Roller Derby Training: Strength, Jam Endurance, Agility and Falling Drills

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Tuesday night practice in a cold warehouse. Twenty skaters in a pace line, then the coach calls “knee taps!” and the whole pack drops one knee to the floor and pops back up without breaking stride. Then jammer starts, then a four-wall blocking drill until thighs burn and somebody’s laughing on the floor. The fresh-meat skaters at the end of the track are still working on crossovers; the travel-team skaters are counting down to a tournament. Roller derby training off skates makes all of that time on skates safer, stronger and more fun. This page covers what derby asks of your body, strength, jam-style endurance, agility and balance, blocker and jammer work, falling drills, a warm-up and a sample week.

General information, not a personal program. If you have an injury or a health condition, check with a sports medicine doctor, physical therapist or certified athletic trainer first. Back to the roller derby hub.

What derby asks of your body

Honest note first: we found very little published research on the physical demands of roller derby. What we know comes from the rules. A WFTDA game is two 30-minute periods made of jams of up to two minutes, with 30 seconds between them. That makes derby a sport of repeated hard bursts with short breaks, done in a low, bent-knee stance while pushing, bracing, absorbing hits and getting up off the floor. Jammers need acceleration and agility to get through the pack; blockers need strength, a stable trunk and the endurance to hold a wall jam after jam. Everyone needs balance on eight wheels.

For a sense of the bar, WFTDA’s old minimum skills standard (retired as a requirement in December 2020, when WFTDA moved to its “This is Roller Derby” beginner curriculum) asked skaters to cover 27 laps of a regulation track in five minutes, reach one full lap from a standstill in 13 seconds, stop from a brisk pace within four seconds and balance on each foot for 30 seconds. You’ll still hear skaters talk about “27 in 5”. You don’t need those numbers to start, but they show the mix: endurance, acceleration, control and balance.

Off-skates strength

Derby stance is a loaded squat you hold for two minutes while people hit you, so strong legs, hips and trunk pay off. Two or three sessions a week is a common starting point. A simple menu:

• Legs: squats, split squats, step-ups and single-leg Romanian deadlifts. Single-leg work matters because every stride, crossover and lateral step is on one leg.
• Hips: lateral band walks, side-lying leg raises and glute bridges for the muscles that push you sideways and hold your line against a hit.
• Trunk: planks, side planks and anti-rotation holds (a band pulling you sideways while you resist), so you can brace for a hit and hold a wall.
• Upper body: push-ups and rows. Blockers brace and push with arms and shoulders (arms above the elbow are a legal blocking zone), and everyone uses their upper body to get up from a pileup.

Knees: neuromuscular training programs (strength, balance, landing and cutting technique) have been shown to roughly halve ACL injuries across sports in a pooled analysis. We found no derby-specific trial, but the ingredients fit derby well: controlled single-leg squats, soft landings from hops, and knees that track over the toes. Loop bands like the Fit Simplify set make hip work easy at home; see our resistance bands guide.

Junior skaters: the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says supervised, technique-first strength training is safe for children and adolescents, and that strength gains usually come with 2 to 3 sessions a week for at least 8 weeks. Bodyweight and bands first; heavier loads later with a qualified coach. More on youth roller derby.

Endurance: train like a jam

Because derby comes in two-minute jams, interval work matches it better than long, steady sessions alone:

• Jam intervals: 1 to 2 minutes hard (bike, rower, stairs or skating laps) with 30 seconds to a few minutes easy, repeated. Start with fewer rounds and build over weeks; the 30-second recovery is the hardest version.
• Back-to-back jams: on a short bench you may skate two jams in a row. Once you’re fit, try two hard efforts separated by 30 seconds, then a longer rest.
• Aerobic base: one or two longer, easier sessions a week (cycling, swimming, an outdoor skate) help you recover between jams and between games.

Build up gradually. The International Olympic Committee’s consensus on load and injury names rapid jumps in training load as a major injury risk, so add volume a step at a time, especially in the weeks before a season or a tournament. A heart-rate armband shows how hard a scrimmage really was; see our roller derby wearables page.

Agility and balance

Jammers live on quick feet: lateral cuts, small hops, transitions from forward to backward, and the ability to look over a shoulder without wobbling. A small randomized trial in boys aged 11 to 14 on a school roller skating team found that a four-week program of balance, agility and speed exercises (eight sessions) improved a skating speed test and agility tests more than regular PE classes. Off-skates options:

• Ladder drills for quick, light feet, with a ladder like the SKLZ Quick Ladder: in-and-outs, lateral shuffles, crossover steps.
• Lateral hops side to side over a line, then over a low object, landing softly on one foot.
• Single-leg balance: 30 seconds on each foot (the old WFTDA standard), then eyes closed, then reaching in different directions or standing on a cushion.

Balance work also protects ankles, the most commonly injured body part in one large derby survey: the National Athletic Trainers’ Association recommends a balance program of at least 3 months after an ankle sprain.

Blocker and jammer work

These are common derby coaching exercises rather than a tested program; your league’s coaches can tailor them.

• Low-stance holds (everyone): wall sits and held split squats for 60 to 120 seconds, the length of a jam.
• Bracing (blockers): a partner pushes against your braced plank or athletic stance from different angles while you hold position.
• Lateral power (blockers): lateral lunges and skater hops build the push you need to move sideways and stay in front of a jammer.
• Starts (jammers): short sprints from a standstill, on or off skates, for the first strides that often decide lead jammer.
• Get-ups (everyone): drop to both knees and come back to a ready stance without hands, over and over. You’ll do it more than any other move in a game.

Remember the legal zones when you practice contact: blocks go to the chest, front and sides of the torso, arms, hands, hips and legs above mid-thigh, using the torso, upper arms and upper legs. Our roller derby rules page explains them. Derby skaters themselves name “not knowing one’s body” and mismatched skill levels as injury risks, so progress at your own pace.

Falling drills

Falling well is a skill you train, not luck. WFTDA’s old skills standard put it simply: skaters should “slide into knee contact with the floor, rather than crashing onto pads”, from a brisk pace, without using hands or flailing arms. Its current risk guidelines list “able to fall small” and falling “without grabbing or flailing” among the skills a skater should have before a game. In full pads, on a smooth floor:

• Knee taps: tap one knee to the floor and keep skating; then the other; then two in a row. Recover without your hands.
• Double-knee slides: drop to both knees (one slightly before the other), slide, then get back up and skating within a few seconds.
• Small falls: get low, fall forward onto your pads, arms tucked, hands in, chin tucked.
• Falls under pressure: once the basics are solid, practice falling and recovering in a tight group, so you learn to fall small with skaters around you.

Why it matters: wrist and arm fractures are the most common roller skating fractures, and derby adds pileups. More in roller derby injuries, and pads that hold up to drills are in our derby gear guide.

A warm-up before practice

AAOS recommends warm-up exercises before and after skating, and a systematic review found warming up improved performance in 79% of the measures studied, with little evidence of harm. A simple 10 to 15 minutes: easy movement off skates (marching, leg swings, hip circles), a few squats, lunges and lateral steps, then easy laps that build to faster strides, crossovers in both directions, a couple of stops and a few knee taps. The bout-day version is on our bout day page.

A sample week

For an adult skater with two league practices a week: two short strength sessions on non-practice days (not back to back), one interval session, one easy aerobic session, and at least one full rest day. Fresh-meat skaters can start with one strength session and one balance session a week and let practice do the rest. The AAP recommends young athletes take at least one to two days a week off their main sport. Then let your body catch up; see roller derby recovery. For training ideas from another team sport, compare soccer training, and for rink, artistic and speed skating see roller skating training.

Roller derby training: FAQs

What exercises are best for roller derby?

Single-leg strength (split squats, step-ups), hip work (band walks, bridges), trunk bracing (planks, side planks, anti-rotation holds), jam-length intervals, and balance and agility drills. Add get-ups and falling practice, which you’ll use every game.

What is “27 in 5” in roller derby?

Part of WFTDA’s old minimum skills standard: 27 laps of a regulation track in five minutes. WFTDA removed that standard as a requirement in December 2020 and moved to a beginner curriculum, but skaters still use it as a fitness yardstick.

How do I build endurance for roller derby?

Train in intervals that look like jams: 1 to 2 minutes hard with short rests, plus one or two easier aerobic sessions a week. Build volume gradually, because rapid jumps in training load raise injury risk.

How do I learn to fall in roller derby?

Wear full pads and practice on a smooth floor: knee taps, double-knee slides and small forward falls onto your pads with hands in. Get low before you fall, fall small, and get up without your hands. Your league will teach falls before contact.

How often should I train off skates?

Two or three short sessions a week on top of practice is a common start: strength twice, intervals once. Keep at least one full rest day, and ease off in tournament weeks.