Refresh on Wheels

I was refereeing at the Great Yorkshire Showdown last weekend, hosted by the lovely Leeds Roller Derby.

Mansfield were skating, and they did really well in their very competitive games. I even managed to watch and cheer them on in their first game before getting kitted up and putting on my own “game face”.

I was with a great crew as always, and enjoyed my experience as OPR and ALTR. I picked up some fantastic tips and areas to work on and improve. I’m always very grateful to receive feedback and comments on my officiating and skating, as I don’t tend to get a lot of frequent feedback at training as I’m the sole official at my home league.

It was a lovely experience and a fantastic day. I really enjoyed it and felt honoured to be part of the crew.

Since the beginning of 2017, I've been following the PHUL weightlifting routine (Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower). It's a four day split, focusing on upper and lower body exercises, twice a week, for power and hypertrophy. The purpose of the routine is to build both strength and improve aesthetics. I want to get fit and have strength for roller derby, and I also want to look good. There's no shame in that!

I limited my squat and deadlift to 100kg, and made a conscious decision not to lift heavier than that. The reason for that is mainly due to concerns around my spine. I suffered with prolapsed discs and serious back pain in the past, and I don't want to risk a repeat of that.

Over the last ten months, PHUL worked well for me and I saw progress in my lifts and in my physique. But I felt my progress was reaching a plateau and I wanted a bit of a change.

Two weeks ago I switched to PHAT (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training). It's a five day split, so one extra day, and it has a power upper and power lower day as PHUL, but adds in more isolation for legs, back, arms and shoulders.

I also decided I'm going to remove my 100kg limit on squat and deadlift and see where my body decides the limit will be. I've started adding extra weight already, and will gradually and carefully progress on these lifts.

I'm enjoying the additional day at the gym, but it does mean the weekends are my only rest - and we all know that most weekends are derby weekends! So to balance this out, I'm going to do a two week at the gym, and one week off.

For the off week, I'll be doing exercises at home in the morning instead. This will give me a bit of extra sleep and recovery, but I'll still be doing some training! I'll mostly do bodyweight exercise, pushups, etc.

I've also stopped running for the time being too. Partly because I no longer have suitable running shoes (Tough Mudder happened to them!) and partly because at the moment I'm focusing my training on weights. I'm getting a lot of cardio exercise as a referee on skates! I don't feel the need to add to that at the moment.

My goals are still the same, but I've just changed how I'm going to achieve them.

Here's a screenshot of the last week of my PHAT training. I like charts and stats.

Last weekend I was in Chester refereeing The Gauntlet III, hosted by North Wales Roller Derby.

It was a very busy day - four games as OPR and three as FIPR. Four of the games were 25 minutes each, and three were 30 minutes each. There was a bit of a shortage of officials, so we were all kept very busy.

It’s always fun refereeing a tournament, there’s lots of people and a good atmosphere - everyone is there just to have fun, and it’s not so much about the winning or losing.

It was great to work with a couple of referees and NSOs I’m becoming more familiar with, and meet some new faces too.

With the five hours total driving, it was a long and tiring day but very much worth it.

It’s been a while, but it’s time for an update!

On September 16th and 17th I was refereeing the British Championships T3W/T4W/T2M playoffs in Stoke. Officiating playoffs at this level was one of my long-term goals and I've managed to achieve this sooner than I had expected!

I was on the Blue Crew, and had some amazing officials both on and off skates. It was a fantastic weekend, and I learned a lot.

I was OPR for three games and Alt for two, and really enjoyed my time there. It was amazing to be part of a huge officiating team, and a crazy experience to referee in a single hall with two tracks running side by side.

The games should be released on the WFTDA archive at some point, so keep an eye out for me doing my thing!

I've also been refereeing at other scrims, bouts, and games across the midlands too - officials are always in high demand. Speak to your local league today to find out how you can help roller derby in your area.

My last post was back in April - almost four months ago! And by goodness, a lot has happened.

Before I start though, sorry for not updating sooner. I suppose life got busy and I fell out of the habit of keeping this up to date. I'll endeavor to do better (but no promises).

Since it's midway through the year, I thought I'd quickly update on the 2017 goals I set for myself.

- Lead the training of officials at Mansfield Roller Derby ✓ I've been running "officials school" on our team training nights, and invited everyone from the league to come along. We've been covering NSO roles and paperwork, reading the rules and case book together and discussing it, and talking about referee roles and duties. I've also explained pack definition with the help from a small whiteboard and magnetic pushpins, and explained the theory behind NOTT and jammer lap points. We've covered quite a lot of theory and have been able to put it in to practice by refereeing drills where possible.

- Head referee an open door home event I've head refereed six times at home, all closed door events and all but one have been travel teams. One was a mixed scrim. I've also head refereed in Hull twice at an open door game, and once at Nottingham & Leicester for closed door scrims. While I've not HR'd an open door home event yet, there's still time! But given the number of times I've HR'd so far, I'm really pleased with this!

- Apply to referee British Championships T4W ✓ Applied, selected, and done! The final T4WN game is coming up this weekend. It's a triple header and I'll be refereeing two games. This year I will have ALT'd 1, OPR'd 6, and FIPR'd 2. I've also got the confidence and skills to keep on refereeing at Champs level, and I have been applying for more higher level officiating.

- Apply to referee at least one open door tournament ✓ I've certainly applied for a few tournaments, but I've not yet been selected for one. Competition is fierce for those official spots! I've done what I set out to though - felt confident and comfortable in applying. If I'm yet to get selected remains to be seen. Fingers crossed!

- Apply for referee certification I've done everything I can do to start this process, but we're waiting on the WFTDA to re-open their certification processes. Until then, this is on hold.

I've been filling the last few months with lots of games and scrims though, and I'm set to be officiating my 90th game this coming weekend. I'm not sure when I'll get to 100, but it shouldn't be far off!

We've brought back scrim time at training too, and this has been great for me to work on my pack definition - something I'm now more confident with. It's great for skaters as well, as those unable to take part in the scrim help out referee or NSO. Everyone gets to learn!

Mansfield also organised an officials bootcamp for referees and NSOs last weekend. We invited Orla Skew and Bomb Weasley to come and teach the Midlands officials how to be awesome, and they did exactly that! We ended the day with a scrim where the skaters were given a selection of unusual and rare situations to try on-track, so the officials could experience dealing with the unexpected. It was a great day, and feedback from everyone was how useful and enjoyable the day was, both from the officials and the skaters who never thought about what would happen in some of those situations!

I personally received some great feedback from Skew, and she mentioned how well my skating skills have progressed. In fairness, it was well over a year since we last skated together! I think the last time she saw me on skates, I struggled to transition to my left. Those were the days!

Outside of skating, the league have been running various events and socials, and I've been very involved in most things - which has been really good fun!

I'm keeping up with gym going, running, and keeping fit. I'm also going a Tough Mudder with the guys from work in September, so I'm training for that too.

The last two days were spent at the WFTDA Officiating Clinic in Manchester. This was my first officiating clinic, and part of my journey to becoming a certified official (once the certification process re-opens).

The clinic was hosted by Umpire Strikes Back, Hi Refinition, and Nine Inch Wheels. Support came from Matt the Knife, Jens, and Pettichoke.

The first session was going over the major changes and updates in the new ruleset, and the purpose of the casebook. It helped clarified a few things in my mind, and it makes sense how the rules were restructured so drastically.

We also talked about discretion, which feels like a newer concept actually written in to the rules. There was a lot of discussion about when to apply discretion and when to follow the rules, and how to keep the game flowing smoothly and fairly.

There was a session on giving and receiving feedback, which was really useful as head official for my league. Coupled with information from a coaching summit from last year, it helps build my ability to train and develop newer officials joining the league.

We covered scoring and points too, plus the change in terminology (pass, earned pass, trip), and how NOTT points are different to jammer lap points (blog post topic in the future?). NOTT/JL points have been a tricky thing for me to get my head around in the past, and having it explained so succinctly and perfectly really helped.

The referees then were given tips and pointers on how to position correctly, and ensure optimum track coverage. It was information I was already aware of, but it’s always useful for my self-taught knowledge to be confirmed by the top level officials in person.

That concluded day one, which ended with dinner in the Travel Lodge and an early night! 

Day two started bright and early in the Thunder Dome, with some on skates drills. Jens gave us some great drills, many of which I can do in the corner of the sports hall during the team training time. I took away some things to work on, especially keeping my shoulders square to track and improving fast acceleration and stopping.

After lunch we quickly went over staffing officials, and some psychology - very interesting stuff, and something I’ll do more research on later.

We then went in to a scrim, and the referees were split in to four full crews who did three sets of five jams. The coaches were watching and gave feedback and points to work on.

As FIPR I need to be more aware of the RIPR and position myself better when ‘pack is front’. FIPR has to deal with a lot of communication, more so than any other position, and it’s something to continue to improve.

As OPR, both times, I had good position and good coverage. Sometimes I felt myself out of position slightly, but I quickly corrected. I signalled an NP/NP to the inside, which I got right (something that I have struggled with in the past), and gave clear penalty calls (except one time when I flubbed a roster number).

It was great to get feedback from the coaches, and I’ve got a few things to continue to work on.

I have a new commitment to becoming a powerhouse OPR! I think many officials overlook OPR, but I believe it’s a critical role for communication and pack coverage. I also love FIPR as well, as it’s the centre for all officials communication.

I can’t wait to get back on track and put in to practice everything I’ve learned, and to share it with the officials at my league.

I’m so glad I went to the WFTDA Officiating Clinic, and I’m excited to be progressing on my road to certification.

Wow, another month gone, I can’t believe it’s March already!

New skates!

Well, the biggest news this month is getting new skates! Bobby at Skate Hut set us up with some custom built skates.

• Bont Quad Star boot • Roll Line Blaster plate • Spitfire bearings • Gladiator 91a wheels

They’re gorgeous, and a delight to skate on. Having skates that are my size makes a huge difference! All aspects of my skating have improved, and I feel much more confident and stable.

Refereeing

In other news I’ve been refereeing a lot of scrims all around the midlands, including three days in a row! I’m rapidly approaching 40 games refereed, which will be a nice milestone.

Officials workshop

Today I hosted my first officials workshop at my league. I invited anyone interested in officiating along to the Thursday night ‘A team’ training session (who isn’t cleared to skate at that level yet) who’d like to learn NSOing or refereeing. We went over the penalty box paperwork and procedures. It went well, and I’m excited for this becoming a regular thing.

British Champs

This Sunday I’m refereeing British Champs again, which I’m looking forward to.

Wow, it’s February already - time flies! I’m glad to say that I’ve been busy.

Scrims

I’ve refereed two scrims already this year - one in Leicester as a Jammer Referee, and one in Sheffield as Front Inside Pack Referee. Both went really well, and came away with new learnings and improved confidence.

I feel I’m getting more proficient at IPR/JR positions, and find myself willing to volunteer for them more often.

My fear of Jammer Reffing is now gone, and I’m confident to keep track of those important hip passes, but more importantly, I believe I have enough knowledge to understand and deal with the common-uncommon star pass situations. The uncommon-uncommon situations will always be tricky, and it’s something to keep working on.

I’m getting a much better understanding of pack definition too. I’m still somewhat slow to call no packs and out of plays, but it’s getting considerably better. Something that will continue to improve in practise and at scrims.

I have a few more scrims lined up in the coming weeks, and I’m keen to continue my pack skills.

British Championships

Yesterday was Game Day 1 for T4WN. I was selected to OPR the first game and ALT the second. This was my first time officiating a Champs game, so I was nervous but excited.

It also means I’ve checked off one of my goals for the year! 

I felt comfortable OPRing, and confident making calls. Feedback from fellow referees and the HR were all positive, with a few tweaks and areas to consider in future. I fell out of position two or three times, but that was due to not anticipating the pack speed suddenly changing. Something to work on in the future.

I also did a rather epic knee slide in to the ‘danger zone’ seating area. My wheel stopped dead under me on the exit of corner two, and I lost directional control. In a split second, I decided the best course of action was to take a knee and fall in a controlled fashion rather than attempt some kind of recovery. I managed to keep eyes on the pack (for the most part) and didn’t injure any of the spectators. I was told later that it looked awesome, so that’s the main thing, right?

ALTing was also a great experience. I have never done this position before, but I found it incredibly interesting and useful. I spotted a few technical penalty types and fed them in to the OPR crew who issued the penalties. I handled four foul-outs and two expulsions, and all the paperwork that goes with them.

I had a fantastic day, and I’m excited for more Champs level refereeing in the future!

Exercise and Fitness

I’ve changed my weightlifting programme from ICF to PHUL. This means I’m basically at the gym four days a week instead of three. On Wednesday, I squeeze in a 5k jog. I’m getting stronger and fitter, but so much further to go!

As the year draws to a close, it's customary to reflect on the efforts and progress of the last twelves months of officiating.

Since starting with roller derby, my aim was to be an official with hopes of becoming a referee. My goal for 2016 was to get the confidence and skills required to achieve this, even if it's just to referee training sessions and drills.

With help and support from my home league, and with an ever-growing network of experienced and new officials to call on for advice and information, I achieved this goal.

My first outing as a referee was on the 16th April 2016 at a scrim hosted by Nottingham's Hellfire Harlots. Their head referee helped guide me and gave me confidence to actually give it a go. I didn't call any penalties that day, but I do remember seeing penalties occur and agree when other referees called them. For me, this was a breakthrough moment.

Over the following months, I clocked up a total of 31 outings as a referee at regulation games. Some closed doors, some open doors, and even two at championship level. This breaks down to 17 OPR positions, eight as IPR, and five as JR.

I also officiated at Nottingham's Louisey Rider Cup (as NSO) and at Wakefield's Harry Potter themed tournament (as SO). I attended two referee boot camps and received guidance from internationally renowned referees such as Righteous Oxide, Igor Maniac, and Rollin Rat.

My league also supported my application for the league head referee (which later developed to head official), and I feel I've done well in this role to foster a learning environment for those interested in officiating. I felt proud representing the league in my officiating, showing impartiality and fairness in all games I officiated in any capacity.

I couldn't have achieved any of my goals without the support from my home league and coaches, and from all of the referees from neighbouring leagues - especially those in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. I feel I've helped develop a welcoming and supportive environment for all officials at Mansfield Roller Derby, both for home-grown officials and those visiting our league.

Next year will see new challenges, including the new ruleset and supporting documents, and will be a great opportunity to further my abilities and skills.

I have a few goals for 2017: - Lead the training of officials at Mansfield Roller Derby - Head referee an open door home event - Apply to referee British Championships T4W - Apply to referee at least one open door tournament - Apply for referee certification

I'm excited and inspired for 2017. Watch this space!

Yesterday, Mansfield Roller Derby hosted their first ever open door game in Mansfield. Our previous open door events have always been in Nottingham, but we found a venue in our hometown and organised a great double header.

The first game was an Open To All scrim, welcoming all genders to a friendly Game of Thrones themed scrim. The second game was Mansfield Roller Derby vs Sheffield Crucibelles.

As the league's Head Official, it was my responsibility to arrange the officiating crews for both games, supply required equipment, and assist with track set up.

I drafted a full referee crew and delegated HR duties to someone a little more experienced, and shadowed on the day. It was more difficult to get a full NSO crew, but those that did attend were highly skilled and professional. I'm impressed that even with a skeleton crew we still managed to get full paperwork done.

I was FIPR for both games, allowing me to shadow the HR in RIPR position. It was his first time as HR at an open door, but he had experience prior. It was a great learning opportunity for us both, and I feel more confident about taking the HR role next time.

Both games went without major incident, and all officials did a fantastic job. The feedback from the skaters was all positive regarding both the officiating and the event in general, which is always great to hear.

I was lucky to have a great team of officials and finish the year strengthening those connections before the end of the year.

Mansfield Roller Derby did a great job of hosting the event, and everyone put in a lot of time and effort to organise and arrange the day. And, as a huge bonus, they won their game!

A great end to a great year.

Nottingham hosted a referee and NSO bootcamp today in my hometown of Mansfield, and I’m pleased to say I went to the referee portion of the bootcamp, and refereed three of the four mini-games they arranged.

The bootcamp was lead by Igor Maniac (from Southern Discomfort and England Roller Derby fame), and Rollin Rat (from CCR). Both incredible referees and role models for all officials to aspire to be.

The classroom session left me feeling confident and positive about my choices to devote so much time and effort to the sport, and excited to start the 2017 with renewed energy and excitement.

There are new rules and supporting documents coming up in February and I’m keen to learn the changes and get them in to practise.

We had a little taster of that, with four thirty-minute games (otherwise ran to regulation).

I was OPR for the first with two respected referees from Nottingham, who I always enjoy being crewed with. I felt I did well, and received positive feedback for positioning and communication.

The second game I watched from the sidelines and took mental notes of positioning, calls, no-calls, and communication. It was also good to chat with the other officials during this time too.

The third, I was FIPR. I feel I need to work on this position the most, so it was good to get feedback. I entirely dropped the ball on the open/closed communication once, but thankfully the helpful NSOs were there to correct my error. Feedback was to be more relaxed but more engaged. It took me a few jams to get in to the swing of it, but when I did my positioning got noticeably better and I was calling out of plays and penalties clearer and more accurately. Useful information to know!

The fourth saw me JR. Something I’m becoming to enjoy the more I do it. Positive feedback again, especially with good lead calls and clear communication to my fellow JR.

Since my last update, I have OPR’d four games and JR’d two. Today I also refereed in a multi-game tournament (4x20 minute games, and a 40 minute final).

I’m out again tomorrow in Leicester for more refereeing, and then a double header later in December... This will finish the year on a nice even number of games refereed. More on that in a future post!

I feel I’m really growing as an official and getting more confidence every time. There’s still lots for me to learn and I’m always eager to get that learning where and when I can.

Thanks to my league for all the support, encouragement and training! Here’s the Mansfield representation at the Harry Blocker tournament from earlier today - an even mix of skaters and referees!

Yesterday, I was in Harrogate refereeing for the Spa Town Roller Girls' double header. It was a public event, a debut game for newly mins-passed skaters followed by Spa Town vs Furness Firecrackers.

I was jammer referee for both games, and this was the first time I had done this position outside of a training session. As followers of my antics will be aware, I'm most often placed as OPR. However, I welcome the challenge and did lots of research and reading, so I felt about as prepared as possible. Extra focus was spent on jammer lap points and what happens when jammers are in the penalty box.

The first game, the debut, was rather eventful! Equipment malfunctions, flying toe stops, and flying skaters! My nerves soon calmed after the first few jams and I quickly got in to the rhythm of the game. I kept good pace with my jammers, and I enjoyed every minute! Communication was a little shaky at the start but I found my voice and started chattering away to the other jammer ref and the FIPR.

The second game was with more experienced skaters, but it wasn’t without a few moments of confusion and weirdness. Let’s face it though, it wouldn’t be Roller Derby without something unexpected happening!

This time, it was my toe stop that flew off! A quick official timeout and I was good to go. I think that just shows how fast and how much stopping and starting is involved in jammer refereeing.

By the second game, the other JR and I had a good synergy going - especially as the jammers chased each other and jostled for position.

I did fall, but I’m not totally sure what happened as it all happened in about a second. I narrowly avoided the other JR as our jammers swapped position in a tight pack. However, I didn’t see the blocker down on the infield and I was unable to avoid her - I fell over her feet and basically belly flopped. Skillfully(!) I kept eyes on my jammer, leapt back to my feet, and didn’t lose my position.

The crowd gasped, and that was pretty cool.

Aside from that drama, everything went really well. Great feedback from the other officials and from my scorekeepers. All the skaters and bench staff seemed happy too, which was quite a relief!

I’m really glad I got to fill the jammer referee role and I had good fun doing it. That now means I’ve done every NSO and every SO position! A milestone!

Tonight at training I got 27 laps in five minutes! Another great milestone! Also, I took part in some contact drills, something I don’t often do. I had fun, but it’s absolutely exhausting!

Good times!