Boot Camp Blues
Page 15
SKATER POSITIONS
Jammer
The jammer wears a helmet cover with a star and is the only player who can score points. To score points, a jammer must break through the pack once and sprint around the track. A jammer scores a point for every opponent she passes on her subsequent passes through the pack.
Lead Jammer
The lead jammer is the first jammer to break through the pack and pass all the opposing blockers and pivot. The lead jammer may choose, at a strategic time, to call off the jam to prevent the opposing jammer from scoring. She does this by putting her hands on her hips.
Pivot
The pivot acts as a pacesetter for the team and is designated by a striped helmet. The pivot calls out plays and provides guidance for the rest of the team. The pivot typically stays in front of the blockers.
Blocker
Each team has three blockers on the track. The blockers play both offensive and defensive roles. They help their jammer get through the pack, while trying to prevent the opposing jammer from getting through.
PENALTIES
There are many rules in the sport of roller derby, enforced by referees and non-skating officials (NSOs). If a skater commits a major penalty, she is sent to the penalty box, also known as the sin bin, for sixty seconds. If a jammer is sent to the penalty box, the opposing team’s jammer scores a point for the missing player if she passes through the pack. If both jammers are sent to the penalty box, the first jammer is released as soon as the second jammer reaches the box.
Offences resulting in a major penalty include:
Tripping an opposing player
Back blocking
Using elbows to the chest or face
Swearing at another skater or referee
Blocking twenty feet ahead or behind the pack
Deliberately falling in front of another player
Grabbing, pulling or pushing an opposing player
HISTORY OF ROLLER DERBY
Roller derby was first played in the 1930s and quickly evolved into a popular spectator sport, thanks to staged crashes and collisions. By 1940 it was watched by about five million spectators, but by the 1970s the sport had faded into obscurity. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a roller derby revival began in Austin, Texas and soon spread to many other cities and countries.
Modern roller derby has focused on athleticism rather than showmanship. It is the fastest-growing sport in America, and is under consideration to become an Olympic sport at the 2020 games!
Other titles from the Roller Girls series – Falling Hard
After Annie Turner’s parents split up, she thought moving to the USA with her dad would be an exciting new start. But she’s struggling to fit in. For a start, the most popular girl at school hates her! Things finally begin to look up when Annie discovers the wild sport of roller derby and a whole underground scene she’d never even known existed. And then there’s Tyler, a green-eyed football player who literally makes Annie want to drool in public...
Is Annie tough enough to make it as a roller girl?
Hell’s Belles
Annie Turner’s roller derby team, the Liberty Belles, is finally on a winning streak. Full of confidence, the girls plan a Halloween bout with the High Rollers, their tough and cheeky arch-rivals. There’ll be costumes, gruesome make-up and plenty of trash talk to look forward to. But when Annie’s crush asks her to a Halloween dance on the same night, she finds herself torn between her girls and her man.
Will Annie’s first American Halloween turn out to be more ‘trick’ than ‘treat’?
In a Jam
Life couldn’t be better for Annie Turner. Not only is she going out with the dreamiest boy she’s ever met, but her roller derby team is riding high in the league. But OF COURSE, just when things seem to be working out, it all starts falling apart. Annie gets left on the bench at a big bout, her best friend can’t stand her boyfriend and her mum wants her to quit the team!
Will Annie listen to her heart? And what is it saying, anyway?
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