Basic Jammer Strategy

Skate fast, turn left.

When I started jamming, the extent of my knowledge was that I had to get on the other side of the opposing blockers. The mechanics of that were completely mysterious - I’d just dance around a bit and hope for the best.

Nowadays, I have a bit more of a plan, which I will share in the hope it might help some others just starting out.

My Patented Three Step Jammer Strategy ©

1. Make space
2. Take space
3. Repeat

1. Make space

Your goal is to move the wall in such a way that they leave a gap which you can fit through. At first, you’ll have no idea if a gap is big enough to fit through, you’ll just have to try. With experience, you’ll become more aware of your abilities (and that of the opposing blockers), and get a sense of what gaps are worth taking.

Lateral movement

Moving side-to-side.

The wall will have to follow you. Eventually (hopefully), one or more of the blockers will make a mistake and leave you some space.

Some jammers like to make the wall commit at each step by pushing on them (e.g. move to the outside; push; move to the middle; push; move to the inside; push). Others like to keep their distance to give away less information about where they are. Try each method and see what works for you. Or, better still, do both and mix it up.

Misdirection

The most common form of misdirection is juking, which means faking a movement in one direction, then actually moving in the other direction. You can do this multiple times before actually choosing on a direction to move in.

You can juke with just your upper body, or your feet as well. Upper body is quicker and uses less energy, but good blockers can see through it. Moving your feet uses more energy and is slower, but will trick blockers more easily.

There are many other forms of misdirection you can try:

• Varying your speed as you come in to the pack (e.g. come in slow, then accelerate; or come in really fast, then stop in front of the wall).
• Approaching the wall from one side, then moving to the other at the last minute.
• Pretending to go for an apex jump, then doing something else.
• If you’re not lead jammer, taking off the star and pretending to pass it to your pivot.
• Pretend to be really tired out, then apply a burst of acceleration.
• I’ve seen some jammers just point at a random side, which can confuse blockers.
• My teammate Sparky does “magician hands”, where he waves his hands around in a mystical way. It’s surprisingly effective.

Pushing & Hitting

I’m a skinny, light jammer, so I don’t have much success pushing blockers out of the way. But it is a possibility if your body and jammer style suits it. I’d caution against doing it too much, because it’s very tiring.

Hitting is different, though. Hitting is not really about moving a blocker from their current position, but about forcing them to make a correction. For example, a nice shoulder hit to the kidney will make most blockers at least stumble, forcing them to correct their stance. The moment they are forced to correct is your opportunity to take advantage.

The two main types of hitting I use are:

• Shoulder hits
• Hip hits

They’re most effective when they come as a surprise, e.g. push on the wall for a bit to get them bedded in; then back off to create some space; then as the wall sucks back onto you, bam! time for a hit.

Offence

Your offensive player is your best friend on track (if you have a power jam, then good news, you’ve got 4 best friends).

Always keep a look out for where your offensive player is, and what space they are trying to make for you. It’s your job to manipulate the wall (using Lateral movement) so they are in a good position to receive offence.

If you’re ever in a situation where you feel really stuck, my advice is to engage the wall, then look up and find your offence. It’s often better to wait a few seconds until you have some offensive help, than waste your energy trying to beat a solid wall solo.

Good timing is key, so it’s essential that you practice frequently with your offensive players, and get to know each other’s preferences.

Take space

Taking the space you have made is a combination of skating skills, acceleration, and an ability to conserve energy for when it’s needed.

Skating skills

There are loads of different skills that can give you the advantage over a blocker, and allow you take smaller and smaller gaps. I’ll try to go over these in more detail in future, but here are some ideas:

• Side surfing
• Transitions (a 1-footed transition is ridiculously effective)
• Spins
• Dips
• Toe stop work
• Jumps

Different jammers have different styles and preferences. But the more skills you can master, the more flexible and unpredictable you can become.

Acceleration

Speed is nowhere near as important as acceleration in jamming. Once you start playing against high level walls, the gaps will be very small and very rare. So, if you see one, you must pounce at it extremely quickly.

You can use your toe stops to give a nice firm push off, or your wheels to give some long, fast strides. Again, being able to mix it up is really valuable.

As you get more experience, you’ll be able to spot which gaps are possible at your current level, and it’s key that you commit, and commit hard, when you see them.

Conserving energy

There’s no point spending 30 seconds or a minute going 100% to make some space, if you don’t have the explosiveness left to attack that space and get through.

Learning to conserve energy is really important, so that when you see the gap, you can attack it really hard. Here are some tips for conserving energy:

• Pushing people is really tiring. Avoid it if you can.
• Mix it up and try different things. If something isn’t working, don’t just do it harder - have a pause then try something else.
• Look for, and make use of, your offence.
• Stay on track. Probably the number one piece of advice I have had so far. Getting hit off and recycled is really tiring, and erases any progress you have made so far.

Repeat

This part sounds obvious, but it’s incredibly important and was not obvious to me for a very long time.

When you first start out against beginner walls, there will be large gaps everywhere, and often you can get past the entire wall in one move. As you and the blockers improve, those gaps will get smaller and rarer, and it will be much harder to beat an entire wall.

At this point, you’ll end up having to repeat the make space, take space process multiple times to get through a wall. Maybe you beat one forwards-facing blocker, then cut in to tackle the brace, throw a juke or two, maybe a hit, move them to one side, use some offence. In that time the first blocker may have reformed back in front so you need to tackle them again.

It can be a long and sometimes painstaking process of picking apart the wall one step at a time. But keep going and you’ll get there eventually.

Next steps

There are 4 main areas of improvement you can aim for:

1. Skating skills
2. Fitness & strength
3. Strategy & tactics
4. Mind game

I’ll try to cover these areas in more detail in future posts. But if you’re always working towards improvement in one of these areas, you’re bound to make excellent progress.