Zombie Tag

So it seems like zombies are the "new" thing. There's zombie this and zombie that, not the least of which is the very popular tv series The Walking Dead. There are a few games on All Derby Drills that are based on the classic game of tag which are very good for warm ups at the beginning of practice.

Alternative names: --

Objective: Get your skaters warmed up for practice. Work on teamwork. Practice putting on the helmet covers while skating.

Typical length of drill: 15 minutes max

Materials needed: Plenty of Pivot and Jammer covers

Skill level required: Basic skating skills. Comfortable in skates.

Description: If your league is like mine, you have a bag full of jammer (JC) and pivot covers (PC). We'll use the JCs as the zombies and the PCs as the survivors. Split your skaters in two equal groups and have them start at the walls of your rink or skating space. I put one group at either end of the length of the rink. Before you start scatter the PCs around the rink. We have a five foot cinderblock wall running around 3/4s of the rink so I put them on top at random places. Give one skater a JC. She'll be the first one "infected". Take the rest of the JCs and stand off to the side. Blow a whistle to start. Whomever the zombie tags, they're now infected and will turn into a zombie. The newly infected will skate over to you, grab a JC, and go out and make more zombies. Once all the JCs are gone, blow four whistles to stop. Now you have a bunch of zombies and a few survivors. Have the zombies line up in the middle of the rink, and split the survivors into two groups, just like at the start of the game. Blow a whistle to start. Now the survivors have to skate out and grab a PC, and when they have a PC on (not in their hand) they can commence to slaughtering zombies. When a PC wearing survivor tags (kills) a zombie, that zombie falls down and stays on the track as an obstacle. The game is over when all the zombies or the survivors are killed. If you can, as an added bonus, play the theme song from the Walking Dead. The skaters will love it.

This is a good drill for teamwork. When I first ran it everyone was out for themselves during the second half and the zombies would always win. Eventually they would team up and make a big group, protecting one or two people who could then grab a PC.

It's also good practice for the mysterious and rare star pass. It's not easy to put a helmet cover on while skating away from a creature trying to eat your brains.

Additional notes: This is another drill written by our guest blogger, Brawl-n-Order.