The WFTDA is on the edge of advancing the sport significantly in 2012. With rule changes that are likely to come, perhaps a new format to the regular season, and hopefully a continued increase in competitiveness of WFTDA teams. Of course, none of those things are guaranteed. It all depends on voters and a number of teams getting better. With that in mind, here are the nine things I want to see happen over the course of 2012.
1. Some movement on jam starts
Photo by Marc Lebryk
We know that the rulebook will be revised this season but what no one knows is what starts will look like after those revisions. 2011 was the year of the jammer line knee start. The playoffs were marred by excruciating games of the “you start” “no, you start” “no, you start” back and forth. Eventually culminating in blockers just taking a knee every jam. Did I mention that they took the knee at the jammer line with an inescapable four-wall for the jammer to slowly (agonizingly) push her way through? And by “four-wall” I mean “no impact” multi-player blocks. And by “push her way through” I mean “no impact” back blocks. Yeah, it’s a mess. A mess I want to see cleaned up immediately but I know we’re going to have to wait until late June (for some reason) to see any changes. As long as WFTDA voters do the right thing, though, and vote for change, I’ll be happy.
2. Minors get sent to the box
Photo by zizzybaloobah
My second favorite bout of all of 2011 was the Windy City/Charm City game at ECDX. Why do I have it so highly ranked? Because it was by far the most intense physical game played all year. The reason? There were no minors. The skaters were able to skate and block and hit and skate without accumulating ticky tack penalties that would unnecessarily send them to the box and hurt their team. Minors are a brickwall for roller derby. A wall between the sometimes constrained game we see now and a much more entertaining fluid game not hung up in the minutiae of minors. Not to mention that eliminating minors would reduce fan confusion considerably, reduce the number of non-skating officials needed, improve fan sight lines, increase the amount of time refs can watch for actually dangerous penalties, and allow for easier bench management. It’s a wonder why minors were ever put in the rulebook in the first place.
3. A revamped regular season without voters
It’s not that I dislike voters or think that they’re wrong all that often, it’s just that there’s no clear measure for what a team needs to do to make the playoffs. Some teams lose close to teams ranked ahead of them and skyrocket up the rankings while others do the same thing and drop. Some blowout weak competition and stay put while others jump into playoff contention. A structured regular season with the ground rules laid out for every team to understand is needed to make the regular season just as exciting as the playoffs. Most sports have an intensely interesting regular season. WFTDA…well…not so much. I can’t even think of the last time I watched a regular season game that was anything more than an exhibition. Putting out a new season structure starting in 2013 would be a huge step forward for the sport.
4. A tournament with more than derby nerds in attendance
It’s simple math, really. Casual fans aren’t going to tournaments because tickets aren’t priced for the casual fan. I have no doubt that host leagues have put on an all out blitz when it comes to marketing their Big 5 tournament. I also don’t doubt the WFTDA has done the same. Naptown seemed to get more than the average number of fans at Monumental Mayhem this year but they also normally draw 4,000. Tournament attendance has been less than stellar at pretty much every Big 5 tournament that’s ever been held, not because there is no interest, but because ticket prices make no sense.
Let’s do the math: the casual local fan doesn’t want to sit through any games that don’t involve their favorite team. So, the whole “well, you get 17 games for less than $5 each” isn’t really true. They’re interested in three games, max four. Let’s say you normally charge $16 for a double header. The casual fan is paying $8 per game. Now, let’s say they’re interested in going to watch the home team play their three games during a tournament. That’ll cost them $75 (assuming they’re not an early bird). That’s $25 per game. So, there you go, you’re charging 3x more for a tournament game than a regular season game. Even if you consider the $15 specials that some tournaments had for the local team’s games, that’s still almost double what you normally charge.
How often do you go out and pay three times more than you normally do for something? The tickets are priced right for derby nerds and fans of opposing teams traveling to the event. Not for local fans. Local fans should get a discount either with a regular season ticket or at a regular season game. $20 for the weekend. $10 for a day. That’s a price that local fans will pay.
5. Rules revisions process gets revised
I already discussed this in depth in October but it bears repeating. Waiting two years for rules revisions and then releasing those revisions a couple months before playoffs is mind boggling. It makes no sense. I get that it takes a lot of resources to get the gears turning on the rules revision process and WFTDA is pretty much exclusively run by volunteers. It’s an argument, not a very good one, but it’s an argument. New rules should be released in January. That gives two months after championships to work everything out. Plenty of time. It also gives teams a full season to adapt to the new rules rather than one or two games before they have to lace up their skates for playoffs. The offseason is when you make changes. And, do it every year. Rules can be exploited the second a smart coach gets their hands on the new rulebook. Waiting two years to fix any exploits is too long and damaging for the sport. It could also make the process easier by allowing for half the number of changes each revision rather than the astronomical sum of changes that I’m sure the WFTDA is trying to sift through now.
6. No undefeated teams entering playoffs
It’s been since, umm…well, never. Really, since 2008. Before that, there wasn’t really anything known as a regular season so teams just got invited to regionals. Still, Gotham rattled off 18 straight wins from 2007-2009. Oly made their WFTDA debut in 2009 and didn’t lose a game until 2010′s Western regional. Then, those same two teams won 16 games combined in 2011 with zero losses between the two of them. Not to say that having an undefeated team is necessarily a bad thing, but man would it be nice to have absolutely no clue how championships are going to turn out as early as July.
7. Someone other than Gotham, Oly, or Rocky Mountain in the championship game
Photo by Steve Stearns
Yep, since 2007. It’s been that long since there was a WFTDA championship game without one of these three teams and the last two have exclusively featured them. B-o-r-i-n-g. I know that there are some talented teams out there that can put some things together next year and make a run. The playing field was leveled this year with close games throughout tournament season. I fully expect the separation between the top few teams and the rest to shrink even more and hopefully become nonexistent this season.
8. Track cuts get slashed
I know that I haven’t exactly created a tidal wave of agreement over to my side on this issue after mentioning it a couple times before but I really think this would improve the game. Track cuts are a procedural penalty that should be treated like false starts. If a skater cuts track, they would have to yield position, otherwise get the penalty they otherwise would have been assessed. Yes, a track cut can be done on purpose (especially a minor cut) but for the most part, they are accidental. What advantage of a track cut does a positional yield not solve? A penalty is supposed to strip the violating team of the advantage that they created. Forcing a track cutter to yield position does exactly that without riddling the penalty box with skaters for no reason. This would reduce power jams and blockers in the box (which both reduce blowouts) and, like a rulebook with no minors, would allow skaters to skate instead of worry about petty penalties.
9. Another region unseats the west as best
The South Central’s showing at championships (#3 and #4) could make an argument for this. Yeah…no. From top to bottom, there is still no region that comes even close to comparing to the west. The three teams in the region’s top six that didn’t make championships probably would have at least finished third in every other region. Then, you really have to get into the high teens before you can even find a team that isn’t playoff worthy. North Central certainly has some consistently strong mid-level teams but isn’t very top heavy. The South Central drops pretty far after their championship teams. If teams like Philly, Charm City, Steel City, Montreal, and London can take their game to the next level next year, the east might have a pretty good shot at unseating the west.
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1. One possible move can be to have the jammers line up directly behind the pack and have everyone go on the first whistle.
2. Totally agree.. Minors are killing this game. So are Powerjams. Perhaps, we need to assess penalties at the end of the jam, similar to banked track. I feel that this will help make the game easier to understand for fans and it only makes sense to assess penalties at the end of play. Also, if a jammer goes to the box, only the skater should go to the box, not the position. This means there’s always a point scorer for each team on the track. Regardless, I think that the elimination of the accumulation of minors will reduce some powerjams.
3. I had mentioned this the other day. My suggestion is to take a region and divide it into subdivisions. Within the subdivision, each team plays other teams within their region once per season. Those games will count for stats. The winner of that subdivision will represent their subdivision in the regionals. Subdivisions could have a variable number of teams, depending mainly on roadtrip distances. For example, around Arizona, I could see AZRD, TRD, Duke, Wasatch, Junction Cy and Sin Cy in a subdivision. The problem with a fixed schedule is it makes it hard for some leagues outside the continental USA such as WFTDA leagues in Alaska, Hawaii and Australia to compete. In Japan, Kokeshi is an Apprentice league who is also landlocked from other leagues. Perhaps, WFTDA needs to reconsider its geographical scope.
4. This will take a few things. You mentioned ticket prices and you are right on on that. Also, we need to look at why this sport is not fan friendly. #1 reason, we are not talking to the fans. Most leagues are barely communicating with fans other than leading up to the next bout or when the next beer pong or spaghetti wrestling tournament is going to be. WFTDA needs to make some changes including nomenclature so fans will understand.
WFTDA should be the LEAGUE. They sanction the bouts, create the rules and manage the rankings.
What we call the leagues right now should be called the TEAMS. The teams play against each teams. Of course, we started to call them leagues because in the early days before all of the interleague bouts, the “leagues” would have multiple home teams who played against each other. While many (what we call today) leagues still have home teams, many don’t. Why should a single team organization be called a “league”. Derby leagues need to better communicate, update their websites, talk about the skaters and provide stats. Yes, it means more time but the more time you invest, the more fans you will get. And yes, I know I am kicking myself for thinking this but I think the sport has grown up where we have reached the point to get rid of skate names, especially for sanctioned bouts. We do everything we can to distance ourselves from our grandmother’s roller derby but at the same time, we are creating a different brand of sports entertainment that sports writers are not going to take seriously and with that, derby will never leave the weatherfluff and human interest sections of the evening news. If derby is going to be taken seriously as a sport, they need to behave like a serious sports franchise.
5. Agreed. There needs to be a better process.
6. A structured schedule and subdivisions could help bring more variety into the regionals, especially if there is more than one power-team in a subdivision.
7. (See #3 and #6)
8. Agreed. A jammer should reenter at the back.
9. (See #3, #6 and #7)
Great article!
=m
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1. I wrote about that topic before at the end of this post: http://derbytron.com/2011/10/05/wftdas-state-of-emergency/
I’ve thought about it more since then and I really think the delay of game solves every possible problem with starts that exists and it’s so simple to implement. Really, no other solution comes close IMO.
2. That’s one of the things I don’t like about banked track. I love the fluidity of flat track with players leaving and exiting the track. I also like how if you see a crazy back block, it’s instantly penalized. It’s instantly gratifying, I guess. I also don’t have a problem with the idea of power jams, I just think they happen too often. Jammers should skate cleaner but there should also be less penalties. No 4th minors and no track cuts would cut the number of power jams by at least 50%.
3. I’ve also wrote about that as a possible solution: http://derbytron.com/2010/11/16/making-wftda-more-like-ncaa-basketball/
However, I’ve changed my tune since then. I think it’s too early to implement this because there are too many changes to the number of teams year to year. It would have to be a constant flow of new divisions/teams changing divisions. It would be confusing and annoying to everyone. I think a statistical formula that works in place of standings (because comparable schedules are not possible) really is the best solution: http://derbytron.com/2011/10/18/creating-the-ideal-wftda-regular-season/. No regions, no divisions, no subdivisions. Let anyone play anyone they want. Teams will naturally play other teams near them geographically because it’s cheaper but they’d also play teams ranked near them (which would mean better games, not blowouts) because it would improve their standing.
4. Agreed with pretty much everything you said.
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Yes.. I did note Duke City in that subdivision list with Western teams. I have always opposed Duke’s move to South Central and under the concept of subdivisions would make more sense being linked to Arizona and Utah.
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Nice article! I agree with your points, except #5 and #8.
For #5, I also wish that the rules revision would take place faster, but I just don’t think its feasible. You have an all-volunteer central organization (WFTDA) and a constituency of 133 member leagues, which (based on my limited personal experience) would rather do nearly anything that talk about rules. It seems likely that a good rules revision might take several drafts, only multiplying the amount of time it takes.
Several smaller revisions is problematic, too, since one rule change could affect all the others. There’s no point in writing rules to change the Jammer starts (point #1) if they will get rid of Minors (point #2) in a few months.
As far as #8, its an interesting idea, but here are my concerns as a ref and as a fan.
– Communicating the cut to the skater. It is already hard enough to get a skater to hear a false start call at the first whistle, when it is quiet and they aren’t completely focused. It would also be hard to make a cut call quickly enough so that the skater can react without gaining any advantage. Inconsistency in either of these would be worse and more frustrating than the penalty.
– A skater standing on the track (safety concerns). A skater who yields position must come to a stop and give the `wronged’ skaters a chance to pass her. Having a skater standing or slowing down in the middle of a fast pack would create an vulnerability for big hits (accidental and intentional) that seems unnecessary.
– A skater standing on the track (procedural concerns). Forcing a skater to stop/slow in a pack would also open up some rules concerns. Anyone she forced to move around her would count as `positionally blocked’, which should be a penalty considering the opportunity was illegally gained. What if she is prevented from yielding position by an opponents block? Does she get the cut?
– Strategic balance. I currently like the draconian severity of track cutting from a strategic perspective. The inside and outside of the track are inherently safer, because a Jammer always has a Blocker-less side (and a shorter track on the inside lane). Thats why it is nice that the downside of these lanes (getting knocked out of bounds) is worse than the downside of the middle lane (getting knocked to the ground). An out of bounds skater will often get recycled to the back of the pack by the track cutting rules, whereas a Jammer who gets knocked around in the middle will usually pop back up.
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On your first point. A rules committee should be working on the next rules update in the background all the time. They should then present every possible idea to voters. Voters vote yes or no to each one. The rules committee then writes final wording. The voters then vote yes or no to each one again. How could that possibly take longer than 2 months? Remember, with each revision of the rulebook, the process for the next revision should continue getting easier as the rulebook is fine tuned and less changes are needed.
As far as several small revisions throughout the year. I agree, that’s a terrible idea.
On track cuts:
-Communication is not an issue. Ref yells “cut (number)” or whatever. If she doesn’t hear you, the penalty would still get assessed. That’s consistent with other similar things in the rulebook.
- Skaters going different speeds is a core part of the game. If every skater went the same speed, the game would be pretty boring and wouldn’t really work. I don’t think this creates any more vulnerability than skaters skating OOB on the inside with refs not even coming close to looking forward.
- Yes. The cut comes when anything changes. A positional block, advancing position, whatever. I’m not talking about completely ridding the penalty box of track cutters but the opportunity should be there to prevent it. Just like the opportunity is there to correct a false start.
- I don’t really understand your last point. In this situation, skaters wouldn’t automatically come back inbounds. It would be way more difficult and risky (penalty-wise) to come back inbounds and then yield position. Skaters would continue to yield position out of bounds, like they do now. What this prevents is when a skater accidentally comes back inbounds too soon or doesn’t realize she’s cutting. She then has the opportunity to yield position instead of taking a penalty. It changes nothing strategically whatsoever. What it does do is prevent the penalty box from getting full of skaters committing non-dangerous penalties on accident.
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Re: Rules.
This is the first time a WFTDA rules revision has taken a two year cycle. Before 2010 it was yearly. It may go back, but the membership wanted a longer period to live and breathe the rule set before changing and a year was not enough.
Also, the voting cycle takes 6 – 8 months. If rules were to come out in January, that would mean the main development would happen during tournament season. That is not the time leagues want to be testing concepts at home and having lengthy rules meetings. WFTDA leagues have access to the general direction of the rules for months before ratification so it’s not like they only have from June to Sept to learn the new stuff for tournament season. January through June leagues are testing, learning and working with the new concepts. June – Sept they’re perfecting the concepts.
Just thought I could shed some light on that as a skater, rep and WFTDA Games Officer.
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Thank you for responding.
Hasn’t the WFTDA set a precedence, though, with the no minors beta test public bouts that new rules testing needs to be done in sanctioned games? Basically saying that practices and scrimmages aren’t good enough to test the rules. If that’s the case, then why would you possibly want some of the first games played under a new ruleset to be during the playoffs? The most important games of the whole year. Let’s also remember that it took about a year for teams to find the new exploits for the start of jams that were prevalent throughout the playoffs so they’d hardly be perfecting concepts between “June – Sept”. They’re still new, even if they’ve had a general idea of the direction of the rules. We all know that a general idea is not what is needed. Exact wording is what is needed. Exact wording is the difference between a loophole and a solidly written rule.
I understand the idea behind your argument but it ignores the big picture and the public image of WFTDA. First, most skaters in WFTDA leagues are NOT in the playoffs and therefore can devote all of their time to testing rules revisions if they want to. Second, I know mentioning fans is like speaking a dirty word but it’s pretty confusing to them to have a brand new ruleset in the middle of the season. If something changes in the offseason, that makes sense. Something changing in the middle of the season? Completely weird.
And, like I mentioned earlier…if rules revisions were on a one year cycle, there would be far less rules to change than what you’re going through now. Also, as the rulebook gets closer and closer to being as close to perfect as it can get, less rules will need to be looked at and changed. Basically, every year it should get easier and less time will be needed.
There’s almost no doubt in my mind that there will be a change to starts and hopefully no minors when the new rules are released this season. Sure, teams will have had time to test those general concepts but they will have not seen them put into practice by other teams (and the vast majority of their time will still be devoted to the old rulebook because those are the games they’re preparing for). The next rulebook will be a dramatic change from the previous version. Teams will have almost no chance to test those rules in a real-game environment and will have almost no chance to see what strategies other teams will have come up with under the new rules system. There is just no good rationale to put teams under those constraints for playoffs. Sorry, there just isn’t. It’s a bad idea. If it was a good idea, don’t you think every sport would make their rules changes in the middle of the season? Instead, they ALL make them in the offseason because it just makes sense.
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2. I disagree in your view of that bout. I think there can be a good no minors rule set, but I don’t think that was a good one and was, in fact, worse than no change at all. As I’ve said before, I am in favor of increasing almost all minors to majors, but some of the ones that were downgraded to no penalty were terrible (I’m also biased because one team was intentionally grabbing and pulling on players’ arms and bruising them for “forearm no penalty”… the other team was who I was cheering for).
7. I predict Oly will not be in the top 3 this year (I was aware of insider info that was apparently announced today, but I forgive you if you just learned after writing this).
9. I quibble with your wording. I think you mean if any one of those three teams had been in a different region, it would have made it to Champs. I would bet large sums of money that if all three were in the East, they would not all three have made it to Champs. I’m pretty sure nobody would take that bet. “Then, you really have to get into the high teens before you can even find a team that isn’t playoff worthy.” I don’t understand what you mean here. If you’re saying that West#7-15(ish) are better than other regions’, I STRONGLY disagree. I think the West historically has had very strong top teams, but similarly low later ranked teams causing the biggest disparity of any region.
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2. I don’t disagree that that was not the perfect no minor ruleset but that was the point of having those beta bouts. To find what didn’t work. IMO, it was still better than the current ruleset even with those flaws. Look, Windy City (or at least JFM) has publicly stated that they went into that game looking to exploit every possible opening that they saw in the rules (which again, was the point in having the beta bouts). Unlike the teams, the refs had no choice but to enforce the letter of the law and nothing more. I would fully expect under normal circumstances that the refs would say things, similar to other sports, like “do that again and I’ll send you to the box” which is an acceptable practice since the “head ref is the ultimate authority in the game.” The game should be more open like that, it feels too handcuffed now. Also, skaters can stand to get some arm bruises, they have bruises everywhere else, what’s the difference? I say, if it’s not dangerous, let it happen. Roller derby is supposed to be a tough sport.
7. We’ll see. I don’t see them in the championship but they could still be top 3. Kansas City, pretty much the only team other than Gotham and Rocky to compete with them, lost some key players as well. And, don’t give me Rose City. Rose City has always played them close, which is commendable, but they still haven’t won. No one else came within 85 and I don’t think the players they lost are worth 86 points.
9. I see what you’re saying with the wording and I’ll rewrite it. Basically, yes, I’m saying they could have individually finished at least 3rd in any other region. They all weren’t going to beat Gotham, that’s definitely not what I was saying.
As far as your second point, while I disagree with you and I do think that range of teams in the West is better than other regions, that wasn’t the point. My point was that those teams could possibly have made the playoffs if they were in another region. The 11-16 range is quite obviously very competitive as evidenced by their scores last year. And, come on, #11 and #17 were both undefeated last year. When you look at #15-17 in other regions, those teams consistently get blown out by triple digits. I feel the teams in that range in the west could at the very least compete for that final playoff spot in other regions. Although, they never play outside the west so it kind of makes it hard to prove that.
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2. Perhaps I didn’t explain it carefully, but this grabbing and bruising was the equivalent of hair pulling. Literally a bruise on the forearm that was a thumbprint, and four finger-shaped bruises on the backside of the arm. They were grabbing and clutching and pulling back and holding the skater, keeping her from moving forward, but not changing relative position. I hope that you don’t think that sort of behavior should be okay.
7. That’s pretty bold, but just to make sure we’re talking about the same thing, I’m talking about the news that Atomatrix and Hockey Honey have moved to Arizona. I know Oly is very good, but that top is competitive and I expect at least another West team to take their spot, if not a top team from another region (or a Dark Horse wecanonlyhope).
9. I admit I don’t really know past ~6th very well in the North or South regions, but I don’t see the bottom 7-10 of West doing very well against the bottom 7-10 of the East. I would love to see that though. Hmmm… maybe I am a fan of the divisions model after all.
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2. Without knowing specifics on bruises, I can’t really comment on that. However, non-incidental holding shouldn’t be legal even if relative position doesn’t change.
7. I’m not saying they’re definitely top 3, just that I’m not going to write them out of it. I just don’t think Atomatrix and Hockey Honey were their whole team. I could be wrong.
9. Again, that’s not really what I’m saying. I’m not comparing specific ranks of region vs region. Just that the west has quality teams all the way down to the #17ish range. No other region can say that. Really, you have to look into the twenties before you see a bad team. That’s definitely not true in other regions.
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A little too early in the season to put too much stock in the results but…
East 11 (DC) lost to West 14 & 15 and beat 12. DC may be down this year but if they’re not, that shows that the mid teens out west would be in a position to compete for a playoffs spot in the east.
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“Hasn’t the WFTDA set a precedence, though, with the no minors beta test public bouts that new rules testing needs to be done in sanctioned games?”
Not a precedence. If it was, WFTDA wouldn’t be able to change any other rules. No minors testing was huge and helpful, but not everything can be tested in a sanctioned bout.
What was a precedence was yearly and usually bi-yearly rules revisions (http://wftda.com/rules/archive). They were not popular with the membership. Maybe that’ll change after the first 2 year cycle, but if there are sweeping changes the membership may want time to live with the rule set again. I know I would like to as a skater. Yearly updates didn’t give enough time to explore strategy.
I understand that it’s confusing for fans and I’m sorry for that. But WFTDA goes to work on the new rules revision the day after Champs. There’s not time during tournament season to dedicate the resources to the rules revision as the entire organization is busting ass to make tournaments happen. It’s not just about the players, it’s about organizational resources.
It’s definitely a failing of a volunteer org, but revising rules is not an easy process.
Thanks for listening.
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You’re right. Everything can’t be tested in a sanctioned bout. And, that’s sort of my point. Rules don’t get tested to their fullest (which they shouldn’t and can’t be) and instead of teams finding exploits or new ideas in March and everyone having time to adjust to those exploits, teams will find exploits in September which they can then use to beat better teams in the playoffs. That’s not how it should work. This next rules update is probably going to be so dramatic (because of the two year break), it’s almost like you’ll be playing with a completely different rules set. Like, if WFTDA switched to OSDA rules just for the playoffs. WFTDA voters will be choosing playoff teams based on a completely different set of rules which will be advantageous or disadvantageous for different teams. WFTDA voters will be asked to choose playoff teams with a limited amount of information.
You touch on a subject that I just don’t understand. Recently, it seems like derby strategy = exploiting the rules as much as possible. That’s not what strategy should be. Strategy is about coming up with the best gameplan for your team that exploits the opponent’s weaknesses. The direction of rules revisions should be to make the rulebook unexploitable. If that were to happen, would there no longer be strategy in derby? Of course not.
I’m sorry but it’s ridiculous to state that rules shouldn’t be updated yearly because skaters need the time to squeeze every last ounce of exploitation out of the rules. Is derby fun because you like playing or because you like bending the rulebook over and showing it who’s boss?
Is this the direction derby should be headed? “We don’t want to make the sport better because we haven’t been given enough time to make it worse.”
And again, sorry, but I just don’t buy the volunteer organization canned excuse in this instance. Sure, there are many dedicated to pulling the tournaments together. However, there are how many WFTDA skaters? And you can’t have 6-8 (or whatever) be on a rules committee that is completely separate from planning and organizing tournaments? And the THOUSANDS of WFTDA skaters that don’t play in tournaments can’t test revisions? Come on.
Sorry if that comes off as harsh but I just really disagree with where you and the organization are coming from on this topic.