The Roller Derby Revival: What is Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby?

Roller Derby has been around forever. Well, not forever-forever. The first forms of derby started by Chicago rink owners on both flat and banked tracks, with a noticeable lack of contact. The actual term Roller Derby was used to describe these endurance based events by the Chicago Tribune in as early as 1922.

The WFTDA (Women’s Flat Track Derby Association) was founded in 2004 in a rebirth of the popular televised sport of Roller Derby which soared in popularity in with movies like The Fireball (1950), Unholy Rollers (1972), and Rollerball (1975) and entertaining events aired on television.

Roller Derby is a full contact team sport, with three main positions including; blocker, pivot, and jammer. Each game consists of five players per team, three blockers, one pivot and one jammer. The teams score points by getting their jammer through the “pack” of opposing blockers and lapping the other team. For every one player passed from the other team, the jammer passing them earns one point for her team.

• What’s a Blocker?
  A blocker is a Roller Derby player whose job on the track is to actually block the other team’s jammer from getting pass them; and help her jammer get passed the pack. Blockers can block and knock down both each other and jammers.

• What’s the Jammer?
  A jammer is the player with a star on her helmet. Jammers start behind the pack and go on the second whistle. Jammers are usually fast and tough, pushing their way pass walls made of opposing blockers and dealing with the people trying to knock them down. If a Jammer is pushed or falls out of bounds they are “recycled” to behind the blocker or pivot that put them out.

• What’s a Pivot?
  The player wearing a stripe on her helmet is the pivot. The pivot starts as a blocker but can be handed the star by the jammer to take over as the team’s jammer. Usually used if the jammer cannot get passed the pack while the pivot is open.

These rules and titles are the same for Flat Track and Banked derby, and true for both men’s and women’s derby. While both are popular, the flat version is one of the fastest growing sports in the world due to it being able to be played on any flat roller rink and doesn’t require a banked track.

• Roller Derby games are called “bouts” and consist of two thirty minute halves. They are made up of plays called “jams” that are two minutes long. These are when jammers can score points. The pack of blockers takes off skating counter-clockwise in the oval-like circle on the first whistle while jammers start skating on the second. The jammer will try to pass the pack and if successful become lead jammer, the referee with make an L shape with his or her hand and point toward this player to signal their status of lead jammer.

Being lead jammer gives that player the power to call off that jam at any time by rapidly tapping her hands to her hips. The typical play goes as follows; the jammer will break through, become lead jammer and lap the pack, calling off the jam before the opposing team’s jammer can catch up.

Player’s who hit someone too hard or grab onto something they aren’t allowed to end up in the penalty box. If a jammer is placed in the penalty box during a jam, it becomes a “power jam” where the remaining jammer is the only one able to score and therefore leaves the team with the jammer in the box as purely defensive. If that jammer then gets a penalty, the first will be released and the second will only serve the remaining time of the first.

Roller Derby offers a sport for those who usually won’t play one. Amateur leagues foster friendship and fun, where everyone is welcomed to come and enjoy the sport of derby. While women’s derby is the more popular of the two, men’s derby is also growing! Player’s cite the fun, carefree atmosphere as the reason they love their hobby.