Roller Derby is a Jam packed (pun intended) sport with things happening at a fast pace. It can be hard to know what is going on from the outside but don’t worry, we have got you covered! Below you will find a video of the basics of roller derby, along with a full rules breakdown for anyone wanting to know the ins and outs of derby.

Scoring

Points are scored by the team’s Jammer. Jammers are the skaters wearing the star on their helmets. Jammers start each jam behind the pack and must make it through the group of blockers and back around to start scoring points. After the initial pass, Jammers score 1 point for each opposing team’s blocker’s hips they pass with their hips. Blocker’s goal is to stop jammers from getting pass them and scoring points. The first jammer out of the pack is Lead Jammer and has the ability to control the clock by calling off the jam.

Game Timing

Roller derby is made up of two 30-minute halves. In those halves, there are “Jams”. Jams are, at most, 2 minutes long each but can be called sooner by the Lead Jammer. At the start of each jam, teams field 1 jammer each and 4 blockers each. Any skater in the penalty box at the start of a jam counts as a fielded skater. So if white team has 2 blockers in the penalty box at the start of a jam, then they can field 2 more blockers for a total of 4. Jammers start behind the jam line, and blockers start between the front line (Pivot line) and the jam line.

Legal Contact

Roller derby is a full contact sport. The legal body zones to make contact with another skater (block) with are the torso, arms above the elbow, and legs above mid-thigh. Legal zones to make contact to (target zones) are an opponent’s chest, front and sides of the torso, arms, hands, hips, and the front and sides of the legs above mid-thigh, avoiding the head, neck, back around the spine, legs knee and below.

Penalties

Penalties in roller derby are called by skating officials. Skaters who receive a penalty must serve 30 seconds in the penalty box. Skaters can  get more than one penalty at a time.

There are many reasons why a skater would get a penalty. They are broken up into three categories, contact penalties, game procedure penalties, and other illegal procedures. Contact penalties consist of skaters making contact with the wrong part of their bodies or to the wrong part of their opponent’s body. Game procedure penalties can be things like cutting the track (gaining position after being hit out of the track), breaking pack (skating away or not maintaining the group of blockers), and interfering with the flow of the game (things like not fielding a jammer at the start of a jam).

These are just a few penalty examples. Learn more about WFTDA penalties here.