Ranking Derby Teams

As the European roller derby scene grows and the skill levels of the top teams increase, the WFTDA rankings are sure to become a more and more important indicator, especially as success in those rankings will be a ticket to a whole new level of game play i.e. the championship games.

Roller derby as a sport is going through a period of metamorphosis during which both international organisations as well as national associations are trying to find their own place. Even the WFTDA rules are in competition with other roller derby rule sets but at least we can say that the teams that play under the WFTDA or MRDA rules have one thing in common: the rules. Each derby team has a different season and different culture. Some leagues play interleague bouts whereas others organize big tournaments or competitive tours. One thing we know for sure is that everyone wants to be the best. But how do we measure this?

Considering that not all leagues and teams, that play under the WFTDA and MRDA rules, are members of the international governing body and that mixed teams don’t even have the option of becoming members, it is difficult to determine how to rank these teams and especially how to compare the skill levels of the European all-star teams with their American counterparts. The answer is to develop a ranking-system based on bouts that the teams play. But because bouts are still arranged only occasionally and rather irregularly, the teams don’t necessarily fully know their opponents level and thus bouts may end up being pretty unequal matched. Therefore, the ranking system can’t just be based on the score difference. It is also important that the rankings also support the teams in picking their opponents. As a result, various ranking-lists have sprung up based on different formulas and it seems each one of them has something to offer. Some listings don’t compare the number of bouts won to the number of bouts played whereas some have split teams into different divisions, which don’t really reflect reality. At the moment, it seems a lot of people are talking about WFTDA’s new, division-based ranking system that also affects the seeding of WFTDA member leagues i.e. how the tournament places in the championships are distributed. As a result of the teams being split into different divisions, many teams are unwilling to play any opponents ranked lower than them because a surprise victory would mean a big drop in rankings. For example, this means that it doesn’t make sense for the London Rollergirls’ all-star team to play at all in Europe because LRG is ranked far above any other European leagues. So why have such a ranking system?

Mathematics instead of geography

The teams in the WFTDA championships have so far been selected on the basis of the leagues’ geographical location and playoff tournaments in North America. Until now, the playoffs regions were Eastern USA, Western USA as well as North Central and South Central USA and, at the WFTDA tournament in each region, 10 teams competed for three places at the championships, which are arranged every autumn. The regional split will still remain as there aren’t sufficiently many European member leagues competing at the top level to justify setting up a separate Europe-region. The teams from outside USA will compete in the region that they are geographically closest to, for example the European teams would belong in the Eastern region. After the geographical split was set up and up until 2013, WFTDA used voting-based rankings, which took into account the bouts each team played over the course of the year, to determine the placing of teams within a particular region. During 2013, the fully mathematical Competitive Division System stepped into play with the hopes of some day getting totally rid of the geography-based system.

Skating On A Motivational Roller Coaster

Do you remember why you wanted to try out and start roller derby? Are your reasons for playing still the same? Reasons tend to change quite drastically, in correlation with your development as a skater and team player. Knowing and understanding what your driving force in playing roller derby is key to understanding your motivation.
 

Channelling my motivation correctly in roller derby has been a bittersweet challenge from the start. It has gotten easier over the years and I'm happy to finally be able to say that I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. The major contributing factor has been all the feedback, comments and actions from my league mates. Another was questioning myself and my motives; why do I do this? I still ask myself that question all the time, thus I can keep my motivation pure and in check.

The foundation for your motivation lies in understanding it and recognizing its changes. The more you are aware of it the better you will be able to manage any decreases and further increase your motivation.

Types of motivation

There are two main categories of motivation in sports; internal or intrinsic, and external or extrinsic.

Intrinsic is characterized by the pure interest, enjoyment and ability to participate despite any unfavourable conditions.

E.g.: you love to practice, you promptly want to know any rule changes, you want to learn how your skates and gear operate, you are always trying to improve or develop your skating technique and strategic skills, you are able to stay motivated even when you are facing hard times, you love competing at any level and mostly with yourself.

Extrinsic is characterized by outside rewards and benefits such as recognition and prizes, self-imposed guilt and anxiety, and the need for better rewards to keep up motivation.

E.g.: you are training only to get on a team, you want to achieve recognition or an award after a bout, you want praise within the league, you hope to gain attention for being a 'derby girl', you only attend practice to avoid feeling guilty about yourself.

A third form of motivation is known as amotivation. Which is characterized by the lack of interest in the training process or outcome. Feelings of incompetence are often present and there is also a disconnection between behaviour and the desired outcome. Players who do not address amotivation promptly are likely to drop out.

Did you recognize yourself in any of the aforementioned examples? Fear not if you think you're categorized as a certain type of athlete. Motivational behaviour has a tendency to change over time and it is possible to possess all types of motivation at various times. Learn to develop and use different motivations to your advantage. It is normal that your motivation will keep on changing from time to time, taking the odd plunge every once in a while. But there are ways to overcome that.

Here is a structural example and tips on how I learned to identify and deal with my motivation.

Measuring motivation 

If you keep a training diary make a mark or write about your motivation level after every practice and bout.  Keep a simple scale measurement i.e. 1-5, and shortly described what might have contributed to it. When you notice a drop in your motivation level recognise what is causing it. 

Causes in motivational changes

There are a number of different reasons to changes in motivation, anything can be the cause. Such as not getting enough sleep, low fitness level, confidence issues, health issues, poor diet, major life changes, not passing your minimum skills, not making the team cut, major injuries, lack of time management, etc. There are as many reasons as there are players. Once you have pinpointed the reasons behind it try to assess if you have any control over the causes.

Addressing motivational changes

Once you have recognized the issues causing changes in your motivation, try to address those issues accordingly if you want to maintain a good level in your motivation. Focus on situations that you can control. If there are reasons beyond your control, either forget about them or give yourself permission and take time to readjust where needed. The first and foremost issues which I have complete control over is getting enough rest, eating well, cross training, and taking care of my body. When it comes to motivation and playing roller derby those go a long way. 

Maintaining motivation

Once you are aware of reasons behind motivational change think about your short or long term goals and consider if they need readjusting. Tell yourself where you want to be and what you want to achieve and in what time frame. Then focus on the nitty-gritty at practice, not on your goal. Be always mindful of where you want improvement and try to work on it when you can. Learn some self-discipline to get rid of any bad habits that conflict with your improvement. Never compare yourself to other athletes, strive to be better tomorrow than what you were yesterday.  Let go of failures after you’ve learned from them.

Increasing motivation

The more you learn, the better you will skate, thus your motivation will increase. Talk to your team mates, and coaches about your plans and ask for feedback and any tips on how to become better. Focus on simple tasks and breakdowns of techniques and skills which you are set out to learn. Tackle things that you find difficult to master, and learn them with patience. Surround yourself with highly motivated people as their energy will rub off on you. Learn to do things that are way out of your comfort zone, you will eventually master them comfortably. Sometimes we all need to take a day or two off to live life and it is ok to do that. Taking a short break will most likely increase your motivation.

Motivation is an ongoing roller coaster ride and at times it has made me ponder whether it is worth all the ups and downs. I came to the conclusion that every motivational low I have experienced over the years has been worth it. No matter how bad I felt, getting back up from a low is a learning process, and it feels great once you have gone through it. Every time I feel that I become a better person, skater and team player, and end up having much more fun.

Go be the best you can, and even better!!!

Adelle #3:33

Open borders for Roller Derby

Being a member of a sports federation would greatly benefit the development of Finnish roller derby as a whole.  However, the prevailing foundation of federations and associations is Finland is so solid and old fashioned that it will take time and persistence to break through it.

Difficulties booking practice time at local sports halls since traditional sports take up the best practice times? Complaints of marks left on the floor and a ban on using tape to mark the track? Constant questions on what kind of sport it is and whether bats and balls are used? This is what a roller derby aficionado typically keeps hearing.

The situation is quite understandable since derby is, regardless of its continuous growth, a fairly unknown sport to the general public and also to administrators who decide on practice times. However, times are changing. Last autumn an umbrella organization for Finnish roller derby called Roller Derby Finland ry (RDF) was founded and they are working extra hard on improving derby’s position in societal debate. The aim is to gain a sturdier foundation for derby within the core of the sporting world.

RDF is currently undergoing negotiations with the Finnish Skating Association on whether roller derby could be a part of their range of sports. However, discussions with the Skating Associations Managing Director Sauli Pollari and with the different committees have been going for a long while now and have taken up a tremendous amount of time over the years, says RDF chairman Raisa Siivola.

Being a member of a  sports federation has been an aspiration for Finnish roller derby ever since it took its first steps. It all comes down to nothing less than the Olympics.

Who dictates the rules?

- The International Federation of Roller Sports has approached roller derby organizations with interest, keeping an eye out for the 2020 summer Olympics demonstration sports, Raisa Siivola says.

- Everyone is of course excited about it. Question is, which ruleset would be used.

Derby is played around the world with many different rules. In Europe, bouts are played according to the WFTDA's (Women's Flat Track Derby Association) rule set, which is also widely used in North America. In the US, however, there is also another influential association  USARS (USA Roller Sports), which has its own set of derby rules.

- The rules, which will be selected to the Olympic range of sports, define what rules the game will be played to in the future – thus the worst case scenario would be that the USARS rules might overrun all others, Siivola explains.

- WFTDA is a kind of a driving force for modern roller derby. Its members are associations and sports clubs, and it has been created to oversee that the primary decision-making power will always be in the hands of its members. USARS co-operates with businesses, and roller derby is just a roller sport for them.

Siivola points out that WFTDA updates and supplements their rules all the time.

- It reflects expertise and passion for the development of the sport. In addition, WFTDA seems to make a genuine effort to understand the varied field within sports club activities in Europe.

Thus RDF wants derby to be played with the WFTDA rules on both Olympic and international levels. And the Skating Association is the only party in Finland that has contacts in the matter with the decisive European umbrella organization, the International Federation of Roller Sports or FIRS (Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports).

Therefore RDF is so persistently aiming to become a part of the Skating Association's range of sports.

- When national sports federations have enough derby clubs in their league portfolios, FIRS will have to unify and formalize the derby rules used by its members. Naturally, RDF, as well as all the other national parties want in on this discussion, Siivola says.

Roller derby - not just for those who skate

The only documented time I've been on skates.

I am one of those rare people who got into roller derby without the desire to skate. My depth perception is 50 shades of fucked up - I rarely catch any objects thrown my way, I stumble down the stairs weekly, I'll never be allowed to drive a car, I've more than once accidentally biked straight into a wall because I didn't realize the wall was there. So putting me on roller skates and making me hit people, not the best of ideas. But I was living in a small town, I was utterly bored, and needed a project, so naturally I jumped on the chance when my friends headed over to Helsinki Roller Derby open skate on a cold Sunday in March, 2012. The very next week we started our own league, and I was elected as the president.


What followed was 4 months of filling out forms, opening up bank accounts, trying to find practice spaces, recruiting new people, starting Facebook groups, and just generally trying to make everything work. While I was busy being an enabler, the others were learning the basic skills, squeeling over their brand new skates, and coming up with far too punny derby names which would later down the road be toned down to names we could actually pronounce. I was there too, in that 200m2 hall, every single practice, watching and taking notes, and roughly 4 months in, I started coaching.

I'd read what felt like every single roller derby blog on the internet, and watched every single derby drill video on YouTube, I'd taken 2 notebooks worth of notes, and as much as I thought I did, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I had never coached anyone in my life, I was one of the least athletic people I knew, but suddenly I had 15 people paying attention to me, trusting I knew what I was doing. And so I took on that role. I whistled, shouted, instructed, gave feedback, and saw progress. I read books about coaching, and against my own odds, actually got a hang of what I was doing.

At times I found myself mentally exhausted. I was constantly surrounded by people who were learning something new and exciting on skates. They were speeding around the track, they were getting oh-so-cool bruises, jumping the apex. They got to feel like flying. I was there, standing in the middle, not quite belonging. I couldn't share the excitement. I felt inadept as a coach - what right did I have telling anyone what to do, correcting them, when I couldn't do any of that myself? Yet I kept at it, practice after practice, because I didn't have anything else to do either.

The day I fell in love with bench coaching.

It took me more or less a year to come to terms with being a non-skater in derby world. It wasn't until I got properly excited about bench coaching that I felt truly at home. I realised that I actually had something important to give quadless, something I could learn and get better at myself. I could challenge myself, I had a role in roller derby that was for me. I wasn't there just to help others anymore, though granted that's exactly what I am training myself to do.

On game days, whether it be a full bout or a mixed scrimmage with 10 players and 4 referees, that's when I come alive. I don't need quads and a mouth guard to play the game. I'm not a jammer, but I can still make points. I don't get to hit anyone, but I still play the other team. With every scrimmage and bout I grow, and I find new opponents - my own team, the opposing team, the referees, the non-skating officials, the clock, myself. It's a never-ending process and I'm enjoying every moment, making up for all those moments I spent feeling sorry for myself.


Sure, I still don't feel like flying, but man, I do get the high.

// Anna Miettinen

A Shock On The Rise: Jonathan R.

"Play roller derby, be the best, and do it with class!"

Jonathan R., the father and Captain of one of the best men's roller derby teams, New York Shock Exchange (NYSE), poses a serious threat to the Finnish model of a male athlete. This agile, hard-as-nails, strategic player combines artistic roller skating and American football to men's roller derby and is known as the ”Flying Squirrel”.

Finnish "merby" is coming together little by little. It took its first steps in December 2012 when The Sons Of Peaches (TSOP), a team of referees who wanted to try playing, took on a similar Scandinavian ref team The Peaches. The bout was such a mayhem that it can only be explained by the (over)excitement of the guys to be on the actual track instead of the outlines of it. After the dust had settled from this historical prologue to Finnish male derby, Tampere decided to go ahead and put together the first competitive men's roller derby team in the country and challenged TSOP to do the same. This finally led to founding a Team Finland for the World Championships of Men's Roller Derby, which will be held in the spring of 2014.

Like women's roller derby in Finland, the male version is also a bit behind from its American cousin. Men's Roller Derby Association (MRDA) was founded in the US in 2007 and today they have 31 member leagues, of which 28 are based in the States, one in Canada and two in the UK. MRDA hosts their own Championships for the fourth time this year. Jonathan R. was there to see the growth of merby behind the great water, namely in New York. Since its birth in 2007, NYSE has worked its way to the top of men's roller derby leagues in the world. 

Photo: Quick Draw Sports Photography

Jonathan, as the Primus Motor, you probably have the best angle to look at the league's development over the years. NYSE surely is bigger and better, but is it different from the early days?
- The New York Shock Exchange charges forward with the same goals it had on day one; play roller derby, be the best, and do it with class. We fostered a strong sense of brotherhood right from the get go. I am proud to say that as we have grown, we carry on that spirit. Practice is as fun as it ever was.

NYSE won the first MDC Championships in 2010, as well as the second edition (under MRDA) in 2011, but last year you were left outside of the final bout between Your Mom Men's Derby (Des Moines, IA) and St. Louis. How are the rates of the Shock Exchange going to look in the final tournament in Sioux City in October?
- Our goal is to win the championship; simple as that. The competition is super intense. Every team on its way to the MRDA Championship is a huge threat.

So how are you going to pave your way to get there?
- We always hold practice. We had it the day after the all-star team won the MRDA Championship. It is what we like to do; work to get better and play roller derby. We took our big trip to England so, instead of attending any invitational events in May, we are focused on our bouts against Your Mom  in June, St. Louis GateKeepers in July, Central Mass Maelstrom in August, and the Mohawk Valley Cup in August. It looks like we may get another high profile game in as well.

Let's talk about European derby… You came to play Southern Discomfort last year and your victory was crushing. How do you think Southern Discomfort will succeed this season in the big boys league? How do you see American roller derby in general, compared to European?
- I think Southern Discomfort will do well. They could very well be knocking on the door for an invitation to Sioux City in October. The big difference between the US and European roller derby is experience. Many of the teams remind me of where the Shock Exchange was about three years ago. They are learning fast, training to be competitors, and sharpening up their game instincts.

Keeping track since 2010

We love roller derby.

Roller derby brought us together, and now we're sharing the love. Finnish derby scene is active, interesting, and constantly evolving, and we want you to know all about it! So if that's what you want as well, you're in the right place.

Back in 2010, a bunch of local roller derby enthusiasts started KARU - an online magazine with a focus on roller derby, and now we're making it international, interactive and easily accessible, baby. We've got people translating the previously published stories, writing new content and sharing their passion.

We're only just getting started, so be patient with us. Once we get things rolling (oh do mind the pun!), you'll get new contents weekly, with topics ranging from Team Finland to bout reports, practice vibes and everything in between. The writers include skaters, coaches, volunteers and officials from all over Finland.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, KARU is Finnish and means raw. The name is an acronym of the Finnish words katu (street), asenne (attitude), roller derby, and unelma (dream).

AM

KARU 2/2013

Uusi KARU on ilmestynyt!