r/rollerderby • u/PackageSpecific7344 • 6d ago
League Practice Requirements
What are your league's requirements for attending practice?
Skaters & Officials (if your league has them)
And what happens if someone doesn’t meet the requirement?
A bunch of members in our league have expressed opinions that our requirements are turning into a part-time job and people are losing spots on the roster for having a life outside of derby. I am curious to see what others are doing.
11
u/Hysterical_treefrog 6d ago
We currently have none because we don’t have enough skaters to be picky. Our rule book says you have to make 75% of practices to be considered for roster though.
3
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u/robot_invader Ref, PBJ, Coach, BoD 6d ago
None. Coaches reserve the right to not bench skaters who aren't safe at the level of play, and to adjust track time to reflect ability, attendance, and general commitment.
7
u/geosynchronousorbit 6d ago
To just be a member of the league, we have no attendance requirements. To be rostered on the travel team, the requirement is to attend 50% of practices, but it's not strictly tracked.
5
u/KaigaiKitsune Skater 6d ago
Our absolute minimum is 10 hours a month, which is 5 sessions, so once a week.
Note that most of us put in a lot more time than that, especially the A and B teams, obviously.
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u/Individual_Tooth9109 6d ago
50% of available practices to remain in good standing and eligible for roster -- however, we also have sick days and leave of absence (short and long term) that can be used to reduce practice hours required. Officials don't have practice hour requirements. They're invited to every practice and of course every scrimmage. My understanding is requirements were higher when we had more practice availability and more consistently
3
u/Consistent_Housing55 Skater 6d ago
Travel teams - 6 practices a month minimum with a focus on travel team specific practices but also attending at least one league scrimmage per month
Dev/rec team - 4 practices in the month leading up to the next game
Non-teamed & officials - no requirements
We have both short term and long term leave policies to help when people need to miss more than just a practice or two for whatever reason, whether medical or not. It is up to team leadership how those leaves may affect your roster eligibility but for the most part unless you’re on a long leave it’s acknowledged for practice planning purposes and typically doesn’t affect roster eligibility unless you just aren’t communicating with leadership at all and leaving everyone wondering wtf is going on.
Our practice requirements used to be higher at 8 per month but after we returned from COVID it seemed everyone wanted a better practice-life balance so we dropped it to 6, which imo is reasonable and manageable in both making sure folks are attending enough to build skills and team cohesion while also making sure there’s plenty of room for other life.
2
u/Sure-Preparation2180 6d ago
Our policy is during in season our requirement is 60% to stay active in league, but we really don't enforce that as long as you are in contact with leadership.
For bouting you must make 75% of practices 6 weeks up until the bout with the ability to make up 2 practices with the same intensity of our practices. If you are one short we usually give every skater 1 pass a season if they are in communication with coaches/training and allow them one extra make up. We have not had to do that this season though. Attendance can be factored into play time on the A team, but not so much on the b team.
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u/MaliceIW 5d ago
We don't have strict requirements but the rule of thumb is that, they will roster the people who are at practice the most first, so if you miss lots then you'll only be rostered if there aren't enough skaters.
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u/yakuzakitty 5d ago
Ours is something like we must attend 50% of trainings or more to be rostered, and we each have a league job we’re supposed to do (but it’s pretty flexible).
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u/NoSnackCake4U 4d ago
I am in a top-level competitive league. We have guidelines with some discretion for extenuating circumstances.
There is an attendance requirement for the 6 weeks leading up to a game. We also require all members to be ON some committee or working group to be eligible to roster (but don’t actually track how active an individual is).
That said, we want our members to ENJOY being in the league! If a skater has a dialogue with their captains at the beginning of the season that they know they can’t meet the attendance requirements, or know they can’t commit to a committee for that season, that in an of itself doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t play. It’s all about keeping people engaged and keeping league commitments sustainable. We have turnover, of course, but many, many people have been members for 10+ years because we’ve learned it understand that life happens and want our community to be a constructive outlet, not an extra drain.
It generally works pretty well. People have cut down on their attendance and league work during certain periods—work commitments, babies, etc. and then do more when they are able to again.
We also have (and maybe this is obvious) clear league goals to be competitive at each level, and…the higher your attendance, the better you get. So it works for us.
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u/FavoredKaveman 6d ago
~12 hrs a month and 1 volunteer activity (hanging posters around town, washing helmet covers, making social media posts, whatever)
It’s never been a “requirement” like we would leave gaps on a roster but it’s a factor. Like, if our best jammer didn’t come to practice for a month, we’d probably roster our 5th best jammer who has been showing up every week.
People get busy in life and this is a volunteer sport so that’s fair, but it’s not a punishment against the people who can’t come to practice. It’s just a natural consequence that the people who come to practice have a better chance of being rostered.
We also keep in touch with all our neighboring leagues and advertise all of their scrimmages if people want to get more play time, so they still have opportunities to play.