Picking a helmet for derby

About a month ago, I took my second or third hard spill on concrete this season. After the game I was testing the protective lining on my helmet (a Bern Macon Hard Hat) and noticed that the inner liner was way more squishy than it's supposed to be, especially around where I'd fallen and hit my head. So it was time to replace the helmet.

Picking a derby helmet is a tough thing to do, because no one really makes helmets specifically for derby. There are lots of different helmet certifications, but which one is actually most appropriate for derby? There's no simple answer, but here's some of the information I've collected on helmets, which I hope you find useful for making your own decision. By the way, a great starting point for research on helmets is the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, who maintain an excellent website with everything you ever wanted to know about bicycle helmets and the associated standards.

A single-impact helmet is designed to destroy itself in the process of absorbing an impact. Bicycle helmets are the best example of this. If you fall off a bike and hit your head, your helmet becomes useless. On the plus side, these helmets are very very good at absorbing the force of that one impact. On the down side, that's pretty useless for derby, because if you fall down, you're going to need to get up and keep skating (whether you're a referee or a player). The U.S. CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) publishes a certification standard that, by law, everything sold as a "bicycle helmet" in the U.S. must adhere to. But you absolutely should not use a bicycle helmet for derby.

Multiple-impact helmets are, perhaps obviously, designed to absorb the impact of a single hit and "bounce back" so that they are still able to protect the wearer from further impacts. No multiple-impact helmet is going to be able to protect as well as a single-impact helmet, but a helmet designed to protect against multiple impacts will last longer (and doesn't have to be replaced as soon as you fall). Helmets designed for skateboarding are usually multiple-impact, and sometimes (but are not required to) adhere to the ASTM F1492 testing standard. The major difference in testing is that F1492 helmets are tested with a series of one-meter drops. The CPSC single-impact standard uses a two-meter drop. It still seems kind of weird to me to imply that skateboarders only fall a little more than three feet before their head hits the ground, since most people are at least five feet tall, but that's what the standard tests.

For a long time now, the most popular helmets I've seen on derby skaters and officials are skateboard (or "extreme sports") helmets: the Triple8 Brainsaver, the aforementioned Bern Macon, or its visor-enhanced brother the Watts. But none of those helmets comes with any sort of certification. (This is why Bern calls them 'Hard Hats', which I think is a nice piece of truth-in-advertising.) Does that mean they're bad helmets and won't protect you? Not at all; I believe that these companies would not be able to stay in business if they made helmets that weren't any good. Plenty of people use these helmets for derby and like them.

Recently though I've been seeing a new trend in derby: wearing helmets designed for ice hockey. Hockey helmets conform to the ASTM F1045 testing standard, which involves multiple drops at different temperatures with an instrumented headform inside to measure the amount of force transferred through the helmet. It also tests the strength of the chinstrap, which I think is an often-overlooked aspect of helmet safety. (An ill-fitting chinstrap, or one that's stretched out, means that the helmet has a higher chance of slipping out of place during a fall.) When doing equipment checks on skaters, I've noticed that hockey helmets seem to fit more closely to the head, and don't have as many problems with the chinstrap being not tight enough. They also cover more of the head, which is potentially useful. And of course they're designed to absorb multiple impacts, so they're good for derby in that regard.

So when I needed to replace my helmet, I asked around. A number of the skaters for the CT Rollergirls and Connecticut Death Quads have recently started using the Cascade M11. This helmet was designed in the past couple of years to take into account modern research on concussions and concussion prevention. It doesn't come cheap: $120 retail, or $140 if you buy from a hockey supply house that only stocks the ones with the face cages like I did. I've had it for a couple of weeks now and took it to Spring Roll, so here's some notes on my experience so far:

Likes: Adjustable fit, thanks to a ratchet along the back of the helmet. Goes on easy when the ratchet is open, tightens as snugly as I want it to. I have a relatively large head and a size L fits okay. It was easy to modify: I didn't want the ear shields or the face cage, but it only took me about 15 minutes with a Phillips-head screwdriver to take them off. When it's on, it's on. It doesn't slip or slide off my head no matter what I do, even if the chinstrap isn't buckled (which I obviously don't recommend). It covers more of the back of my head than the Macon did. And when you're moving, the extra ventilation is great.

Dislikes: The padding does not absorb ANY sweat at all. If you're used to a helmet with a soft foam liner, this will be a shock to you. I wear a head sleeve anyway which does the job. The padding itself feels like it's very loosely attached to the helmet shell. I think this is supposed to be a design feature but it feels a little strange when I'm wiping the sweat out of it after a scrimmage. The helmet is rather expensive, but I hope that gets amortized over several years as the documentation implies that it will. The chinstrap is way too long and gets in the way once it's buckled (easy enough to fix with a good pair of scissors). Did I mention it's expensive?

All in all I've been very happy with it so far. I haven't taken a major spill and head bump yet, although I did roll over my helmet once at Spring Roll, so the jury is still out in that regard. But the fit is very good (although I might get an XL next time) and adjustable, and it just feels like a very solid and protective helmet when I'm wearing it. My one major complaint is the sweat thing, but that's manageable with additional gear (which I already owned).

If you're in the market for a new helmet, you owe it to yourself to take the time to shop around and consider the options. Try not to do what I did, which is to destroy your old helmet a week before a major tournament, and have to go rush out and buy a new one immediately. Shop now while your current helmet still works. Visit a couple of skate shops and/or hockey supply stores and try on different models. See what feels right on your head in terms of protection and fit. Good shops will have people who can talk you through how to tell if a helmet fits you right and how to adjust it so that it does. It doesn't hurt to do the research into the certification standards as well, but unfortunately there isn't really one right answer when it comes to figuring out what the "best" helmet for derby is. Just remember, you only get one brain, and even though the general consensus is that no helmet will ever 100% prevent concussions, that doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in a good one. Of course 'expensive' doesn't always mean 'better', but it's not worth it to save a few bucks just for the sake of saving a few bucks.

In conclusion, a couple of words on helmet maintenance. Proper fit is a significant piece of a helmet's ability to protect you, so make sure that you re-check the fit regularly. Make sure your straps are all in the right place, that the chinstrap hasn't stretched out, and that the sizing buckles are still keeping a good grip on the straps. Inspect the lining and padding regularly. Squish it with your fingers when you first get the helmet so you know what it's "supposed" to feel like. If you ever take a serious fall, make sure you re-inspect the lining after the game. If the padding is damaged, your helmet's ability to protect you is compromised. Finally, helmets have a useful lifetime. The M11 claims to be certified for five years. Most skateboard helmets will last 1-2 years. Replace yours regularly.

A Note from the WFTDA Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of any distributed organization like the WFTDA has two primary purposes: to take advantage of the gathering to conduct as much business and planning as possible (we all hate meetings, but they're usually faster than phone calls and emails for complicated issues), and to energize the membership to go home and do all those things we just talked about. The afterparty is just getting started as I type this, so it's a little early to tell for certain, but I'd say this year's meeting succeeded on both counts.

About the first goal, I can only say that we live in exciting times.

And I want to go have a couple drinks at the party, so instead of trying to inspire you with a huge motivational speech to cover the second (I'm not so good at those anyway), I'm going to leave you with a quick little nugget of wisdom. If you love this sport, put in some effort to make it better. Work on your own skills, and work on building a community of respect and trust.

Lessons From Other Sports

[Editor's note: A couple of years ago I posted a handful of articles to my Facebook page that was intended to be a on-going series called The Art Of Officiating Roller Derby. I thought I'd repost them here, since they still seem relevant. This one's from the halcyon days of October 2010. –3db]

Officiating roller derby can be described as a science. The ruleset is complicated, hard to read, and full of corner cases that a good official has to be able to apply in the blink of an eye. There are several different referee and official positions, all of which have their own requirements and skill sets. Rules study alone can take hours a week if you're particularly dedicated; then there's the time you put in at league scrimmages, nights spent working on your skating skills, and so on.

But I think that officiating roller derby can also be described as an art, and I don't think many of us consider that aspect when we talk about becoming better officials. Some of my favorite derby moments are when I get to work with a crew that really clicks -- when the communication is good, when officials back each other up, when the refs are working well with the NSOs and everything is just running smoothly. No one feels like they're going off into the weeds. And most importantly, the skaters feel like the officials have the game under control and are doing their job to keep the game safe and even-handed.

In that regard, I think that officiating roller derby is a lot like officiating other sports. I'm a big sports geek, not just for derby but for lots of other sports, and I pay particular attention when discussions of the refereeing comes up. If you look at it with the right eye, a lot of the same sorts of things that get talked about in other sports are relevant to ours as well, and I think we would be well-served as a community of officials to pay attention.

Here's an example that sort of blurs the lines between art and science. Say what you like about baseball or softball – they aren't my favorite sports by any means – but one thing I have noticed is that their officials are very concerned about the art and science of their job. A couple of years ago I was linked to this page. It's horribly formatted and somewhat repetitive, but it includes a couple of really interesting pointers that I'll summarize here. Remember, this is a baseball umpire speaking, but I think the lessons are directly applicable to derby.

1. Anticipate the play, not the call. The corrolary is "No play is 'routine' until it's over." As a referee you need to be able to know intuitively where the play is going to happen, and what all the possible outcomes (legal and illegal) might be, but you must not predict what the outcome of the play is going to be. When you know where the play is, you can position yourself correctly to see the outcome and make the proper call based on what you see. The "science" here is the positioning, but the "art" is the intuition that comes with experience: knowing how the play is going to develop and where you need to focus your attention in order to make the right call. The blend is knowing whether or not you're in the right position, and as a skating referee, having the skating ability to adjust your position if you aren't.
2. Positioning is about distance and angle, but angle is more important than distance. In a sport like derby where we don't have the option to skate onto the "field" in order to improve the distance between us and the play, this one should be somewhat comforting. It is also part of the reason that Outside Pack Refs exist. It may sound like I'm only talking to Jammer Refs here, but I think that Pack Refs (Inside and Outside) need to anticipate where the action is going to be and adjust their position just as much as Jammer Refs do. Of course, Pack Refs have many more "plays" to watch and generally don't have as much time between the to adjust their position -- which just makes it more important that you're in the right place to begin with.
3. Refereeing an action is a two-part process: making the call is mental, making the signal is physical. You should complete them in that order, which means don't make the signal until you've seen the complete outcome of the play. There is so much emphasis placed on the fact that derby is call-as-you-go, and play doesn't stop for a penalty, and so we have to make penalty calls as quickly as humanly possible. But reconsider point #1: you absolutely can not make a call until the play is over, and you can't make the right whistle-and-hand signals until you know what the call is. You will serve yourself as well as the game much better if you pause the extra half-second to see whether or not the target of that illegal hit fell down or went out of bounds, before you try to make the hand signal.

I think that we as derby officials can learn a lot from some of the stuff that gets written by umpires from all sorts of other sports. It's not hard to apply their lessons to our sport even though the mechanics are often quite different. I hope to write a lot more as I collect more of these bits of wisdom from across the sports landscape, but I'm also curious to hear from other derby officials about things that they've picked up from watching and reading about sports.

What's all this then?

"Referees turn 'skating in circles' into 'a jam'. NSOs turn the 'jams' into 'derby'." – Ian Fluenza

We're a collection of friends and roller derby officials in New England who have been around several different blocks a handful of times each. Along the way we've picked up some tips and tricks, some hopefully interesting anecdotes and experiences, and some ideas of how things ought to be done. You might agree or disagree. That's part of the strange beauty of this sport.

Above all, we believe that the officials, both on- and off-skates, are The Third Team on the track. There's nothing like that "well-oiled machine" feeling of a really solid officiating crew that thinks and acts like a team. In a sport where we almost never get to work with the same crew twice, how do we make that happen?

We hope you'll join us on this ride. We suspect many of you already have.

Introductions

Anne Persand is one of those rare creatures in roller derby: a female referee who never wanted to be a bouting skater. She began officiating derby in early 2008, shortly after learning how to skate, and has worked with both men's and women's teams throughout her derby career. Her primary interests in derby include the recruiting, retention, and development of newer officials, fostering productive and respectful dialogue between officials and skaters, and spreading the good word about officiating men's derby. She also owns and operates http://mymonsterhat.com and loves ref-on-ref hipwhips.

Ian Fluenza has been officiating roller derby since 2006; you'd think he would be better at it by now. He loves working with leagues at every skill level. He believes that everyone involved in the sport should NSO more often, that there's a place in the sport for everyone to have fun, and that it's not derby unless something goes wrong. He tries to approach all three by maintaining flexibility, grace, and a sense of humor.

Three-Day Bender is the relative baby of the group, having begun his officiating career in early 2009. In a former life he played Ultimate for more than 15 years and narrowly avoided becoming an Observer for that sport when derby reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. He considers himself a sports geek who likes learning the rules to obscure sports and finding the academic similarities between sports that have nothing to do with each other.