You Should Be Watching More Roller Derby Footage

So yesterday, we talked about Victoria’s walls off the line. Well, how do they reform those walls coming back from a runback?

Answer: Very carefully, and well-practiced. The anchor point nearest to the pack inverts, the next person connects to them via arm link and becomes a strong rear blocker.

Now, Victoria will run this play with just two blockers if that’s all they have on the track, but they can also expand with more wall members, or with returning blockers from the penalty box. If there’s a third blocker attempting the runback, they come in and lock in as a second rear blocker. The fourth blocker comes in as a brace.

This is so well-drilled that the team can even run this forward on the zone track, ahead of the pack.

Let's try something fun on the blog, shall we? I've been staring at Victoria Roller Derby's walls for the last eight months, so might as well share some of what I've noticed this week for interested parties.

Dimensional and geometric walls have become a huge thing in roller derby over the last year and a half, and Victoria's geometric whirl-whip wall is just the latest bit of "oooh, shiny!" in wall-building.

But, you may notice if you've ever watched Victoria play: They don't start off the line in that terrifying three- or four-wall circular structure they use to so well entrap jammers. Instead, they start in either a four-wall rainbow formation, two two-walls, or a three-wall with two inversions.

FOUR WALL: Here's how they transition from the Rainbow to the whirlwhip, even through offense. You can set this wall up either on the back or front line. Watch what their inverted skater closest to the inside line does with her hands.

THREE WALL: Their three-wall still has two inverted blockers with strong internal arm connections. Watch how they switch to external arm connections and the circle. Again, you can set this up on the back or front line.

TWO TWO-WALLS: Victoria is exceedingly good at building walls around opposing blockers, and they do that by splitting into groups of two. Here, they look thoroughly mixed up on the jammer line, but in fact, they're in groups of twos...

... That then reform into a perfect four-wall whirlwhip.

TUESDAY: How the whirlwhip reforms from a runback.

Friend of the blog and incredible Team Canada/Terminal City skater Kar Harvey (Buffy Sainte Fury) is in the hospital with a leg injury. (Boo!) We wish her the very best and hope she recovers quickly, and in the meantime, a gif of her being awesome at the World Cup. Harvey has fast, dynamic footwork going forwards or backwards, which makes for some wonderful runbacks.

Last year, my Boston pal Flyin' King created a move for getting around backwards blockers with their arms outstretched that I promptly called "The Duck-Under". (I'm bad at making up names.) Somehow, I managed to do this during Boston's 2014 home team championships, so hey, gif!

But, hey. Roller derby! It's fun. Example:

D1 playoffs are here, D1 playoffs are here, D1 playoffs are here...

A little coordination, some backwards laterals and avoiding over-committing can confound anyone.