How much do you love your refs? It amazes me how much our refs love what they are doing even though they get the most flack and least amount of appreciation. I mean really, you ever seen this situation happen: a close game but your team loses, but it wasn’t your fault – it was that god damned so and so ref who called you out for something you totally did not do. Right? Wah, wah.
So I dub today, Give Your Zebra a Hug Day. They spend countless hours reading those rules that you probably haven’t read since they were last released (for shame). They are always being called into judgment as to why the eff you got that major. The discussions over the rules on the WFTDA board seriously make me thankful I am not a ref when I see 8 pages on **BLEEEEEP** (WFTDA confidentiality agreement bleep) that makes my mind explode after only one page about Blocker A and Blocker B on White Team and Black Team doing this shit:
A
A
B B A -> B
A
Those diagrams make me do that “HUUUUHHH?” with my head cocked at an angle look that dogs do. And why do the zebras do it? Outside of the fact that they must think they look good in stripes ... you’ve got me, but I do know how important of a role they play.
Be prepared, I am about to make a very bold statement (in bold font nonetheless): No league will succeed with poor reffing. If your refs stray from the rules in the slightest from standard practice, oh man will that bite you in the ass when the opposing team’s refs keep calling you out on back blocking because you have thought your “dive through two blockers” move was “ok” this whole time and now you can't break the habit in a matter of minutes to stay out of the box for the game. Keep doing it and your whole league will be noted as a dirty team (ew, ew, go wash those britches).
So please, please train your refs. The best way you can repay your entire league so that it can to become more competitive is to ensure your refs receive the proper training. Make sure they get to regionals and nationals to watch how certified refs make calls. Funny thing, these zebras, when they go to tournaments… they don’t watch the game, they watch the other zebras. If you hear about any sort of ref training, make sure they get there. You would be surprised with even four years of skating here there are things that make me go “OHHHHH”. If you can, get a certified ref to head ref a game and give you some constructive feedback to your refs.
Until then? Remember, roller derby is absolutely one of the hardest games to ref, so at some time this week when you see your fellow zebras herding about, tell them thanks and give them a hug... or canoe... whatever, just make sure they know they are appreciated... even if they missed that call when that bitch hit you in the face.
Stupid refs. We love you.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
wheels 101
Friday afternoons are the worst. So why not finally get something on this blog! I want to talk about one of my favoritest subjects – WHEELS! Watch out, this one is a long, kind of boring, but super important one!
Let’s start with the basics. Standard wheels are 62mm x 44mm (width), are made of poly urethane and come in a wide variety of hardness. I recommend sticking with standard sizes for your first new wheels but will get into different sizes later.
First, let’s discuss wheels level of hardness or grip. This is by far the most important factor in determining wheels. The harder the wheels, the less grip you will have, which results in less agility and more speed. The softer the wheels, the more grip you will have therefore you will gain agility but lose speed. So it is important to find a happy medium between something that is too grippy that will make you feel sluggish and something too hard that will make you feel unstable and make you lose confidence in your cross overs. I have had both ends of the spectrum, and believe me, nothing is less fun than trying out new wheels that are way too slick and literally having your feet unable to stay underneath you. “TIIIIMMMBEERRRR!!!” . . . *splat!*
A good guide to try to figure out how hard you want your wheels is the wheel’s durometer which in simple terms is a method that is used to calculate the hardness of the wheel - the higher the number, the less grippy (more hard). This is indicated by a number, followed by an A and I have seen wheels as high as 100A and as low as 78A for outdoor wheels. Most derby skaters will skate on somewhere between 88A through 95A. (yawning yet?) It is important to note though, there is some controversy regarding the durometer scale but for simplicity sake realize that a 92A in one manufacturer may be different in another, but in general it is a good guide.
Different levels of hardness/grippiness/durometer will have different results based on your skating surface. You will likely skate on wood, concrete, skate/sport court, concrete, and masonite. Derby helper actually has quite an amazing blog about skate floors that you should check out. I fear getting into this in length for purposes of discussing wheels would be a moot point, but again there is differences in concrete based on how dirty it is. There is differences in wood based on how well kept up and lacquered it is. There is significant difference in just skate court and sport court. Let’s just simply say that every surface you skate on is different and some wheels with more grip will compensate for, say, playing somewhere that has a gross ass dirty floor where pigs once ran around the week previously.
Next – that part where your bearings are, that’s your wheel hub and you can get either nylon or aluminum. Having never tried aluminum hubs, I can’t say much about them except that they are more durable (duh) and shiny (oooOOOoo... shiny things!). As far as durability goes, the only nylon hubs I have seen broken were due to a bad order which the manufacturer had to replace a lot of them. Aluminum is also more expensive and also supposedly more heavy. Again, never had ‘em, but... oooOOO... shiny! I would definitely recommend looking for something that states “hollow core” as they are substantially more lightweight than any other wheels.
Great info, right – now what? Use the resources you’ve got! Ask your other derby girls what they use. Note their brand and durometer rating (or you can find this online). A lot of girls mix them up and typically wear "pushers" on the left side of your skate and something harder on the rights, for example I use 88A on my lefts, 94A on my rights. If you can, borrow someone’s bald wheels that they have laying around. If you ask, I can nearly guarantee someone will help. If not, buy lots of them! Remember that part where I said no skating surface is the same? Well you’re going to eventually skate on all of those, so get started on collecting an arsenal of wheels because I am sure that you will use them at one point or another.
Ugh. I think I may have nearly put myself to sleep with that one but I have given this discussion 1,000 times so now I can just reference this post. Really, it’s about working smarter, not harder people… just like getting the right wheels! (like how I brought that back?)
Look at the time, ah, very productive Friday afternoon! ;)
Let’s start with the basics. Standard wheels are 62mm x 44mm (width), are made of poly urethane and come in a wide variety of hardness. I recommend sticking with standard sizes for your first new wheels but will get into different sizes later.
First, let’s discuss wheels level of hardness or grip. This is by far the most important factor in determining wheels. The harder the wheels, the less grip you will have, which results in less agility and more speed. The softer the wheels, the more grip you will have therefore you will gain agility but lose speed. So it is important to find a happy medium between something that is too grippy that will make you feel sluggish and something too hard that will make you feel unstable and make you lose confidence in your cross overs. I have had both ends of the spectrum, and believe me, nothing is less fun than trying out new wheels that are way too slick and literally having your feet unable to stay underneath you. “TIIIIMMMBEERRRR!!!” . . . *splat!*
A good guide to try to figure out how hard you want your wheels is the wheel’s durometer which in simple terms is a method that is used to calculate the hardness of the wheel - the higher the number, the less grippy (more hard). This is indicated by a number, followed by an A and I have seen wheels as high as 100A and as low as 78A for outdoor wheels. Most derby skaters will skate on somewhere between 88A through 95A. (yawning yet?) It is important to note though, there is some controversy regarding the durometer scale but for simplicity sake realize that a 92A in one manufacturer may be different in another, but in general it is a good guide.
Different levels of hardness/grippiness/durometer will have different results based on your skating surface. You will likely skate on wood, concrete, skate/sport court, concrete, and masonite. Derby helper actually has quite an amazing blog about skate floors that you should check out. I fear getting into this in length for purposes of discussing wheels would be a moot point, but again there is differences in concrete based on how dirty it is. There is differences in wood based on how well kept up and lacquered it is. There is significant difference in just skate court and sport court. Let’s just simply say that every surface you skate on is different and some wheels with more grip will compensate for, say, playing somewhere that has a gross ass dirty floor where pigs once ran around the week previously.
Next – that part where your bearings are, that’s your wheel hub and you can get either nylon or aluminum. Having never tried aluminum hubs, I can’t say much about them except that they are more durable (duh) and shiny (oooOOOoo... shiny things!). As far as durability goes, the only nylon hubs I have seen broken were due to a bad order which the manufacturer had to replace a lot of them. Aluminum is also more expensive and also supposedly more heavy. Again, never had ‘em, but... oooOOO... shiny! I would definitely recommend looking for something that states “hollow core” as they are substantially more lightweight than any other wheels.
Great info, right – now what? Use the resources you’ve got! Ask your other derby girls what they use. Note their brand and durometer rating (or you can find this online). A lot of girls mix them up and typically wear "pushers" on the left side of your skate and something harder on the rights, for example I use 88A on my lefts, 94A on my rights. If you can, borrow someone’s bald wheels that they have laying around. If you ask, I can nearly guarantee someone will help. If not, buy lots of them! Remember that part where I said no skating surface is the same? Well you’re going to eventually skate on all of those, so get started on collecting an arsenal of wheels because I am sure that you will use them at one point or another.
Ugh. I think I may have nearly put myself to sleep with that one but I have given this discussion 1,000 times so now I can just reference this post. Really, it’s about working smarter, not harder people… just like getting the right wheels! (like how I brought that back?)
Look at the time, ah, very productive Friday afternoon! ;)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
derby girls like it rough!
as of march 14th, 2010 i will have been skating for four years. yes. four glorious years! and with no end in sight, and a wealth of knowledge i have stuck floating around in this derby nerd brain of mine... i thought what better than to do a blog devoted to roller derby? i have lots of experience from three years at rollercon, a WFTDA league representative, league Finance guru, and an unreal amount of hours researching, i have learned a lot of shit... but most importantly, like any good derby girl... i always think i'm right! so i will post informative things that i can have my league refer back to instead of retyping the same shit every year with a new wave of newbies, or i may get some ideas from other leagues, or sometimes just telling the world how great my life is with this amazing thing known as roller derby!
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