Friday, June 14, 2013

Persevere

The following drill is a guest post by coach Nadia Kean (aka "Smarty Pants") of the Texas Rollergirls.

Alternative names: --
Objective: Jammer endurance, playing clean, Blocking: holding a block in a very tight pack, avoiding the need to reset to get more space
Typical length of drill: --
Materials needed: A track, a jammer cover, a stop watch, a ref (if possible)
Skill level required: Skaters should be contact cleared unless you use positional blocking only
Description: This drill was created for a few reasons. The first, my team needed more endurance in the pack. My team also needed to stay clean, even when up against massive walls. My blockers needed to stop running forward when opponents played offense against them. They needed to hold a block for as long as possible, even when their opponent was crowding their space, making it very hard for them.

Set up: pack with as few as 5 will work, but really about 7 or 8 would be best. Have 2 skaters start on the outside of the track, with the remaining skaters starting on the inside of the track. One person on the track will be designated the Jammer. Everyone else on the track is her opponent. The two people starting off of the track will be skating laps around the outside of the track around 85-100% of their ability. Of the two people starting off of the track, one will be the next jammer. The other person is pretending that she just jammed. The whole group will go for intervals. I recommend 60-90 seconds. During the set time frame, the jammer will try to get through the pack, the pack will try to shut her down and the two skaters on the outside will skate laps. As soon as the set amount of time is up, the person who just jammed will start to skate laps, along with the person who wants to jam next. The two skaters who had just been skating laps will jump back on the track. One of them will now be a jammer, the other will now be a blocker (pretending like she just completed he post-jamming laps). While in the pack, blockers should really try to block the jammer while also being completely crowded for space by the other pack skaters.

Additional notes: To see more of Smarty Pants' guest posts, click here.

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