In Praise of Jammers

I am a blocker. That’s what my thick body and big booty were built for. While all of us can pick out favorite blockers we crush on hard from the most popular WFTDA charter teams, the truth is that most blockers don’t see a lot of the spotlight. Unless they are derby-experienced, most fans focus on the jammers and the announcers talk about them a lot more, too.  It can be argued that they score all the points but, sometimes, it’s discouraging to blockers who may quite literally be busting their asses to provide the perfect, tenacious combination of offense and defense at the same time.

Then I started jamming.  When our league recruits someone with jamming promise, they move up pretty quickly, leaving little for the c-team. We have a game on Saturday and, of our 4-jammer rotation, only 1 is really a jammer.

The reason the jammers deserve our respect and recognition is because this shit is hard. Yes, derby is hard but jamming is harder. The reasons why people avoid the star, why there are games of “not it” at scrimmage practice – are the same reasons why they deserve all of the accolades they receive and more. I’m not the first person to suggest that it’s not a star on her head, it’s a target.  The jammers take more hits than anyone on the track and, I speculate, are more likely to face serious injury as a result. Pushing through 4 strong women is no easy task and, in about 10 seconds, she has to do it all again – making it the purest form of high intensity interval training.  She also bears more responsibility and takes more blame. If she has a bad jam or goes to the box, her whole team and coaches and many fans will notice. Blockers get to be a little more anonymous.

So, don’t judge and don’t hate. Thank and encourage your jammer even if she sucks…especially if you’re not willing to take the star.

Achievement Unlocked

I tend to think of myself as a novelty jammer…the “hey! we’re 200 points ahead so let’s jam the fat girl” or “just for fun, let’s send in the mack truck” jammer until earlier this year when my J-Villains briefly added me to the jammer rotation.   As others have noted, I really can do it.  I am not fast or particularly jukey but I’m hella strong and, sometimes, that’s enough.

Recently, we were behind at the half and I was pulled into jamming full time. This was new as, generally, I had only been serving as a relief jammer from time to time while still blocking as well. Suddenly, I was jamming every third and then every other and I felt like I was going to die. I don’t think I scored a ton of points but I got lead most of the time (as noted by one of our all-star team’s jammers in attendance) and was able to keep their scoring to a minimum when I didn’t. I surprised myself a couple times as I knocked the opposing jammer down on the line, engaged in some jammer-on-jammer action racing around the track, and even thrust my hand into the air after counting my own points. I was having a blast!

My teammates are some of my biggest fans and are very supportive of my jamming.  They helped me on the track with good offense to get me through and good defense so I could score some points before the opposing jammer made it to her scoring pass. They helped me off the track with all the high fives and abundant praise and encouragement from every single one of them.

We didn’t win but, at the end of the night, I was so surprised and honored to be selected as the MVP jammer. I honestly assumed my entire derby life would come and go without that ever happening and it felt amazing! Even sweeter, my dear wifey Tera Bites was selected as MVP blocker. Sharing this distinction with her, as her teammate, was definitely nothing I even dared to daydream about when I was just a fan cheering her on in the stands.

I felt like a real jammer.

As though all of this weren’t enough to make my heart happy, Marion County Animal Services was there with dogs for adoption and, before we left the venue, my husband and my son talked me into adopting a heartworm-positive chihuahua who we’ve named Churro.

It was an all-around awesome day and it still makes me happy every time I think of it.

Fat Girl Jamming

Lead? Who? Me?

I can’t remember how it started or who the first person was to tell me, but I have a small little fan club of people who love to watch me jam. I am not a jammer. I am a thick girl who is among the slowest skaters so the skills I bring to jamming are power and stability, absorbing hard hits while plowing my way through the pack.*

I rarely jam in games but I don’t mind taking the panty at practice because I get to push myself to be more brave and try things that I don’t normally do when blocking. I am more aggressive and have to rely more on footwork. I would never even include the word “footwork” in a list of my skills but others, including one of my coaches, have talked about how it comes out when I jam. So, though I am not good at it, I jam because it makes me a better skater – both immediately and temporarily or until I figure out how to bring those skills to blocking.

I digress. I was talking about my fans…

They are other skaters, team mates. They have come right out and told me they love it when I jam and, for the longest time, I honestly thought they might be making fun of me. Then, one night at practice, I was coming off the floor after jamming when one of our current all star team jammers stopped me and said, ” you know, you could jam.” I responded the way every female responds to an overwhelming compliment, by dismissing it. “You flatter me,” I said. Then she got quite serious and responded, “Well I wasn’t blowing smoke up your ass. I saw something. Keep it up.”

I was grateful they attacked me individually and that I didn’t have to push through any tight walls.

I was floored and it finally occurred to me that maybe the others were serious, too. It makes me happy when we’re looking for someone to take the star for the next line at practice and a team mate says, “Cinders jams,” like I actually do because, even thought that’s not really the truth, it’s how they see it.

This past weekend, I got to jam in my first B-team game. We had a nearly 200 point lead so there was no danger of me losing the game for us. Based on my play time so far, I knew I’d be able to get through the opposing team’s blockers but I really wanted to get lead. That took longer than I had hoped after a teammate fell in front of me on the start. Fortunately, my line held the opposing jammer and Tera Bites, as the last defense, knocked her down so I could pass and take lead on turn three.

I checked with my coaches whether or not to call it off on every lap but they said to keep going. Smiling in disbelief each time I came around, I skated the full two minute jam since my team’s awesome defense never allowed the opposing jammer to finish her initial pass. I could hear people cheering for me and it was thrilling and humbling and so many things. I scored points!

I know this still doesn’t make me a jammer – but I am grateful for the experience and happy that most of my Cinders-jamming fans were in the house to see it happen. Did I mention I scored points?

Grand Slam!

*All bets are off when I have to jam against our all star team. My one-trick-pony approach to jamming is not effective against them and I spend a lot of time on the floor, out of bounds, or in the penalty box.