FYeah, Roller Derby Zebra

I haven’t posted a mass confusion shenanigan like this in a while. This is perfectly legal as long as there’s only one jammer behind the line with a cover on when the whistle blows. A variation would be to have everyone do the same thing in Pivot covers. Four step forward and keep the covers on (there is no penalty for too many Pivots, three will be asked to remove them) while the 5th steps back and removes her Pivot cover, revealing a Jammer cover. Before you comment: I don’t want to hear it about throwing the covers. They could just as easily put them in their pockets.

Keep being awesome, NSOs. We love you.

I have a confession to make. My real name is Bob Smithington. I’m a human just like you. I have arms and legs. The only scales on my body are really skinny long ones that stick out of my head and I spend all day pushing them into shapes with my hands.

I have a confession to make. My real name is Bob Smithington. I’m a human just like you. I have arms and legs. The only scales on my body are really skinny long ones that stick out of my head and I spend all day pushing them into shapes with my hands.

“If not timing a penalty for any reason (Skater is not sitting, Skater entered the Penalty Box from the wrong direction, etc.), the Penalty Box Official must communicate this to the Skater.” Generally heard around my region: “Black 123, your timing has stopped.” Though it would be really funny to be silent in cases like that. “WHAT IS GOING ON WHY AREN’T I RELEASED YET”

Edit: Looking at it, it’s weird that the ONLY cue that the box has that has the cue and then the skater color and and number in this order is this one. Wonder what the rationale behind that was. Probably another “don’t confuse the skaters” strategy.

“If not timing a penalty for any reason (Skater is not sitting, Skater entered the Penalty Box from the wrong direction, etc.), the Penalty Box Official must communicate this to the Skater.” Generally heard around my region: “Black 123, your timing has stopped.” Though it would be really funny to be silent in cases like that. “WHAT IS GOING ON WHY AREN’T I RELEASED YET”

In classic WFTDA fashion, they tried to fix one thing and ended up breaking a different thing. Then took a year to fix it. According to the folks at one of my favorite ref forums, this is an official rules clarification from WFTDA, announced yesterday: “Rules Committee statement on Point of No Return: The 2015 revision to 6.1.1.1, when paired with 6.2.2.1.1, created an unintended application of the Point of No Return. The 2015 revision to 6.1.1.1 was in respect to scoring points and not the Point of No Return. Therefore, 6.2.2.1.1 should now read as: 6.2.2.1.1 If, after receiving the appropriate hand signal and verbal cue, all parts of a penalized Skater have passed beyond the Point of No Return (see Glossary), the Skater must skate all the way around the track in order to enter the box from the appropriate counter-clockwise direction.” http://www.zebrahuddle.com/index.php?topic=1723.15 What does this mean to you?  Last season whether or not you’d passed the point of no return was based on where you were when the penalty happened. Now it’s based on where you are when the ref finishes announcing the penalty.

<3

So say we all.

WHO ELSE IS EXCITED FOR SANTA TO BRING US A SACK OF CLARIFICATIONS?

I’d defer to the HR of that game due to the givens stated above and the fact that I generally try to look for reasons NOT to give a penalty if all things are equal, but I’d love to see a clarification on this one.

A literal reading of the rules looks to me like the jammer should not be allowed to call off the jam until she replaces the helmet cover, regardless of how it came off. Particularly this sentence (emphasis added): “2.4.7 - The Lead Jammer may call off the jam at any time after their position has been established unless the Jammer has been removed from the jam due to a penalty or their helmet cover has been removed.“ As you pointed out, the next sentence says they can put it back on and “regain” lead status. However, I would argue that it also shouldn’t be a penalty under 5.13.14 unless the jammer was aware the cover was off. It is easy for a helmet cover to fall off or be removed without the jammer noticing. Skaters are not automatically penalized for other equipment or uniform violations that occur unintentionally in the course of normal game play unless they fail to correct the violation when notified by a ref. So, the no-call on 5.13.14 could easily be legit, depending on what the ref saw. But, it appears to me that the ref made an error that impacted the game in calling off the jam for a non-helmet-cover-wearing jammer. Unfortunately, since time travel is not yet possible, there’s nothing they could do to fix that error.

I think it would be easy to fix the situation–just add more information about 2.4.7 clarifying what the explicit verbiage means. Or chop out that “regain” verbiage and explain what actions do not make a Lead Jammer status forfeit in the 2.4.8-realm.

But it’s an interesting gap in the rules, if nothing else.