One Second in the Life of a Roller Derby Referee
An article originally published in March 2017, republished due to the original site being lost
Let me tell you a story about one second in the life of a roller derby referee.
The setup: it’s the National Cup finals. It is the start of the last jam. It’s a 6-point game, between two teams that…let’s just say they have a bit of a history. I’m lining up in the middle outside pack referee position. The second we are talking about starts on the initial pass, when the pack approaches the apex between curves 1 and 2.
A jammer gets hit at the end of curve 1 in a situation involving three blockers. The jammer falls down awkwardly in a sitting position facing backwards near the outside track boundary, directly in front of me. It’s not clear at first whether they’re out of bounds or not. They’re touching outside with one hand, but that’s not enough. I instinctively crouch a bit to see if their butt is touching the outside. Answer seems to be….yes. Also looks like they’re planning to get up in a way that puts their left skate’s wheels on the outside. So they need to re-enter the track behind everyone that was in front of them, and the one that hit them out.
So okay, seems pretty clear who was in front of the jammer when they went out. Next thing to do is to find the initiator of the block that made them go out — did they go backwards or not?
Wait, shit. Who was the initiator?
Normally that’s the first bit of information you store away before even knowing if you need it. But the situation was a bit chaotic, there were two blockers involved in the contact, and I had to double and triple check whether the jammer went out. In any case, the spot in my memory where the initiator should be stored gave an ugly 404 error.
So what are my options? Can someone help me? The jammer referee is very unlikely to make this call as there were several bodies between them and the hit. The most likely help would be from my OPR buddy, that I know from my peripheral vision is four meters to my right. I’ve worked with them dozens of times, I know how they think, and based on the situation they are unlikely to make this call even if they think it might be a cut penalty — I’m in the perfect position, and likely the only one who could possibly have all the information needed. Also they might not even have their attention on this situation — can’t tell that with only my peripheral vision and I can’t spare a glance.
So it’s up to me. It would be nice if the jammer played it safe and recycled behind everyone, since in that case the point would be moot. But based on their body language they are not going to — sometimes you just know. They are also getting up already and my second is starting to run out.
I play back the footage of the contact in my head. An instant replay like that, the way it works is, you piece together the scenario from bits of memory and form a video that ends in a situation similar to what your eyes are seeing right now. I quickly cram the pieces together. There’s the contact, the follow-through, the eyes that stay on the jammer the whole way making sure they’re out — and they’re still on them. It’s a blocker that’s behind the jammer, and the jammer is currently entering the track in front of them.
My second is up now. You can’t really think too hard about blowing the whistle. If you do, you will enter a cycle of self-doubt that lasts until it’s too late to blow it. I do and signal the cutting penalty for the jammer. The announcer goes nuts, the audience goes nuts, the jammer’s team ends up losing the game and the championship and the festivities start as the referees leave the arena, still processing the game and trying to find a can of beer as soon as possible.
Turns out I got that one right, thankfully. But for referees it’s not really about if something goes wrong that bugs you. It’s even when something could have gone wrong. There are a dozen errors for almost any referee in any game, being late in a bad position, not having a good line of sight, and while usually they don’t end up affecting gameplay, it still bugs you that they could have.
Making an error possible is basically as bad as actually making that error. And avoiding that might mean having to go through six paragraphs worth of thoughts in one second.
Photos by Marko Niemelä
Image capture from roller derby magnetic board by Wonder Zerba
