By the position – No. 2

In the first installment of by the position, we took a look at the Pivot, sometimes referred to as the No.1 position, and what qualities pertain to the position.

The No. 2 player can be called a number of different things depending on the language your team uses. In the 1 through 5 scheme, the No. 2 position is the second blocker on the floor, just behind the Pivot. Some teams may use the term 1^st blocker, designating the pivot as a position superlative to the other blockers. The blocker playing behind the pivot thus becomes the first blocker.

Today, we’ll go down the roster and look at the No. 2 position.

If we look at positioning on the track, the pivot takes the pivot line, and her blockers line up behind her. The player behind her on the inside may be called the Front-Inside or Inside.

The next two names for the No. 2 position include Wing or Shadow (or more appropriately, Shadow Pivot). Generally in this setup, the player becomes an extension of the Pivot.

For sake of simplicity, we will just refer to all of these things as the No. 2 position. For help and clarification, we turn to Melissa "Mo Payne" Dittberner and Libby "Pbr" Claeys of the Sioux City Roller Dames, Sioux City, Iowa.

PBR: (The No. 2) goes with the Pivot. Usually covering that inside line is where I like them to be. Their objective is to help hold a solid front on a wall while having the option to chase down a jammer or build a bridge if need be. Offensive/defensive switch needs to be ready!

Mo: Some people call this shadow pivot, I think that is pretty self explanatory there. Make sure you are on that inside line or a step over next to the pivot. This position is where I would put my newer players.
In its most simple form, the No. 2 position works closely with the Pivot serving as a helper. The No. 2 player becomes available to do tasks assigned by the Pivot: Wall, Inside, Chase, Bridge, etc.

A fast and agile Pivot may designate the No. 2 as an Inside 2, essentially taking on all the duties a Pivot may need to fulfill, such as holding the front-inside position. Other 2s work better controlling the middle to outside lanes of the track. 

In a pinch, the Pivot may “sacrifice” her No. 2, pushing her to the outside lanes to impede or block a forthcoming jammer.

The Pivot will generally cover the left side of the track, while the No. 2 will cover the right. A good 1-2 combination of Pivot and 2 is an amazing thing to behold, as the two are almost always in sinc, communicating through telepathy. The No. 2 is the Pivot's right hand, eyes and skate. Being able to cover a wider area than the pivot is important, because covering the outside of the turns is more area than the inside.

Inexperienced players often learn a great deal working the No. 2 position, so long as they are willing to take direction and go where the Pivot tells them (or pushes them). Learning to work laterally with a partner will greatly enhance the No. 2’s skill level.

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A breakdown of the two...PBR started the Sioux City Roller Dames and before the beginning BFF Mo Payne was on board to make this team happen. The girls also belong to the Sioux City Korn Stalkers, Mo as coach and PBR as head NSO and the best organizer in the world for local events. These two chicks also started the Norfolk Bruisin Bettys after they put on a killer charity bout in Norfolk, Nebraska. The girls with the help of a couple other amazing derby girls started the Triple Threat Derby Girls, a group of strong willed, focused women to spread derby love without boarders and traveling while speaking the derby gospel to those who will listen. The newest and smallest version of the Mo and PBR show will be coming to the scene in late November...the Natural Born Rollers...a chance for the ladies to help mold the future of roller derby.



Read the rest of the series:
By the position – An introBy the position – Pivot/No. 1
By the position – No. 2
By the position – No. 3
By the position – No. 4
By the position – Jammer/No. 5

Windy City season

(Editor's Note: This is mostly for my own reference, a place to refer back to on Windy City games. I'll be using this for a future writeup on the North Central Region Tournament. Any rankings are unofficial, and mostly the accumulation of various data on multiple sites, including but not limited to Derby News Network, DerbyTron and windycityrollers.com.)

March 4
Windy City 133 (1-0)
Detroit 114

May 20 - Brewhaha
Minnesota 105
Windy City 172 (2-0)

June 3
Windy City 178 (3-0)
Cincinnati 83

June 25 - ECDX No Minors
Charm City 126
Windy City 144 (4-0)

June 24 - ECDX
Windy City 130 (5-0)
Montreal 105

July 9
Windy City 147 (6-0)
Boston 44

July 30
Steel City Derby Demons 117
Windy City 147 (7-0)

Aug. 12 - Golden Bowl
(6) Bay Area 116
(10) Windy City 49 (7-1)

Aug. 13 - Golden Bowl
(10) Windy City 128 (8-1)
(13) Detroit 72
Aug. 14 - Golden Bowl
(11) Texas 121
(10) Windy City 132 (9-1)

Aug. 27
San Diego Wild Fires 22
Windy City Rollers 256 (10-1)

Sept. 10
(8) Kansas City
(10) Windy City

Playing in Overtime

It's not something that happens in a lot of bouts. Overtime – An additional jam to determine the winner of a tied game.

In close games, everything is in the details and mistakes are magnified tenfold.

The Quad-City Rollers have found themselves in two different overtime jams this season. The first was against the Rockford Rage's Ragdolls, a mix of their Travel team and secondary-level players.

That game ended in a loss after Q-C jammer Lady Gotcha tapped out for an injury stoppage, and giving the point advantage to Rockford.

On August 27, the Rollers got to play against The Outfit's newest team, Shakedown, comprised of B and C team skaters. Two years ago, Q-C's A-team played against The Outfit B-team (The Shade Brigade), and lost handedly.

This time, Q-C would get some measure of revenge after both teams would skate to a 150-150 tie after the Rollers would fail to get a 3-point differential to come out with a win.

The overtime happens when the game is tied at the natural end of the game clock and any current jams are finished.

Often called overtime or sudden death, the overtime jam actually is an extension of the second half, and not a new half in regards to scoring.

The overtime jam consists of No Lead Jammer being designated; scoring occurs on every pass (even the initial one) and will continue for a full 2 minutes, or until a natural conclusion (referee stoppage, injury stoppage).

Lucky enough, the Rollers managed a 166-158 win even after losing two blockers to the box.

The key with overtime is pack control. In overtime, you know the jam is going to last for 2 minutes, so staying composed is mandatory.

I talk a lot about positive point differential (getting more points than opponents), and most people probably will say "no duh." For regulation jam games, positive point differentials and utilizing lead jammer is important. Without lead jammer, teams instead have to focus on the point differentials and pack control for the whole 2 minutes.

After overtime, the winner is decided by who earned the most points. If the game remains a tie, an additional overtime jam will commence.

In overtime, winning can be measured by a 1-0 point jam or a 20-19 point jam. Keeping pack control and tight focus can make the difference in earning that one extra point, instead of losing that extra point.

I encourage teams to practice specific situations to become more and more comfortable when those happen in bout situations.

Because our team had the previous experience in overtime, our focus was on our pack control.

We knew that the overtime jam was a possibility so we had our next line ready to go. Had we not anticipated the new jam, we would have thrown five girls out there that might be in penalty trouble.

The Rollers were also aware of how the overtime jam worked, so the blockers worked on getting our jammer through and collapsing on the opposing jammer, to minimize the amount of points she could score.

Practice overtime jams whenever possible: 2 minutes, no lead and scoring on the first pass. While they happen quite infrequently, they do happen. You want to be prepared when they do.

Web posting - August 2011

It's been a pretty slow month as far as posting things online. I bought a house at the end of July and the entire month of August was pretty much taken up by moving and getting the new place set up. With only one post for the month, I still managed to see 266 hits for the month.

August was the fourth most hits fivepointgrandslam.com has gotten since its inception. We're looking forward to keeping the coverage going and developing new relationships with players, coaches, vendors, etc., in the hopes of bringing fresh coverage to roller derby.

With Championship season getting underway in a few weeks, look for several posts about the upcoming regionals and some live coverage from Denver. 

Hits     Month
266    August 2011
424    July 2011
168    June 2011
317    May 2011
146    April 2011
222    March 2011
182    February 2011
098    January 2011
121    December 2010
379    November 2010
190    October 2010
050    September 2010

The Backup Plan

I use the analogy of building a house a lot when talking about strategy with my players. If I give you a hammer and say go build a house, how far will you get constructing the building? Probably, not very far.

So let's give you some more tools.

The same philosophy applies to roller derby (and other sports, I'm sure). Your team is really good at one thing, so well in fact, that thing is the only good tool in your arsenal.

For the sake of argument, your team is good at back walls – You can build a 3- or even 4-wall of impenetrable defense in the back. You let your jammers get through but not the opposing stars. The first two jams your team shuts down their jammer, but yours only scores a point or two.

Opposing team calls a timeout.

You should be worried. Want to know why? In a little more than a minute, your opponents are going to look over at your bench and smile. Maybe even wink at you.

That one thing you're good at is about to get dismantled.

And the house you've been diligently putting together with just a hammer, is going to come tumbling down.

Psychologically speaking, this is heartbreaking. You just spent two jams doing something you all know how to do and take pride in it.

Without a backup plan, you're essentially inviting the Big Bad Wolf over to blow everything down.

The next jam, the opposing team opens up your wall, releasing their jammer while yours is stuck behind everyone.

The opposing star squeaks through everyone. Her jam ref holds up five fingers.

Your jammer panics, which panics the rest of your team.

Opposing star is through again. Five more points.

By the end of the half, you're stuck in a pile of rubble holding a hammer.

You need a backup plan. You want a backup plan.

Halftime is not the occasion to have to solve a major glitch like faulty strategy. It can be, and has effectively been utilized in the past to solve issues, but it's not a guarantee.

You should have that backup plan before you even step on the floor for a bout. You should have been practicing it over and over, so that when something doesn't work, you can quickly switch to plan B.

Having a few tricks in your back pocket is a good way to get yourself out of a jam (pun not intended, but certainly relevant).

But tricks won't win you the game.

You're team's bread and butter is the back wall mentioned above. You're really good at it, but maybe you've been working on something else like a 2-2 formation. 2-2s are common among teams. One pair of blockers manages the front, the other two are in the back. One operates mostly on defense while the other operates mostly on offense.

Practice 2-2 as much as you can. Learn why it works and why it might not. When is it most effective?

Knowing the ins and outs of a particularly strategy will help you recognize certain things on the track. Recognizing a strategy's weak links allows for creativity and development of counter strategies and how to make yours better.

It's hard to create a backup plan on the fly, but good coaches can do it. Such an ability requires experience, flexibility, creativity and control.

Most notably it requires the coach (or captain) to have a high level of communication, and trust from his/her players.

The learning curve at bouts is a giant bell shaped graph. It takes a few bouts to really get the swing of things and absorb what is going on around you.

Once you get past that, be ready to learn a whole lot about derby.

Here's a saw.

Take the time to learn what each "tool" (or strategy) is about. Don't automatically assume the strategy is broken if it doesn't work for you right away.

New strategies take focus and lots of practice. Certain tools will be more effective in certain situations.

Never take a knife to a gun fight.

High level teams have plenty of tools in their arsenal and can switch gears almost mid-jam. Lower level teams can usually do one or two things really well. The gray area between them is filled with experience, learning and practice.

State of Derby Journalism

I started fivepointgrandslam.com to combine two of my favorite things in life: Roller derby and journalism.

The playing field of derby journalists could be summed up as either derby enthusiasts who knew little about actual journalism and the journalists who happened to find their way into derby.

The first group -- while not limited to them -- primarily focus on bout recaps without telling much of a story. They use little setup, minimal narrative and almost no quotes. Part of journalism is to tell someone else's story, not simply rehash events for your readers.

The second group is guilty of conflict of interest 9 times out of 10. Several journalists-saved-by-derby have written many an article on their league or bouts, and don't disclose that they're on the team.

In a way, these problems are systemic save a few examples. On the local level newspapers continue to struggle between derby's athletic DIY attitudes and its sordid past of flying butt blocks and showmanship of the 1970s. The only way a league might get coverage is if a member writes the article or they might have a friend who works for a local media outlet.

Yes, sadly, this limits one's exposure to the local populace. At least online alternatives exist for the standard roller derby fan.

Personal and team blogs help local fans keep up to date with their local leagues and possible events. The inclusion of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, help get the word out almost instantaneous (given, that your casual fans don't follow the blogs).

On a national level, the Big Two of covering bouts, points and standings would include Derby News Network and Derby Tron. For the numbers based mathlete and stats fan, there really isn't anything much better than Derby Tron, which takes a comprehensive look at 107 teams (currently) and numbers them from the best to the worst based on comprehensive statistics. Their scorebox is usually pretty up to date.

DNN's numbers game boils down to stats and a Top 25 listing of WFTDA participating teams, which is great if you want to see who teams competing on a National (global?) playing field match up against each other. DNN also includes boutcasts of high level bouts, sometimes including audio and video of key matchups. It was one of the most reliable sites to watch live bouts from any place in the world with an Internet connection.

The folks at Derby News Network also write up bout previews and recaps, and Justice Feelgood Marshall's guidelines to writing bout recaps set a good standard to long form write-ups.

Still there's not a lot of diversity in terms of storytelling. Many of the recaps are straightforward and chronological, not inviting the readers in with quick quotes from the coaches, captains or key players.

Some of this is the nature of the sport – we're not used to talking to the media and we tend to be pretty quiet – while some of it is lack of experience getting people to talk.

For the print-quality on the national level, derby enthusiasts are limited to two magazines, Blood & Thunder and Five on Five. I've contributed to Five on Five in the past and I plan on writing for them again, but there's a reason. Blood & Thunder has a few columns from active derby participants and then the rest of the magazine is recaps that happened several months ago. If you weren't lucky enough to see them when they did happen, you've probably already heard the outcome or read the recaps.

This is the main danger with covering sports without an avenue of a daily media outlet – sports recaps become stale, giving urgency to finding new ways to tell the story. What Blood & Thunder does excel at is photography. It's photos are usually big and crisp, getting us directly involved in the action we might have otherwise missed at home watching the bout online or up in the stands in the back row. If B&T would play more to its strengths and learn to find the players with the stories the magazine would quickly become the Sports Illustrated of derby.

Five on Five works on covering the different angles that happen in derby, each quarter covering new and diverse topics. This WFTDA-produced magazine takes key topics and works them into articles to help leagues and skaters become better. Since it avoids the recap-problems of Blood & Thunder, Five on Five is less handcuffed with making things timely and can focus on other points of interest.

The advent of e-readers and tablets I think there's room for derby journalism to grow and prosper, but the DIY attitude is still there. Just like MySpace and that social-networking sites aid helping derby itself grow, the continued evolution of print and web products geared toward derby journalism will continue to strive.

Web stats - July 2011

July was a big month for us here at fivepointgrandslam.com, as we reached a Web hits record of 424 for the month of July. The previous record was 379, set in November 2010, mostly riding on my post about skaters using their real names in roller derby.


So far the big thing that helps push the Web hits up include the labels/tags, Google searches and quality of posts. I'm hoping to finish up a few key posts this week or next to help boost August's numbers a bit.


Hits     Month
424    July 2011

168    June 2011

317     May 2011

146    April 2011

222    March 2011

182    February 2011

098    January 2011

121    December 2010

379    November 2010

190    October 2010

050    September 2010