JUMP AROUND

As a referee I've come across many awkward skating situations dodging skaters and refs alike. In my personal opinion (and one that doesn't like doing things I enjoy in half measures) referee's level of skating ability needs to be AS good as any bouting skaters PLUS skills specific to the refereeing role.

These areas may include (But aren't limited to):

- Jumping
- FAST get ups, may include rolling.
- Stopping and turning: while facing track/pack in whichever role (Inside/outside)
- Ducking
- Finding gaps to get through.
- Speed skating (OPR's should know what I'm talking about)
- Peripheral vision development
- Taking hits/knocks and maintaining skating.
- Being able to control yourself and other while skating past.

As such I put a little video together to help referee's and skaters alike to us all jump 'better', higher, further and with more confidence, to be good skaters, avoiding injuries and allowing us to perform at our best.

Hope it helps, I hope to cover more areas soon, so subscribe, share and favourite if you fancy.

The GingerDread Man

April - June: Don't let 'stuff' get in the way.

Been a while as ever with writing the break has come from LOTS going on, we'll just stick with calling 'it' "Stuff". This post is more of a perspective share and exploration so bear with me, forgive any poor analogies.

- Moving, work, deadlines, relationships, friends, enemies, confidence, doubt, gossip, bills, fatigue, overload, family problems, applications, finances, tiredness, 'I really should wash my smelly pads', new wheel envy,  etc; etc....

I'm not saying the above are bad, but they most certainly can or will contribute 'load' to the limited supply of 'computing power'* you have while refereeing. Certain situations in life WILL arise and will have to take priority in your brain-space. (*By 'computing power' I mean your capacity, your mental availability to perform a specific task, affecting your ability to perform it well.)

Sport and reffing isn't easy

Doing things well require, to name a just a few key elements: attention, energy, awareness, focus, sensitivity (and much more).

There's always a supply of 'stuff' floating around, we all have lives, but as a referee, as someone who's 'job' it is to not be wrong, to be the line, to be calm, to be facilitating and patient.... Stuff can obscure your view of these qualities, making some unreachable for the time being.

This could also easily be true of playing. Your 'job' as a skating player is to stop opposing points, facilitating team points, supporting your team in fast, constantly changing situations and scenarios, to communicate clearly and quickly, to remain calm, keep safe, play cleanly and to skate well. More and more 'stuff' reduces your reach of these qualities measure by measure, piece by piece.

If you can't do it, is it worth doing it this week?
Is it worth leaving with a negative experience at the moment?
Could you do with the break to put your focus where it's needed to pick up the other stuff later?

Be honest with yourself. Know your limits and give yourself what you need to do the job well. If you can't because of external factors, get THOSE things done then come back to focus on the game etc. You'll be a better ref, skater, official, etc etc for it; knowing yourself allows you to be better used in your team.

Over the last few months, things had been building and I'd tried to keep doing it all of it still, when in reality and in hindsight, it was too much. My refereeing and in turn, my confidence and motivation suffered for it. Less time to prepare, less time to read, less time to explore the rules further, less time to train; resulting in a poor environment to perform.

Sometimes doing 'a good job' will require more than you've got in your 'brain-space'. Accept it, recognise those times and take the necessary time to say 'no' to training/practice/reffing or the 'stuff' if needs be; where do your priorities need to lay?

Giving yourself 'a break' will maintain a consistent flow of ability/performance rather than BIG fluctuations in performance. This is often seen in f a great week followed by a terrible one due to your "stuff". Up's and downs are natural but your actions and choices can and will play a crucial role in your own personal development in training, whether that's skating or reffing or tiddly-winks.

Reffing is something I want to do and something I enjoy. The challenge, the skating and the whole 'noble art' of balance, reflection, action, reaction, problem solving and professionalism.

You can't have and continue everything at all times and to do it well, you have to accept that. You are limited, you are finite, you are or may struggling currently. See it and deal with the problem than "pushing through" and doing yourself, your crew or your team a disservice. They deserve you to be There; with them and not mentally elsewhere.

 When you have the chance and things slow down, then you can take the time to reassess why you do what you do and what environment do you need to be in to do it well, then create and/or facilitate it. That may just be the removal/completion or some of your "stuff".

In reflection, for my refereeing, in having the "Stuff" now out of the way and taking the time to reassess my wants and the game, I feel I've quickly regained the qualities needed for the role. I can now better maintain those qualities, facilitating good quality reffing, with "processing power" to boot in order to focus my 'spare' attention on improving, rather than not having the capacity to do so.

I'm asking questions, and inviting you into the discussion. What could you change? What needs to change for you to do your job better? Are you leaving with more positive than negative experiences? Be reflective and HAVE FUN, Sport is just a tool for your learning about who you are. :)

I'll leave you with a happy shiny ref pic from Sunday's training - Reffy happiness.

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/375641_10152877183985094_429268893_n.jpg

Gingerdread Man Out.

21st Feb: Experience is Everything.

A little late but I wanted to write about it nonetheless.

I was asked to help referee at a closed door event over the weekend. 2 of our league's newer refs, Emma and Jacqui drove me there and attended with me to observe and learn, as per their ongoing 'snow tiger' training.

Upon arrival to the venue I observed an "incident" in the car park which warranted a call to the police, but we headed promptly into the Sports Centre to put it behind us and prepare for the task at hand, finishing off a few discussions from our Roller-Derby-Test-O-Matic (EPIC FUN SITE CLICK HERE) testing on the entire car journey, and preparing for Referee duties.

Slowly players started arriving with a few referee's I've not had the pleasure of reffing with yet. 2 from Coventry, 2 from Surrey, Northampton and myself (Skating 1 Ref Short on the outside). I was down for Front IPR for the day and was looking forward to having the opportunity to further practice with the new rules. It was the first change for some of the refs to experience bout situations too so it could have gone either way.

The game got underway and played through reasonably well between both teams who are, to my knowledge, two relatively newer teams. There were a few mix ups in the penalty box from a newer NSO set up but nevertheless the game flowed reasonably well. The general feel from the get go, which was always explained was a casual set up to give both trams a chance to experience bout situation.

Around 10 Minutes in, the Centre manager needed to let me know the Police wanted to talk to me, so after the jam I went to see the Mr Policeman who needed to take a statement regarding the incident I saw and reported earlier. Luckily he was able to come and visit me post bout so after a few minutes, I rushed back in to re-assume my role as front IPR. Usually things like this can fluster me and throw my focus, but I felt I upped my game and remained composed and focused to get on with the rest of the 1st period. I hope that's the strangest thing I have to deal with mid bout, but then again, this is Derby so I can't rest easy.

After the break for fluids and feedback between refs, we got back on with the second period. Nothing too taxing in terms of gameplay, almost an expulsion for a player fouling out, and plenty of power jams to both teams, resulted in the game finishing with, I think, a 30 point difference.

All in all, it was a great chance to try new things as it was stated from this closed door's inception. The day allowed for a few Refs to loose their external game V-Cards in a casual environment, a chance for NSO's to try new things and practice and of course, for skaters from two teams to practice and play derby. Thanks for organising Rach!

What I've learned/realised over the weekend:

- I'm better at dealing with interruptions when I have to and making quick decent decisions
- Be observant throughout bout prep, ready to plug any gaps or issues as early as possible.
- Lucky and thankful to be a part of a league with a strong NSO Crew.
- Lucky to have been able to learn from and work with some great people from various leagues so early on.*

*(Notable thanks to Xavier Bacon (ongoing help and opportunities), Scream Winchester teaching me how to kit-check and saw T and I through my first closed door at Kent), Fu Man-Drew (Calmest man inside track), Stubble Entendre (Enthusiasm and ongoing support), Noise Tank (Flair, and support through closed doors), Scoot'er (Examples and opportunity for reffing my first open door), my own league and **refs** (T for being an awesome head of refs) and for the ridiculously lengthy discussions and all on UK Refs.

Thanks to all I've chatted with, wrestled rules with and who have lent ANY advice over the past year. It's greatly appreciated, I love Derby and I want to be a good referee first and foremost, and you're all helping me to do that, thank you.

Next bout I'll be at should be the Seaside Sirens vs Romsey Town Rollerbillies on the 9th of March, Titled ever so Essex-ly, Pie and Bash. There's going to be a STRONG ref crew and I'm sure the game's going to be a good'n.

25/1/2013 - LOW BLOCK!

Lets Kick things off shall we! (Did you see what I did there with the title? *toots whistle*)

I had to post something on this new blog as frankly, it looks ghastly to have nothing on it while I'm playing around with the layout and a plan of action.

Hello everyone and welcome all to my blog. I hope it will become a useful tool to aid me in documenting my derby experiences, to house my otherwise unshared or forgotten thoughts and to see what the world and interwebz thinks about it all. I aim to share things that I've found useful in the hope they'll be the same for you.

I am in no way intending this blog to be a source of sharing of, or flinging any Derby bickering. It's not in my nature and frankly, I want to stay out of as much of the 'politics' as possible, focusing simply on the my informal mantra of 'BE A GOOD REF'.

I will get a 'real' post up over the next few weeks and I honestly hope this blog serves you well in terms of another site to spend time reading through, comment upon, and help you in Derby in whichever way it may.

In a very brief review, 2012 was an overall challenging and changing year personally, but one in which Derby and Refereeing had become a real interest and perhaps obsession in some respects.... Daily clicking down the UK Refs discussion pages, imagining scenarios, flicking between rule areas, impulsive signals while watching derby games on the internet and coming up with all sorts of weird ways to try to improve in my weaker areas of refereeing.

In 2012 I re-learnt to skate, shadowed, read, struggled, overheated, travelled, made mistakes, made improvements, made great friends. Now, I'm lucky to have a 'solid-as-can-be' local ref crew with me as we try our best to help each other, striving to be the best we can, helping those we practice with to learn as much as we do every time we adorn the foot-wheels and Fox 40's.

The WFTDA finally released the new ruleset which brought mixed reactions from many including myself, but after wrestling with it and testing, I now feel I've got a reasonably healthy grasp of where the game is and how it looks and plays. I have my first few closed and open bouts of the year - under the new rules - coming up in February and March and look forward to refereeing with new and old faces from across the country.

Here's to hoping for a great year of Derby and many happy ref breakthroughs as the sport grows.

All players reading, I will be showing my gratitude for you all being a lovely bunch by shouting at you, having a referee "you're-dead-to-me" face, blowing whistles so loud they could deafen, and waving my arms around at you accordingly.