Keeping Up With Reaper

A referee drill dreamt up by Xavier Bacon and Killer Bite to help improve acceleration & footwork and challenge concentration. It will hopefully make you sweat, curse, fall over, smile, curse again and, crucially, get better.

Download the PDF

Aims of this drill

  • Improve agility and footwork
  • Practice lateral movement, sharp stops and fast direction changes
  • Increase awareness
  • Mental challenge - different things to focus on simultaneously
  • Increase your skating options and choices when reffing.

Homework / Prep

Our scenario…

IMAGINE!

  • You’re a Jammer Referee (JR).
  • The whistle blows. The jam starts!
  • Your Jammer sets off, gets stuck in the pack for a bit, being blocked, briefly recycled, attacking again.
  • You keep up with the Jammer, matching their moves to watch for blocks, passes and legal re-entries.
  • Then SUDDENLY the Jammer puts on a burst of speed, sets off in a sprint and earns Lead Jammer.
  • You sprint too, barely needing to catch up, calling lead like a boss. Nice.
  • Your Jammer completes a lap and hits the pack again
  • They are bounced around a bit more before picking up a penalty, which you issue coolly and calmly. …keep this premise in your mind! It’s our goal!

Start point

  • This is your setup →
  • Four cones, starting at the Pivot Line, then 5ft-ish apart - they simulate a Pack of sorts.
    • They are mentally numbered 1, 2, 3, 4
  • One ref is in position as if they are a JR ready at jam start.
  • Others form a queue in the centre, hugging the centre to keep away from where the JR might skate.
  • The first one in the line who’s next up to JR is the Caller. (If you have space but no track access, mark out the distances in a spare bit of space, and substitute sprints to the wall, touch & back, situps etc. instead of laps around. We designed this drill without a track originally!) …now choose your level!

Level One - Skills & Sprint

  • Caller and JR agree a difficulty, expressed as a number.
    • Start with 4 to begin with.
  • Caller blows Jam Start Whistle.
  • JR sets off - as JR approaches the ‘Pack’, Caller calls out cone numbers in sequence, until they’ve called as many as the difficulty level.
  • Allow the JR to almost reach each then call the next number right away.
  • Don’t let the JR come to a halt, keep them moving, but don’t call so fast they can’t keep up - work together!
  • The JR’s aim is to stop in line with the cone number called and react to move quickly to the next one. Finish with “GO!”
    • e.g. illustrated here “Three! Two! Four! One! GO!”
  • On hearing “GO!” the JR must signal Lead Jammer (full whistles and signals) whilst accelerating rapidly.
  • JR joins the back of the queue, new JR, new Caller, repeat…

Level Two - Second Pass & Penalty

  • As per Level One… start whistle, set off, call out cone numbers…
  • …but this time on “GO!” the JR accelerates and completes a full lap, they don’t stop and join the queue.
  • When they approach the Pack for a second time, the Caller calls a second sequence of numbers, this time finishing with “Penalty!” instead of “GO!”
    • e.g. as illustrated here “One! Two! One! Three! Penalty!”
  • On hearing “Penalty!”, the JR must signal a penalty of their choice on their imaginary Jammer.
  • JR joins back of line, new JR, new Caller, repeat…

Hard Mode - Actual Live Jammer

  • As per Level Two, EXCEPT that instead of a Caller, you have a skater or ref be an Actual Live Jammer, and you have to match their skating instead of listen out for which marker to hit.
  • You still agree a difficulty level (i.e. 4 as before), then the Jammer skates and stops/changes direction to hit the marks quickly.
  • This is a proper challenge as you have to watch as well as keep up, not just hear and anticipate. It’s closer to the real gameday challenge.
  • Do the accelerate-to-sprint, Lead Jammer signal, lap round, pack re-entry, second round and penalty as per Level Two.
  • Switch up and repeat…

Bonus Stage!

Ways to make the drill harder:

  • Increase Difficulty setting - agree to hit 6 cones, 8 cones, 10 cones (I like 10)
  • Do more laps
  • Call cone numbers faster to increase urgency of direction changes
  • Wear a Jammer Identifier wristband so you have a colour to remember and call, not just pure imagination (you’ll forget it, trust me…).
  • ‘God Mode’ - two JRs and two Callers at the same time, without whoever hears GO! first calling Lead Jammer.
  • Make the JR memorise the sequence upfront rather than call out so they have to remember - penalise if they screw up and forget (situps/plank/etc).
  • Play around… let me know of other variations you come up with!

DON’T move cones further apart - this is about sharp stops / quick direction changes. Wider spacing allows sloppy skating.