It's All in the Angle

        We’re stripping soggy pads off after practice and considering who was getting too generous with elbows in the last drill.  One skater (I’ll call her Boomer in the spirit of changing names to protect the innocent) is reminded that she has no idea why she kept getting called for major forearms in the last bout.  She was hitting clean!
        Oh, I’ve got this one.  I’ve skated with her and I’ve reffed a bout she played, and this one I can explain.  You see, when Boomer hits, the force starts somewhere near her ankles and gets magnified on the way up, exploding into the lucky recipient through Boomer’s shoulder.  It’s a good, hard, clean hit.  But I’ve also noticed (while tumbling sideways to land on the infield) that Boomer’s forearm travels along with me for a bit to see me off.  It’s not really adding any force; it’s just barely touching, so Boomer doesn’t even notice the contact amidst the chaos.
        From the ref lane, what one sees is “Jammer falls over while in contact with forearm of Blocker” (usually with a big grin on Blocker’s face).  Unless the ref is paying particular attention to what part of Blocker is making contact when Jammer begins her trajectory, it looks exceptionally like Forearm, Major.
        The dual perspective, having experienced the hit and having watched the hit with the zebra’s eye, helped me understand what was going on – and now gives Boomer what she needs to know to reduce her one minute vacations.  Rostered skaters and zeebs see the same action from different angles, and each one can inform the other.  Plus, it’s just interesting to see how the other half lives.  In short, it’s worth going out of your way to take a look at derby from the other side of the fence.
        If you’re a rostered skater, take a night and skate a ref’s position during a scrimmage.  C’mon, you know those ribs aren’t going to heal right unless you give them a little time off anyway!  The first time I just watched a bout after beginning to ref, I was amazed at how much easier it was to see the action…….as a spectator.  Apparently that whole thing of watching while skating at high speed backwards and sideways and every which way, mohawking several times a minute, dodging jammers being blocked into your path, shouting and gesticulating to indicate penalties, and having returning miscreants whizzing by to get back to the pack ends up being a bit distracting.  However, each ref position does have a few particular things that ref is situated to see better than anyone else.  Skate them, and understand what the ref’s seeing.
        For refs, it becomes a little more complicated.  Some of us have on-track skills that put most rostered skaters to shame (ok, I’m using ‘us’ loosely there).  Others of us aren’t all amazeballs, but are fine to step into a scrimmage and get the point of view.  Those elbows don’t feel like ‘no impact’ when they’re impacting your ribs; maybe that’s why people are always screaming at you about them.  Some of us don’t bout skate and shouldn’t scrimmage…but it would still be valuable to play in a ‘positional blocking only’ scrimmage, or put on a bright yellow ‘don’t hit me’ shirt and skate in the pack as an inside observer (call it a spy if that gets your juices flowing!).
        It’s a different world, a world that impacts your normal haunts, and it’s right there…why not take a look?  If we were all that fond of staying in our little boxes, we wouldn’t be in derby, right?

[Disclaimer … this post does reveal one of the purposes of this blog; to encourage mutual understanding across the zeeb/skater fence.]