Friday, March 11, 2011

Wild Rumpus

Alternative names: --
Objective: Pack awareness; communication between teammates; track awareness; avoiding penalties
Typical length of drill: Depends on how long you and your skaters wish to play, but you should probably reserve a minimum of 20 minutes for this drill
Materials needed: A stuffed animal or other toy; a WFTDA regulation-size track (or a taped down track that's as close to the measurements as possible); pinnies/vests for the skaters OR ask them to bring both a black and a white shirt to practice
Skill level required: None if you keep it non-contact
Description: This is more like a fun game than a drill; your skaters are going to be fighting over possession of a stuffed toy.  Split all of your skaters into two teams using pinnies or different colored shirts.  One team starts with the stuffed animal.  As long as the team in possession can pass the toy amongst themselves, they remain in possession.  The other team can take the toy by hitting/pushing the person who has it out of bounds or if it drops to the floor.  The toy must be visible and in a skater's hands at all times, skaters may not hide the toy under their shirts or in their shorts.

To make this competitive you can play this game in 2-minute jams and always give a point to the team that has possession of the toy at the end of each jam.  If you do it this way, take turns giving the toy to each team at the beginning of each jam so that both teams have an equal chance.  Another way to make it competitive, if you have the luxury of two time keepers, is counting how many minutes each team has possession of the toy.  At the end of the pre-determined number of game-minutes the team with the most possession -time wins.  If you do it this way, you can determine which team starts with the toy by placing it somewhere on the track and letting two skaters from opposing teams race to it, Dodgeball -style.

Please note that you can play this game full contact or non-contact.

Additional notes: This was originally posted by Vexine of the Emerald City Roller Girls on the roller derby coaches Yahoo group here.  Re-posted on A.D.D. with permission.  Only the competitive suggestions were added by me.  Vexine does not want to take credit for inventing the drill as she feels like she "got the idea somewhere and adapted it" but I do love the name that the Emerald City Roller Girls came up with -- apparently they play with a little Where the Wild Things Are -stuffed animal :)

3 comments:

  1. We did this with Team Awesome at RollerCon 2008, but instead of a toy we had a shoe. I like this drill...

    ReplyDelete
  2. We did this at practice yesterday, with only five skaters and non-contact due to difficult (outdoor) conditions.. but we still had a blast, and - my comment as the coach - a good workout and a great, fun addition that absolutely serves well as a communication/awareness drill.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bree / Kouvola Rock n RollersAugust 30, 2011 at 8:10 AM

    We tried this and it became the favorite drill of all our skaters, immideately. All our players are still non-contact, so we obviously leaved that part out, and we also changed the rules a bit, so that a skates can have the toy for max 10 seconds, and then give it to next person. And also falling down would lead to losing your toy. This made our skaters stay in a close pack, and they were learning to be aware and know where their own skaters and the opposing skaters are. Also good drill to encourage new skaters to be a little more brave, it propably wakes some old childhood traumas of somebody trying to take your toys because they all went nuts and were very competitive :D We tried this with 2 min jams, and the team which had the toy in the end of two minutes won. And we also placed the toy in the middle of the track in the beginning.

    And from now on the drill is called "the bunny" in our league, cos now we have a team colored bunny instead of the old t-shirt tied on a knot we had at first time.

    ReplyDelete