Ouch. A Primer In Roller Derby

The sport of roller derby has been making noise in the Northwest for a number of years, but many people are unaware of the sports scoring rules.

Patch offers up a primer on how scoring works and gives a recap of Tacoma’s own Toxic 253’s latest match.

Scoring points in roller derby is a bit like a track race. Only, if over half of the runners were trying to jockey for position and free their own runner for the finish line. And only two runners could record points. And everyone was wearing skates.

Just like a track race, right? I think one of these girls could have sidelined Seattle Slew during his heyday.

Teams compete against one another in a series of two-minute long races called jams. Each team is made up of three blockers, one pivotand one jammer. The jammer is the only member of the team that can score points, while the blockers are responsible for simultaneously blocking the other teams jammer and freeing their own. The pivot sets the pace for the race and calls out plays for its team. Points are accumulated for every lap completed by the jammeroutside of the first lap and for passing blockers.

Blockers skate around the rink and either block the opposing team’s jammers or try to create holes in the opposing team’s defensive line for their own jammer to skate through for a score. The jumble of blockers from both sides skate side by side in what is known as a “pack.” It may seem simple, but the details of coordinating teammate positions and speeds is a complicated process.

Outside of the scoring format, Roller derby bouts fall into three types; Jammer duels, brut battles and blocker bashes.

Jammer duels are driven by the fleet-feet jammers darting around the packs to roll up points. Brut battles pit otherwise balanced teams against each other where even point is hard fought over time and again. Blocker bashes come when one team’s blockers dominate the rink and dictate the course of the match by shifting speeds and spaces to keep the other team off balance and away from scoring positions.

So now that you know the rules, here's how it went down this past weekend for Toxic 253.

Saturday's bout between the Fircrest-based Toxic 253 derby team and Port Scandalous from Port Angeles fell into the last type of bout. The blockers of Port Scandalous dominated the competition at Wheelz Skate Arena, crushing Toxic 253 190-49.

Port Scandalous ran plays and shifted up to capitalize on the situation with each round of the turn, changing speeds and positions to disrupt Toxic 253..

“You could see that those girls knew how to call their plays,” Toxic 253 organizer Shauna Fossum said. “They were controlling the pack, and we weren’t.”

The bout and final score were an indication of the youth of the Toxic 253 team. The group was not even expected to compete in any bouts, but a demand for teams accelerated the start of their season. With just three bouts under their belts, the team is still struggling to adjust to the skill level of other teams.

“A lot of the girls come from a background where they didn’t have a lot experience with that,” Fossum said.  “We had to teach of couple of girls how to even skate.”