New rules, new rules

A new ruleset means I have to reprint the rules into a booklet and copy all my notes over.  This isn't a bad thing, though - I learn by writing and rewriting and rewriting. (I once wrote the entire ruleset by hand.  I think it took about 60 legal-sized pages of paper.)

the long dark tea-time of being off from derby

Our last scrimmage of the year was this past Thursday.  OPRed with one other ref - it got a little squirrelly and I fell behind a few times but no one died so it all worked out okay in the end.

Now there's nothing until, like, the 8th of January.  I has a sad.

Washed my gear last night. It really needed it.

I didn't realize it'd been so long

Lemme see.

Tuesday's practice went pretty well - we did a new drill where we had to maneuver through cones (set in a star pattern; we had to skate around them in loops) while the Head Ref was giving us hand signals that we had to call.  I did okay until I started thinking about it too much (as is the case with most of the things in my life).

Thursday's practice was pretty sparse and I was late; did a bit of IPRing.  I need to stop trying to gauge 10 feet by looking at the tape marks on the floor - I need to look at the actual people.  I stayed after scrimmage when the skaters were doing drills, and tried working on that (they were very nice and worked on bridging drills for me), but it's hard when there's no back IPR telling you that the pack is all or back or whatever.

Saturday was another trip to the east to help out with junior derby reffing.   My son (he's 13; for purposes of this blog he'll be KidQueenie) came with me when he learned that he could do some NSO stuff (he ended up penalty box timing).  We went out Friday night and stayed at my dad's - no 6am driving this month.

It went well, I think.  One of the other refs there talked about how he liked reffing junior derby because when they commit penalties, they REALLY commit penalties and they're easy to notice (which is true).  I also got a "Queenie did this very well" compliment at one point (as OPR, watching the jammer when she's on the outside part of the track, and nodding when it may look to the JR that she cut or something like that to show that no, she didn't).

So, yay me.

No practices at all this week for Thanksgiving, then one more week and we're off for a month. Boo hiss.  I've been invited to Thursday night practices at the other league, but they end at 10pm, plus an hour-ten drive back home.  (Mr. Queenie also has bowling that night, so KidQueenie is home for a little while.  Me not getting home until nearly midnight would not fly.)

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In addition to being a referee for our league, I also am one of our Fresh Meat coaches.  We had our newbies try out their 27 in 5 this past Sunday just for kicks, and since I hadn't done it in a while*, and since I should practice what I preach, I did it as well.

I got 29 in 5 and was pretty gaspy and near death afterwards.  So I have to get my endurance back up.





*Back in January, trying out for the travel team (on which I ended up not playing because of my surgery), I had to do as many laps as I could in fifteen minutes.  I got 86.

life trudges onward

So at scrimmage on Thursday, we had a full set of seven referees ZOMFG

I was asked where I wanted to be. I should've said IPR, so I could learn, but I said OPR because I didn't want to Blue Screen of Death.

another Tuesday, it must be practice night

Including me, there are seven referees in our league.  I am the newest, obviously.  The second newest has been reffing for about a year now, but she hasn't been going to practices lately because she got a concussion.  So at practices, I've been the least experienced ref by several years.

Our Head Ref has been gearing practices towards me (I think), doing very basic things like "this is where the OPR should stand, this is what they should be looking for", which makes me feel kinda guilty, that all this time is being spent on me.  But it is helping. 

Last night we also (for the hell of it) got timed on skating one lap starting from a dead stop.  We did it 3 times; my best time was 10.66.  I'm blaming it on the fact that I had just put on my itty-bitty wheels that are more about agility than speed.  (I'm also blaming them for the fact that I fell on one attempt.)

Our league is off for the month of December, so I need to find other leagues nearby who will accept a baby ref to help out at scrimmages and whatnot. I don't want to have what few skills I have now get rusty.

um. so. yeah!

um.  yeah.

Thursday night I worked front IPR again. 

And realized that when No Pack is called, I kinda get Blue Screen of Death.

KARATE CHOP.   YOU DO A KARATE CHOP.  You don't signal a field goal, you don't try to direct an airplane after it's landed. 

I've been told it's what we'll work on at Tuesday's practice, so I am looking forward to it.

(I also realized that when I call a penalty, I only do it once.  I need to change that.)

Did I say four of the seven refs? I MEANT FIVE.

So yeah, there were two of us there on Thursday night.  I ended up doing front IPR, as much as I could do front IPR.

It was interesting, for a few reasons:

1. trying to skate backwards along the inside track boundary, while keeping an eye on the pack.  OH NO I'M SKATING ON THE ACTUAL TRACK GAAAAH.  I could do it more or less in turns 1 and 2, because I would look at the pivot line and realize I'd have to start turning soon, but turns 3 and 4?  Not so much.    I tried putting a piece of tape on the track as a START TURNING NOW signal, but it didn't really work.  

2. Actually keeping an eye on the pack.  As front IPR I was told I should position myself at the absolute front of everyone, which meant speeding up to keep up with the chasers.  Which meant having to switch from skating backwards to skating forwards, which meant having to transition in the side I'm not as comfortable with, which meant falling a few times.  Whee?

3.  Calling penalties!  Yeah, I need to do that too!   When "pack is back" is called, you have to figure out where the pack ends, and put 20 feet on top of that, and get ready to call people out of play!  In the span of about two seconds!  Yay!

So it happened.  It went...okay.

Sunday I helped out at our league's travel team tryouts, where I was the *only* ref.  Whee again.  I called a few big obvious penalties, and raised some questions about smaller ones.

this will be interesting

Scrimmage tonight, and four of the seven refs we have will not be skating.

LET ME DO ALL THE OPR I CAN HANDLE IT REALLY I CAN

A weekend filled with derby, indeed

INT. - QUEENIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT

It is 5:45am.  Her alarm goes off.

MR. QUEENIE

(groaning)

                                 When you said you'd have to leave the house at 6:30...I thought

                                  you meant PM.

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I can't make myself get up before 8am on weekdays to get to work on time, but get up early to do roller derby stuff?  NO PROBLEMO THERE JUST GIVE ME COFFEE AND I'M ON MY WAY.

(Unless it's Sunday morning off-skates workout, because, well, fuck that.)

One of the refs in our league is big into JRDA, and he's been trying to recruit me to his cause.  So we went to a league about an hour away that has a team, and reffed one of their scrimmages.

OMG WHY DIDN'T THEY HAVE JUNIOR ROLLER DERBY WHEN I WAS 10-17 MY LIFE WOULD BE SO DIFFERENT YOU GUYS.   I stopped skating seriously when I was about 11 (we moved into a house with a carpeted basement, so I lost my venue) but if I'd been able to keep it up...

Anyway.  Reffing the juniors was a lot of fun - some of those kids have mooooooves - juking through the pack like it's nothing.  One little girl, when she went up to jam, just froze.  She kinda stood there until the pivot was like "Give me the helmet cover!" It was sooooo cute.

So I reffed, OPR, yeah.  Made a few calls, mostly cuts.  I called one blocking out of bounds (blocker was facing non-derby direction, jammer was pushing against her, jammer pushed blocker out of bounds and the blocker kept blocking) but I completely forgot the hand signal and did a weird sort of jazz hands thing.  I feel like if I call the big things, that's fine - I can work my way down to the more particular things as I get experience.

Anyway, it's something I definitely want to do again.  It's the last Saturday of every month, though, and next month is Thanksgiving weekend and the month after that is Christmas weekend, so who knows when I'll get the chance.

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Saturday night was NSOing.  They had more volunteers than spots, though, so I shadowed the Penalty Box Manager (who's from our league and is an awesome guy) and ended up taking over the timing part when one of the box timers got overwhelmed.  (I got a bit overwhelmed myself when I had a "two people in the box and as soon as one of them stood a third person came in" situation, but no one died so I like to think it worked out okay.) 

Won't be able to go to tonight's ref practice because my Dad and stepmom are coming into town to celebrate my birthday (it was yesterday) and today was the only good day.  I'm kinda bummed I'm missing practice, but whatcha gonna do.

NSOing, too

Between the time our league's season started up again and my return to skating after my surgery, I was an NSO.  Scorekeeping and jam timing mostly, though I did work in the penalty box once or twice.

Our one bout this season was Hunger Games-themed.  I was Effie Trinket.

First Half

Second Half

YES I HAD A COSTUME CHANGE I AM THAT AWESOME.

Tomorrow night I'm going to another league (not the same league as tomorrow morning) to NSO one of their bouts.  Don't know what I'll be doing yet.  Hope it's not scoreboard operator, as I have never done that and a bout is probably not the best place to learn.

OK LET'S DO THIS

I've been back on skates attending ref practices for about a month now.  There's usually a drill at the beginning of the session where we skate around the track, one ref is in the middle.  He/she will give a hand signal while maintaining eye contact with skating ref.  That ref needs to make up a call on a skater based on that hand signal.

Sometimes making up the color/number is the most difficult part.  I tend to stick with black, or white, or green (our league colors) and just rattle off whatever numbers enter my brain.  Sometimes I get goofy and give "chartreuse" or "plaid". 

Actually, no.  The most difficult part is when it comes down to the eighteen bazillion "illegal procedures" penalties.  I was given a mnemonic to help remember them (Illegal PERC, PUBES violation, FIST)*, but I'm skating and I'm like "Green, six nine one....um.....PUBES!"

Then we work on pack definition, talk about rule loopholes, etc. I finally understand OPR rotation now!

Last Thursday was the first league scrimmage I skated in as a ref.  I shadowed our Head Ref who was IPR and got completely overwhelmed.  DID THAT PERSON FALL AS A RESULT OF THAT ACTION OR DID THEY FALL ON THEIR OWN I DON'T KNOW GAAA WHY DID I DECIDE TO DO THIS ZOMFG I'VE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.  I Blue Screen of Deathed after a while.

Last night I was put out on my own, as an OPR.  (The Head Ref warned everyone that I am new to this and not to yell at me when I miss calls.)

The result?

My very first call, the first time I put whistle to lips and blew....

...I called out the wrong color.

oops

But other than that, I think it went well.  I made some cutting calls, didn't call one cut call that I did see (the jammer was way down on the other side of the straightaway but I saw her put both hands out of bounds, I was all "that was a cut.  I should call that as a cut.  Two hands are a cut, right?  The loophole is the 'one handed cartwheel', two hands is a cut.  The jammer ref didn't call it, he probably saw something different than me."  The action was put under official review, jammer ref said "my view was blocked, I only saw one hand", I said "I saw two, I should've called it", and we went from there). No one yelled at me.

Lesson learned: call what you see.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to a league about an hour from here.  They have a junior derby league that practices the last Saturday of every month, and I've been told that it's a great training experience.  I will take all the training I can get.


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*Illegal:

• Positioning
• Engaging
• Re-entry
• Call-off

• Penalty box violation
• Uniform violation
• Bench staff violation
• Equipment violation
• Star pass  violation

• Failure to yield
• Interference
• Stalling
• Too many skaters