Starting to “Do The Thing,” “The Thing” is Roller Derby Officiating: Lessons from the Track

On the left, in the stripes. That's me, just a few months into officiating. The game is likely in Elmyra NY, Dolls of Destruction vs. Suquehanna Valley Derby Vixens.

Wait - there’s officials in roller derby? 

I hear it all the time. And you’re probably thinking it, if not saying it. 

My canned spiel is: “Yes, there are approximately 20 officials per game, on skates and off. Officials time penalties, keep score, keep lineup and stats info, and then there are the on-skates ones who assess contact, count and share points, and keep people together.” 

Ok, with that out of the way: yes. There are officials. There are lots of officials, and it’s exhilarating. Each position has its own challenges and focus. I started as a skating official, but I’ve been gaining more and more skills as a non-skating official. 

So how did you start?

I went to a game, I liked it.

However, I didn’t want people to hit me, thanks to a combination of not-great health insurance and having already had my knee repaired twice. 

So when my local league announced they were starting a new-skater class, I went to that too. And wow…. 

I started 6 weeks of intense skating skill lessons - speed, agility… JUMPING! And then I was pulled out after week 3 by the league’s head ref because “officials don’t need to learn contact.” 

I don’t necessarily agree with that in my ancient experience (officials really should learn how to not be surprised by incidental contact). But my less-than-one-month-self didn’t argue and at that point I jumped into learning the 60 pages of rules… When are points scored? When hips pass. 

What is out-of-bounds? Anything not in-bounds. 

What is in-bounds? Is it the tape that we use as the track border? (yes)

And then within 2 months…. A game needed an outside pack ref. I was asked to fill the spot. 

Now, I was just a beginning referee and a beginning l&d professional, so just trust that I was overwhelmed. How was I going to actually officiate?! 

I knew the whistles. I vaguely knew the rules. And I wasn’t completely without practice: during skater practices and drills, I would skate along and practice officiating. I could somewhat identify a few of the penalties. Maybe.

There wasn’t a course that issued a badge or certificate allowing me to fill in this position. There was just need and the general hope, trust, and crossed fingers that I wouldn’t make things worse than if I wasn’t staffed at all. 

I did it. I didn’t call any penalties. (I didn’t call any penalties for my first 4 games). I was horribly out of position. I had only mastered one way of stopping. And mastered is giving my plow stop a lot of credit. 

And this brings me back to one of my consistent thoughts as I work with new officials, now that I’ve got significantly more L&D experience: 

How do we prepare someone for real-world performance when eventually, the only way to get better is to actually do the thing?