Being involved in derby - part 1: Officially Official

Being involved in derby
Roller derby can take over your life. It can and with me it pretty much has. In the first place I am a skater, but I do a lot of stuff in and around derby that doesn't have to do with playing directly. That's why I want to talk about the other ways that I am involved in derby and what I take from it. This is the first one, all about being official.

Picture by Christopher Yarrow

When I started Roller Derby I had no idea what this game was all about. Seeing how derby was still pretty new in Europe and we were the first league in our country there was not a lot of derby around to go and see and learn from. The first time I went to even see a bout after I started was 9 months later in Berlin. Not really around the corner, cause it's a decent 6 hour drive from Amsterdam to Berlin.
But even when I did get to watch bouts live or online, I didn't necessarily understand all of what was going on in the game. Especially cause I seem to have a little "condition" called "hooliganism". Whenever I get to watch a bout I turn in to a total hooligan and scream my lungs out. Which is all fine and dandy, and maybe fun for the teams playing, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for focusing on the game and whats going on.
The other thing was, that in our first year we were focusing mostly on skating skills and basic derby skills and we weren't scrimmaging yet. When you haven't played a scrimmage yet (or worked a bout for that matter) you don't really have that "feel" yet for the game. You don't feel the excitement you feel right before the first whistle, you don't feel the pain shooting through your body when you get a great hit, you don't feel your body working hard and you definitely don't get the same feel for the game as when you play. 

So what can you do to get more of a feel for the game when you cannot play yet? When you are still fresh meat, or even when a certain injury makes it that you cannot play.
I found that a good way was by being a part of the game. And not as the hooligan, but as an official.

The first time I ever worked a bout as a Non Skating Official (NSO) was in November 2010 in Stuttgart; Stuttgart Valley Rollergirls vs Go Go Gent Roller Girls. I had the position of outside white board and had no idea what I was doing. I of course had read about what I was supposed to be doing, but I had no idea what it would mean to be a part of the officials crew. I understood, of course, that I wasn't supposed to cheer. And I was supposed to be impartial. But I didn't really understand what it meant until I was working that very first bout.

Being part of an officials crew, means that even though you are impartial and not supporting one team, you are supporting roller derby it self in the highest way possible. Cause you are making sure this game can be played the  way the girls want to play it. 

For me, being a skater (first and foremost), this made a huge impression. Realizing how important our officials are for our game. 

But it did more then just give me respect for officials. It gave me that feel for the game, without being able to play. 

I was part of the action. And because of officials role, I for once got to focus on all going on, cause I had to keep my "hooliganism" in check. 

And it was a great experience. 

After this first time I went on to NSO the first German Meisterschaft: Roll DMC.

That's when I got a real feel of what it meant to be a part of team No-Fun.... It's so much FUN! I don't mean to say that officials secretly have a lot of fun and don't take their jobs seriously. Cause I think they take their jobs very seriously. But I did also see the "other side" of the officials. The side that they do not show on track. And that is a very fun side. 



The officials crew for Roll DMC
Picture by Michael Wittig

 

Accept for feeling like a part of the game, getting more of that feel for the game and gaining more respect and understanding for officials I also noticed something else. 

As I started working more and different NSO positions I felt like my understanding of the game and the rules improved immensely. And I am not saying that the only way of getting this understanding is by officiating. But I sure do think it helped me a whole bunch. There are several reasons why. First of all because in officials meetings and during the games you hear all about how refs call certain penalties and why. Another reason is that refs love to discuss rules. All.the.time. And even though I might not be the best rules nerd in the world and I will probably zone out after 30+ minutes of rules discussion, I do think I have picked up quite a lot of the years by hanging out with officials.

Also just the NSO jobs it self teach you a lot about how the game has been set up, how it works, as NSO's are there to make sure the game runs smoothly. And even though everybody (should) reads the rules, I still see that many people don't understand all the rules when it comes to the penalty box and jammers. Also being able to fill out all that paperwork and knowing what says what, where and why, makes it a lot easier to understand the stats book and to analyze it.

Now 2,5 years after I started NSO'ing, I've been playing bouts as a skater for 2 years, but I still love to NSO. I don't do it super often, as derby takes over you life enough as it is with "just" being a skater. 

But I do try and NSO at tournaments and a bout every now and again. 

And I still feel I learn something new every time. 

Last month I was working the Men's European Roller Derby Championships and in my very first bout I was working the penalty box and all ready learned something new. The blockers and jammer of one of the teams were super communicative while in the box. As in when their jammer had lead but there were several of their blockers in the box, the blockers would communicate to their jammer (every time he lapped the box) what their time was, so he would keep going until their box was empty. And therefore they could start the next jam with a empty box. 

I am sure this sounds like peanuts or basic stuff for some. But it was kind of an eye opener for me. As we have never really did it that way. Of course we try to empty out our box, but never like that. It was a very confident and "in control" way of running the game. And it was good to see. I am not sure I would have noticed the same thing or as quickly if I would have been in the audience. But because I was working the box, and the blockers kept asking every few seconds what their time was I noticed a lot quicker why they were asking, what their strategy was behind it. 

 

So yeah the conclusion of this blog post is that I love NSO'ing. For several reasons:

• You get to be part of the game and get a feel for the game more then when you are in the audience. 
• You get to be part of the funnest team no-fun there is
• You get to facilitate the BEST sport in the world
• You learn so much more about the rules and the way stuff is called
• (a lot of times) I learn more about game play then while screaming my lungs off in the audience 

 - Furrrocious

ECDX day 2 & 3

These weekends are always long and tiring, which is way I didn't get to blog when I wanted to, just because the weekend it self was too amazing (and exhausting...).

So therefore I need to recap now, now that I have the energy to do so. :)

But have to recap a weekend of amazingness, is not that easy. Cause where to start? I guess I could start by saying the a pool party combined with roller derby is a very good idea! It was really nice to be able to chill pool side. 

The Saturday and Sunday were both filled with a crazy amount of bouts. There were 50something bouts in 3 days, and seeing how there were 4 on Friday, that left 46+ bouts to be spread out over 2 days, 3 rinks.

I can honestly say that I never expected to say there is a thing as too much derby, but I guess in a way there was this weekend. The only "bad" thing about this much derby, was that it was impossible to see it all. 

Having to choose between one good bout or another is a very hard thing to do.

And then I had two moments where I had to choose between playing myself or watching a few of my favorite teams playing. I chose to play, like any derby girl would (I guess...). 

On Saturday I got to play for team drunks vs team stoners. A fun challenge bout, that was 30 mins long. 

The drunks took the win and it was fun to be a part of the team. It's so weird to play with other people, but so much fun!

The rest of the Saturday I got to enjoy some great games, like Auld Reekie vs Dominion and Montreal vs Charm. 

Auld Reekie you're so fine!

Montreal won 211 - 168

Also I had to make so signs of course, to show my love for these teams. :) 

The kind of derby we love to play and watch!

It was great to see all these amazing teams play live. I appreciate the Derby News Network and WFTDA tv bringing all these great teams into my little Dutch home. But sitting track side at a Gotham, Philly or Montreal bout (to just name a few...) is just a whole different experience. And I have to say I loved every minute of it.

What was extra cool, was that I actually got to see some people play live that I've met before. Like Georgia W. Tush from Montreal, who coached us in Amsterdam a few years back. And Teflon Donna (Philly & Team USA) who was a coach at derby revolution last year in Ghent. 

It was just great to watch them play and cheer them on. 

My sign for Philly vs Texas. Love both teams, so had to support them both. 

Sunday started with the best.breakfast.ever! As the first bout of the day was Glasgow vs Long Island. I mean oh boy oh boy! That was the most exciting bout of the weekend up until that point. A true nail biter. Definitely a fan of Lawless, Rogue and Mcmillen and all the Glasgow blockers too of course. 

TAPS AFF for Glasgow. :)

Still think Glasgow should have won...but I guess with a game that exciting both teams won!

That game definitely set the tone for the rest of the day. The Auld Reekie bout after that was super exciting too. Especially the first half, which was a half with a lot of lead changes. But the second half was dominated by Auld Reekie. 

Auld Reekie team huddle

I had to miss seeing Montreal play as I was playing myself, but I was lucky enough to watch the thrilling game between Philly and Windy City. 

At first it looked like Windy was going to take the win for sure. But it wasn't a sure thing at all, because Philly put up a great fight. And at ended up in a tie! With an overtime jam that had to decide the win. 

And Philly won with 1 point! It was crazy, everybody was screaming and it was amazing to be a part of the crowd at this bout. I thought the Glasgow bout was going to be the best of the weekend and then this bout happened. Just amazing. 

Tie at the final whistle

After that excitement I had to head over to rink 1, to skate myself. 

I was lucky enough to be part of team the World. Who took on Fishtown (a neighborhood in Philly), a team made up out of Philly players. 

It was pretty amazing to play in this team, as there were several players from team Canada in this team (like 8 mean wheeler & Jenna) and a couple of Auld Reekie girls (Legs and Cider) and a whole bunch of other rad ladies from all over. And not to forget we had the team Canada coach as our bench coach.

Honestly it was quite nerve wrecking to play with- and against people that I look up to. 

Pretty sure that those nerves effected my game play, but I did do my best. Even tried jamming, although that didn't go down that well due to a hit in the face that left me quite dizzy during the whole jam... I did keep going though and even scored some points. :)

It was fun to play. But I just really have some insecurity issues that get into my head when I'm surrounded by such high skill leveled (famous) players. Definitely need to get that out of my system at some point...

Oh and because of all the "reflecting" i almost forgot that team world won. :)

One of the things I wanted to do at ECDX was get in touch with a few "derby famous" teams and people to see if they could donate something for our Scrimmathon auction in September. As we will be raising money for the battle against sec trafficking, it seemed like a good idea to get some good auction items. 

The Gotham girls were nice enough to arrange something special for us and I met up with Slaydie at ECDX and she handed this one of a kind bag for the auction. 

I'm sure a lot of people will want to get their hands of this....

After all the excitement of Sunday's bouts the cherry on top was being able to watch Team USA vs Team Canada live from the suicide seats track side. 

First points on the board for Canada

I was not expecting the game to be extremely exciting, as we all knew USA would win, but watching so many very skilled players battle it out, was going to be exciting enough for any derby girl. 

The thing that made it special for me, was that I've had the pleasure over the passed week to scrimmage with and/or against skaters from both Team USA and Team Canada. And in the last few years I've been lucky enough to be coached by both players from both teams. So yeah, it was exciting enough for me to watch. 

The Canada crowd was supportive of their team, the whole way through and I was definitely rooting for them as well. 

Proud Canada crowd 

At the end Team USA won, but not by as much as you might have expected. Canada did a good job at scoring points and holding the jammer back as much as they could. 

The highlight of this final game of the weekend has to be when V'Diva was backwards blocking 8mean Wheeler and seeing how Diva is pretty tall, 8mean was just at the perfect level to motorboat Diva. And she did! That was a funny moment. Really showed that even though these players fight to be the best, they are still having fun in derby. And that's what it's all about in the end. 

While we walked back to the car we bumped into my very favorite NSO in the whole wild world and NSO inspiration;The Prosecutor, from Houston, TX. The first time I saw her NSO was in Austin, TX almost 2 years ago. When I went to see Texas vs Denver. She was the jam timer at that bout and her form just blew my mind. I remember that me and Dr. No-No just enjoyed watching her work so much we sometimes forgot to watch the game. 

At the first day of ECDX I saw her again and was immediately mesmerized again. I have gotten inspiration of this lady when I work as an NSO myself. And being able to tell her that this weekend was definitely one of my highlights. 

Furrrocious the NSO fan girl 

All with all this whole weekend and this whole trip in the USA, was a great derby experience. Got to scrimmage with and against great skaters and teams. Got to meet a bunch of new people and reunite with derby friends from all over. 

It was a great experience and I would highly recommend going to the East Coast Derby Extravaganza to anybody!

- Furrrocious