RMRG’s Blocking Drill

Tigre Force's guest blogging series: 5 drills from the Skater Progression Diagram.

DRILL TWO
Blocking: Positional and contact: RMRG's Blocking Drill

Alternative names: I bet this drill has a real name too, I learned it from the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls and so I named it after them
Objective: To keep the jammer behind a blocker wall of two
Typical length of drill: 20-30 mins
Materials needed: 8 cones
Skill level required: WFTDA minimum skills
Description: (see attachment)

The skaters are divided into four groups. Everybody gets to practice each position: inside blocker, outside blocker, jammer. The skaters form four lines inside the track on each turn. There are blockers in a line by the pivot line and jammers in a line by the jammer line. Both pivot and jammer lines are marked on each side of the track (four groups of skaters allow the skaters more time to practice this, since the rotation time is faster with more groups).

The blockers form a wall of two (on the pivot line on each side of the track), and their purpose is to keep the jammer behind them as long as they can. They should not pass the line marked by cones right behind the jammer line. If there is some heavy blocking, pushing or hitting involved, make sure the action ends at the cones, to make sure no one bumps into the jammers getting ready for their round.

Rotate the groups every 5 mins so that every skater gets to practice both blocking and jamming. The blockers should make sure they switch from inside to outside (and vice versa) on each round.

Additional notes: The drill probably has an official name. I didn’t catch it while skating with Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in August, 2011.

Quick Feet Drill

Tigre Force's guest blogging series: 5 drills from the Skater Progression Diagram.

DRILL ONE
Basic Skills and Endurance: SumMo Payne’s Quick Feet Drill

Alternative names: I bet this drill has got a real name too, I learned it from SumMo Payne when I joined the Kornstalkers practice so I named it after her.
Objective: To learn how to skate forward, to the sides, backwards by moving your feet quickly without turning around
Typical length of drill: 15 mins
Materials needed: 4-8 cones (or more if you have a lot of skaters)
Skill level required: Basic skills (skaters need to be cleared for contact to participate in step 2)
Description: Four cones are set up in a square formation, as shown in the illustration that follows.  Depending on how many skaters you have, you may want to put two or more sets of cones around the track/ floor so that as many skaters as possible can practice at the same time.  The distance between the cones does not have to be too big, the idea is to keep on moving your feet all the time, not to Sunday skate.

There are two steps in this drill:

Step 1
For one minute each skater moves around the set of four cones at a rapid pace.  The purpose is to keep your eyes in one direction, to not look at your feet, and to always go through the middle in order to maximize the agility practice (as shown through the blue line in the illustration).  Skaters are to use their hips to move around but should always keep their torsos and eyes facing forward.  Skaters should use their feet while moving around the cones in a random order (back to front to left to front to right to left to back to front etc.).  They should make sure that they pass the cones from all sides and not always from the same side, and to switch direction and choose randomly which cone they are about to pass next.

Illustration of SumMo Payne's Quick Feet Drill

Step 2
Another skater stands in the middle of the four cones, in a proper derby stance.  As the first skater is moving around the cones s/he gives a hit to the person standing in the middle every time s/he passes her/him.  Skaters should make sure not to hit this person while skating backwards (that's a direction of gameplay penalty).  Also, skaters should do their best with the hits in a tight space.  Try to make the person in the middle fall.  If there are many new skaters doing the drill, the hits don’t have to be that hard.  Switch the person standing and the person skating around the cones every 1 minute.

Additional notes: The drill probably has got an official name. I didn’t catch it while skating with the Kornstalkers in August, 2011.

SumMo Payne is a derby skater and a derby coach. She skates for Sioux City Roller Dames and coaches the Merby -team Kornstalkers.

The Maim Drain

Alternative names: 25 in 5

Objective: To get a good endurance workout; to practice proper derby stance and form

Typical length of drill: 5-10 minutes

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line

Skill level required: None

Description: In this simple endurance drill the skaters are going to work in pairs.  One skater will be pushing the other skater for 25 laps while the skater getting pushed stays in a proper derby stance the whole time.  After completing 25 laps the skaters switch (if possible).

Additional notes: This drill was created and submitted by Maim-Bow Brite of Kingsford Krush Roller Derby.  Maim says that this is one of her favorite drills ever.  "This will hurt the pushee just as much as the pusher.  The person getting pushed gets a good workout too because they have to stay in derby position the whole time."  Although you can switch after 25 laps, Maim says "we didn't because the people that got pushed couldn't skate very fast because their legs hurt so much from being down in derby position- so we are going to wait until next practice and then switch."  Whoa!  That's a good pain.

100 Laps

In honor of the 100th (!) drill posted on All Derby Drills, we are skating 100 laps together.

Alternative names: 5 km skate-a-thon

Objective: To build up endurance

Typical length of drill: 20 mins

Materials needed: A WFTDA regulation-size track (or a taped down track that's as close to the measurements as possible, but know that the distance skated might not be accurate in that case)

Skill level required: None

Description: The name says it all: Skate 100 laps.  It sounds like a lot but it's really not, and the skaters will feel proud of themselves after this drill for having been able to complete so many laps.  In this drill, all the skaters skate 100 laps around the track, at their own pace.  The skaters are all in charge of counting their own laps, and once they have finished they take a couple of slow cool down laps and then move to the inside of the track to cheer on their teammates.  IMO the best way to do this is to skate 4 x 25 laps, with a short, 30 second water break in between each set of 25 laps.  This helps skaters stay on track with the counting and keeps them hydrated, plus it gives them achievable goals throughout the drill ("I can totally make it to 25 laps, that's no problem" -- makes it easier mentally to complete the challenge).

If the skaters "skate the diamond" or "the perfect circle" while doing this drill (as in, edging the inside track boundary on the turns and going out to brush the outside track boundary in the middle of the straightway) they will have skated 5.07 km (or 3.15 miles) by the time they finish their 100th lap.

To avoid injury, you may want to have skaters change direction after 50 laps, or run the rest of your practice in the opposite direction.

Additional notes: This is my favorite endurance drill at the moment.  It's so nice to just skate and to focus on just one thing for a change, and when we did this recently we had a stereo playing some fun music to skate to and zone out to.  It was challenging and relaxing at the same time.  A skater even thanked me for this drill after we finished.

I came up with the thought of doing a 100-lap skateathon for a regular practice drill after hearing that a teammate of mine skated 30 km this summer outdoors.  My first thought was "Holy crap! That's crazy awesome!" and then I started to wonder how many km we actually cover in two hours of practice, and how we could probably use an extended skate drill to get skaters on our league to realize that 30 km is an achievable goal (and then we could ALL be crazy awesome).  We all know how to sprint for minimum 25 laps to do well in time trials, so why shouldn't we be able to skate 100 laps in 20 minutes at a normal skating pace?  Thus the 100 Laps -drill was born.  And I've since found out that many leagues have a habit of skating 60-70 laps just for warm-ups so hell, 100 laps is a piece of cake :) and it's a good building block towards being able to skate 30 km in one sitting.

Bus Ride

Alternative names: Finnish Bus Ride

Objective: Conditioning, staying focused, speed control, skating in a low derby stance

Typical length of drill: 10-15 mins

Materials needed: A full track or just a few cones to mark the inside track line, + four cones to use as bus stops

Skill level required: None

Description: Start by setting up your four bus stops on the outside of the track – one cone at each apex and one cone at the very middle of every straightaway.  The skaters split into four equal groups and each group stands at a bus stop when the drill begins.  The coach begins as the bus driver (and it's up to you if you want to stick to one bus driver the whole time or switch it up and have a few of the skaters act as bus drivers too) and the drill starts when the bus driver begins skating around the track.  Naturally, s/he is “sitting” in her/his “chair” as s/he is driving the bus around the track.  The skaters at the bus stops can now start hailing the bus by sticking their arm out.  When the bus driver stops the bus in front of a bus stop the skaters who are at that bus stop can choose to get on the bus or to wait a little bit longer (in this drill the skaters themselves get to decide for how long they will be sitting on the bus).  When the skaters get on the bus they “take a seat” (meaning, they get into the 90° angle squat position, as if actually sitting in a chair) behind the bus driver, two people always next to each other so that there is a double line behind the driver.  Once the passengers are on the bus the bus begins driving.  Everyone on the bus follows the bus driver, whatever she does.  If she comes to another bus stop where other passengers want to get on, the whole bus has to slow down and come to a stop.  If the bus driver speeds up, the whole bus has to speed up.  If the bus driver has to navigate through multiple lanes of traffic, the whole bus has to do so.  The bus driver is in charge and gets to decide what obstacles the bus encounters and at what times, her/his job is to call them out to the rest of the passengers so that they know what to do.  Here are suggestions for the many different things that the bus can do during the bus ride:

• Driving through a tunnel – Everyone squats really really super low so as not to hit the ceiling of the tunnel
• Debris in the road – Everyone jumps over the debris
• Pedestrians or road kill – The bus has to weave around the pedestrians or the road kill
• Local roads – The bus goes really slowly
• Highway – The bus speeds up and goes really fast
• A tree in the middle of the road – Everyone splits up so as to make room for the tree to go through the middle of the bus and then everyone immediately comes together again
• A group of children crossing the street – Everyone weaves around like mad making sure not to hit any of the children in the middle of the road
• Red light / Green light – When the light turns red the bus comes to a halt.  When the light goes green again the bus takes off.

If passengers wish to get off the bus because they feel they can't “stay seated” any longer, they say the word “Pling!” nice and loud so that the bus driver hears them, and then the bus pulls over at the next stop.  At this point anyone who wishes to exit the bus may do so.  I like to tell skaters before doing this drill that when they start feeling like they want to get off the bus because they can't squat any longer, they should try to push themselves to one more bus stop and THEN press the button so that they get that extra benefit of pushing themselves just a little bit further.



An illustrated example of the Bus Ride -drill.  Click the image to view it larger.


I usually end with 5 laps of highway at which time no one is allowed to get on or off the bus (I mean really, how often do you see bus stops on the highway?) so I warn the skaters that it's about to come up in case they want to get back on the bus before it's too late.

If you are lucky and have an off-skates assistant, you can ask this person to throw or place cones (or other things) onto the track in the path of the bus so that all the skaters have concrete obstacles to weave around.  If you have multiple off-skates people at practice you can ask them to be physical pedestrians or road kill or school children for the bus to navigate around.

Additional notes:  I came up with this drill in the spring when I wanted to have a fun drill that felt like a game but also gave our thigh muscles a good workout while at the same time forcing us to practice skating nice and low.  I've done this a few times with a few different groups and it has always been well received.  Because it's a short-ish drill (very effective even if you do it for only 10 minutes) it's also a really great filler – you can plug it in to any small spaces that you may have leftover in your practice schedule.  I like to do this at the end of practice because it's a fun way to end the day, but I've also been known to start practice with this (after regular warm-ups) to get everyone to squat low from the very beginning.  This is a good drill to help skaters who skate too upright.

Feel free to suggest your own fun bus obstacles in the comments -section below!  I know you've got some :)

Reverse Fire Drill

Alternative names: None (weaving / pace line variant)

Objective: 360 degree awareness, upper body flexibility, pacing, weaving, trust, c-cuts

Typical length of drill: 5 minutes or however long it takes

Materials needed: One passable object per approximately 8 skaters (Nerf balls recommended)

Skill level required: Generally people who are ready for contact have the skills needed for this drill

Description: This is an intermediate weaving or pace line.

As with the Squeezebox, I use this as a warm up drill when we will use drills later in practice which build on the skills. This would include blocking/hitting from the front, pack awareness, game awareness, pacing, and lateral movement. This drill moves the balls in the opposite direction of the Fire Drill. Skaters should already be familiar with and skilled at skating in a weaving or pace line.

All skaters line up in a single pace line about two arm lengths apart. The activity of the drill will enforce this.

Distribute Nerf balls through the line about one for every eight skaters. You can use other objects as well. For advanced skaters, weighted medicine balls work. Other objects could be stuffed animals, shoes, swim noodles, cones, other balls. I prefer Nerf balls with new skaters because they are easy to see and they are easy to grab with wrist guards.

As the pace line starts, the balls are passed forward. This requires skaters at the front of the line to be constantly looking back to know where the balls are in the pace line. Once a ball reaches the front of the line, the skater takes the ball and weaves backward through the line. On reaching the back of the line, they pass their ball forward and the drill repeats from there.

If a skater can tag the back of the skater in front of them without the front skater knowing the ball is there, the tagged (front) skater must leave the line and complete some activity, I usually require 10 push ups, then return to the line.

Additional notes:
After we started doing the Fire Drill at Pioneer Valley, it was simply a matter of my natural habit to always see if we can do something backward from the way we do it forward. Thus this drill was born. As with many things, this drill is a little more difficult than it is in the "forward" direction.

Coaching Notes
Encourage skaters to reach back for the balls in both the right and left directions.

Make sure skaters are making eye contact with the person behind them as they receive the ball. Encourage skaters to turn at the waist and to pass the ball, not throw it.

As a coach, intermittently I will remind the group to know where all the balls are, to remind them to look around. Be specific! If I have a green and two yellow Nerf balls in the line, I'll say "where are the yellow balls?" or "who is carrying the green ball?" The activity of having to look for something, identify it, and observe it's current process will help skaters learn the mental skills of judging and processing time passage on the track.

Especially when working with new skaters, encourage them to be in the right position at the right time. If they've fallen behind when receiving the ball because they haven't continued skating while reaching back, they'll have to catch up to the skater in front of them to hand the ball off. Use this as a learning opportunity of illustrating the need to be where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there and also to keep skating when looking behind you. Skaters cannot forfeit one activity (keeping up with the pace line - aka keeping up with the pack) for another (reaching back for a pass - aka giving a teammate whip).

Skaters in line must be told to keep their line and to keep it straight. Early feedback in developing this drill is that the skater weaving back must be able to feel they can trust their line to be where it's supposed to be when it's supposed to be there. Newer skaters will have a tendency to flinch and try to get out of the weaver's way. Ultimately that will lead to crashes, so this should be kept to skaters cleared for contact. This is a great opportunity to teach this pack skill - stay where you're supposed to be and skate in a way your team can predict where you'll be.

Encourage people to keep up with the line. Newer skaters will also tend to slow to allow the weaving skater to go in front of them. This creates bad habits. If a weaver misses a spot, they should go for the next one. Skaters should keep pack pace.

Pre-instruction on how to weave includes the following tips:

• Be looking back over your shoulder closest to the line as you weave
• As you're crossing through the line, you should already be shifting your weight to skate back through the next gap
• You do not actually skate backward, the pace line is simply moving in the forward direction faster than the weaver
• You are not moving slower than the weaving line, you're actually moving faster - laterally. This makes your forward movement slower than the pace line.
  
• Recognize this weaving movement is the precursor to blocking and hitting from a forward vantage point
• Trust your line to move as it should
• If weaving is too easy, then jump/hop through the line
• Always anticipate your next move

This drill works well in both derby and non-derby direction. I usually run this drill for half the time or at least one full cycle of the line in derby direction, then lead the group in a figure 8 to reverse direction and run it again or the remainder of the time.

Participants may be split into lines of appropriate speed keeping the faster line to the outside and the slower line to the inside. At Pioneer Valley, we have 10' markers that are only about 2-3' wide. For a single line, the line must stay over those markers. For two lines, the inside line stays between the inside track boundary and the inside of the markers while the outside line stays between the outside of the markers and the outside track boundary.

Side Note
While you have balls out on the track, an added benefit we have at our practices is we throw the balls around while doing warm up or cool down laps. This is not a pace line thing and is helpful for all levels of skaters.

• Develops hand eye coordination
• Develops a sense of learning to aim for where someone will be (especially with slow Nerf balls) not where they are
• Takes attention away from the activity of skating and helps skaters gain comfort on their feet
• Encourages sub-conscious speeding up and slowing down to catch the ball
• Encourages full track awareness (Where are the balls? Is one being thrown to me?)
  
• Helps skaters learn to get low to pick up dropped balls at speed
  

Push-n-Pull Pyramids

Alternative names: Shopping Carts

Objective: To practice proper stance and form; to get a good endurance workout; to practice using your outdoor voice

Typical length of drill: 15-20 mins

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line

Skill level required: None

Description: In this drill all the skaters take turns pushing and pulling a partner around the track.  To begin, have all of your skaters pair up with another skater.  It's good for them to pair up with someone their own speed and size but it's not crucial.  Each pair decides who is going to be skater A and who is going to be skater B and then all the pairs line up on the pivot line with skater A standing behind skater B, her/his hands ready on skater B's lower back/butt (basically on that sweet spot in-between the two).  On the whistle all skater A's begin pushing their partner around the track and the skater B's are simply staying in a nice, low derby stance and acting as dead weight.  After skater A has pushed skater B for one lap s/he speeds up past skater B and then becomes dead weight for skater B to push.  Once skater B has pushed skater A for one lap s/he speeds up past skater A and becomes dead weight. Then A pushes B for two laps, they switch, B pushes A for two laps, switch, A pushes for three laps, switch, B pushes for three laps, etc. (this is called "going up the pyramid").  They keep going like this until both have pushed each other for five laps, and then they switch to pulling each other while they are coming down the pyramid, starting with pulling each other for four laps each, then three laps each, two laps each, and finally, one lap each.  In the end both skaters are going to have acted as dead weight for 25 laps, have pushed another skater for 15 laps, and pulled another skater for 10 laps.  During this drill it is the dead weight skater's job to loudly yell out the number of laps that the pair is completing.  This helps skaters practice communication and using their outdoor voice (important when there are hundreds of screaming fans drowning out all the communication within the pack).

It's good to remind skaters during this drill that the lower they are when they're acting as dead weight, the easier it is for their partner to push and pull them.  Also, if you have a large group of skaters at practice, instead of having everyone pack up tightly on the pivot line at the beginning of the drill you can just have all the pairs spread out around the track and simply ask them to remember their point of origin for the sake of switching.

If you find that your skaters aren't pushing themselves during this drill, what you can do is add an element of competition to it.  Instead of having everyone go up the 5-lap pyramid and come back down, choose a number of minutes for which to do this (i.e. 5 minutes) and then challenge your skaters to see just how many steps up the pyramid they can go with their partner.  The pair who gets the furthest wins and maybe as a prize they get to skip the next five push-ups or something (or if you want to be really sinister, make the prize 10 push-ups and don't tell the skaters before-hand.  I mean hey, we're athletes and it's rewarding to get exercise and feel strong, right?).  If you use this alternative at practice, make sure that your skaters are partnering up with skaters of opposite speed so that the fastest and strongest skaters don't push and pull each other and automatically win.  Since yelling out the number of laps is a key part of this drill you have an opportunity to keep an eye on the skaters and make sure that they're not making up any laps or steps up the pyramid.

Additional notes: The original version of this drill is one that we did with New Hampshire Roller Derby (and again I don't know who the originator is so I apologize for not being able to give appropriate credit!), but the competitive variation is my own creation.  I'm a really competitive person so it should be no surprise that I like to participate in and make up competitive drills :)

This drill can work for warm-up, just make it timed or cut down the number of laps to skate so that it's not so endurancy.  I'd also like to mention that this is a good drill to do in the opposite direction.  If you like this drill you might also like Push-n-Pull and Pyramids.

Cross-training: Ice Skating

Alternative names: --

Objective: To be able to practice roller derby and improve your skills even when you don't have an indoor space to use, and even when the weather outside is frightful

Typical length of drill: N/A

Materials needed: A pair of ice skates, good thick gloves, knee pads, and depending on your own skill level and comfort, you can choose to deck out in the full derby protective gear (and I definitely did it myself the first time)

Skill level required: None

Description: Ok, so, this is not really a drill, but I really want to inspire all of you to try ice skating to see how you can use it to your advantage as a roller derby skater.  Your roller derby skills are totally transferable to the ice.  I don't think that we should be playing straight-up full-contact roller derby on the ice what with the dangers that the sharp blades pose, and the difficulty of fitting all the appropriate protective gear over winter clothes, but those of us who live in countries where the winter comes on hard we can really take advantage of the ice skating opportunities.  There are several different things that you can practice on the ice, and we've covered just a handful of them in the video.  The video is meant to get you started and motivate you to try some simple things just to see what you're capable of, and then you can start trying out some more advanced things yourself.  Some of the things that you can practice on the ice (most of which we demonstrate in the video) are: Endurance, agility, balance, stops, and assists.  Balance in particular can be practiced really effectively on ice skates because it can be much harder to stay up on two thin blades on slippery ice than on eight grippy wheels on hardwood floor.

Disclaimer: Although ice skating is very similar to roller skating, it is NOT the same.  If you're great at roller skating, don't assume that you'll naturally be great at ice skating.  I did and was sorely disappointed when I discovered that it was like month two of derby training all over again.  The good news is though, that it doesn't take long to improve.  Just like when you started practicing roller derby, every time you skate you'll learn something new.  The improvements are tangible.  If you keep practicing, you'll be doing gliding swans and shooting the duck in no time!

Video: Roller derby cross-training: Ice Skating

Additional notes: This video was made by All Derby Drills and some really determined skaters from Helsinki Roller Derby who had no qualms about braving the -12°C weather for two hours (and did I mention it was snowing the whole time too?).  Plans for a video demonstrating some actual derby drills that you can do on ice skates is in the works too, stay tuned.

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Leg Burners

Alternative names: --

Objective: To get a muscle workout; to practice getting and staying really low

Typical length of drill: 7-10 mins

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line, and one additional cone in a different color to use as a marker

Skill level required: None

Description: Set up your marker -cone on one of the corners, next to the track boundary.  On the whistle all the skaters start by skating one lap around, and when they pass the cone, they begin to sprint.  When they pass the cone the next time, they get into a proper squat position, with their arms out straight and all eight wheels on the floor, and then they coast/skate this way until they pass the cone again, at which point they sprint again.  Repeat this cycle of alternating a lap of sprinting with a lap of low squat coasting/skating for about at least 5-7 minutes or for a certain number of laps (i.e. start with 25 and see how your skaters do and feel).  The coach should make sure that the skaters' squat stances are proper and that their knees are not turning in (everything should be aligned so as to prevent knee -damage: toes, knees, hips, shoulders).

Additional notes: This drill was originally posted by Marc Schneider on the roller derby coaches Yahoo group here.  I really like this drill, it's a really great workout and a good way to practice staying low even after getting tired and sore.  It's also a really easy drill to do and I think it can thus very appropriate for freshmeat.

Push-n-Pull

Alternative names: Shopping Carts

Objective: To build up endurance and strengthen the derby muscles; to practice proper derby stance; to support each other

Typical length of drill: 10 mins

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line

Skill level required: None

Description: This is an endurance drill where skaters take turns pushing and pulling three other skaters for 60 seconds at a time.  Divide all of your skaters into groups of four (if your skaters don't evenly divide into groups of four you can have one or two groups of five, or involve the referees!) and then have all the groups spread themselves out around the track so that everyone isn't starting from the same exact place.  The groups should form lines where everyone but the first person is holding on to the hips of another skater, essentially building a train (see image below). On the whistle the person in the back begins pushing the three skaters in front of her/him while the three skaters stay in proper derby stance doing nothing but being dead-weight.  The skater in the back pushes her/his teammates for 60 seconds and then the coach blows the whistle again signaling for the pusher to let go and skate up to the front of the line and become dead-weight.  The person now in the back begins pushing.  This continues until all the skaters in line have gotten the chance to push for 60 seconds, then the pulling begins.  Each skater pulls the line of three dead-weight skaters behind her for 60 seconds and then drops back and grabs onto the skater in the back becoming dead-weight herself/himself.

Coaches during this drill should consistently be correcting skaters on their form because after a while this drill gets really heavy on the legs and skaters begin standing up more.  It's good to remind skaters that they can make it easier for the pusher/puller by being low -- the taller a skater stands, the more difficult it is for the pusher/puller.  If you look at the image below the skaters being pushed should be told to get lower, and particularly the skater in the pink shorts second from the front should be told to bend her knees more as her stance is not quite proper.

Additional notes: This is another one of those drills I learned while skating with New Hampshire Roller Derby :)  I think that this drill is great for freshmeat because they can practice the proper stance and form without having to worry about falling since they are all attached.  Also, this drill gives all the skaters a good chance to show each other some love -- during the drill they should be helping each other out by encouraging their teammates to push themselves and keep going hard and not give up.  Finally I'd also like to add that this is a great drill to do in the clockwise direction, in fact, we often change direction in the middle, when we switch from pushing to pulling.

Minnie Gun BangBang pushing a group of three at a Helsinki Roller Derby practice. Photo by Mick Dagger.

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Just Skate

Alternative names: Lazy Coach, Coach Cop Out
Objective: To prepare skaters for the WFTDA minimum skills test; to build endurance; to practice pacing yourself; to practice proper skating form
Typical length of drill: 5 mins
Materials needed: A properly laid down track 
Skill level required: None
Description: This is basically just skating your hardest for five minutes straight and counting your own laps; like a time-trial without the pressure of an actual time-trial.  All the skaters spread out around the track and on the first whistle start skating.  Each time they pass their point of origin they count one lap.  Skaters who have done this drill more than once can use this as a way to gauge their own improvement.  Skaters should also be using this drill to learn how to pace themselves, meaning, not necessarily pushing at 100% from the start because then you might be skating at 50% in the last two minutes because you're so exhausted. 
Additional notes: This drill is aah so simple yet so effective.  Great filler at practice because it's nice an' short but still good for endurance.  This is one of those drills that I came up with myself but since it didn't require the least bit of brain-power I don't think I deserve any credit for it (it can be called "Lazy Coach" for a reason...).  When I was including this drill in practices on a regular basis I noticed that skaters really appreciated the opportunity to check in on themselves, they liked doing this drill more than once and being able to count their own laps to see if they'd improved since last we did it, or to push themselves to do better than they did last time.  It became sort of a confidence booster.

Please note that if you want to know the definite number of laps that a skater can do in five minutes (like when you're doing REAL time-trials for WFTDA testing) you need to have someone who is NOT skating counting the test-takers' laps because most skaters lose track after about lap 12 (or lap 3 if you get as distracted by the good lookin' refs as I do).

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Jammer Hell

Alternative names: --

Objective: To build up endurance and stamina; to feel what it’s like to be a jammer;  to practice proper skating form

Typical length of drill: 20 minutes is a full Jammer Hell but this drill can be shortened (or lengthened) depending on the wishes / needs of the coaches or skaters, or the time available

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line

Skill level required: None, but if you have a mix of really green skaters and advanced skaters it's important that you remind the advanced skaters to communicate their whereabouts at all times because many green skaters have been known to get scared / uncomfortable during this drill when the fast advanced skaters zoom by at close proximities without warning

Description: All skaters sprint around the track for a full two minutes, then coast for 30 seconds; repeat this cycle eight times.

Additional notes: It's called Jammer Hell because it's really exhausting to sprint at full speed for a full two minutes over and over and over again.  It's important that skaters hydrate before and after this drill.  This can also be a good drill to practice basic skating skills since that's essentially all the skater is doing for 20 minutes.

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