A Tale of Two Halves

Looking at statistics is like reading a different version of your favorite story. Or, its like watching your favorite movie again and again and noticing something that you didn't notice the last time you watched it. After looking at the stats from the Scrappers v. Bombshells bout, I have to say that there are some things that we're gonna have to work on to get better, and there are other areas where I see we succeeded and will continue to build on. But I wouldn't have known it from my memory of the bout, or from watching tape repetitively, or even from other people's recounts of the bout. I learned by looking at the numbers. Now, its simple to say that this bout was divided into two different games. There was the game in the 1st half where the Bombshells ran the show, and there was another game in the 2nd half that was dominated by the Scrappers.

It was like two different teams each time. In the 1st half, the Bombshells came out swinging hard playing a type of defense that the Scrappers hadn't seen this season. When I looked at the score every now and then, I wondered, "Is this the same Scrappers team, or are we just that good?" They came out flat and their high scoring offense that was averaging 69 points per half was held to 32. The Bombshells were able to hold them scoreless in 13 out of 21 jams in the first half; 60pct. of the time, we held them scoreless EVERYTIME! (I love Anchorman, and I love lamp). The Bombshells were able to split the lead jam counts in the 1st half, 10 for each team, which is worth noting because the Scrappers aren't used to sharing the lead jam like that. They've had much success acquiring it convincingly in their previous two bouts. When the half was over, the Bombshells were averaging 2.04 ppj. to the Scrappers 1.52 ppj. That half belonged to us. We finished the 1st quarter with a 30 to 18 lead and when time had expired for that half we were enjoying an 11 point lead with the score at 43 to 32. That's where our success ended. We went into the locker room at half time satisfied because we were leading a team that hadn't faced a deficit all season. Big, BIG mistake.

We never came out of the locker room after that. The Scrappers owned the 2nd half from start to finish and I wondered where my skaters went that were out there an hour earlier. It was like a completely different crew of Bombshells, and like the real Scrapper team had finally shown up to the Coliseum and sent those impostors that stood in for them packing. First, lets talk about their offense. They scored 53 points in the 2nd half for an average of 2.3 ppj. They acquired the lead jam 73pct. of the time. Their 4th quarter was much like our 1st quarter scoring 30 points to our 12. Now, lets talk about their defense. Oh man, lets talk about their defense. The Scrappers held the Bombshells scoreless in 15 out of the 23 jams in the 2nd half. We only scored in 8 of the jams in the entire half. Again, 65pct. of the time, they held us scoreless EVERYTIME! There was a 6 jam stretch in the 3rd quarter where they shut us out in consecutive jams and they posted 11 unanswered points in that stretch. There was another 5 jam stretch in the 4th quarter where they did the same thing and put up 17 unanswered points. That's where the game got away from us. That's when they took it. Before that stretch the score was 63 to 66; anyone's game. They made it theirs. They held us to a 1 ppj. average in the 2nd half. Ridiculous!

This bout truly was a tale of two halves, and if you asked me who I'd rather be, I'd rather be the one who writes the story of the 2nd Half. We need to become a better 2nd half team. We came out strong against the Beauties and the Scrappers, but in both bouts our offensive scoring goes down while our defense gives up more points as the bout progresses. Both halves aside, the big picture tells me 2 things. First and foremost, we need to work on our offense. We need to start scoring more points. I have to take some responsibility for that as coach because I stress DEFENSE first and I don't do a lot of Jammer specific drills. That's gonna change. Secondly, I think we did our job against the Scrappers defensively, and that was our game plan going in. We were not going to allow them to run up the score; limit the amount of points they score. Take away all the points they're used to scoring, and we'll have a good shot at winning the bout. Only thing was, we didn't score enough points to beat them. They're a well balanced team. Scoring when necessary and playing defense at the same time.

But there was something positive to take from this bout and I have to brag a little bit about what The Bombshells accomplished against this high scoring team. As I said before, the Scrappers hadn't seen a pack like ours before and the numbers tell me where we did things right, and where we did things wrong. I took the stats from the Scrappers first two bouts against the Beauties and the Brides and averaged them out. Then I compared them to their performance against the Bombshells. Here's what I found:

As a team, the Scrappers were averaging 139.5 ppb. (points per bout). The Bombshells held them to 85 points. We shaved roughly 55 points off of what they're used to scoring. Also, the Scrappers were averaging 2 Power Jams per bout and a killer average of 5.5 ppPj (points per Power jam). They had 2 Power Jams in this bout and the Bombshells held their average to 2.5 ppPj and held them scoreless in one of them.

Going in our number one target was Goody Goody Blooddrop, who I believe is the top Jammer in the league. She does what she's supposed to do and she does it very well: she scores. We weren't gonna let her do that. Our plan was to take away all the points she was used to scoring and we did just that. Coming into our bout Goody was averaging 40 ppb., 5 ppj., and she acquired the lead jam 93pct. of the time. In 16 tries over the previous two bouts, she acquired the lead jam 15 times. Only once did she not break the pack first. Wow. Against the Bombshells defense we held her to 25 points, she only averaged 1.9 ppj, and acquired the lead jam 69pct. of the time. We took more than 3 points off her average. That's a significant decline. Our second objective was to neutralize Vanessa Velocity. We anticipated she would be jamming a lot in this bout due to the uncertainty of Mizz Nashty's knee and her capability to Jam. Coming in, VV was averaging 3.09 ppj. and was acquiring the lead jam 81pct. of the time. Against the Bombshells she only averaged 1.45 ppj. and acquired the lead jam only 42pct. of the time. Since I'm defensive minded, my proudest moment of that bout was to watch my pack of skaters hold VV scoreless on a Power Jam. And, they didn't just hold her scoreless, she never even broke the pack. These stats are significant to me because these two Jammers are major threats, deadly scorers, and we did what we planned to do, we shut them down and took them out of the game that they were used to playing. We weren't gonna let these two Jammers beat us, and they didn't. But I'll tell you who did:

Jenna Talls and Nurse Ratchet.

Its simple: we underestimated them. We worked so hard to perfect our game plan in defending Goody and VV that we gave little attention to these two ladies. And they made us pay. I hope everyone in the league can learn from the mistake we made. These two skaters made an example of us and what happens when you underestimate someone: they burn you. Jenna and Ratchet were consistent in some areas while they stepped up their game in others. Jenna was the Scrappers MVP and no one comes to mind that deserved it more. She had a rough game against the Brides and she bounced back against us with a vengeance. Coming into our bout she was averaging 3.07 ppj. She stayed consistent with that averaging 2.7 ppj. (the highest average of the night) against the Bombshells. What jumped out at me was her lead jam percentages. Prior to meeting the Bombshells, she was acquiring the lead jam 57pct. of the time. Against the Bombshells she acquired the lead jam 71 pct. of the time. That's a major improvement. Ratchet's stats tell a similar story. Coming in her average ppj. was 2.5. Against the Bombshells she averaged 2.4 points per jam. Consistent. There's much to say about consistency. Knowing you can depend on a skater to deliver the same performance each bout is a comforting feeling. Its less frustrating than having a skater who has a killer bout one night, and a crappy one on another. Ratchet's lead jam percentages were the highest of the night. Prior to this bout she was acquiring the lead jam 61pct. of the time. Against the Bombshells she broke the pack first a whopping 80pct. of the time. These two ladies stepped up for their team and played an awesome bout. Without them, the outcome could have been a lot different.


Again, I point out these stats to accent the defensive performance the Bombshell had against the high scoring Scrappers and two of the league's best Jammers. I also point them out to accent the fact that we need to be better at looking at the whole picture when preparing, vis a vis Jenna and Ratchet.

In the near future I plan on developing some stat categories for blockers, with the help from a few people. None of the stats mentioned above would be possible without the blockers and I say it over and over again: Blockers win games, Jammers get the glory. And I perpetuate that concept in my blogs while on the other hand I stress the importance of blocker efficiency in practice. I need to change that and start giving more credit where credit is due, to the blockers. I have some categories in mind so that way we can all start seeing who the best blockers are in this league statistically. But I'm gonna need more eyes to help me get them off the ground because while there's only 2 Jammers to spot in each jam, there are at most 8 blockers on the track each time. And I'm not the best at multi-tasking.

In closing, I've got a little bit of good news as it pertains to the Coach's Derblog. Spike, Jammer ref with the Regulators, has helped me in designing a sleeker, better looking website for this blog with its own domain name. Thanks to all of you that are reading, the popularity of this blog has taken off and he's given me the nudge I needed to expand it and provide you more and better content. It will also give me more independence. I'll be able to post more picture, links, and even video. I want to make this the best blog I can make it for all of you, and Spike is helping me do that. So, much love and thanks to him for the time and effort he's spent in helping me provide you with all the AZDD content you love. Its coming soon...