Once a new derby skater has her skills on lock and is ready to scrimmage, it's easy for her to think that she's where she needs to be. It's a milestone to pass that scrimmage test, to officially be told that you can participate. But it's definitely not the end of the journey. Becoming a rollergirl is a constant process of evolution, and after the skating skills come two other important things: communication and strategy.
Strategy tends to come with time, and it's not really part of what I wanted to talk about today. Communication is the one skill that tends to be re-emphasized, repeatedly beaten into a derby girl's head, once she finally gets to the point where she can scrimmage. And there's good reason for that.
Without communication in the pack, we'd be nowhere. Our jammers wouldn't have a way to let us know when they need help. We couldn't block the other team's jammer. We wouldn't know when to give a hit, when to call off a jam, when another team was trying to split the pack and force us out of play. Without a doubt, roller derby is one of those sports where communication between teammates is absolutely essential. The sport just doesn't happen without it.
It's not easy to learn, either. During my tenure as a ref, I was amazed at how chaotic communication generally was. On the sideline, one team yells "SPEED UP! SPEED UP! SPEED UP!" while the other yells "SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN!" By the time a bench coach yells a strategy to the team, the moment to execute it may well have passed by. By the very nature of the sport, it moves fast, and communication has to happen on the spur of the moment. You practically have to have ESP with your teammates sometimes, and the very best teams get to that point- where body language communicates. Where hand signals tell what plays and formations to execute, code noises tell you when a jammer is coming through on the inside and needs a hole.
It's perhaps even more so as a skater. Once you get in that pack, there's so much going on that it's hard to track. There's both teams trying to communicate plays on top of each other, without tipping off the other team too much to what they're doing. Add on top of that having to watch out for both jammers, as well as having to watch out for the other blockers so you don't get taken by surprise. Add on top of that, the bench coach yelling instructions, the referees yelling penalties, the players smack talking, the crowd cheering, the music blaring. It's an understatement to say that a rollergirl has a lot to keep track of when she's trying to do her job.
Communicating with your own team is hard enough. We have to be tuned in, focused and aware of what our teammates are telling us. We have to listen for when the jammer comes through, and for when we need to give a block or a whip or a push. Yet, given time, that becomes easier. Natural leaders emerge on any team, and trust builds between teammates as they learn to trust the judgment that those leaders have, and to follow instructions quickly.
There is one aspect of communication, though, that I feel is overlooked- and I learned firsthand about it this weekend.
I played on Team Black at the Mashup Smashup scrimmage in Jackson, Mississippi. Team Black played short three players, and as a consequence, we got tired very quickly, and struggled to maintain focus and defense. I lined up for a jam as a blocker, and after the first lap, got separated from my teammates- it was me and what seemed like a sea of four white jerseys.
Ahead of me, my fellow Team Black players were making a wall to hold the white jammer back as she tried her first scoring pass. Back with all those white players, suddenly, the pivot said "Slow down, I've got one of them back here!"
This was a great strategy on her part- holding me back would have meant that Team White could have taken over pack control and held me back long enough to force Team Black out of play. Team Black would have had to drop their wall and give up their control over the White jammer, thus giving her a better chance to get through while our defense was disorganized.
IF I hadn't heard her.
The moment those words were out of her mouth, I said to myself "The hell you do!" I'm a blocker- not the fastest or most agile girl on the track, and I know that. But at that moment, I knew it was important that I muster my energy, speed and agility to get out of there and bridge the pack- to keep them from messing up our wall. And that's just what I did. Without thinking twice about whether or not I could do it, I ducked between two of them and sprinted up to keep my blockers in play.
The moral of the story is that it's just as important to pay attention to what the other team says as it is to pay attention to what your own team says. Maybe it's not always as blatant as this, but when it is, there's no reason not to take advantage of it, right?
If you keep your ears open in the pack, you never know what you might hear- or how it might save your butt.
Slugs 'N' Stitches,
Mary Helley
Having done a bit of reffing, I'd say you're spot on about people forgetting about this. A few of the teams BCR bouted against (and sometimes BCR themselves) really didn't talk much while they were playing, aside from screaming 'JAMMER JAMMER WTFOMG'. It was really obvious how it affected them when the opposing jammer was the type that really needed coordination to deal with.
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