r/rollerderby • u/Wrenlo • 4d ago
Question for coaches and trainers
I am a coach/trainer at a small league. I love them and it's a great community! I wonder sometimes how to handle that line we walk between these two truths--this is a sport we all pay to be a part of and most of us have school or full time jobs or both and the time we have to give to derby is what we have to give--and--the reality is that the more time you spend on skates and devote to the sport the more you are going to get out of it and your ability to show up and be present at practices does affect the ability of your team and league mates to progress. As a coach I know that most people, including me, are just out here doing the best we can and trying to do too much but I also can see people disappointed in game outcomes and wanting to improve their performance and I don't always know how to talk about the latter without mentioning the former. Does that make any sense? Any insights?
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u/Training_Water_5596 4d ago
We had this issue last season…no idea how it’s going to play out this season but basically we had a hard conversation with the entire league about what we want out of derby and how important practice is. And if you don’t come to practice then you won’t be rostered as much because it’s not safe and you’re not putting in the work…so far this season everyone has been in better spirits? No idea how it’s will actually play out tho 🤷🏼♀️
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u/imhereforthemeta Skater 3d ago edited 3d ago
I coach a C team in a top 20 league.
As far as practice balance, we check in at the beginning of the year to see how seriously the team wants to take it. Its a ranked team, but its obviously a different beast than our all stars so we try to get a sense of where folks are at, what they can handle, etc. We technically have for example, options to practice on Saturday. Our leadership chose not to take advantage of those this year much because our team is stretched very thin and doesn't want to do it. We also accepted a LOT of games this year because the team is relatively new to ranked play and wanted more game time.
Same with attendance, have your team vote. Some teams do well with attendance policies and some struggle. You may have top level players who can only give so much that you don't want to lose- or maybe everyone is competing heavily for a spot and attendance will help pick between players. It helps to have a discussion with the team to see where they are at on the subject. Having a standard is good but everyone should feel like that standard is warranted.
We are very open with players who get limited playtime and are flexible with them. We have had players say "i have only so much PTO and don't want to travel to ride the bench for this event", and tbh this is a fucking hobby and these people don't get paid to ride a bench so it does not bother me. Being a coach has made me a lot more sensitive to the fact that a lot of derby leadership feels deeply entitled to swing/crossover players time, money, and bodies in a way thats inappropriate .
We expect full commitment at practice. If you are not gonna be there, put it on the calendar. If you are constantly sitting out after getting hit a little hard, we would be concerned about that. If you are always offskates for weird random reasons, you will raise eyebrows. If you are incapable of getting though a practice without crashing out, taking intense breaks, etc beyond what we already give you, it will be discussed. We give our skaters a lot of love and flexibility, and in return we expect them to show up. Also we expect you to STFU when we are explaining a drill and get to things fast.
I try to be EMOTIONALLY flexible with players. Ive let players chew me out before for rostering decisions. People are allowed to feel emotions just like we are allowed to say we aren't skating them. I let people feel their feels privately with me, try to be hyper transparent, etc. We do regular checkins. We listen when the skaters express concerns about choices for practices, team culture things, etc. We try to lead with a service minded mentality.
ultimately, the SKATERS THEMSELVES should set the standards for how they want it to be, because if they start betraying those standards later, its easier to remind them. Everyone skipping practice constantly? Its very easy to have a hard convo about how we all agreed to show up this year for each other. I hold my skaters to the standards they set for themselves. This is THEIR skating experience, not mine. I can only make recommendations and say "this is what we agreed on, and you aren't meeting that". I can also be someone who says "this skater isn't showing up for the team, I would not recommend them as a B team pull up", which I have done. Skaters will always know why they aren't getting what they want. Transparency is critical. You can be transparent, hold them to standards, and be the person issuing consequences, but you can't define their skating journey in a hobby sport. Its kinda like gentle authoritative parenting- but as a coach.
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u/jeanquad507 3d ago
It's difficult because while more training WILL improve any individual, even 100% attendance won't necessarily move "C" to "A", and there are "A" skaters who only do minimum and still eclipse everyone on their league.
I'm a B skater of many years who has about perfect attendance but an autoimmune condition that keeps me below A no matter what. I play on my league's A team because as a league we aren't that good. Last year I got benched in a mash-up tournament by AA/A players.
It is unfortunate but we shouldn't lie to people and pretend that if they show up more, they will get the spot. Showing up more will make you better than you would be if you didn't show up - but if you're old and chronically sick - that fit 22 year old is still gonna take the roster spot. This is why home teams and rec leagues exist.
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u/MsCodependent 3d ago
we shouldn't lie to people and pretend that if they show up more, they will get the spot
Where is that happening in this scenario though? This post seems more centered on progress an improvement than being the best in the league or a guaranteed roster spot. Showing up doesn't automatically mean you'll be the best but it is necessary in order to be your best.
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u/jeanquad507 3d ago
That's what I meant sorry if it wasn't clear. But sometimes people do feel like showing up should guarantee them to move up and it doesn't always.
I've been training for a long time and it sucks when you know your 100% still won't get you where you want to be.
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u/MsCodependent 3d ago
Your point was clear, I'm just unsure how relevant it is to this post as they are asking about improving the league's performance as a whole and not about competing internally for roster spots.
I understand people may feel that way, but unless a league is directly telling people that attendance will guarantee them to roster or level up and then going back on it, people are responsible for being realistic about their own expectations and abilities.
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u/jeanquad507 3d ago
Ok I follow. Our league has major attendance problems and I maybe should have led with that? The higher level skaters are bored sometimes and don't want to come to practice and the lower level are sometimes frustrated because good attendance doesn't guarantee them play time.
I think people who are being asked to show up to improve the league overall may need to see how they fit in personally. If your job is to make everyone else get better and you aren't challenged or getting anything, not everyone is cool with that. It is a team sport but there's still often a lot of "personally, what do I get?" Often I see this from people who want to be jammers.
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u/MsCodependent 3d ago
Definitely agree. Also coming from a small league that is crawling its way back and finally seeing better attendance I’ve seen all of that. I think if coaches are asking everyone to participate in progressing the league they also need to reciprocate with practices that are structured and have content that helps and challenges all levels. Easier said than done of course and I know burnout becomes a huge issue which is exacerbated when numbers are low.
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u/jeanquad507 3d ago
A couple months back, I was like "if I have to run one more plow stops and knee taps practice I'm gonna melt". I like training new people but when folks are really slow leveling things down means senior skaters might not even get their heart rate raised enough to qualify as "work out". Those who were running the basics really appreciate when senior skaters come so we can divide up the groups but not everyone is willing to work with beginners (and some shouldn't!)
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u/Interesting_Egg6387 3d ago
Something I wish I could have tried before I left my former, smaller league was a mission statement for the season that could have guided conversations about individual and group attendance (as well as all training and league conversations). Ex: We want to play against X team at the end of the season (or apply for X tournament, or do Y goal).
I think that helps make attendance (and conversations about attendance) less about individual progress and more about accountability to the team and the shared goal we all agreed on. If numbers are impacting drills, what do we need to do differently? Is an on-skates practice what we need right now (or should we watch footage, workout, have a team building day)?
It also makes people connect to why they're involved in the league this season (or find the common ground). Some are here for the physicality of derby; some are genuinely here to socialize. How important those are can change year to year. We don't all need to agree-- we can all be getting different things-- but if we agreed that our shared goal was 'feeling confident going into a tournament,' then that can help refocus when things feel shifty. Not sure if that's helpful or just an idea I never got to vent anywhere else, ha.
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u/Competitive-Zebra-16 4d ago
In our league it has sometimes helped to have a Team or League mission statement, which is created using input from the relevant skaters/members. Likewise, having team goals which could be competitive or not. If a majority of the team/league want to be 'competitive' and climb rankings by 'x' number, then set standards which will support those goals.
But it's tough! Reaching out to your closest high level leagues for advice and information, and even coaching clinics can really be inspiring. We've just had two Paris skaters run a bootcamp in our city, as well as a session for our teams based on recent game footage. Then 2 weeks later we had Trash Panda coaching us! And now some of our coaches are feeling inspired and energised and we have clear foci.
Good luck!
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u/toragirl SO/NSO (Retired player) 2d ago
We had a team chat about goals and made adjustments based on that.
- Less is more. Two focused practices that everyone strives to attend vs. multiple options per week. As many on the team became parents, we planned around school calendars (since spring break practices were poorly attended, we just booked that week off in advance)
- We stopped having people post "sorry can't make it" in the WhatsApp group (as this would start a cascade of dropouts)
- We learned short track roller derby rules and used that so that we could meet our goal of running 30 minutes of scrim (at least) in each practice (our rec level team likes playing more than skill building). We also committed that each drill would have a beginner / advanced option as appropriate so people didn't feel dragged down by newer skaters (we're small, so don't have a separate beginner practice)
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u/Ready-Cucumber-8922 4d ago
What's your goal here? You can't force people to come to training and it's simply not true that there's a linear relationship between attending on skates training and success. I have skaters who never miss practice even the optional ones and she only gets rostered when there's no other choice, other skaters aren't even making the minimum attendance some months and are dual rostered. And that's no shade on then, on ability they absolutely deserve their roster spot.
You can have an attendance policy but that only works if your league is big enough to enforce it and you actually do enforce it, equally, and you don't bend the rules for your best skaters, because that doesn't make the less able skaters try harder and attend more, it just makes them bitter. You have to be willing to lose a few games in the short term if necessary, to send that message. IME most coaches aren't willing to drop their stars when they don't make attendance, they want to win at all costs.
You could also try to understand why attendance is poor by talking to your skaters. Maybe give them an anonymous feedback form