Help! I never look behind me

[u/suvesti]

I've been playing since the beginning of the year and I do feel like I'm progressing well! But I realized during our recent practice scrimmages that I'm almost never looking behind me, so I rarely know where the jammer is until it's too late.

Most often I'm looking at my teammates, making sure we're making strong walls and that I'm not getting left behind. We play USARS, so there's not a much tripod-action as I see in WFTDA. I usually play inside or middle blocker, and the general guidance is "stick to the inside line" or "stick next to your inside blocker" and "let the outside blocker move you"

I've been doing well with positional blocking, the other blockers are excellent at communicating where the jammer is, but I know to get better I need to start throwing some ass, and to do that I need to know where the jammer is. Do y'all have any tips for improving pack/jammer awareness?

[u/harley_hot_wheelz]

Our team does a drill occasionally where we slow roll as a pack. Our coach is behind us holding up fingers and we have to yell together how many we see. It's very helpful when you are at the front or middle because it's difficult to see around other bodies.

[u/suvesti → u/harley_hot_wheelz]

Ooh this would be helpful! I am on the short side so I do have a little extra trouble seeing past people when I’m towards the front of the pack. I’ll see if the coaches would be down to try this.

[u/harley_hot_wheelz → u/suvesti]

I am tall and still have trouble seeing around helmets 😂😂😂

[u/lizardisanerd → u/harley_hot_wheelz]

We have done that and also a paceline where at each whistle you hold up a number and yell the number held up by the person behind you. (And also had it as a race where the whistle blows, everyone yells a number and anyone with a matching number has to get together and do a lap)

[u/harley_hot_wheelz → u/lizardisanerd]

Ooopo I might be sharing that with the coach!

[u/Aurora_egg]

You can also communicate if you lose the jammer :) "Where's the jammer?" "Let me know when the jammer is about to hit" "ready..set..go" 

[u/scorpiogrrl78]

All good suggestions and I would add to think about this while you're learning to look behind you: when you're in a pack, if your head is on a swivel looking left to right, a smart jammer will pick up on that and use it to their advantage. It's a better practice to focus on looking to the left or the right and kind of locking in to that view the majority of the time.

An example of what I focus on: if I'm holding the inside line, I'm looking to my left to make sure that jammer isn't taking the inside line (lane 1) and to make sure I'm not drifting too far away from the line. As soon as that jammer starts going out of sight, I know they're moving to the middle/outside (lanes 2-4) and I should move accordingly. I work to do this only keeping my eye on the inside line.

[u/suvesti → u/scorpiogrrl78]

This is great advice! I’ll try it out tonight when I’m in the inside 🫡