It's a Small World, After All

A busy past couple of months, for everyone in derby. Everyone's talking about it, I'll add my thoughts and experiences. But first, let's summarize those weeks.

Prelude: WFTDA Regionals starts on September 16th. I'm out of vacation and personal time at work, so I spend the first three weekends watching non-stop online before I finally get to ref at North Centrals in Indianapolis on October 7-9.

Then stuff goes crazy.
November 11-13: WFTDA Championships in Denver, CO.
November 18/19: Kitt Traxx Banked Track Tournament in Chicago, IL.
November 26/27: OCDG Ref Clinic in Edmonton, AL, CAN.
December 1-4: Blood and Thunder World Cup

That's an amazing month, probably the best I've ever had, in terms of experiences, in terms of being challenged, in terms of being inspired. What's more challenging, officiating the top flat-track players in the WFTDA as they vie for their most coveted title, or officiating a style of derby you've only seen live once before? What's more inspiring, seeing a huge number of new refs from new leagues coming together with absolute enthusiasm to learn and improve, or seeing people only a couple of years further on in that effort come together to help put on the most epic tournament the derby world has ever seen?

But most of all it was the people, the officials at each of these that made it so outstanding. The WFTDA system has been bringing officials together for a long time, and we're settling into a great groove. It was wonderful to start the month by working with such an amazing assemblage once again. But the banked track refs were remarkable to work with too. As supportive as any HRs I've ever had, willing to put faith in our abilities as flat track refs and our commitment to dedicate ourselves to reffing quality derby. I learned things that weekend which I'll take back, and I can barely remember the last time I was so nervous to ref a bout as those two that weekend. The Canadian referees were so ready to learn, so hungry for information, and that always makes teaching a joy. It reminded me of being where they were, of how exciting roller derby can be, how lucky we are to be a part of it. Which made me even more excited for the next weekend. Refs and NSOs were coming in from around the world for the B&T World Cup. Organization and communication wasn't maybe at the level we all expect, and there were logistical issues we'd never run into before. But everyone's commitment to making this a success (which goes not just for the officials, but also for ToRD, B&T and every team) was what made it the success it was.

And that's what I really take away from this. Commitment to officiating, commitment to improvement, commitment to the sport. More than anything this is how we've gotten here. It's how we can come together cross-discipline and work together in good faith and be rewarded with new friends and new experiences. It's how officials can come together from around the world and a mess of different systems and not have even one that needs coddling. We are the support system and we are the means to improvement for ourselves. Banked or flat, Germany or Australia or US or anywhere else, we are all the same in being roller derby officials. And that's pretty awesome.

No Minors. Thoughts, reactions.

During this ECDX weekend I was able to officiate one of the WFTDA’s Beta-test bouts, trying out a new ruleset with no minor penalties. The ECDX had three such Beta-tests scheduled, in addition to those happening elsewhere; I was assigned to Head Referee the bout between Maine’s Port Authority and Steel City’s Steel Hurtin’. Below are some of my reactions to it.

1) It was a lot of fun. That’s my biggest takeaway from this experience. Spectators report me walking away from the bout smiling. Yeah, I know, that’s serious business. But it was exciting, and so much fun. You remember when you first saw Roller Derby and thought “I love this game!”, and then you started refereeing or NSOing (or skating or announcing) and as you learned to do that you thought “I love this game! This is fun!”? But then, slowly, maybe you didn’t even notice it happening entirely, it became a little less fun, and a little less fun. You’re getting yelled at for not calling something that’s defined as having no impact on the game. Or you keep getting called on things you can’t imagine actually matter. Or you can’t explain what’s going on because even the skaters and refs don’t seem entirely sure. There’s a lot of timeouts to get all these minors sorted out, it’s not the best experience. This experience, without minors, was different than that, it was fun. But why it was fun has to do with these other points.

2) You can focus on the game more. As refs, I really think minors distract us from the game itself. For instance, there’s the reporting of the penalties that can cause us to miss something important. A Major penalty, a pack destruction, a Lead Jammer trying to call off the jam, or even a team whose facing the wrong end of a 2-on-4 pack while down a jammer getting their two skaters up to the front of the pack. We miss that stuff. But it also keeps our attention on things that again, are defined as having no impact on the game itself, so we’re paying far too much attention to stuff fundamentally unrelated to the game, instead of the game. With no minors, I can see something happen, I can dismiss it faster than I maybe otherwise could (it didn’t have significant impact, move on), and I can see the game develop, I feel it’s rhythm, and that allows me to better anticipate what action will happen next.

3) It’s less confusing. Spectators and announcers don’t usually know why someone’s received their fourth minor. They don’t know what three she got before that one, and they probably don’t know what her fourth was either. Is that a surprise? It shouldn’t be, the skaters usually don’t know that either, and that’s because the referees usually don’t know that information. I feel like a superstar referee when I can let a girl know “Black 42, you have four, (it was a forearm)”. But now, almost every penalized action is obvious, the spectators see it happen and see it affect the game. The skaters experience the effect, often times know they did it, and the referee is under no confusion about it. Even penalties coming in from the outside are easily communicated. It’s transparent, and that’s to our mutual benefit.

4) It was easier to administrate. In the bout I officiated we had two NSOs on the inside, the Penalty Tracker and the Jam Timer. There was no need for an Inside White Board, or two Outside White Boards. No need for a wrangler. We did add one NSO, a Penalty Tracker on the outside, to see if we needed one on the inside, from our one trial, the conclusion is no, we don’t. This means you have only one NSO in the middle, the Jam Timer. Consider also how much easier that makes it for everyone to see everything. But also, no Official Timeouts for handle late fourths. No intentional fourth minors.

5) It was aggressive and kept moving. Now, let me be clear, by “aggressive” I mean it kept things happening, it was offense oriented. With no minors, there’s more Lead Jammers, that means more aggressive blocking, rather than passive blocking. In the Windy City v Charm City bout I watched there were multiple hits that resulted in the whole crowd reacting. No penalties for those, they were just big hits. That’s not common right now. That’s fun. And the heightened penalization of Direction of Gameplay and Multi-Player Blocking penalties meant things moved forwards far more than they stood still or backwards.

6) This last one though is perhaps the one I’m most excited about. To begin with, there’s a simplified strata of impact, we train referees on one scale, penalize this, not this, and here are you’re three exceptions. That makes it easier to train and standardize to. We will have more consistent refereeing, more quickly. But also, review. Four years ago I told Kool-Aid that every week NFL referees get a video of their calls from the weekend and a review how was their positioning, was the call right or wrong, what could be improved. We can’t do that with minors, we are making literally hundreds of calls a game, one referee can make a hundred calls themselves in some games. Right now, we can only teach referees to generally be in this spot, and to want to move to be in position, and list some scenarios. But now we have the potential to review the dozen calls they made. You were out of position on this call because of this. You overcalled this because you missed this. This is huge. And it also makes it a feasible reality for video review during a bout, if that’s something we want. But that’s another discussion.

A Discussion on Thresholds

It is not uncommon at practices for a referee to see an action and make no call, only to have a captain, coach or other skater yell at the offending player for that action. It is important as a referee that you understand that that does not necessarily mean that you have missed a call. What it is likely an indication of is the different thresholds that referees and coaches employ, and it's important to understand also that this is entirely appropriate, and that it would be incorrect to tighten up your calling to the level that these coaches or captains are employing.

Referees have one standard, the standard they use to determine if an action is a penalty or not. It is important for the referee to constantly refine and re-enforce that standard in their reffing as often as possible. As such, it's clear that they should use the same standard during practices as they do during bouts, to grade things using the same standard or threshold all the time. Ideally coaches will understand and agree with this standard, but that does not mean that it is the standard that they will use.

It is in the coach's best interest that their skaters never get penalties, are never even in danger of getting penalties. So, for instance, a forearm to the back that has no effect on the other skater will not meet the standard of the referees, they will not call anything. However, the standard held by the coach of what is an objectionable action may well have just been met, because this action puts their skater in a position to possibly draw a penalty, depending on the offended skater's reaction and depending on how strict the given referee is calling the game or how they see the action (all things out of the coach's control). So the coach will look to control what they can, and what they can control is their skaters, and they will want them to avoid being in that vulnerable position by never putting their forearm on a player's back at all, to avoid the possibility of a penalty by avoiding the action altogether.

It should be clear then that there are these different standards, it should be clear how they sync up, and the ways in which they can be out of sync. The point of this discussion then is not that every disagreement between coaches and referees, at practices or at bouts, is going to be the result of differing thresholds. It is not to insulate the referees from criticism in these situations, for to insulate referees from criticism is to protect them from improving, something we cannot do. I discuss this though because I have seen referees in many situations, where in drills or scrimmages, convince themselves that they must be missing calls because the coaches continue to yell at their skaters about their forearms or hands, and it is this concern that referees must insulate themselves from through a better understanding of these different thresholds.

Why Discretion is Necessary in Derby

In broad, general terms, most other competitive sports, specifically those with contact, maintain a base-line equality at all times by calling for a stop to play immediately when a penalty occurs. As we know though, in roller derby, play continues until two minutes have expired or something else has caused the jam to end, but only in extreme cases is that something else a penalty. By stopping play, penalizing a team or player and then re-starting play, the referees and the rules of the game maintain that base-line equality, so that rarely is a penalty by one player caused by another player's prior penalty. Why this is is clear, because following the initial penalty play is called off, allowing the offended player to recover however they want, without concern about also maintaining their position, motion or advantage, all of those concerns are put on hold as play stops. In roller derby however this very scenario, of one penalty causing a second illegal action, happens plenty. 

Consider the following scenario:

Player A back-blocking Player B hard enough to cause B to fall forward should result in a major to Player A. It can also easily result in Player B back-blocking Player C. 

In most other contact sports, the original penalty would've stopped play. Play being stopped Player B can stop worrying about penalties, position or advantage and can safely take a knee or make a controlled fall, perhaps even use her hands to steady both herself and Player C together. In derby though, play continues. Now there are two possibilities. One, a referee without discretion must disregard any circumstances and call things exactly as the rules state, which means player B could get a back-blocking penalty, possibly a major. Option two is a referee who considers the circumstances, sees that it was C's teammate A who caused B to back-block her and makes the call on A, the initial penalty, only, since it was not B's intent or fault that she back-blocked C, it was A's fault. It is these sort of dynamic and shifting situations and circumstances that demand the presence of, and proper application of, discretion in roller derby refereeing. Any referee who argues that they need not ever apply discretion, any skater that shudders at the idea of discretion, anybody who thinks that a memorization of the rules is enough for a referee  should consider this point.