Block around the clock - 24 hours of Roller Derby awesomeness

Over 2 years ago I met Sum Mo Payne and PBR through my friend Tigre Force from Helsinki Roller Derby. We got in touch as these awesome ladies had the great idea to skate around the Netherlands. And not just for fun either, but for a good cause. As they have been Skating the State for MS in the USA for several years, they wanted to do something special here as well.
At the time I started talking with them about it, I couldn't imagine us pulling this off, I personally just started a masters program next to work and just could not see it happen. Luckily they had also gotten in touch with the wonderful Dom City Dolls, and they took on the challenge of organizing this Sk8 the Netherlands trip. And from the 5th of September till the 13th of September 2013 this group of strong awesome women skated around the Netherlands. They skated around the country to raise awareness and  funds to end sex trafficking. A very big problem which is not given enough attention. 

The Dom City Dolls asked all the different leagues in the Netherlands to contribute. By organizing an event or hosting a sleeping place for this group while they were on the road.
As we are located in Amsterdam, which is definitely one of the epicenters of human and sex trafficking in the Netherlands and because I felt connected with this project from the get go, we felt like we should do something big and extraordinary.
While talking to my team mate Vegan Vengeance in a bus on our way home from practice we came up with the idea of a 24 hour scrimmage marathon. And slowly started fantasizing about pulling it off. Having an event with 24 hours of roller derby scrimmages.
When didn't dare to actually think about if this would work out, because our biggest challenge was finding a venue that would have us for the full 24 hours. But once we got that problem covered, our ideas seemed to be able to become reality.
With a core group of ADD girls we started getting organized. We looked at how RollerCon and ECDX organized their challenge bouts, with time slots and no breaks. It seemed like a very good formula to go with for this event as well. We ended up making a schedule for two tracks, with a total of 47 scrimmages, each lasting 30 min (except for the first 1, going for a full hour). There would be team scrimmages, challenge bouts and open scrimmages to fill up the full schedule.
It was a hell of a lot of stuff that needed to be arranged. And we as the Amsterdam Derby Dames had not before pulled off an event like this. To say the least, it was a bit of a challenge. Especially when a lot of the organizational work had to happen over the summer time. When a lot of our girls weren't around to help out. It took some blood, sweat and tears. But we did it and even though we did get the 12 teams and around a 150 skaters to sign up (we got 6 and around 70) we were still determined to pull it off.
One of the very notable things about this event, is that the first ones to sign up were the officials! Officials from ALL over Europe were very excited to come and help out in this event.

I was one of the people working on getting sponsors for this event, and I have to say the Derby community (and its derby owned stores) really stepped it up! We got sponsoring in many ways even from teams and companies in the USA. Which meant a lot to us. One of the more remarkable sponsoring items we got was the artwork for our event. Seeing how I had met Tara Armov at several occasions and had seen and experienced the amazingness of her artwork I kind of wanted that for our event. As I felt we deserved something special for such a unique event. I contacted her through facebook, and there was no doubt she wanted to help us out. Which was very cool! As in this same time period she was kicking off her new company Notorious RED and going to RollerCon to promote this.
Even though she was very busy, she pulled off providing us with this amazing artwork.

Artwork by Tara Armov - Notorious RED

The week before the event I had to miss out of every practice of my league, as I was working around the clock (after work..) to get the last things organized and sorted before the big day. On Friday the 6th of September I think my nerves pretty much got shot. To a point where I started to relax, as there wasn't a lot more I could do now anyways, I would just have to go which ever way it was going to go.
My house filled up with a little German invasion on Friday night and it was nice to have the distraction of London playing the playoffs in the US to take my mind of things.

Saturday morning the fun started. I had to get up wayyyy too early, to be at the venue at 9 am. Before getting to the venue me, Vegan Vengeance and Shanty Core made sure people could find the venue by hanging up some signs. While doing this I started feeling the gitty excitement in my belly that this was actually happening. When we walked around the corner at the venue there was a big LED display above the door welcoming everybody to Block around the clock. I think this was the point when I got REALLY excited. As it was so cool and big. You couldn't miss it.

The first three hours the volunteers worked their asses off getting everything set up, tracks laid, registration of skaters and officials started, VIP room set up and everything else that needed to be done. Those first three hours were a bit of a blur to me, as I was trying to coordinate everything. But I guess everything went pretty well as the venue was ready and the officials were ready at 12.00 to start. However the skaters in Europe apparently had not encountered the concept of an "open pick up scrimmage" before. So when everything was ready there weren't a lot of skaters to start of the first scrimmage. The start of our 24 hours of scrimmage madness started a little slow, but as soon as stuff got started it just went smoothly.

Picture by Branko Colin

Around 13.00 I sat down to watch a little derby. As it seemed like everything we organized was working out and people were doing what they were supposed to be doing. I took a lot off and chilled for a minute. But not long, as I wanted to get out there and start having fun myself. So it was time for me to put on my skates.

The whole event went pretty smoothly. It was between 2 and 5 am I think we when hit some issues, with not having enough skaters to keep to our schedule. But it didn't stop the fun, with the great coordination of Event Head Ref Cherry Fury we changed up some of the scrimmages and kept it going as much as possible.

In the end I personally played 17 scrimmages and coached 1, making it a total of 18 scrimmages. And I slept 1 hour.

There is so much more to tell, as there was 24 hours of awesomeness. But I just cant tell it all. What I will say is that we got a ton of compliments after the event, which makes me believe that this was truly a very successful event. Also notable is that we raised 2100 euro's for Sk8 the Netherlands and Fier Fryslan. Which we are very proud of, it shows how much we can accomplish together as a derby community.

I will now post some different pictures and links, so you can get a bit of a feel for what was going on.

The Derby Shop - the newest derby shop in Amsterdam was present for all your gear problems
Picture by Branko Colin

There were womens games as well as co-ed games.
Picture by Branko Colin

There were 6 teams competing against each other.
Picture by Branko Colin

Officials from all of Europe!
Picture by Branko Colin

We had a live stream and shout outs. This was our very sophisticated shout out system.
Picture by Branko Colin

The wall of awesomeness! Where people could sign up for Challenge bouts.
Picture by Branko Colin

The ladies from Sk8 the Netherlands arrived around 20.00 after skating +/- 130 km to Amsterdam
Picture by Branko Colin

One of my very favorite challenge bouts men vs women. And yes the women won! :)
Picture by Branko Colin

What a great game!
Picture by Branko Colin

The wonderful Officials that worked their asses off to make this event into a success.
Picture by Branko Colin

A big part of the skaters, officials and volunteers of Block around the clock!
Picture by Branko Colin

And here is a video made by the wonderful people of Bureau Feestbeest who made sure there was 24 hours of DJ'ing during this event.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=457422721023733

It was a wonderful event. Thanks to everybody involved.

- Furrrocious

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