This isn't a post about how to do be the best Line-up, this is a post about how I did the job given almost no experience and less than a week of notice. Hopefully it'll be of use to anyone doing Line-up for the first time. The below method would not have been possible without assistance and notes from Don Gingovanni.
“Don't worry, I got this.”
You don't have skates on, nobody sees your face, you don't watch the game and you have no idea what's happening on track. If you do your job perfectly, nobody notices you're there. After the game when you've done a good job, you feel immensely satisfied. Welcome to the wonderful world of counting to five under pressure.
Your job is to get a jammer and four blockers on the track when the jam start whistle blows. That's it. If anyone says you “have” to do anything else, they're making things too complicated.
I thought I had to do all sorts: field a perfectly balanced pack, keep track of who’s tired, check for penalties, ask who hasn't skated enough, pick the pivot, be firm and authoritarian, make sure people only skate with people they work best with etc. These are not essential. Important, perhaps, but certainly not vital.
People gave me a lot of advice at first, a lot of things to keep track of and think about. There was no way in hell I have enough brain capacity to fit most of what I was told in, so I prioritised. This is the only important skill you need as a Line-up.
You get a limited, and variable, amount of time in order to make your lines, so do the most important things first then work your way down a list of nice extras until you reach the bottom and have a perfect pack, or until the four whistles blow and you send your line on to the track.
For me, the order of priority went as follows:
1. Pick a jammer
2. Pick an assist
3. Pick three blockers
4. Give one of the blockers the pivot panty
5. Tell one blocker to stay sat down if we have somebody in the bin
6. Stand back, count how many people are sat down
7. Ask: Is this a strong pack? If not, can I swap people around?
Steps 1 through 3 need to be done fast, so I built a basic table to help me. There are four columns, ordered as such: Jammer (I did note how often each jammer wanted to jam, but never once used this info), Assist, Pivot and Wall. Under each heading is a list of names of people good for this role, and in approximate order of ability.
This makes it easy to get your line-up rocking. Just get a little from column A, a dash of column B, then pick three from everyone else, and hand somebody the pivot panty.
Top tip: If somebody has been held back or swapped out of a line, give them the party hat (pivot panty). It stops their potential feelings of “naww, I was left behind”, and also stems your guilt for the aforementioned potential sadness.
Some people like to have pre-made line-ups. Personally, I can't imagine anything worse than having 30 seconds to cross reference who is sat down and ready to skate with a massive list of pre-made line-ups. My brain ain't playing that game. Re-making a fresh line every time is faster, and makes reacting to changing situations a non-issue.
Saying that, I had a few line-ups pre-made, but these were only for special occasions. I had the first three line-ups of the game written down (which I repeated at the start of the second half). This takes the initial pressure off me, lets me make sure we have a strong start, and everyone skates at least once in the first few jams.
I thought I had to do all sorts: field a perfectly balanced pack, keep track of who’s tired, check for penalties, ask who hasn't skated enough, pick the pivot, be firm and authoritarian, make sure people only skate with people they work best with etc. These are not essential. Important, perhaps, but certainly not vital.
People gave me a lot of advice at first, a lot of things to keep track of and think about. There was no way in hell I have enough brain capacity to fit most of what I was told in, so I prioritised. This is the only important skill you need as a Line-up.
You get a limited, and variable, amount of time in order to make your lines, so do the most important things first then work your way down a list of nice extras until you reach the bottom and have a perfect pack, or until the four whistles blow and you send your line on to the track.
For me, the order of priority went as follows:
1. Pick a jammer
2. Pick an assist
3. Pick three blockers
4. Give one of the blockers the pivot panty
5. Tell one blocker to stay sat down if we have somebody in the bin
6. Stand back, count how many people are sat down
7. Ask: Is this a strong pack? If not, can I swap people around?
Steps 1 through 3 need to be done fast, so I built a basic table to help me. There are four columns, ordered as such: Jammer (I did note how often each jammer wanted to jam, but never once used this info), Assist, Pivot and Wall. Under each heading is a list of names of people good for this role, and in approximate order of ability.
This makes it easy to get your line-up rocking. Just get a little from column A, a dash of column B, then pick three from everyone else, and hand somebody the pivot panty.
Top tip: If somebody has been held back or swapped out of a line, give them the party hat (pivot panty). It stops their potential feelings of “naww, I was left behind”, and also stems your guilt for the aforementioned potential sadness.
Some people like to have pre-made line-ups. Personally, I can't imagine anything worse than having 30 seconds to cross reference who is sat down and ready to skate with a massive list of pre-made line-ups. My brain ain't playing that game. Re-making a fresh line every time is faster, and makes reacting to changing situations a non-issue.
Saying that, I had a few line-ups pre-made, but these were only for special occasions. I had the first three line-ups of the game written down (which I repeated at the start of the second half). This takes the initial pressure off me, lets me make sure we have a strong start, and everyone skates at least once in the first few jams.
I also had some “power line-ups” written down. I had two for when we get a power jam, and two for when they get a power jam. This is the only thing I'll be changing for next time; don't bother with pre-made power line-ups listing P, B2, B3, B4. Just have a list of 6 power-blockers for our power jam, and 6 for them. You're just making mini versions of the table I described above for these special occasions.
And that's everything I had written down when I turned up.
“How are you feeling?”
As the game goes on you're going to want to do a few things. These are the non-essential extras to do when you're on top of the rest.
Aim to be two jams ahead with your planning. Most of the time during the game there were 5 skaters on the track behind me, 5 in front of me, and the remaining few in a row behind them. When the whistles go the first row move to the track, the rear few move to the front and I plug up the gaps with skaters coming off the track. The front row are your immediate priority, but that second row can be given your attention if you've sorted your next line-up.
Chat to the Bench to see if any skaters are going to have their roles changed. I started the game with 7 people on the list of jammers, and I ended the game with 4. Just cross people off your list if they're not on form or injured. If you have some blockers being awesome be sure you're listing them as Assists.
Penalties should have an eye kept on them. Be sure you know how they're being noted on the inside whiteboard. Keep a list of numbers and names in front of you and just mark when people are on 3 minors or 6 majors. Don't field more than one blocker on 3 minors if you can help it, and definitely don't field a jammer on 3 minors. Poodle jammers on 3 if you have to, and only if there's nobody in the bin.
One other thing with the penalty box; if you see two blockers in there be sure to tell a second blocker on the next line-up “If there's two people in the bin, you sit out”. If there's going to be confusion about who the pivot is, or if the pivot is in the bin, just don't field a pivot.
Before the game make sure your skaters know to tell you if they're getting tired, or injured, or loosing their mojo, and need to sit out for one or two. Always say yes if a skater needs a break. If you've backed yourself into a corner and have to jam a tired skater (for example you only have two jammers off the track, and both are tired), then it's up to you to help them by fielding power blockers to make things easier.
And that's it. Obviously you can tailor and add to your priorities as you like, but that's really the key; know what's important. Make your list, check it twice, and have fun.
Oh also, have a really awesome team. That's kind of a big deal too.
You will get to see me doing line-ups for the MRD Checker Broads at our next home bout on April 21st at the Armitage Centre, Fallowfield, Manchester. Get your tickets online here now.
Photo Copyright Shirlaine Forrest 2012 www.shirlainephotos.co.uk
And that's everything I had written down when I turned up.
“How are you feeling?”
As the game goes on you're going to want to do a few things. These are the non-essential extras to do when you're on top of the rest.
Aim to be two jams ahead with your planning. Most of the time during the game there were 5 skaters on the track behind me, 5 in front of me, and the remaining few in a row behind them. When the whistles go the first row move to the track, the rear few move to the front and I plug up the gaps with skaters coming off the track. The front row are your immediate priority, but that second row can be given your attention if you've sorted your next line-up.
Chat to the Bench to see if any skaters are going to have their roles changed. I started the game with 7 people on the list of jammers, and I ended the game with 4. Just cross people off your list if they're not on form or injured. If you have some blockers being awesome be sure you're listing them as Assists.
Penalties should have an eye kept on them. Be sure you know how they're being noted on the inside whiteboard. Keep a list of numbers and names in front of you and just mark when people are on 3 minors or 6 majors. Don't field more than one blocker on 3 minors if you can help it, and definitely don't field a jammer on 3 minors. Poodle jammers on 3 if you have to, and only if there's nobody in the bin.
One other thing with the penalty box; if you see two blockers in there be sure to tell a second blocker on the next line-up “If there's two people in the bin, you sit out”. If there's going to be confusion about who the pivot is, or if the pivot is in the bin, just don't field a pivot.
Before the game make sure your skaters know to tell you if they're getting tired, or injured, or loosing their mojo, and need to sit out for one or two. Always say yes if a skater needs a break. If you've backed yourself into a corner and have to jam a tired skater (for example you only have two jammers off the track, and both are tired), then it's up to you to help them by fielding power blockers to make things easier.
And that's it. Obviously you can tailor and add to your priorities as you like, but that's really the key; know what's important. Make your list, check it twice, and have fun.
Oh also, have a really awesome team. That's kind of a big deal too.
You will get to see me doing line-ups for the MRD Checker Broads at our next home bout on April 21st at the Armitage Centre, Fallowfield, Manchester. Get your tickets online here now.
Photo Copyright Shirlaine Forrest 2012 www.shirlainephotos.co.uk
