a game is a thing that is a thing

So hooooooooooooooooly crap Friday's championship bout.  Their two teams with the most rabid fanbases; tons of people and a game that came down to the final jam.

NO PRESSURE, QUEENIE.

As far as I can tell, I only majorly screwed up once, when after a very very long Official Review, I started watching the wrong jammer.  Oops.  Fortunately my co-jammer ref noticed, and I quick jumped up ahead.

So that's the end of the season for the other league.  I'm *very* grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to ref with them - half the games in my referee history are with them.  I learned so much and they are very awesome.  I can't wait to work with them next season!

In other news, I've been accepted to work All 8 on the Floor, a training tournament in MA at the beginning of August.  Yay!  I've heard good things about it (mostly because one of the tournament head refs is the head ref of my league). I signed up to ref and NSO, so hopefully I will get lots of different experiences.

Not too much on my schedule for the rest of the summer, beyond maybe going to Akron in July and then All 8.  I'm tempted to put myself out for more bouts, but it would also be nice to have weekends where I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING GOING ON.

#21 tonight

Jam reffing the championship bout for the home teams in the league I've been helping out with; yay! I feel kinda honored that they trust me with stuff like this.

indeedy wheedeedy

I'm buying another lanyard whistle - I need something with the silicone guard thingy. There have been too many instances where I'm trying to call a jam off and the whistle almost pops out of my mouth.

(And, as I've said repeatedly, I am also contemplating replacing a few of the fingers on my right hand with a whistle.  I really need to put a pocket in ACTION SKIRT.)

did not die

although my right foot was not happy afterwards.

It went pretty well - one of the coaches was getting really pissed at me because I wasn't calling the jam off to his satisfaction.  WELL, WHEN YOUR JAMMER IS BLOCKED FROM MY VIEW BY A BUNCH OF PEOPLE IT'S KINDA HARD TO SEE WHEN THEY'RE CALLING IT OFF.

But anyway.

#19 and #20 coming up

Tomorrow - jam reffing both bouts in a doubleheader.  Here's hopin' I don't die. :)

This past Sunday our fresh meat skaters were practicing their 27 in 5, so I decided to practice the 10 in 1:35 that refs have to hit in theory for the Level 1 Certification.

I got 9 laps in 1:30 (because that's what I thought it was - oops).  I had to dodge around a few skaters, so I guess in theory I could get the 10 in 1:35 fairly easily.

bout #18 in the books

I could've done better. At one point my jammer went into the penalty box and ran into an opposing skater and I just. blanked. In my  head I was thinking that was a misconduct!  you should call a misconduct!  CALL A MISCONDUCT! but I didn't do anything.  I've discovered I tend to get that way when it comes to calling something I've never called before - I freeze.

The acoustics in the venue were horrible, too - the music was crazy loud and the announcer wouldn't turn it down, fans in turns 2 and 3 had COWBELLS. I had the foresight to bring my earplugs, and I ended up using one of them.  The other jam ref would blow the four whistles on one side of the track, I'd be on the other side and not hear a thing.

My scorekeeper (who is, like, a level 4 WFTDA NSO) also helped me out with a few scoring situations I screwed up, although they were admittedly things I couldn't have noticed, like exactly when the other jammer left the box and things like that.  So I was very grateful to him.

Helping out at the other league's doubleheader playoffs on Friday.  Our league is having a doubleheader on Saturday, but I've got a family party and won't be attending. 

si another weekendzar

another weekend, another bout, another time jam reffing. Mock sanctioned bout this time, though; whee?

I need to work on initiation - just because a blocker gets hit in the back doesn't automatically mean it's a back block.  If the blocker hadn't established relative position, she initiated, and it's legal. 

SO MANY RULES.

jam reffing wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Jam reffed; didn't die!  I did screw up, though.

My jammer (purple) is lead, she gets knocked down by a red blocker.  Jammer starts complaining about the red blocker committed a penalty, I blow the whistle and then realize I didn't see the full action - I'm blowing it based on what she's saying.

Except for some reason I keep blowing the whistle and call the jam off.

So I accidentally called the jam off. 

Here's the thing, though - neither the purple jammer nor her bench complained that the jam got called off early. But I don't remember seeing the jammer trying to call it off.

At any rate, my fellow refs were like "that's okay, it happens.  Brush it off, you're doing fine."

(and as it turns out, the red blocker *did* commit a penalty. The OPR thought I was calling it, which is why she didn't.)

Other than that, it went well, and everyone seemed to think I did a good job.  I kept up with my jammer, caught all the star passes. I got to tell a jammer to return to her bench 'cause she didn't get on the track in time.  All in all, an exciting fun time.

I will not take my eyes off my jammer I will not take my eyes off my jammer

(picture courtesy of CK Photographic Systems.)