Gameplay

First thing's first, roller derby is a team sport played on an oval track.

There are up to five players from each team on the track at a time.

The game is divided into two thirty-minute halves. Each half is made up of many short periods of play called jams which can last up to two minutes.

Educational roller derby track overhead view start of jam. jammers, blockers, pivots, referees, direction of play.

This drawing represents an overhead view of a roller derby track at the start of a jam.

The turquoise arrow indicates that the game is played in a counterclockwise direction. Each circle represents either a player or a referee.

The purple and turquoise circles represent the players on the two teams. Those with stars on them are Jammers, those with stripes are Pivots. The Jammers are positioned behind the jammer line (right) and the Blockers (Pivots included) are situated between the jammer line and the pivot line (left).

The black and white striped circles on the inside and outside of the track represent the Skating Officials (SO), otherwise known as referees. A complete crew will have 7 Skating Officials and 10 Non Skating Officials (NSO).

When the Jam Timer (NSO) blows one sharp whistle, the jam will begin.

There are 3(ish) positions

Jammer

The jammer is the one who scores the points.

The jammer wears a cover marked with a star on their helmet.

Their objective is to get through the pack (the mess of blockers blocking the track) and skate laps around the track, gaining one point of every opposing blocker they pass (after the initial pass).

Blocker

The blockers make up a team's defense.

There are four of them (one is the pivot) on the track at a time, barring penalties.

Their goal is to prevent the opposing team's jammer from getting past them, and when possible, to help their own jammer pass.

Pivot

The pivot is the one blocker who has the possibility to take over the role of jammer mid-jam.

The pivot wears a helmet cover marked with a single stripe.

If the jammer is struggling to get past opposing blockers, they can remove their star and hand it to the pivot who then becomes the jammer (and the jammer joins the remaining three blockers on defense).

a brief but thorough video explanation

To makes things simpler, we'll hand it over to YouTube's Ninh Ly who is an expert at explaining things.

So that's the bulk of it!

There are so many other rules and penalties in the game—the WFTDA rulebook is a whopping 76 pages long after all—but this should be enough to get you started.

We recommend watching lots of games, especially those with announcers, to improve your understanding.