Derby Journal #6 - NSO-ing

Oct 03, 2015 20:39

Practice today was amazing! I had a blast, and I felt I was able to do well. I went to open skate last Sunday and practiced skating backwards, that really came in handy for this week's practice. Today's coaches (the girls on Oslo Roller Derby's A team take turns coaching the freshmeats) were so engaging and fun, and they had good chemistry between them as well which kept things moving forward.

We worked more in pace lines today, weaving in and out between players from the back of the line to the front, and also propelling ourselves forward from the back of the line to the front by grabbing people's hips and using the momentum to get to the front (THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN, I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY HAHAHHAHAH).

We also practiced jumping. For our minimum skills, we need to be able to do the following:
[The skater...] Hops over an object at least 6 inches (15 centimeters) in height without touching the object or losing balance, while skating at a moderate pace.
Jumps with both feet simultaneously, but does not have to land with both feet simultaneously

And it's been gnawing at me, because damn. My skates weigh about 2kg per leg, it doesn't feel like I leave the ground at all when I jump... but they set up a 15cm tall obstacle for us to jump over, and uh... I did it no problem. I even had good clearing (or that's what the coaches told me anyway). Well then. Guess I don't have to worry about that one anymore.

We also practiced this minimum skill:
[The skater...] Maneuvers through 10 cones, each no more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) apart (not to exceed 50 feet or 15 meters), placed through the straightaways and track turns, in less than 6 seconds

And errrr. No one did especially well at it, but I was so slow doing this D: and I knocked over a bunch of cones. Damn.

I need to work on my on-track communication. Communication is really important in derby. I've been quiet and soft spoken all my life, it's really good for me to be thrown into a situation where I absolutely need to yell out information. It's scary and way out of my comfort zone, but if I don't do it, I risk hurting myself or others so... yes. I'm enjoying the hell out of roller derby practice. My body gets a good workout, my brain gets a lot of new things to ponder, and my confidence gets a much needed boost.

For record's sake, I managed 22.5 laps for the 27 in 5 challenge today. That's 1 more lap than last time, still making progress :] My left leg really cramped up on me today, I couldn't find a rhythm (SO DIFFICULT!), and I felt really slow and terrible - a girl I skated behind for a while even gave up before the 5 minutes were over, and that really interrupted my flow. But I finished, and I'm happy I did. This is also the first time I didn't intentionally slow down during the 5 minute run (except to make sure I didn't hit anyone in front of me). I feel more comfortable on my skates now, and it seems speed is less of an issue than it was. Enjoying this progress a lot! A girl on our course managed 29 laps, though... even the coaches were all ".... damnnnnnnnnnnnn".

I stayed behind after practice, because The Royal Army, a Swedish roller derby team, is visiting Oslo this weekend - and they scheduled three scrimmages (practice bouts) with Oslo Roller Derby. All of us freshmeats need to act as NSO during at least four scrimmages so.... I'm making the most out of this weekend. I NSO'd today, and hopefully I get to NSO at both scrimmages tomorrow as well. Then I just need one more, and that's that part of the course out of the way :P

NSO = Non-Skating Official. Yup, not only does roller derby call for at least three skating referees (seven at most, seven encouraged) for every bout/scrimmage, it also needs people off skates to take care of practical details. NSOs keep track of scores, penalties, the penalty box, recording line-ups .... etc. They are usually dressed in pink shirts. There can be 12 NSOs for one bout, but a lot of the positions are optional. I'm not sure what the minimum number is. There are a variety of different NSO positions and lots of stuff to keep track of. I've been really nervous about it, but it's the sort of thing you can't really prepare for. You just have to do it. Of course I got placed in pretty much the only position that requires you to (sometimes) do math on the fly. Well, shit. I was penalty box timer.
Duties: Typically, each penalty box timer times the penalties of a single team’s blockers; blockers sit in the box for thirty seconds per penalty they commit. Also deals with situations where too many skaters are reporting to the box at once (only two blockers from each team may be sitting at any one time in the box, and no more than three blockers from a single team should ever be in the box at any time). In higher-level games, the PBTs typically use a single stopwatch and record penalty box data on paperwork; if not using paperwork, the PBTs typically use two stopwatches (one per blocker chair).

Wow, ok, so this info says "in higher-level games...". I needed to fill out paperwork, and I was only given one stopwatch. It might sound easy to just make sure someone sits down for 30 seconds, but it's a little more complicated. The skaters need to stand up after 20 seconds, and then they are let go at the 30 second mark. The penalty box timer yells out the skater's team colour + their number + "STAND" at 18 seconds (or.. at whatever time you're able to complete the command so that they stand up on the 20 second mark), and then the skater's team colour + their number + "DONE" at 28 seconds. Oh, and you also need to indicate which chair you want the skater to sit on (because it's the penalty box timer's responsibility). I kept forgetting to do this, and had skaters screaming "WHERE DO YOU WANT ME???" at me a couple of times T_____T;
The paperwork was very detailed. For every skater that came into the box, you needed to jot down what period it was, what jam it was, team colour, skater number, skater position, time in, time stand, time out, what time the stopwatch stopped at at the end of the jam .... T_T;;; The paperwork is collected after the game by the head NSO, all the data are compiled into stats books so that teams can keep statistics of their skaters.

There were a good couple of times where I got two people into the box separated by like a couple of seconds. It was super stressful and difficult to keep track of time and numbers and ahdjkahdgjkhdksha. But I did OK! And it was fun! NSO-ing is a really good way to learn the game and the rules. You get to be right in the action, and interacting with the players makes you feel like you're part of the game (I mean... you are! Especially in a position like penalty box timer, without you, the game wouldn't work!!!!). I think I made a couple mistakes - some people probably sat closer to 35-40 seconds than 30... but I felt I did pretty well for a first-timer!

Looking forward to tomorrow, but I hope I get to try a different position that doesn't require math... 8D;;;;

I have so much respect for people who NSO official WFTDA bouts. Love your NSOs, they are good people.

freshmeat, roller derby, derby101

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