A Parent’s Brief Foray into Roller Derby Officiating

 BONJOUR!

What follows is an open letter I sent to my fellow parents of the 2023 Team Canada Jr roller derby players.  Did I mention I am the parent of a Team Canada Jr roller derby player?  Y'all, the last blog post here is EIGHT YEARS ago.  

Things have happened.

If you are curious about said Team Canada Jr roller derby player, my dottir of many names, you can find:
Rennie's Instagram here
Buy my Team Canada Jr skater a croissant here  

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This open letter was written For Parents by A Parent, to facilitate understanding of the roles of officials in derby, and address some questions and comments I have received while officiating junior games over the past six months of preparation.  

For myself, I have been officiating on and off since 2012-ish (you can check the archives here, it probably has that information) and became much more intentional in 2019 when dottir Rennie was rostered on the 2020 Team Canada Jr.  I thought it would be lovely to be able to earn my keep as I accompanied Rennie to Worlds.  

As it all happened, 2020 was cancelled, and now 2023 is here and Rennie and I are both off to France to participate in the Junior World Cup July 28-30.  Rennie as a player and myself as an official.  

But here is the open letter now, for those parents, grandparents, assorted family and friends who will be watching their loved one compete in a sport on an international stage they barely are cognizant of before a couple months ago.  Roller derby is a strategically and tactically wild ride and very much about the skaters.  We do not make it easy for spectators.  Perhaps this can shine a little light on what the heck the referees are doing.

DISCLAIMER BEFORE THE DISCLAIMER: I am leaving the original letter more or less as I wrote it in May 2023, it is a document that exists in a certain time and towards a particular audience, and I reserve the right to change my mind, realize and clarify mistakes and to double down on any opinion I may have expressed below.  Who knows how I will feel in a year, but for now, this seems like a reasonable and instructional document.  Thank you for joining me here.  

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What follows is an introductory discussion of how roller derby referees go about officiating a game of roller derby.   This is not about roller derby rules per se, but how officials see the game and the role they play, given from the perspective of a parent who is also a referee, junior coach and player.  The goal is to clarify the game structure and officiating for parents* of skaters and share the foundation of game structure and the enforcement of fair game play.  Please note that these are my words and understanding and not in any endorsed by WFTDA or JRDA.  If you stridently disagree with anything here, you can definitely let me know – one time, with respect – but this is my personal reflections shared for educational purposes and the final say on absolutely nothing.   

It is a very good idea for all parents alongside their young athletes to familiarize themselves with the rulebook and, equally important, the casebook.  Not every aspect of the rules will be of equal importance to know as a player and as someone who supports that player, but look around and get to know the language and structure of the rules.  Review in small portions at a time but make it regular part of the roller derby experience.  Travelling to derby is one excellent time to crack open the casebook and read through a couple of examples. 

First thing to know is that roller derby is an ever – and rapidly – changing sport.  Roller Derby of 2010ish, when I attended my first practice, had a spirit that feels similar to today in its grassroots, community minded inclusivity but also so different in that it had strong ties to counter culture and distinctly appreciative of the more performative aspects.  See the primacy of nom de guerres, or tough/saucy derby names.  In 2010, all defense was one-on-one.  There were no walls, never mind tripod defense. It was skate fast and take wild swings at each other.  Rockabilly, fishnets, and knee socks were only just starting to slip away as the primary aesthetic of roller derby but the afterparty was still the main thing.  There was plenty of athleticism and passion for the sport but, admittedly, it wasn’t a very good place for junior skaters.

Since then, roller derby has gone through a terrific number of gameplay and rules evolutions, become smarter, more skilled, more strategic.  Still plenty of tattoos and derby names, but as skaters and parents we are proud to bring our children to derby, to feel like we are a positive influence on young athletes.  Roller derby as a sport exists with a core value of inclusion and growth, which reflects in its changing rule sets and culture.  We have grown to not just recognize the intrinsic power and skills the youth are bringing, but to value them as equal participants in the evolution of the sport.  In fact, the youth are now leading the direction roller derby is taking.
     

In that spirit, JRDA rules are WFTDA rules plus a little bit more.  Over the past two decades, the WFTDA rules have changed from being a punitive system of ‘Do This, Don’t Do That’ to officiating being ‘Impact’ based.  I would like to talk more about what impact means to officials in a moment.  But first, a brief overview of the structure of a level 3 game (being a discussion with Team Canada parents, it’s best to stay focused here).  

Over all, it’s very good to remember that officials are there to oversee the framework of the game, the flow and ensure that it happens fairly, with safety and respect to all involved.  Skating officials and NSOs define the game time, the start and end, keep the time, the score, see that both teams are abiding by the rules of roller derby.  Officials mind the flow of the game and time, the personal safety and dignity of all involved.  There are many aspects to officiating, but we will be focusing today on the most visible and probably, misunderstood, part of a referee’s job: issuing penalties. 

In particular any game there are, ideally, seven skating officials.  Each jammer on track has a personal JAM REFEREE companion that follows them about counting points (again, penalties are only one task amongst many), two INSIDE PACK REFEREES that define the pack structure and observe the game from inside and three OUTSIDE PACK REFEREES (who supply the inside and jam refs with information and oversee gameplay on the far side of the track where inside officials cannot see).  Each referee has tasks singular to their position and view the game from a specific point of view.  Any ref can make any call (mostly) but they are positioned as such that they better suited to see some types of actions (and infractions) better than others.  This means teamwork and consistent standards between refs is important, since they have to rely on one another to monitor the entire game.   Officials use systems of communication between each other both standardized by the rules calls, verbal cues, whistles, hand signals and more informal systems of gestures, sharing quick words and, sometimes, meaningful glances.            

Before a ref will call penalty, they will be reasonably confident that they saw the beginning, middle and end of the action.  Putting a skater in the box, particularly a jammer, can change a game and officials need to be certain that a penalty is warranted.  An action that an official does not feel they have enough information about can have their working information supplemented by another official who did have eyes on the action.  By the nature of the game, however, referees do not often have time to have a consultation with one another over thousands of physical player interactions that take place over the course of a single game.  Obviously, there will be some actions that will have more impact on the game than others, and these ones are important for coaches and players to consider – did the action take place over a length of track, was the action rotational or happened towards the center of the track, with bodies potentially obscuring the view from any single official?  This is one good use of an official review, in that it brings the officials together to discuss what they witnessed, and the piecing together of a complex action may might be done.  At that point the action can be assessed for legality and if any penalty (or removal of a penalty) is warranted. 

If you see a zebra huddle right after a big action, especially an injury, you can be reasonably sure they are checking with each other to ensure they are in agreeance in what happened.  Any penalties determined to be relevant will be issued at that point, before the next jam begins. 

A quick note about penalties issued between jams: a referee will not blow a whistle to issue an early or late hit, or a call coming in after the four whistles.  The penalty whistle would confuse and disrupt the game flow.  Typically, the official will get a skater’s attention, verbalize colour, number and penalty with accompanying hand signals.  Skater will need to report to the box immediately. 

Penalties basically come in three flavours:

Illegal contact:
either by blocking an illegal contact zone like the back or lower leg, or by using an illegal blocking zone like the lower leg or forearm.  Also includes multiplayers or being out of play, out of bounds when contact is made.  Basically, somebody did something physically that affected fair game play.  JRDA further binds contact with skill-based levelled play.   

Illegal procedure:
an area where advantage is gained outside of the game boundaries, including the physical track boundary (such as cut tracks) and the dynamic boundaries and structures like the pack (which changes continuously but with it, literally, roller derby cannot happen), the number and types of players on the track and time.  This includes breaking the pack, failing to make a pack when there is none, being in the wrong spot when the jam starts (false start, not in bounds) and anything that interferes with the game flow.** 

Unsporting Conduct:
or misconduct, in which the safety and respect of all participants in the game (includes skaters, bench staff, officials, volunteers and spectators – basically anybody in the venue) is taken into consideration.  These penalties do not need to done with intention, such as often an insubordination call when a player fails to leave the track directly and immediately when issued a penalty (resulting in a whole minute in the box).  Other penalties include that which come from contact that is considered unexpected and/or especially hazardous in roller derby, such as leaping contact (example, the apex jump into opposing players***), or aggressive, threatening or hostile language directed towards an individual or generally considered to lack respect for the sport.  JRDA rules are very clear that disrespectful behavior from non-player participants is included here and can result in penalized skaters.   Check the JRDA Code of Conduct for specifics, as it is applicable to all in attendance including spectators.  Some spectator behaviors normalized in other sports is not acceptable at JRDA events (this includes profanity and cheering that includes directives to harm other skaters, such as Get Them, Hit Them, and the such.

Penalties are mainly called by referees but a Non-Skating Official penalty box manager can issue a misconduct to a skater who enter the box in an unsafe manner, putting box officials in danger or distracting them from effectively performing their job.

 

Considering Impact: Is it actually a penalty?
I am going to narrow the discussion down to contact penalties for the moment, since this is an area that seems to generate the most confusion during the game as to why penalties are Not issued.  First, contact to an illegal target zone or with an illegal blocking zone not in itself cause enough to result in a penalty.  The existence of forearms touching opposing players and moments where players have linked their arms are not singularly to be judged as something to important enough to send a player to the box.  The illegal action must have Impact on the game.  A quick imperfect guideline is, was the illegal action successful?  Did it have an impact in the game?   

Impact is not just sort of a personal judgement by officials, the criteria is defined as illegal contact that puts an opponent significantly off balance, out of bounds, changes their direction or speed, OR allows the skater who made contact to stay in bounds or upright when they would have gone out or down otherwise (think grabbing an opposing player’s jersey to stop oneself from falling).
 

Impact assessment does not stop at the players involved in the initial action however, it also includes any teammate who gained advantage through the use of an illegal action. 

There are some very good examples of this in the casebook and all of this is best clarified by in person discussion.  In writing right now I could either go on for days or just summarize by saying: read the casebook.  OR, if the timing is right, ask a ref.

Discretion/Metrics
Although Impact as a criteria has a defined meaning, referee discretion is an important part of modern officiating.  It is an ongoing discussion and by no means an uncontroversial one (there are other roller derby organizations with different rulesets that do not allow impact to be a factor), but with the WFTDA asks that an illegal action be impactful before being penalized (with some safety exceptions) and is up to the official’s assessment if Impact was observed.  There is much to talk about here and I would be happy to discuss in person, but generally the main thrust is for officials to educate themselves and other officials, and gain tons of experience, on the use of discretion on whether to call a penalty in favour of allowing gameplay to flow as smoothly as possible. 

Refs back in the day were discouraged from studying strategy, thinking that not seeing the intention more objective, but the opposite is true now.  Refs are encouraged to go to practices, study the sport, understand the strategies the teams are attempting.  This greater depth of understandings allows them to focus on the appropriate areas and better understand what they are looking at.  A brilliant thing is Not making a call on a player using their upper arms (legal blocking zone), for instance, even though their forearm (illegal blocking zone) is close to the action.  Roller derby continues to progress this way, when officials do not automatically penalize novel strategies and techniques.  This doesn’t mean that refs gloss over illegal actions, it means that sufficient impact needs to be observed because over penalizing normal roller derby action and constantly sending players to the box for illegal actions that do not overly affect the game is not desirable.  Officials allow roller derby to happen, they do not attempt to overly control or penalize it. 

Which is to bring up yet another important aspect to being a referee, and especially working with other referees, is that each official has their own Metric for deciding what is roller derby and what is not.  For instance, inside pack refs - who define the pack - it’s easy to see when an official has a spongier metric than one who uses a tighter one.  Since the action cannot be stopped to bring a tape measure out and the pack measured, each individual official has their best understanding of how far 10 feet is and that is their personal metric.  The important thing for the players involved is that the metric applied by the official is consistent so they can make adjustments within any single game and feel that it is being applied to both teams equally.  Personal metrics exist for all referees, because human, and the best attempts at fairness and consistency is made.

Who are these refs anyway?
For crews that are made up of refs from different places, and do not work with each other all the time, these individual metrics will be a point of verbal discussion and exploration amongst each other before and during the game.  The idea is for all officials to bring their own personal metric to be closer to medium of the whole crew so there is an overall consistency.

For worlds, the crews will remain together throughout the event, so that they can get to know each other, learn each other’s communications, and tighten up their own crew metric and understanding.  The crew being consistent and confident in each other is important for your tournament organizers and the head officials involved.  In fact, the crews are already introduced to one another, and are sharing personal information about their credentials and, most importantly, pictures of their pets.  Much thought and intention is being given to the officiating at worlds, all the planning, discussions, training, preparation that can be done.  The skaters will be in the best hands possible.      

Which brings us to the official who actually has and firmly upholds a very different understanding of an aspect of the game than the rest of the crew.  Sometimes officials are wrong about something and it is appropriate to question it.  However, adjustments are not as simple as telling an official to do it different.  Small variations in metrics or even incorrect calls may not be noticed by officials because of the different positioning and distinctive areas of responsibility.  In a high level game, if I the ref am busy trying to monitor another official’s performance, I stand a chance of not taking care of my job, thereby compounding a situation and putting players at additional risk.  By the nature of the game, someone outside of the working officiating crew may need to notice what is happening and there is standard and respectful protocols for doing so.  Officials are aware that they make mistakes despite best efforts, because human, and they are highly attuned to the fact that that their actions are under great scrutiny.  Trust me, we are given performance reviews often.  Official reviews, the 30 seconds between jams, the captain’s meetings before, middle and end of game are all opportunities teams have to bring up officiating concerns.  Some games are lucky enough to have an alternate official who can observe the overall officiating and gameplay and bring specific issues, better seen from outside, to the working officials.   

Before I leave this section, I just want to point out one more aspect of the unique viewpoint and impact that is not immediately evident to spectators or players.  While the audience sees what is happening of course, the proximity to the action is important to be able to help define who started it and where it landed.   Bodies are better doors than windows, and the line between a clean hit and a back block is not easily defined sometimes, even among officials.  Or there is another body in the action behind that is obscured from the front.  The errant skate that causes a fall.  It takes a good view clear view and officials spend a lot of time making sure they are in the right place to see the contact.  Which does not mean the outside viewer is wrong, just that there may be more factors in play that is hidden from them. 

Late calls 
A penalty can be issued at any point during the jam and up until the start of the next jam, which means the call being made might not be directly connected to action taking place.  That is a frustrating situation for a skater and an official can help clarify understanding by adding ‘late call’ to their verbal call, but that does not always happen.  Why a penalty may come late has a variety of reasons, sometimes official need a moment to put it together, not wanting to make kneejerk calls or they needed a moment to check with another ref to be fully confident on the call.  The game allows officials to take that time if they require.  Sometimes players do novel things that take time to process.  Sometimes a player makes a move so brazen and wild that an official can doubt their own reality.  Did that just happen?!  These skaters are so very skilled and powerful.  They do amazing things and innovate on the spot.  It is far better to give the officials the time to check their understanding than to demand they make a decision immediately.  Fewer penalties, better roller derby. 

Which is to say that officials put much thought, training, experience and a heavy feeling of responsibility to make sure things are safe, fair, and enjoyable.  I encourage all spectators, coaches and parents of skaters to also make a habit of also engaging in that reflective process, especially when speaking to junior athletes about their games, and criticisms of the officiating is made.  I do hope everyone (except the officials) gets to cheer and yell during a game.  This is supposed to be fun. Questioning and analyzing the officiating is part of it.  Respectfully. 

Refs are and should be open to scrutiny, they are not above critique, they make mistakes, they sometimes make bad calls, or they have a bad day.  Feedback to officials is a regular and necessary part of the game structure for just this reason.  It’s also true that some errors can not be fixed in a single game and may take some time after, officiating education.  Just as no one skater shows up on the first day knowing everything, same for officials.  With patience and understanding we can keep games moving, keep everyone safe, gaining experience, and have continue to evolve this sport.                    

 

On a similar vein, refs have much they can speak on about the game and have valuable unique insight into skater’s gameplay.  If any skater has questions, they can approach an official after the game and ask questions.  At this stage, I encourage going through or with the coaches to approach an official.  An official in stripes has some structure protocols of behavior so do not be offput by seemingly distant language, but all officials are there because they LOVE this sport and want to support the skaters.  They are there making gameplay safe and fair and no official operates with intention to frustrate or punish a skater.  There may be a disagreement on the specifics of a skill or play, but that is conversation that goes both ways. 

Myself and other parent/officials will be available this Calgary weekend to field questions and discusses whatever.  We are friendly people who have seen things.  If anyone likes we can set a formal time for a Q and A and address the million or so things I decided to omit because this was long enough, or just go ahead whenever and ask. We will make time.

As parents, we are highly invested in the success of these specific skaters and the Canadian teams, obviously, and feeling frustrated or confused with officiating is not a good use of anyone’s time and energy.  I also think that the more one understands about the game - the structures, rules, what the ref signals mean - the more enjoyable spectating is.  Knowing how the refs work will help everyone focus on what actually matters: the athletes and cheering them on. 

-Mal
 

   * A ‘parent’ here is meant to be any parent, guardian, junior coach or influential adult in a junior skater’s life that will be speaking in a meaningful sense with the skater about a game.

**Sometimes, such as when a team simply fails to show up at the start of the jam, no one specific skater can be deemed responsible, so the team captain will serve a penalty as a blocker for the team.  JRDA also has some modifications here, allowing level one skaters accommodations regarding pack definition, recognizing that skill level and avoiding contact is an important criteria for levelled play.      

***All these potentials are penalized with the same 30 seconds in the box, but some penalties can be elevated into an expulsion (being removed from the game) if they are deemed especially dangerous or unsporting.  The one I see most often is an apex or straipex jump that makes uninitiated contact with an opponent’s illegal target zone (head, feet, back), meaning the skater’s jump resulted in contact with an opposing skater that did not move into their position during the jump (indicating that they were not intending to initiate contact or block the jumper).  The contact does not need to have knocked down the skater as leaping contact is considered unsporting (rules say a skate must be on the ground to initiate contact) and impacts to heads and back are considered dangerous.  The safety of all skaters is of upmost importance.  Please know that no expulsion happens without a discussion with the officials and the head referee is the only one who can make the final call.  This is an excellent area to spend some times looking at the rules and chatting informally with officials about, as not wanting to punish apex jumping – a beloved aspect of our sport – but also needing to consider safety is an ongoing discussion at large.