of the field as possible. The only was this could happen was leg day.

From that point forward I made it my goal not to skip leg day no matter how much I didn't want to do it. The real kicker here is suddenly, I started to look forward to it! The more I did things like front squats and dead lifts the better I got at them and the more weight I could lift. Suddenly my weakness started becoming my strength. If I hadn't set a goal for myself I would never have gotten to this point, now I have even more goals set. I recently dead lifted 285 lbs and I really want to hit 315.

This attitude shift can be applied to anything in life really but this is a roller derby blog so I will try to keep my focus there. We all have things we are not good at when it comes to derby and skating. Until we set goals for ourselves and really embrace the things we are not good at we will never truly get better at them. If you are like me and suck at plow stops, tell yourself you are going to be able to stop within five feet from full speed in the next two months. If you want to improve your laps in a five minute skate aim for adding one every month and work at it. If you hate doing off skate, force yourself to do it once a week and try something different each time. You will be amazed how easy it is once you find something you love to do.

Set goals, attack your weaknesses, and become a better player and person. You can do it. don't doubt yourself.

Clock Management in Roller Derby

Roller derby teams rarely manage clocks effectively. This can be said of teams at every level. In every other sport with some kind of clock and limited "scoring opportunities" (soccer and hockey for example probably do not fall under this argument) clock management is incredibly important. This can be seen for example at the end of many close basketball and football (American football, sorry worldly folks I live in the U.S.A., more specifically Wisconsin where the Green Bay Packers are king) games where timeouts and clock stoppage are incredibly crucial for maximizing scoring opportunities.

In American football teams are often praised for effective clock management. A team with a slight lead will run the ball to keep the clock ticking away and out of the hands of the other team. Conversely a team playing behind will do things like throw passes to the sidelines (out of bounds stops the clock) and play a hurry up offense where they rush to the line as quickly as possible to limit the amount of time between plays. All of these things in both situations are meant to increase or limit the scoring chances of the team playing with a deficit. Coaches that manage these things are praised for their decision making in these situations. Losses in close games due to poor management are often blamed not on players or defenses but the coaches.

In roller derby we do not see coaches held to this same standard. Many times teams either allow another team extra time to complete a comeback or waste precious seconds that could be used to gain vital extra points.

Roller derby is a strange beast clock wise for two reasons. First there is the 30 second runoff between the fourth whistle at the end of one jam and the starting whistle of another. That means that in a 30 minute half if there were 22 jams there would be about 10 minutes of running clock during that half (depending on timeouts, how the final jam ends, etc) where skaters are not skating. The other oddball part of roller derby is that when the period clock shows one second there can still be two minutes of playtime in the period yet. As long as the previous jam ends prior to the clock showing zero you can stop the clock if you have a timeout or official review. This allots you one more scoring opportunity and depending on execution could be a huge swing in points.

To understand proper clock management we have to look at the scoring potential of any given jam under realistic situations. If we take out the very real possibility of a power jam on average you can generally expect to score between 4 and 9 points in a successful jam. (9 points assumes you passed the opposing jammer on the first scoring pass and they completed there initial before you could pass them a second time.) According to Windyman of Windyman.net in 80+ Division 1 bouts last year the average jam scored 9.1 points. This number is probably skewed due to obscenely large power jams that offset more common single scoring pass jams. With the new 30 second penalty rules I would have to imagine this average will drop.

 For clock management planning purposes I would never expect to score more than 9 points in a jam. That is to say that if my team was down by 36 points in the waning minutes of a game I would like to have at minimum 4 jams to close the gap.

This is the point at which clock management comes hugely into play. It is entirely possible to cram five jams into the final four minutes of a game that each encompass two full scoring passes. You would need all three of your timeouts as well as your official review to pull this off most likely but it is possible.

Jam starts at 4:00

15 seconds to get lead

20 seconds for scoring pass

20 seconds for second scoring pass

Call off-9points

Time out

3:05 left

similar jam sequence

Call off-9 points

Time out

2:10 left

similar jam sequence

Call off-9 points

Time out

1:15 left

similar jam sequence

Call off-9 points

Official review

0:20 left

Final jam (up to two minutes of scoring potential)

Obviously this is a best case scenario but with some momentum and luck it is entirely possible to erase a 36+ point lead without a power jam.

Personally I like to hoard timeouts for this very reason. I am happiest when I still have all three of my timeouts for the last fifteen or so minutes of a game. It amazes me how often you see teams lose close games with one, two, or even all three of their timeouts still in their pockets. Worse still I see teams all the time allow precious seconds tick off the clock between jams before they call their timeouts.

On the opposite end of the spectrum I think sometimes teams are even worse at clock management when it comes to holding a lead. Jammers will make super quick call offs in single pass jams when the other jammer might be six to ten seconds from beginning their scoring pass. These seconds seem insignificant at the time but sometimes it is the difference between being able to end the game or having to hold of the other team for one more jam at the end. When my teams play with a lead we do our best to grind the other team. Recently we started a final jam with the intent that we needed to kill a little over a minute before we ended the game. We got lead and when the other jammer escaped the pack I didn't panic and end the jam, I just told my jammer to skate smart and burn clock until it hit zero. I wasn't going to call it off and give the other team two more full minutes to try to reel us in. I knew if we stayed out of the box they didn't have a chance.

Recently at Quad City Chaos there was a major controversy that came up because of a team very smartly managing the clock and their play at the end. With a little more than a minute to go in the Ohio/Toronto game Toronto's jammer went to the box for a cut track. Ohio decided to have their jammer stop engaging. Brilliant move! Yet the announcers chided the team for it. They did exactly what they needed to do to win the game. For those familiar with American football, they took a knee. If you are a basketball fan, they dribbled out the clock. This kind of smart play should be applauded but because roller derby as a sport is still behind in a lot of ways we still expect them to "entertain" us to the final whistle. Last time I checked the win means something (well in WFTDA rankings maybe not as much) but it was important to Ohio to keep some kind of a point spread in there. With this being the third game of the weekend for both teams they weren't taking chances. I would do the same thing and if I had been there I would have stood up and applauded while that crowd booed. Sometimes brains wins out over brawn. As a coach, once we hit the track there is very little I can do to affect the outcome of the game. 90% of my job is the preparation that goes into the team. Clock management is a huge part of my role on game day. I take it very seriously. I hope to see more bench coaches do the same in the future. With 30 second penalties, point swings due to power jams are much smaller so teams are going to have to utilize the clock to aid in their comebacks. Without strong clock management teams will fall short every time.