Sock Derby

At training Sarge got us to take our skates off and do sock derby. Pretty much sock derby is like regular derby but just off-skates. The same rules still apply, only because you're not rolling things get slowed down a bit and you can think a bit more about what you're doing. Because we're just working on strategy and getting the jammer through at the moment, we didn't do full jams, and the jam ended when a jammer got through and we had a lead jammer. Then there was still the 30 second switchover, and then another jam.

These socks are pretty fucking awesome.

It was awesome. I had been kind of pestering Sarge to do sock derby for a while, haha. It's good because you throw everyone into the mix and even people who can't skate can do it to get a taste of derby without having to worry about falling over (as much anyway; some people still hit REALLY hard). Plus because it's slower, you really have to work on strategy and it's easier to look for spaces to get your jammer through and that sort of thing.

First of all, 30 seconds is not much time at all to get a full team on the track! Most of that time after a jam was just wandering around in the middle of the track (where everyone not doing that jam was sitting) and holding out helmet panties and bibs and saying things like "does anyone want to go next? Anyone?" kind of thing. But getting everyone out there, figuring out the right strategy (have a fast pack so that the other jammer will have more runninng to do, boxing people in or opening lines for your jammer, etc.) took pretty much the entire 30 seconds. Plus using different combinations of people meant that you had to talk a lot more about what you wanted to do each time, to play to their strengths.

Slowing it down was super useful for various reasons. You can be more aware of your understanding of the rules; the first time I jammed I forearmed the shit out of everyone because I just wasn't thinking enough. Then I figured that if I kept my arms behind my back, that wouldn't happen. You can also take the extra time to set up boxes to trap jammers, and because it's slower pivots have to really keep track of what their team is doing. It also gave more time for people to talk it up more (which we should be doing anyway), like yelling at your jammer if there are spaces open for them to go into, telling your pack to tighten up, and that sort of thing. Plus there are some skills you can do on socks that you can't do on skates yet, so that's something to notice and work on too. (For example, I can do all these juke moves on socks, but doing them while you are rolling is a completely different story.)

But once it comes together, you can see how it would work on-skates. And it also gives you something to work towards-- if you think you can do it off-skates, then you really want to do it on-skates too! I jammed a bunch of times and there was one jam where the inside line just opened up and I pretty much flew straight off the jammer line and around the inside and came out of the pack in a few seconds. The feeling of getting through so quick was super awesome! Now I just have to be able to do that on 8 wheels...