How to Block in Roller Derby

Video Transcript

"In this clip we'll talk about how to block in roller derby. When you're blocking in roller derby, you're either knocking into somebody, or preventing someone from passing you. You cannot touch a member of the opposing team. Not with your hand, not with your elbows. You can only maybe touch them a little bit with your body, that's understandable, but the great thing about that is, if you have somebody of the opposing team behind you, you can stick that rear end out and move it back and forth and they can't get past it at all. So that's one way to block. It's a body block using your rear end and your hips to block somebody from passing. Another way of blocking is to actually knock somebody over. That's a lot of fun. There are legal blocking zones that you have to take into consideration. Anything from the shoulder down to the hip is a legal blocking zone. So you can come up and you can block somebody in that area. You may not use your elbow. If your elbow comes up off your body in any way like this that is a penalty. You can do a hip check. Throw that hip into somebody while you're skating. Try and knock them over that way. You can skate in front of someone just slightly and bring your shoulder back for a nice shoulder block. But remember, you cannot hit anyone below the waist or above the shoulders. So you can't grab the helmet strap, you can't elbow them, you can't knock them in the face, none of that stuff will fly nowadays. Maybe they could do it in the seventies, but this is not your Grandma's roller derby."