Human Shield Obstacle Course

Alternative names: --

Objective: Team-building; Warm-up; Explosive energy; Agility; Fun

Typical length of drill: 10-15 mins

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line; minimum 11 participating skaters

Skill level required: None

Description: In this drill your skaters will make an obstacle course around the track for each other using their bodies.  I'm going to describe how the drill was originally set up by its creator, and then it is up to you to change it so that it suits YOUR needs.  You will need 10 people to volunteer to be the obstacles at the start of the drill, once everyone has gone through the course once you switch the obstacle -persons so that everyone gets to do it at least one time.  Here are the obstacle positions:

• 2 people balled up on the ground as turtles: You will jump over them
• 2 people standing next to each other in a wide stance, making a wall with a narrow space in the middle: You will squeeze your way through the space
• 3 people in a row with legs spread apart widely: You will crawl through the tunnel shaped by their legs
• 1 person standing really close to the inside line: You will jump/leap along the inside line to get by her/him (AND stay in bounds)
• 1 person standing at the end of the course waiting to chase you: You will run away from her/him as fast as you can, until you reach the goal line
• 1 person at the goal line to be the buddy who cheers you on the whole time and high-fives you when you cross it.  After high-fiving the buddy you stay and become the buddy for the next person going through the obstacle course.

Illustration of the set-up. Click to view larger.

This is a team-building activity and a self-esteem booster so the cheerleading buddy at the end is a totally necessary part of the course.  It also teaches the skaters how to be supportive of each other, and even helps some of them to come out of their shells.

CherryF jumps over the turtles

Coco crawls through the tunnel after she's squozen her way through the wall

When we do this with our league, many of our skaters choose to wear their knee pads while going through the course because they get so into it that when they dive (literally) into the tunnel they risk injuring themselves.  People really run through this course :)

Tigre (L) begins to chase Dyna (R) right after she has hopped over Kata (center)

Even though our version here is pretty condensed (only covers half the track) you could totally spread the people out around the track more, and really make your skaters weave around a lot, and force them to use their agility -- in the photos you might notice that the tunnel is located close to the outside line while the wall and the inside blocker are located close to the inside line.  This adds a little bit more challenge to it.  I also like to imagine a huge league doing this with like 50 skaters, all spread out in crazy ways around the track, making like this really intricate obstacle course that involve motions too, like lots of squats and the person going through the course has to wait for a certain moment in the motion to pass/jump/crawl around/behind/under the obstacle.  Perhaps we should create video game -like levels of this drill with increasing difficulty and obstacles in each level.....?

Additional notes: This drill was dreamed up by Team Finland's 2011 assistant coach, Tigre Force (pictured above).  By dreamed up I literally mean that she saw it in front of her as she was going to sleep on a warm July evening in 2011.  Tigre Force will do some guest blogging for us very soon and post other awesome drills that she's into.  She's also got a great little blog of her own called Travelling In the Name of Derby where you can read all about her derby excursions and coaching/skating experiences.

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 :)

Two-Point Touch

Alternative names: --

Objective: To practice touching each other as much as possible; to practice effective blocking while going slow; to practice using each others' bodies and senses on the track; to practice team-blocking; to practice communication
Typical length of drill: 15 mins
Materials needed: A WFTDA regulation-size track (or a taped down track that's as close to the measurements as possible)

Skill level required: None, though some skaters may want to use contact in this drill

Description: In this drill skaters will go in groups of three onto the track and work together to block one opponent.  Start by getting all of your skaters into four lines.  Three of the lines are for blockers, and the last line is for the opponent.  The first skater from each blocker line will get onto the track and form a tight-knit group of blockers, and the first skater from the opponent line will start just slightly behind the blockers and try to get by them.  The blockers have one lap in which to work hard to block the opponent and really slow her down.  When the lap is complete they get back into line, making sure that they practice team-blocking 3 out of 4 times, and that they act as the opponent 1 out of 4 times (hence the four lines).  The main idea of this drill is that while they are blocking they should be constantly touching -- a minimum of two points of each blockers' body needs to always be touching another skater.  That could mean you touching someone with both hands, someone else touching you with both hands, or one person touching you with one hand while you touch someone else with your other hand.  Either way, two points on your body should always be touching another blocker.  The blockers are also to use each other, use each others' bodies, and use each others' senses.  That could mean pushing your body off another skater (while remaining in contact with them), holding on to another skater's hips and acting as the group booty while said person is acting as the eyes forward, pushing a teammate's body into the way of the opponent (while still remaining in contact with them, of course) -- basically you use each other and thus all together become one super-human (or super-blocker, really).  While touching each other and using each others' bodies, verbal communication is key.  The blockers should be constantly telling each other where the opponent is and what direction they are going in.  When skaters practice using both verbal and physical communication at the same time like this, it really improves their teamwork and team-blocking skills.

An illustration of the Two-Point Touch drill.  Click the image to view it larger.

I like to tell all the skaters before we begin that this is a blocker drill, NOT a jammer drill, that when you act as the opponent make it challenging for your teammates but not impossible.  Everyone should be learning how to team-block and get an opportunity to practice this skill thoroughly.

Then, after we've done this for about 5-10 mins and I see that everyone is getting it and is doing a good job, I tell the skaters that when they play the part of the opponent they should go all out and really make the blockers work for it.  Since you will encounter amazing opponents in your inter-league games it is imperative that you use practice-time to actually practice playing against people who give you a good run for your money.




Photo by Sean Murphy

 

Photo by Sean Murphy


Here Team Finland is using this drill in actual game-play against Team Sweden, successfully holding back the Swedish jammer.  Notice how all four blockers are touching a teammate with at least two points of their bodies (including a boob hold in the first picture, tehee).

Additional notes: This is by far my favorite drill at the moment.  I came up with this after seeing the London Rollergirls play against the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in London a few months ago.  I noticed how extremely effective RMRG was at keeping the LRG jammer or goat behind them by getting into a tight group of three + blockers who just constantly were touching and grabbing and pulling and using each other.  I have always been taught and known the importance of touching in derby, but RMRG's display of touching was really what drove home the point for me.  I can honestly say that after the first time we did this drill we immediately saw improvement in the next scrimmage/pre-gaming drill.  And after having done this (and variations of it) a few times now, our teamwork has progressed tremendously.  Though this drill highlights team-blocking while going slowly, the skills learned apply to fast derby as well, and what we learned going slowly in this drill has helped our fast game a great deal too.

Finally I would also like to suggest that after completing this drill (or after you've completing a few rounds of it) you ask everyone how they felt when they were playing the part of the opponent.  Was it frustrating?  What parts of the body did they have to use to try to get by?  Leagues who do not practice a lot of team-blocking will be surprised by how effective constant touching, grabbing and pulling is, and how much more difficult it becomes to get through the pack when the opponents are really good at team-blocking.  I also like to ask my blockers how they felt doing this, what they felt as they were going through this drill.  It really can be an eye-opener for some.

Red Light / Green Light

Alternative names: none

Objective: To work on starting, stopping, and attentiveness

Typical length of drill: However long you want

Materials needed: an open skating space

Skill level required: ability to stop in any form / ability to control speed in a pack

Description: This drill is an old roller rink open skate stand by!

Anyone who has skated an open skate, at least at a rink in the U.S., has probably played this game in its most basic form. All players line up at one end of the "rink" touching the opposing wall from the caller or the "goal".

There is one person who "calls" the game. When the caller says "green light" the skaters may skate. When the caller says "red light" the skaters must cease all movement. Skaters need to freeze in place. Even moving the arms or falling over after the words "red light" are spoken are considered moving. All skaters who move after the words "red light" must return to the beginning and start over.

The caller is prone to say things other than "green light." Some of my favorites are "green tomatoes", "green thumbs", "purple people eaters." They can also say things other than "red light". You get the idea. Only the words "green light" release the players from their frozen states.

How quickly someone freezes on hearing "red light" is somewhat subjective. I like to institute a count of "one one thousand two" but your mileage may vary.

The first skater to pass the end zone (a line or the caller) wins. This encourages speed in skating.

Making it a Pack Drill

Group skaters into packs of 2 to 4 and make the pack responsible for starting and stopping appropriately. Creating interdependence in the game makes it more advanced.

Additional notes:
 
Coaching notes
Do not underestimate the power of awareness games to improve the mental acuity of skaters! We know in real bouts being able to quickly process whether a referee blew a whistle (it's a major I go to the box) or just shouted color/number/penalty (it's a minor, keep skating) can make a difference in being there for the play at hand. That's not all. Skaters are always having to quantify and qualify what's going on around them in bouts.

I like to use the original roller rink game for fresh meat who are just learning to stop. It is difficult to encourage skaters to actually get some speed when learning to stop. This game rewards speed and fast, controlled stopping.

Modify this game all you want. Make all skaters go backward. Make them change directions each time they restart. Make them keep all 8 on the floor. Whatever you're working on you can integrate into this game.

Six Stride Hell

Alternative names: --

Objective: Work on acceleration from pack speed

Typical length of drill: 5-10 minutes

Materials needed: a skating surface

Skill level required: cross overs and the ability to skate on one leg in corners and straight aways (to be effective)

Description: Have all skaters on "the track" skating at their own "pack speed" spaced out randomly around the track.

On the whistle, all skaters take six hard, fast sprint steps from wherever they are then return to normal skating. Repeat whistle randomly for drill length. 

Additional notes: Generally at Pioneer Valley we use this as an ending drill, something to bring the heart rate back up, before skating a few laps to cool down and stretch.

This could be used as a pack drill to get teams of people used to speeding up and slowing down together.

While everyone is on the track, this is a drill about individual performance. Skaters should have a sense of urgency to skate the hardest and fastest six strides they can on that whistle. If it's 5 or 7 it's not a failure. The point is to begin the sprint from wherever you are and handle it through people also on the track.

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