Disclaimer: These are my opinions. If you're offended, I don't care.
I am one the youngest skaters in my league. And I have been for a while. I joined shortly after turning 19 (the required age at the time). I was the youngest for some time until a high school classmate of mine joined recently.
So I get a lot of those, "Are you even old enough to drink?" kind of jokes. (For the record, I am.) And they get under my skin a little bit. It undermines my achievements when people belittle me because of my age. Not only am I one of the youngest skaters in the league, I am also the youngest member of the Board of Directors, the youngest member of the Training Committee, and the youngest member of the All-Stars Charter.. My youth has never been something that stopped me from succeeding.
Without getting too philosophical, young skaters are the future. A lot of leagues spend time and energy training Juniors to feed into the adult team and help take over when the trainers start retiring. There's plenty of youth in this sport and young skaters will keep coming as long as roller derby keeps being awesome.
I'm young, sure, but I'm making a difference. I have no power over when I was born. And I'm pretty tired of the jibes. I will respect you if you respect me. Thanks.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Ref Love
I'd like to talk about refs.
I've recently started reffing on the side. Our head ref was loaning his skills and asked if I'd be available to ref a men's bout. I am a skater who is reffing. I am a skater who happens to know the rules pretty well and has a whistle. As a trainer, I'm used to looking for penalties during practice.
Refs are volunteers, just like the rest of us. If they're lucky, they get a travel stipend to go to an away bout, but often not. They don't get all the glory that skaters do. They keep reffing to make sure that we skaters are safe.
So when skaters yell at refs, it de-values what they're doing. I know that there's a higher percentage of men's skaters who are refs, but please refrain from calling penalties while on the track. We spent a long time at our practices stressing that even when we don't have a lot of refs, we on the track need to not be calling the penalties ourselves.
When skaters yell at me, it makes me not want to ref that team again. Our refs are extremely valuable, let's do everything we can to retain them. Before you start to yell something at a ref, I urge you to remember, that they are watching the feet, forearms, heads, chests, directions...etc of up to 10 skaters on the track while skating in close proximity to other refs and often avoiding skaters going out of bounds. It's a lot to think about and I ASSURE you that yelling at them doesn't help.
Please thank your refs. Buy them beers at the afterparties. Include them in your league functions. Thank them and thank them again. Make sure that your refs know that you appreciate their efforts and couldn't do it without them.
Signing off,
Reffin' Rita
I've recently started reffing on the side. Our head ref was loaning his skills and asked if I'd be available to ref a men's bout. I am a skater who is reffing. I am a skater who happens to know the rules pretty well and has a whistle. As a trainer, I'm used to looking for penalties during practice.
Refs are volunteers, just like the rest of us. If they're lucky, they get a travel stipend to go to an away bout, but often not. They don't get all the glory that skaters do. They keep reffing to make sure that we skaters are safe.
So when skaters yell at refs, it de-values what they're doing. I know that there's a higher percentage of men's skaters who are refs, but please refrain from calling penalties while on the track. We spent a long time at our practices stressing that even when we don't have a lot of refs, we on the track need to not be calling the penalties ourselves.
When skaters yell at me, it makes me not want to ref that team again. Our refs are extremely valuable, let's do everything we can to retain them. Before you start to yell something at a ref, I urge you to remember, that they are watching the feet, forearms, heads, chests, directions...etc of up to 10 skaters on the track while skating in close proximity to other refs and often avoiding skaters going out of bounds. It's a lot to think about and I ASSURE you that yelling at them doesn't help.
Please thank your refs. Buy them beers at the afterparties. Include them in your league functions. Thank them and thank them again. Make sure that your refs know that you appreciate their efforts and couldn't do it without them.
Signing off,
Reffin' Rita
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