The two most common questions I get when people find out I’m a derby girl are: 1. How did you get into that?? and 2. Isn’t that all fake?

I saw my first bout earlier this year and I absolutely fell in love.  A friend of mine from work invited me, and I had nothing better to do so I decided to join the group for a night of roller derby.  I was immediately smitten… I mean, it’s a contact sport just for girls… on SKATES!  How much more hardcore does it get??  So I watched the bout, again in awe of the entire experience, and followed it up with the after party.  I talked to a few of the NRG girls and mentioned my interest, and got directed to the website and invited to a practice.  Within a few days I had a bunch of information directed toward new skaters.  As I browsed I found that this is far more than a sport.  It is a conglomeration of strong, independent women who coach, train, compete, manage, and basically run everything about this league.  The more I learned, the more I realized this was absolutely something I was going to do.  Three months, a lot of dedication, and a lot of hard work later I am an active member of the league and am getting ready to skate my first bout!!

As for the second question… I usually point out the most recently acquired bruise or two, and recommend attending a bout.  If there is still any question I’d be happy to setup a demonstration… to your face!!!  Muahahhaha!

That’s it for now, but tune in next time for a week in the life of Crash Corset!

As a jammer referee, you must be able to anticipate what your jammer is about to do. Being able to do so can make the difference between a good jammer referee and a great one.

There are two times that reading your jammer is critical. These times are at the beginning of the jam and at the end of a jam.

You should always watch your jammer for going out of bounds before she reaches the engagement zone for the first time. There is always a chance that she will step out for whatever reason and render herself ineligible for lead jammer. Sometimes though, you can tell that one of the jammers is setting up to force the other jammer out. Be on your guard to notice a wheel over the line. It may not be your jammer stepping out, but it’s always helpful to back up the other jammer ref at this time. Also be aware that the jammer that is being more aggressive may be the one to step out first, or they might both go out of bounds.

Where you really need to understand strategy is when your jammer is lead. Making sure that you end the jam the moment your jammer signals for you to is crucial. If you don’t understand strategy, you are likely to be slower than necessary to react.

So what triggers should cause you to be expect a calloff at any second?

Any time that your (lead) jammer is approaching the rear of the pack with the other jammer close behind. If there is a decent bit of space between the jammers, expect your jammer to try to score 1 or 2 points and immediately call the jam off. If the jammers are very close to each other, expect a calloff before they reach the pack.

As your (lead) jammer is going through a scoring pass, be prepared for her to call the jam off as soon as she clears the pack, or the last opposing blocker.

Also, it is important to be aware of the other jammer’s whereabouts. Any time the other jammer is approaching the rear of the pack, your jammer may call it off.

The whole idea is to sneak in as many points as possible while preventing the other jammer from scoring at all.

Here comes the important part. Do your job! Call it off the moment you see the signal. Don’t make your 4 whistles take too long. 4 whistles should happen within one second. Each of the 4 whistles should be loud and distinct. Both jammers can score up until the fourth whistle. If those whistles take too long, you are getting in the way of the game. You should not be responsible for allowing more time than the lead jammer wishes to allow for the other jammer to score.

Keep this in mind while you are jammer reffing and learn to be ready for your jammer’s actions before they happen. There are other strategies that you may find useful to be aware of in order to help you do your job better. Don’t completely avoid learning these strategies.

There is an obvious answer for what referee certification hope to achieve. Ideally, you should be able to bring in a certified referee and know that you have someone who is exceptional at refereeing WFTDA sanctioned bouts. The higher the level of certification, the better the job they should be able to do.

Is this the way it works now? Not necessarily. Why wouldn’t it work that way? Referee certification is a complicated system that is in its infancy. Let’s face it, roller derby is in its infancy. This most recent incarnation of roller derby has been around for less than a decade; Referee certification has been around approximately a year. There are many kinks to work out in the process, but the steps have been taken in the apprpriate direction.

So, it’s a building process. What does it mean to be a certified referee at this very moment? Honestly, not a whole lot. Though, the few things that it does mean, mean a lot to me.

Being a certified referee tells people that you take this seriously enough to pursue certification at a point in time where it is far from being required. It tells people that you have asked people for their honest opinion of what you do as a referee, to be evaluated by a certification granting committee, without reservation of getting a bad evaluation. It shows that you have confidence in what you do while on the track and intend to conduct yourself as a professional.

Some referees have mentioned to me that there would be reffing jobs offered because of certification that would actually pay more than gas money. I’ve not been offered any such positions, but would feel a little uncomfortable making any money (beyond travel expenses) for reffing a bout. I have, however, noticed a slightly increased number of offers to ref bouts lately. I have reason to believe that some of those opportunities are due largely to my being certified.

It is my personal belief that being a certified referee comes with a very large amount of responsibility, beyond that of any contracts you enter into during the application process. Becoming a certified referee is not the end of the process, it’s only the beginning. It’s not a license showing that you are the epitomy of awesomeness, but something showing that you want to do everything you can to achieve perfection. It means stepping up and working bouts that are intimidating. It means doing everything you can to enhance your abilities.

That doesn’t mean that you have to work only high-level sanctioned bouts. In some cases, that isn’t hugely helpful. I do a lot to try to help out newer, non-WFTDA leagues. They need good officiating crews and need a lot of help to get there. Reffing bouts with very inexperienced leagues may not sound very exciting to a tournament level ref, but I will always insist that it will always be a great learning experience. In bouts with experienced leagues, there is a certain amount of predictability.  You get accustomed to looking for different things with more experienced leagues. When you ref for less experienced leagues, you need to forget some of those habits and just open your eyes to what is happening.

What I’m trying to say is this… Being a certified referee doesn’t give you license to tell people I’m better than anyone else. Being a certified referee doesn’t give you license to believe that you don’t have anything to learn. Being a certified referee doesn’t give you license to expect positions you wouldn’t get otherwise. However, being a certified referee shows a committment to the pursuit of excellence. Being a certified referee means taking every opportunity you can to further your abilities. Being a certified referee means striving for perfection.

Why? That’s an easy answer. I’ve been skating on inlines for 15+ years. I’m incredibly comfortable on inlines. While I could do decently on quads after a couple of weeks of practice, the desire isn’t really there.

When I got into derby in the first place, there was another referee in our league that was skating on inlines and another who had recently switched to quads. It wasn’t a big deal at the time. However, I did catch a lot of crap from the skaters for it.

Then we had our annual Spanquet, to which I wore a beautiful green spandexy dress with a red cape. I had some boots with heels that I can run in just fine should the need arise. I made a belt buckle with some hard drive platters special for the occasion. After that night, I rarely ever hear anything about the fact that I wear inlines anymore. Something about derby girls and guys in drag…

Since then, I’ve learned an awful lot about quads. Enough to where I understand exactly how they work, mechanically. I am able to answer most of the gear related questions my league has better than a large portion of the skaters. I’ve been researching it enough to where one of our skaters has jokingly stated that I should open a skate shop. I love the tech of quads, but not the quads themselves.

Does this make me a bad referee? Certainly not. I’m the same referee regardless of what I’m skating on. I’m far more agile on inlines than on quads, because of experience.

Has this inhibited my progress in any way? Not at all. I know there are certain leagues where I would be prohibited from reffing unless I were on quads, but they are geographically quite far from me. I’ve not had any problems getting guest reffing gigs. I had no problem progressing through the ranks in my home league. I also had no problem attaining certification.

Why then the problems with allowing blades in derby? I understand the reasoning for all the skaters being required to have similar equipment, but referees? I don’t see any issue with it whatsoever. Some feel that it is inconsistent. Many of those same people also feel that referees shouldn’t have introductions, because the skaters are the show, not the referees. If fans aren’t watching the referees, what does it matter if they are wearing inlines?

Maybe someday I’ll get some quads to skate on sometimes. I don’t foresee myself switching to quads as my primary skates until the rules require it. Even then, I don’t see myself abandoning inlines by any means.

What’s the difference? The hole in the middle that the axle goes through. A 627 bearing has a 7mm hole, while a 608 bearing has an 8mm hole.

Do you need to know which kind you have? Absolutely. Most likely your skates use a 608 bearing. However, if your skates are made for a 627 bearing (7mm axle), you need to use spacers in order for 608 bearings to fit properly.

Most all bearings are rated in a system called “ABEC scale”. In the skating world, this is often referred to as “ABEC rating”. ABEC has nothing to do with skating at all. In fact the bearings we use for skating are often not designed for skating at all. The 608 and 627 bearings were originally designed for use in industrial applications and are very common in sewing machines. The ABEC scale is one that is meant for understanding the precision to which the bearings were manufactured. The ABEC scale is odd numbers, from 1 to 9, though if you look at longboards, you will see ABEC 11 bearings. An ABEC 1 bearing will have parts that aren’t held to the same standard as an ABEC 5 or ABEC 9 bearing. That standard is how far off from specified measurements each part is allowed to be.

It is important to note that 608/627 bearings are very often designed for high-speed applications where there will be very little load on the bearings. Skaters exert a load on bearings that are much more than what is normally intended for these types of bearings. That is one of the shortcomings of the ABEC scale. While it exemplifies the tolerances used in manufacturing, it does not take into consideration the materials used. Sometimes the materials used in an ABEC 9 bearing are softer or more susceptible to rusting than those used in an ABEC 1 bearing. That will often mean that some ABEC 9 bearings may deteriorate quickly and cause poor performance.

That is not to say that ABEC rated bearings are not suited for skating. I also would not claim that the ABEC rated bearings suited for skating are bad; some are certainly great. What I am suggesting is to not fall into the misconception that many skaters fall into. Don’t think that because you see ABEC 9, the bearings are good. It is possible for an ABEC 3 to outperform and outlast an ABEC 9.

There is an alternative to ABEC ratings. There are many bearings that are sold for the purpose of skating that don’t advertise an ABEC rating. These are often referred to as “skate-rated”. These are normally made popular through word of mouth and brand recognition. There is really no standard of comparing these bearings other than trying them out and seeing for yourself.

So how do you pick out bearings for your skates? Ask around, look for reviews online, maybe even buy a few sets and try them out.

If you try several sets out, be aware that there is a break-in period. This period will be different depending on the bearings, but is normally not much more than a couple hours of skate time.

I have a few suggestions for selecting bearings based on my personal experience and that of others around me:

Stay away from BSB and KWIK bearings – These brands make bearings that often never spin freely, or they break down quickly.

For a good mid-range bearing, I like Bones Reds. These are excellent bearings for the price ($30-40).

For a much higher end bearing, I can’t recommend ILQ-9 bearings by Twincam highly enough. After switching to my ILQ-9 classics, I believe I will be skating on ILQ-9 bearings for the rest of my life. The classics are available for $36, the pros are available for $45.50 and the BCBs (ceramics) are available for $195. The BCB bearings actually come with a lifetime renewal program and a set of classics for when you’re having your BCBs cleaned.

All of the above mentioned bearings are  608 bearings. For 627 bearings, you’ll have to ask around for advice.

I received my replacement camera pretty quickly. I went to attach it to my helmet and had many issues. I was finding no way to securely mount the camera. I emailed Tachyon, Inc. asking for mounting advice. As I sit here writing this, I have still not received a response.

I eventually decided to use one of the provided mounts with a combination of the velcro and elastic strap (both provided). The elastic strap had to be wrapped around the mount and through holes in my helmet many times in order to keep it from bouncing too much. I would not call it a very secure mount. I spent close to an hour trying to get it aimed properly. I then put it away until we got to Atlanta.

When it came time to use the camera, the beeping to let you know that it was turned on and then to let you know recording has started was not loud enough for me to know if the button presses were accepted. The venue was fairly loud, but the camera was only a few inches from my ears. This wouldn’t be much of a concern if the buttons weren’t so difficult to press and need to be held down for a few seconds before the button press registers. This was a design choice to prevent accidental button presses and to keep the camera waterproof. Because of this, it almost hurt to push the buttons as hard as necessary and the button presses still don’t always register. This difficulty would be fine, had I been able to hear that the button press had registered. It also would have been fine if it had not been for the next problem I ran into.

The camera has two led lights in it. There is a green led to indicate the unit is powered on and a red led to indicate that you are recording. I had explained to other people how those lights work. I was randomly told that the light was green, when I knew it should have been red. In other words, the camera randomly stopped recording. Sometimes it would stop after only a minute or two; sometimes it would be 20 minutes later. The only way that I could tell that the camera had stopped recording on its own was to either take off my helmet, or have someone tell me.

So before the event was over, I was fairly dissatisfied with the camera. That would only be the beginning of my disappointment, as I had not yet seen the resulting video.

I connected the camera to my laptop to take a look at what I had gotten. The first thing I noticed was that the image was quite grainy. The low light performance was poor. The venue where the bouts were located wasn’t very bright, but I still would have liked to see a better picture in that light setting.

The next thing I noticed was the sound. It was totally unacceptable. I had expected poor sound due to the waterproofing, but nothing like this. The sound was cutting out probably once or twice a second. More than that, during one-on-one official reviews, you could barely even hear the person I was talking to or myself. What you were able to hear, you couldn’t even tell who was talking.

Also, the video isn’t worth watching because my mount went totally out of calibration. It was aimed too high. When I was looking down at skates, the camera was looking at the top of helmets. It was aimed too far in front of the skater I was watching, but this was probably due to my own miscalculation. If the mount had been more secure, it couldn’t have shifted as it had.

In closing, the only thing that I like about this camera is the construction of the back of the camera. The back door latches securely, which makes it feel like it was well engineered. The battery compartment made me feel confident that the batteries would not become dislodged during use. Outside of that, the camera is not worth anywhere near what I paid for it. If I were to put a price on the Tachyon XC (without memory card), I wouldn’t pay more than $25 for it.

Well, at least that is as far as the knowledge of many derby skaters goes. Bearings are a very important component of your skates, but are often taken for granted. They perform a simple task; they help your wheels spin with a minimal amount of friction to the axles. What you don’t see of the bearings is what does all the work, balls. Yes, my balls do all the work in my bearings.

Seriously though, your bearings contain 6 or 7 ball bearings. 7 is more common until you get away from ABEC rated bearings, 6 is more typical of high quality bearings. Before I go too far with this thought, lets talk about the details of the construction of a skate bearing.

When you look at your bearings, you generally see three parts. These parts are as follows:

Dust cover/shield – The part that has the part number and/or ABEC rating imprinted on it. Inner raceway – The ring that touches your axle. Outer raceway – The ring that touches your wheel.

It probably goes without saying what the dust cover/shield does. There is a difference between a dust cover and a dust shield though. Some bearings have only dust shields, while others have both. A dust shield is a metal plate that protects the inside of your bearings from dirt, dust and to a lesser extent, water. Dust covers do the same thing but are thin plastic. What’s the big difference? Dust shields provide an extra bit of protection from impact to the bearing, dust covers don’t. If you have bearings with dust covers, these covers should be facing inward in each wheel. In other words, they should not be exposed once you have your wheels on.

Raceways are a critical part of bearings, in that if machined with imperfections, it can greatly affect performance. Raceways are just metal rings, the full width of the bearing that have groove cut on the internal surfaces. These grooves serve as a track for the ball bearings to roll in (we’ll talk more about this in a moment). They also help to trap the ball bearings.

Most dust covers/shields are held in place with a metal retaining ring against the outer raceway. If you remove this retaining ring, you can now remove that dust cover/shield. You are now looking at the inside of your bearing. Chances are, it’s pretty disgusting looking. It will be filled with lubricant and any debris that may have made its way inside. Besides that nastiness, you will see the ball bearings and a metal (there are some bearings that use some types of plastic for this) ring that is bent around each one of the ball bearings. If you look closely, you will notice the flat areas on this metal ring in between each ball is the same width. Those flats are the key to the primary purpose of the ring. What I have been calling a ring is actually two rings (one on either side of the ball bearings) that are linked together in some fashion. This part is called the cage and its primary purpose is to create the appropriate spacing between ball bearings in order to prevent jams.

I’ve mentioned the ball bearings many times. These are simply metal (with certain exceptions) balls machined to be as close to a perfect sphere as possible. Believe it or not, machining a perfect sphere is something engineers have been struggling with for a very long time, so as close to perfect as possible is what we get. As these balls roll, any imperfections in the surface of the ball, or unevenness in the machining will create chatter. What I mean by chatter is it will roll roughly every time that spot hits the raceway. The more chatter in your ball bearings, the more friction it creates.

Now that we have talked about all the parts, lets put it all together.

The outer raceway is seated tightly in your wheel. It has the dust covers/shields mounted firmly to it with retaining rings. In between the dust covers/shields are the ball bearings inside their cage. For you math geeks, here is how you can understand how a bearing stays together:

X = radius of inner raceway at the bottom of the groove

Y = diameter of one of the ball bearings.

Z = radius of the outer raceway at the bottom of the groove

X + Y ~ Z

The reason for the approximation is that there is a certain amount of slack that varies depending on the tolerances the manufacturer was following.

Because the raceways have a track, the edges are raised. With the space allowed for the ball bearings, they are unable to roll out from between the raceways. Likewise, the inside raceway can’t simply come out.

Now, the inner raceway is tight against the axle and the outer raceway is tight against the wheel. As the wheel rotates, the outer raceway rotates with it. This forces the ball bearings to spin with the rotation of the outer raceway, also rolling in the opposite direction in the inner raceway.

The idea is that all the friction created is a smooth rolling friction. If there are imperfections in the ball bearings, there will be some bouncing or sliding friction. If the friction created is not the smooth rolling friction I described, it requires the skater to work hard to gain and maintain speed. It will also speed the degradation of the bearings.

In the next part of this series on bearings, I’ll talk about understanding ABEC ratings.

An additional, easier formula for the math (stats) geeks to understand how bearings are held together is this:

X = internal radius of the outer raceway at the thickest point

Y = external radius of the inner raceway at the thickest point

Z = diameter of one of the ball bearings

X – Y < Z

Last night I took the Tachyon XC to practice with me, along with my laptop to check the results. I was setting up the side mount, having trouble to get it aimed in the direction that I was hoping for. I finally got it in a position I could live with, when one of the most simple (but critical) parts of the camera failed.

The camera has slots on the sides to slide into the mounts. At one end of the slot there is a notch that locks the camera in place inside the mount. I went to slide the camera back into the side mount. No click. I tried the other mounts. Same thing, nothing keeping the camera from falling out other than friction. Upon closer inspection, I notice that the notch was now gone. This is the only way that the cam can be secured, which makes it useless for its intended purpose.

Also, after trying to use them, I found the supplied mounts to be wholly inadequate. There is a side mount for a helmet included, though it is intended to slide onto the strap from goggles. If you want to attach it directly to the helmet, your only option (without modifications) is to use the supplied velcro. The velcro is more than strong enough to keep the mount and camera attached to the helmet, but allows for an unacceptable amount of bouncing. There is a way to mount the other two mounts with velcro to the top of a helmet, but I didn’t get a chance to see if that would alleviate the bounce very much. I want to reiterate , there is no other included method to attach to a helmet than velcro.

I wrote an email to Tachyon Inc, after getting a voicemail message saying to contact them by email. It was probably worded a little stronger than necessary, but hey, I was angry. I got a response a little more than 12 hours later. They were very polite and agreed that this camera was definitely broken. They want me to ship the camera (not the mounts or accessories) to them and they will ship a replacement. They also told me that there is a “new mount that [they] feels corrects any deficiencies in [their] original mounts”. They said it has been shipped out to all of their customers and I should receive it soon.

So now I have to find a box to package the camera in and take time out of work to go to a post office. I’m hoping that I just got a defective unit, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith in that. If it turns out that this was just a fluke and I got the rare defective unit, the mounts I have can be altered easily to be very secure.

Also, the video was exactly what I was expecting. Considering the average quality of all-in-one helmet cams and the lighting conditions in our space, it was definitely good enough for my purposes.

I’ll keep you updated on my findings of the replacement unit.

This should be an especially good tool for jam refs in training. The camera will remain on the jammer I am watching at all times, making it easier to judge how many points the jammer should have gotten.

Because of this desire, I have done much research on helmet cams. There are several different types, ranging from $80 to $1000+. The two most common types of helmet cameras are all-in-one (the piece that is attached to your helmet does everything) and a bullet camera + DVR. The latter uses a camera (basically just the lens and processor) which is attached to a Digital Video Recorder by a wire, which records the video to a hard drive or other media.

There are pros and cons for each.

The bullet cam +DVR combo can provide much higher quality video and puts the weight in your pocket. Though it also requires a wire to be routed from the camera to the DVR, which can be damaged somewhat easily and can get in the way.

The all-in-one cameras eliminate the wires and tend to be less expensive. However, they produce a lower quality video and put all the bulk and weight (mostly batteries) on your helmet.

For me, the decision between the two types was an easy one. I didn’t want to deal with wires. So then the field was narrowed to basically 3 different cameras. The GoPro HERO (which looks like a mini digital camera), the Oregon Scientific ATC-3000 (I believe the link leads to an ATC-2000, but they are very similar cameras) and the Tachyon XC.

The GoPro camera wasn’t even worth my time since the maximum it can record is 56 minutes. Not even enough to record a single bout.

The ATC-3000 shows a lot of wavy distortion during high motion activities. The sound quality is bad enough that you might as well not even waster the storage space recording it.

The Tachyon XC was the clear winner here. It has a similar form factor to the ATC-3000 but without its video problems. The sound is not a whole lot better than the ATC-3000, but it is better. At $230 including a class 6 16Gb SD card, it’s a steal.

Upon receiving the Tachyon XC, I was very impressed with the variety of mounts included. There are included velcro sheets, perforated in different shapes to accommodate many different types of mounting methods. The door on the back that covers the battery compartment, memory card slot, video and usb connection is difficult to close. That difficulty is part of what impressed me; the latch very securely closes the compartment and completely seals it off, preventing water or dust from getting in. The whole thing seems extremely solid and well-made.

I’ve yet to figure out where it needs to go on my helmet, so I haven’t gotten a real-world test yet. When I do, I will post a full review.

So who am I? I go by Major Wood. I am a Co-Head Ref for the Nashville Rollergirls. For about a year now, I have been immersing myself in everything to do with this sport. Recently, I started a site (www.zebrahuddle.com) for other roller derby referees to gather and discuss the intracacies of the rules and administering them.

It is my hope to impart some of that learned wisdom here, as well as to allow others to provide their insight and opinions.