I am back in the CERS for my third and last stay. Like last time, I was asked to do a presentation of my sport in order to make the patients discover new disciplines. But this time, I had taken the time to structure it and make a powerpoint.
The presentation dealt with roller derby and slalom skating and how/where they are situated in the French skating scene. I am sharing it here... Note: most of the facts are simplified to be clearer, I know that some details given below are not exact but the main point is to make laypeople get acquainted.
CONTEXTUALIZATION
The French Federation of Roller Sports
The French Federation of Roller Sports
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| www.ffrs.asso.fr |
The FFRS is divided into commissions and committees (depending on the number of members) in which there are sub-categories/disciplines, for which there may be several types of competitions.
Here is a simplified list, with the types of skates related to the various practices:
- Fitness Skating Commission
For street and country skates...
- Artistic Skating Committee
With inline or quad skates - Another derived discipline called Jam Skating (urban/club dancing) could be put in this section although it is not part of the Federation.
- Hockey Committees
- RILH Roller Inline Hockey
- Rink Hockey, on quad skates
- Skateboard Commission
Includes various downhill disciplines - longboard, skating, luge...
- Speed Skating Commission
- Roller Derby entered the commission as a brand-new sub-category last year!
- Freestyle Skating Committee
- Aggressive Skating: Street, Park, Bowl, Ramp...
- Freeskating: Skatecross, Free jump, Slides...
- Roller Soccer
- Slalom Skating: Speed and Freestyle.
CLOSE-UP: FLAT TRACK ROLLER DERBY
- EQUIPMENT
Roller derby is played on quad skates.
The players have pads from their heads to their toes: helmet, mouthguard, wrist guards, elbow and knee pads are compulsory.
The players have pads from their heads to their toes: helmet, mouthguard, wrist guards, elbow and knee pads are compulsory.
- AREA
Roller derby is played on a 7.6*18.3m flat track, which is slightly smaller than a volley ball court. The band is 3m wide.
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| Track: 7.6*18.3 |
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| Volley ball court: 9*18 |
- HISTORY
Check out that history by Oklahoma city RD and that concise history video from Hell on Wheels.
START... It all started with Leo Seltzer in Chicago in the 1930's. At first, it is only a basic endurance race covering insane distances on a flat track. The concept is soon completed with contact and hits as fighting increased audience figures. Roller derby becomes more and more popular.
UP... Despite a regression due to WW2, roller derby rises from the ashes by the end of the 1940's with 40.000 skaters and three broadcasts per week on TV in the US. Profit sharing to the players, annual contracts... the skaters, men and women, are professional athletes.
DOWN... As soon as the 1960's, rumours are spread that the games are predetermined and despite a huge popularity, roller derby is on the decline. The last game is played in 1973.
BACK... Austin, Texas, 2001. Roller derby is back. No more choreographies, it is more authentic, modern, and almost only feminine. Contacts and rules are more coherent and respected.
Note: I hit on a very sad and heartbreaking documentary explaining the initial reasons of the first races: After the 1929 crisis, people were so broke that marathon competitions (dancing, walking, skating) lasting thousands of hours were organized. They would take part, and sometimes litteraly die from exhaustion, to win food and shelter for the night... Rich people found it "entertaining" (sic.).
I like to show the trailer of "Whip it" (2010) at that point of the presentation.
Although it is not genuine --especially on the game parts (but in the end, they are pretty close to what used to happen before the revival), it is an illustration of the atmosphere. It is a good before/after compromise. And what would popularize better the subject than an american comedy to make laypeople understand the idea of it?
- TODAY... AIM AND CONCEPT
A bout (game) is made of 2 periods of 30 min each.
Each period is divided into jams (shifts) of maximum 2 min.
A jam gathers 5 players of each team on the track: 4 blockers and 1 jammer (point-getter). Each team is made of 14 players. The players switch in-between two jams.
The blockers make a pack (scrum) which the jammers have to skate through. Each opposite player passed = 1 point.
The blockers are simultaneously attacking and defending.
The first jammer to pass the pack becomes "lead jammer" and can stop the jam whenever she wants. The jammers score points from the second pass on.
"The names are the only thing we kept (...)
now they are real athletes practicing a legitimate sport
and training hard together"
- CONTACTS
Here are the contact zones:
A few random pictures of various hits/blocks situations are welcome here...
Same for various situations the jammers have to deal with (juking, passing, taking hits, getting back up...)
- PENALTIES
Here are a few examples that will cost you a minute out of the track:
- High block: contact above the shoulders
- Low block: contact below mid-thighs
- Back block: contact in the back
- Elbow: contact with the elbow
- Blocking with the head
- Multiplayer block: holding (with) a team mate to prevent an opposite player from passing
- Skating out of bounds
- Crossing: re-entering the track in front of the player who pushed you out of bounds
A well-known recap video...
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- LOOKS
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| 2011-2012 Season |
We also choose our own numbers.
Most people are heavily tattooed and/or pierced and have weird hair cuts and colors.
When you mix all that, you get interesting strange things. Welcome to derby!
This is a non-exhaustive explanation. I am aware that thousands of presentations already exist and that this one is not perfect, but I tried to browse the major key-threads of the discipline: equipment, history, concept and rules, sport vs. show... for total strangers to get a first idea of it!
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