Ties not limited to Father's Day

In September 23, 1908, Fred Merkle committed a base running error when his teammate crossed home plate for the winning run for the New York Giants. The crowd stormed the outfield. Convinced the game was over, Merkle, who was heading to second base on a Al Bridwell single, turned around and headed for the club house. The Chicago Cubs recognized Merkle had never touched second base and scoured the area for the baseball, even tackling a Giants fan for the trophy. Long story short, the Cubs retrieved the ball, tagged second, and recorded the out, negating the winning run.

In all the hoopla, the game ended in a rarity for the sport of baseball, a tie.

The National Hockey League eliminated ties in the 2005-06 season, ruling that games would end in a shootout after a five-minute 4-on-4 overtime period. Prior to the ruling, teams earned 2 points in the standing for wins, and 1 point for a tie. Currently, any team losing in the overtime period or shootout is awarded 1 point for an overtime loss.

The National Football League currently records 17 games ending in a tie, the most recent between Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals who played to 13-13 on Nov. 16, 2008.

Historically, they don't occur often. Roller derby, or more specifically the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, has particular guidelines to ensure that games do not end in a tie.

That changed on June 16, 2012, during a contest between Windy City and Minnesota. While the scoreboard at the end of the game showed Minnesota the victor by a 160-155 margin, further scrutiny of the score showed the point total should have ended 155-155. The game and its outcome are currently under review by WFTDA.

You can watch the bout, available at YouTube.

The game remained incredibly tight throughout the 60 minutes.

In a game in its amateur stages, roller derby doesn't have the luxuries afforded professional athletic competitions, namely the backing of an independent officiating organization.

Derby's DIY attitude unfortunately extends to the referee and non-skating officials, as each league is customarily sharing talent when they bout. The home and away teams each bring in their own talent to staff bouts.

Thankfully, with WFTDA's recent addition of a leveled certification for NSOs and it's already rigorous referee certification process, the sport is slowly transitioning into a uniform standard. Most tournaments are staffed via a head referee and head NSO selected talents from an applicant pool.

I'm not sure how the MINN-WCR bout was staffed, but I'm assuming it's through the former process of a shared talent pool.

The problem with any system is that mistakes are made. The problem with derby is that there's so much uncertainty to be translated by a small set of eyes.

Points in most other sports are easy to spot: The ball goes in the hoop, the puck goes in the net and the guy with the ball crosses into the end zone. Points are clearly assigned based upon an event in which very little interpretation is necessary.

In roller derby, the jammer scores the points by legally passing blockers as she skates in bounds. Points require a jam referee to be watching his/her jammer while accumulating information from several sources.
-An outside pack referee relaying a penalty or No Pass No Penalty inside
- An inside pack referee relays Out of Play penalties so a jam ref can appropriately determine pass/point
- The penalty box may hold ghost points

Even after points are awarded, the officials may find that points were Awarded in Error, and must take them away or that the jam referee missed a point in the box.

Or worse, there could be a math error or a mistake between the score sheets and the scoreboard.

Lots of things could happen. And they do happen. Mistakes are made. It's unfortunate that a bout had to be "called" if even unofficial in error and now the outcome is left up to WFTDA.

I'm not sure how the situation would resolve, but if it is found to be a tie, then I think the teams should have to skate in a makeup game. Regardless, Minnesota certainly proved it deserves to be at the top of the North Central Region.

LINKS
http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/2012/06/13_minnesota_4_windy_city_play_stalemate
http://www.windycityrollers.com/wcr-and-mnrg-all-stars-play-exceptionally-close-bout/
The last six minutes from fan video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQ74mOTaCM

Bout day

Today I head to Peoria with a couple of the Quad-City Rollers for a bout. It's one of the few travel bouts we have this schedule, which makes me sad because travel bouts are the same level of fun without all the anxiety and work on our part.

We have a really good relationship with Peoria, and it's always a pleasure to watch them improve more and more. We get a chance to show them how much we've improved since the last time we played them, albeit shorthanded.

I think we're skating with nine skaters tonight to their 13, so it'll definitely be interesting to see the outcome. Plus of those 9 skaters we have one or two fresh meat players, so the edge of experience will likely go to Peoria's favor. Here's to our endurance and ability to gel together as a team.

***

The Chicago Bruise Brothers make their official debut tonight against Green Bay's men's team, so I'm sorry I'm going to miss watching Justice Feelgood Marshall on the track live on DNN. Oh, the irony.

***

Our sisters to the West, Old Capital City Roller Girls play Des Moines Derby Dames tonight in WFTDA action tonight. I'm looking forward to hearing the results from that game after getting the news that Showstopper will be pulling the plug on her career after a recent injury. Plus, Iowa City is such a swell league.

***

Wednesday was the first time I ever got to use Gumball toestops. I recently spent several months with simply jam plugs in to force myself to learn to plow stop and hockey stop. After a round of jam reffing I decided that toe stops were in order to not get left in the dust from quick jammer starts. And finally after having gifted two other sets of toestops to skaters, I purchased another set (short stems) and put them in.

I'm still not overly comfortable running on them, but they're pretty amazing when suicide stops are necessary. :D Maybe one of these days I'll actually get comfortable enough to run with 'em.

***

Our vets have been scrimmaging with the junior league in preparation for their big tournament in a few weeks. They'll play their first bout against another team in Des Moines, so some of them are a little nervous. The juniors had only scrimmaged with themselves up to this point.

And while we aren't allowed to hit them (don't touch the minors), they have full permission to use us for target practice, essentially making us heavy bags on wheels.

It's amazing to watch their little minds soak up all the derby, as they're constantly learning. Hopefully playing against adults will give them a huge learning curve when they play other juniors.

I have to get ready for the road trip. Ciao.

Gatekeepers-NYSE Final jam

Without the benefit of a rolling game clock or seeing the scoreboard in general, we have to establish a few things. For all intents and purposes, this is the last jam of the game. The St. Louis Gatekeepers have a15 point lead against New York Stock Exchange. NYSE is skating with the 3-1 pack advantage with both jammers in play. They choose to take knee down start to optimize the amount of time Jammer Jonathon R can score against St. Louis' Batwing.


The Jam officially starts at 0:23 into the video and the Jammers are released on the No Pack call. Jonathon R gets to the front of the pack and around the lone Gatekeepers defender for lead jammer, while Batwing gets stuck behind a 3-wall. Jonathon R earns Lead Jammer at 0:32 in the video. Batwin escapes the pack but is called for a penalty at 0:42, less than 19 seconds after the jam is started. Again, we don't have the benefit of seeing all the action, so I'm speculating that it was initiating contact in the air, a Misconduct, setting a Power Jam in motion for New York. In the meantime, a Gatekeeper blocker returns to play from the penalty box, but not before Jonathon R earns an easy 5 points at 0:48.


At 0:53 NYSE's No. 2 makes a distinct motion that looks like it could have been called for Destruction of the Pack, but again we can't see the proximity (or lack of it properly). Both teams do make an attempt at forming the pack/keeping the pack formation. At 0:58 Jonathon R hits the pack for his second scoring pass, just as NYSE blocker No. 42(??) initiates a block against a Gatekeeper blocker, and proceeds to suicide stop as the two Gatekeeper blockers skate forward to block Jonathon R. A Gatekeeper blocker comes out of the penalty box and is instantly trapped by a NYSE three-wall putting the two lead St. Louis blockers out of play. Jonathon R earns another 5 points. At some at about 1:05 a whistle is blown for what I'm assuming was a Major (maybe for Destroying the Pack) against an NYSE blocker, as Gatekeepers now have a 3-2 pack advantage.


At 1:10, NYSE No. 2 initiates a legal block with the assist of 42, who then pulls him back, just as Jonathon R hits the pack. This action illegally creates a No Pack situation (i.e. Destroying the Pack) as JR addresses the St. Louis three-wall at the top of the pack. At 1:13, a whistle is blown and a referee issues a Destruction of the Pack penalty to NYSE. Jonathon earns another 5 points at 1:17 into the video.


The camera gets a little ahead of the action at 1:19 and we can't see everything but there does look to be effort on the part of the Gatekeepers to maintain a pack. But they get a little spread out and JR earns another five points.


The fourth Gatekeepers blocker returns to the track at 1:26 into the video, ahead of JR, and tries to initiate a block just as he enters the engagement zone, but allows the NYSE jammer to shuffle by. JR hits the pack and gets stuffed by a STL three-wall at 1:33 and again the camera is a little ahead of the action. A NYSE blocker delays getting on the track just a fellow blocker is exiting for a penalty, intentionally preventing a pack from forming. JR pushes through some more than passive Gatekeepers blocking, drawing some Out of Play Blocking penalties against St. Louis at 1:37. JR finally exits the pack, thusly scoring another 5 points, and a NYSE blocker is distinctly seen at the back of the track not making an attempt to reform the pack.


JR hits the pack again at 1:52, with what looks like one lone NYSE blocker taking the slow, outside line, letting his jammer try to draw the 2 remaining Gatekeepers Out of Play. At about 1:54 an NYSE blocker exits the penalty box, skates what looks to be against the legal direction making intentional contact with a STL blocker to push him out of the way to free JR. The referees I believe call the offending NY blocker on the penalty, as another Stock Exchange blocker returns to play from the penalty box.


The call from the mike is that Bat Wing returns to the track 2:04 into the video just as JR springs through for another 5 point score pass and calls the jam off.


This is going to be one of the videos that skaters and refs will scrutinize over for a few months, as there were multiple times a No Pack situation was created both legally and illegally. NYSE definitely used the rules to their advantage (or more to the disadvantage of the Gatekeepers) and manipulated gameplay enough to eek out a victory.


In the words of Conan the Vegetarian, this is why we can't have nice things.

Web hits for April 2012

Thanks to a well-times blog on Wild Cherry's departure from Gotham to Atlanta, fivepointgrandslam.com saw some tremendous traffic, barely surpassing the previous hit record set in September.


In April 2012, the site picked up 523 hits, 7 more than the September 2011 hit total. After a bit of a lapse (and lack of good posts) after Regional/Championship season, I'm starting to pick up the blogging again.


Hopefully we'll have a few more posts for this month and we'll soon be heading into the summer seasons.


April 2012 - 523 hits
March 2012 - 273 hits
February 2012 - 170 hits
January 2012 - 211 hits
December 2011 - 229 hits
November 2011 - 445 hits
October 2011 - 328 hits
September 2011 - 516 hits

Transfer news - Gotham's Wild Cherri transfers to Atlanta

Cheri "Wild Cherri" Kresge will transfer back to the South Central Region, joining the Atlanta Rollergirls after a season playing for Gotham . 


"My love life takes me there," Kresge said. "I really wish I didn't have to leave Gotham. They were an amazing team to work with. Gotham is my N.Y. family  - the closest friends I have up here. I'm going to miss all of them."


Kresge was a part of the Gotham's 2011 Women's Flat Track Derby Association championship team, winning first place during Continental Divide and Conquer, the WFTDA's championship tournament, in Denver, Colorado.


Atlanta currently sits fourth in the WFTDA South Central standings and ranked 30th in the world on DerbyTron.com. Atlanta finished fourth in the WFTDA South Central 2011 tournament Show Me Der-B-Q in Kansas City, Mo.


"With the Atlanta Rollergirls, I hope I find a happy derby home and I plan to sit put for awhile," Kresge said. "I will be trying out for the travel team and hope to help build a collection of Ws going into regionals this year." 


Atlanta is 1-1 for the WFTDA 2012 season. Atlanta defeated Maine 181 to 114 on Feb. 18, 2012, but lost to Nashville 166 to 136 on March 24, 2012.

Fun with derby geometry

PROXIMITY: Ask a skater to define proximity, and you might get a strange look on her face. Ask her to stand on the pivot line on the inside of in-bounds and a partner can be on the outside line, then ask her how much distance is between the two skaters. Watch her head explode when you say zero feet.

The pivot line is 13 feet wide, the difference between the inside curve distance of 12.5 feet and the outside curve distance offset by the 1 foot variance (26.5 feet minus 1 feet = 25.5 feet) 25.5 minus 12.5 gets you the 13 feet. So between the two players, there's approximately more than 10 or 11 feet.

However when defining proximity, skaters who occupy the same 90 degree plane actually have zero distance between them. This is important to remember when defining packs, because two lines of skaters occupying the inside and outside of the playing field would essentially have no space between them.

The Red Pivot and the Green Pivot have zero distance between them in regards to proximity. As long as the Red Pivot and the Green Pivot remained the designated pack, the Red Blocker would have to maintain proximity to be considered part of the pack, or at least within 20 feet of the pack to remain in the engagement zone.

It's a fairly simple concept, but it can take a lot of work explaining to someone that there is actually zero distance between two players. You could be 11 feet apart on the 90 degree plane, but you might as well be touching each other.

This comes up more from a reffing perspective than a player perspective, because the Pack Refs are defining packs based on proximity and it doesn't take much to change the dynamic of that proximity.

This is also helpful to skaters who are using a slow, deliberate strategy to keep the pack pace slow. By maintaining proximity to another skater, you are still making an effort to maintain the pack, even if she is on the inside and you are on the outside.

FORWARD PROGRESSION: I see this happen a lot, and we've been victimized by skaters unaware that they may be crossing the jammer line during knee-down starts.

Remember knee down starts are utilized to create No Pack designation upon the Pack whistle. With the evolution of derby the persistent use of the knee down start is becoming more prevalent, and skaters are picking up Illegal Procedure penalties for lining up Out of Position.

The main explanation of this came down after Windy City's use of a strategy sometimes referred to as Spiral Staircase, Golden Spiral, etc. Essentially the Windy City blockers were trying to get their jammer through quickly, so they utilized a form of the Killbox, but lined up behind the jammer line - taking full advantage of the rule below.

Skaters who line up behind the jammer line are considered Out of Play as a result of "leaving" the front of the pack. This is because Game Play happens from the Jammer Line and progresses counter-clockwise. See the diagram at left. The Red Blocker behind the jam line is considered Out of Play - False Start upon the Pack Whistle, which is simply a minor. 

This is a good way to pick up an intentional Fourth Minor. However, if the minor is in error and it's not the fourth the skater is ruled to have left the pack from the front of the pack, not from behind. If the Red Blocker were to skate forward to rejoin the pack, she would be issued an Illegal Procedure Major for Illegal Return/Re-Entry.

Since the Spiral strategy became wildly popular, Women's Flat Track Derby Association issued a couple of rulings:

1.  If at the start of the jam a Blocker is touching on or behind the Jammer line, she is considered to be out of position ahead of the pivot line and has committed an Illegal Procedure False Start minor penalty. 

2. It is required that the majority of on the track Pivot Blockers and Blockers from each team begin in this pre-jam positioning.

These two publications help illustrate why it's important to make sure skaters line up in front of the jammer line, not on the line, and also why you want to make sure most of your skaters are In Position prior the the Pack Whistle.

 

Learning a little more about sport psychology

We had the pleasure of hosting a Bonnie D. Stroir bootcamp at our home venue on Wednesday. Bonnie was kind enough to come in, give the Quad-City Rollers some personal pointers for an hour and then turned around and give a skills bootcamp to invited leagues for three more hours.

I definitely recommend any coach/skater to take training sessions from the big names. I learned so many little things I never would have picked up from just watching and practicing. If you get an opportunity to go to bootcamps, RollerCon or invite a guest coach in, I'd recommend doing your research on them and if they have the qualifications, then get to it.

As a coach, you have to keep an open mind about different philosophies and strategies. The last half-hour was reserved for Bonnie discussing various ways to solve emotion/mental fatigue and keeping everything positive.

I institute a quiet bench each time I coach, which helps me focus and makes it easier for the skaters on the track to hear if I have to bark some quick instructions, i.e. telling a jammer to call it. Bonnie's advice went even further: Don't shit where you eat. Essentially, your bench area should be a "safe" zone for you to come back to and be able focus your energy, not a place to come back to and bitch about calls, non-calls, whatever. One it wastes your energy, and plus it can affect other skaters. I've had this happen in the past when a skater comes back to the bench and blows up. Everyone's attitude heads south and a coach has a harder time getting everyone focused. Get it all out before you get to the bench so you can refocus.

The other philosophy that I loved and hadn't really considered was the idea of not watching the bout from a bench. Bonnie mentioned studies about athletes who actively participate in a sport and another group who just watched a film of their sport. Both groups registered muscle and mental activity in the same locations, effectively proving that you spend the same amount of energy watching as playing. By not watching the bout from the bench, a skater saves that energy for when she actually does need to skate.

Her formula went something like this: If you play every other jam and watch the jams you're not in, a skater is essentially spending twice the energy she would need to. A skater who doesn't watch the jams she is in, spends half the energy of the first skater, and has that much energy at the end of the game.

A jammer who only plays every four jams (and doesn't watch) would only use one-fourth the energy of a player who played and watched all the jams.

Last night we optimized the quiet bench and the don't watch policy and I think it went amazing. Our team was so composed throughout the game despite some pretty serious offenses from both sides.

I talked with a few of our skaters afterward, and they said they felt great - even after a very hard fought bout. It's amazing how much a few little pieces help out in the long run.