What is this I don't even

So in my internet trawlings, I randomly came across this yesterday:

Two things:

1) Richard Simmons has a music video.
2) THE LA DERBY DOLLS ARE IN IT.


WHAT?!

Happy Friday :D

Jam Timing is fraught with peril

So in the last post I said that the Jam Timer stuffed up in a WFTDA Divisionals bout.

Specifically, it was during the Santa Cruz v Tri-City bout, and it was a close one, so hence the controversy. There's information about it on DNN here.

In particular, this part:

"It transpired that the jam timer thought overtime jams were 60 seconds long, and whistled the end at that point. Discussion followed and Rule 2.5.1.1 (if an overtime jam ends before two minutes for any reason, the bout ends immediately and the score stands) came into effect. Santa Cruz won, 236-231."

So there are a couple of things that come into mind. Obviously at a divisional playoff you'd think that the officials would know the relevant rules. But overtimes are really not that common, so perhaps the JT wasn't familiar with the rule in practice.

But are they completely to blame? On the interwebs I'm also seeing things like people saying the Head Ref (but not Head NSO?) is also partially responsible; before the overtime jam happens s/he should call an official time out to go over the rules again with the ref/official crew. The Head Ref is pretty much like the captain of a ship in this sense; if shit happens and the ship goes down, then it doesn't matter who made the ship go down, the captain still assumes responsibility. Or so the online discussion goes.

I'd like to think that that's only partially true. Individuals who assume positions of responsibility are, well, responsible for what happens in their role. How about that? So only to the extent that the Head Ref is responsible for what other, responsible agents are doing, that's all they are to blame.

But then there's also some broader issues. WFTDA currently doesn't have any recourse for situations like this. I think all they've said so far is that all they could do is follow 2.5.1.1, but there's no rule in place (yet--there probably will be soon though) for resetting the jam or points or anything like that. Also, given the wording of the rule, it seems like it'd be easy to throw a game one way or another, just by having someone whistle off the overtime jam early. In this case it was totally an accident I'm sure but the possibility of less scrupulous motivations would still be problematic under this rule.

I'm jam timing today, so I made sure to look up the relevant rules, in case this happened again. Lightning striking twice and all that, right? :P

Thunder in the Valley, the prequel

Tomorrow is the Thunder in the Valley double header over in Salem!

 Star City Rollergirls are hosting, and basically the nearby leagues are coming to bout. NRV's All Star team is playing Chemical Valley in the first bout. And then the NRV B Team skaters are skating for Blackwater Rollers as guest skaters, and there will also be some other skaters from Iron Mountain to round out Blackwater's lineup.

It'll be a long day for me. I'm NSOing the first bout and then skating in the second. I'm also NSOing a position that I've not done before, and it's probably the scariest one to fuck up. I'm jam timing. I have to practice blowing my whistle. Fox40 whistles are fucking confusing, especially to get the four blasts to end the jam. I feel like I'm drooling everywhere. And because of the venue, I'll have to be extra shouty. And then of course when I'm bouting I'm going to need to be extra shouty too.

I'm particularly nervous because Jam Timing is one of those positions where if you fuck up, EVERYONE knows. So apparently tonight at the WFTDA Division 2 playoffs, the JT thought that overtime was one minute jams, and then stuffed that up. I haven't found out all the details yet, but knowing that there will be a sufficient amount of rage if I fuck up makes me a little twitchy. Hell, you have a whistle and if you sound wimpy blowing it, then you kinda suck. Now I'm not a super loud person so this will be an interesting experience on the boundaries of my comfort zone.

In fact, I think I'm going to go down to the car and lock myself in it and practice blowing my whistle. :P

In an unrelated note, the place we are bouting at tomorrow is also know as the stadium where the rodeo scene for Borat was filmed:

I hope the audience will be more friendly. :P

O HAI

Wow! I haven't updated this for a while. Sorry. Anyway, a LOT has happened since my last entry. I spent three weeks back in Australia, did my Ph.D. graduation (for which I deliberated wearing skates, but there was carpet and LOTS of stairs, plus I wasn't sure how wearing a giant robe on wheels would work without eating shit), went to a bunch of derby practices and did an awesome epic lake skate with Boudi. Actually, when I was in Canberra, the things I did the most pretty much was all skate related (even though I also had graduation and a conference to go to, I managed to wrangle a lake skate, skate shopping, social skate with CRDL and a few VDL practices. It turned out that I got to do something skatey pretty much every day. Yay). 

I learned a lot while I was away, and in the next few weeks I'll be doing a bunch of posts about particular things that I saw work well at other leagues, new drills I learned, and whatnot. Keep your eyes peeled!