The Day I Saw a Dinosaur

Eighteen bouts this past month, in stripes.  Those tourneys will Really rack them up!  I've always loved that derby is a study in contrasts:  Demanding and accepting, competitive and friendly.  Nothing shows these contrasts more clearly than tournaments.

I've been reffing just over a year now, and I marvel at how much the game has changed in that time.  Both the zebra and the player in me very much approve of a lot of it!  No minors...I was on the fence on this one, liking the simplicity but a little worried the violence would get out of hand.  It didn't.  The rules changes that speeded up the game?  THANK YOU for those!  It's true that never until a month ago had I seen a jammer on her -1 pass, but that move doesn't Feel slow, so it doesn't count.

Some other changes, not as good.  I've always despised the rankings systems that discourage good sportsmanship (by rewarding Giant point differentials), and WFTDA's gone that way.  The ranking system also makes it hard for not-very-good WFTDA teams to find opponents, because it's better for the rankings for a weak team to lose to a good team than to beat an even weaker team.  Let's not shut people out from playing, k?  It's really not all about winning championships.

I love being part of such a vital sport; a movement in motion.

What brought this up?  This weekend, I saw a real live dinosaur.  Saw it with my own two eyes.  And a crafty dino it was too, finagling one of its opponents into a one-minute vacation in the scenic Sin Bin.

I saw a pivot line up ... (wait for it)... ON THE PIVOT LINE!  And then ... she leaned wayyyyy back so her hips were as far back from it as her leg could reach.  And one of the opposing blockers lined up with her hips ahead of the pivot's.  And failed to yield when warned.  Boom.

Yeah.  Seeing a move that was common less than a year ago felt like a complete Blast from the Past, and blind-sided a player who may have never even Seen a pivot on the line before.  Here's to Lack of Fossilization!