If you are new to scrimmaging you may find yourself asking the question, "What position am I best fit for." No worries, Let me break it down for ya'll.
Blocker: Most fresh meat start out on this position. As a blocker your job is to basically hold the opposing team's jammer and assist you jammer through the pack. What does this take? Excellent awareness of both jammers positions at all times. You wouldn't want the other team's jammer to whiz by you with no effort. That's why knowing the jammer's position is so important. This will dictate whether you're playing offense or defense, which brings me to my next point. Blocking also takes the ability to switch from offense to defense. Team work is also essential. You have to be good at building walls and working with your teammates. Communication is key. You also need to be able to break up walls and hold or hit opposing blockers to make holes for your jammer.
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Blue Ruin and Krazy Kurls pivoting for the Flat Track
Furies (Blue) and the Church of Sk8in (Red) |
Pivot: Lines up at the front of the pack on the pivot line and wear striped helmet covers. If you have ever been referred to as bossy, loud mouthed, or assertive pivoting may be the right position for you. When your out on the track everything can seem crazy, that is why Pivots must be loud and assertive. Over all the madness they're teammates must be able to hear and you respond and respond. As you can imagine, Pivots are traditionally are the brains on the track. They call the plays. That means you need to know your strategy to play this position. If your jammer is in the box you better know to run a kill line or the opposing team is gonna have a hell of a power jam. If you feel confident in the dynamics of the game and feel like a leader maybe you should try some pivoting.
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| Frankie Facebreaker jamming for the Furies |
Jammer: Role is to score points for her team. Jammers wear a helmet cover with a star on it. As you can imagine jammers have a very important position because they score the points. To be a jammer you need to be fast, agile, and an athlete. Speed is you're friend when you are a jammer how else are you going to out skate your opponents. You also need to have some juking skills in order to maneuver around blockers. You need to know how to avoid being hit unless you like falling down and recovering. The ability to twist your body is also handing when trying to squeeze through tight spaces. Last of all you need to have some good endurance. Skating for up to two minutes full force might sound easy but its no walk in the park. If this sounds like something you can handling then try donning the star.
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A zebra herd reviewing a call in an official time out
NSO's in green |
Referee: If you feel that committing to a team's practice schedule is too much for you, but you still want to be a part of a league maybe refereeing is for you. There are a lot of different kinds of refs. You have NOS (non-skating refs) that track penalties, points, and run the penalty box among a few duties. If you can skate then why not try your hand at being a pack ref or a jammer ref. You are much more a part of the action. There is one responsibility as a ref, you need to know the rules like the back of your hand. If you are sending a player to the box you want to be confident in your decision why she belongs there. Bonus refs get to choice groovy pseudo names too.
Volunteer: If refereeing still seems like too much responsibility you can help your local league out by volunteering at the next bout. There are all kinds of positions and most likely you'll get to see half of the bout for free!
