Mar 24, 2014 | Special Announcements

Springtime brings with it some new Rules!

At the beginning of March, the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) released the seventh edition of the rules that the Minnesota RollerGirls and all the teams of WFTDA play by.

For the most part, the changes are minor and should result in more exciting gameplay!

First and foremost, penalty time has been reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds in the penalty box.   This should result in more skaters on the track at a time, and it reduces the impact of penalties enforced on Jammers.

We will also see a reduction in some of those Jammer penalties with a simplification of the Cutting the Track foul.  The rules used to disallow a bobbling of the skates that could result in a penalty even though the skater was in the process of trying to remain out of bounds but had let a single skate fall in bounds.

Direction of Gameplay blocks that resulted from skaters blocking from a standstill or while moving in clockwise in the non-derby flow direction have been adjusted based on the amount of impact the block causes.  In the past blocks in this category that caused a skater to move without falling or going out of bounds were considered fouls.  The revision allows for this type of collision and penalizes stop or clockwise blocks that result in the recipient going out of bounds or falling down.  It does however add a restriction on impeding an opponent with a stopped or clockwise momentum block.

The mechanics of the “Star Pass” have also gotten simplified in this alteration of the Rules.  Passing the Star, which allowed a Jammer to transfer the role and all scoring rights associated with it to the Pivot used to involve a long process that was so fraught with peril that some in the Flat Track Derby community used to say “Star Passes always end in tears…”  But no more!  The process has been simplified to a simple point in time when the Star helmet cover is released by the Jammer into the Pivot’s grap and reduces the risks of attempting a Star Pass.

There are other smaller changes that didn’t impact gameplay and were more administrative changes, and overall the new Rules should make Flat Track Derby in Minnesota be an even more exciting sport!

The Minnesota RollerGirls will start playing bouts under this new ruleset with the April 5th AllStar bout against No Coast Derby Girls (Lincoln, NE) and for the Season 10 Championship Finale on April 19th.