Pass the star. Change the job.

Only the pivot can receive a legal star pass from the jammer. The pivot is a blocker with a striped helmet cover. A jammer cannot hand the role to any convenient teammate or throw the cover down the track as a shortcut.

For the transfer, the jammer hands the star directly into the pivot’s grasp and releases it. Both must be upright, in bounds and in play. Neither can be on the way to or queued for the penalty box, and the pivot must be wearing the stripe.

The instant of the legal release transfers the role. The former jammer becomes a non-pivot blocker. The former pivot is now the jammer, even before putting the star onto the helmet.

Removing the cover from a jammer’s head does not by itself make anyone else the jammer. The same person still has the role. Without the star worn with its stars visible, that jammer cannot earn passes.

A pivot who picks up a dropped star also does not become the jammer merely by collecting it. Recovery and a legal role transfer are separate events. Watch who released the star to whom and under what conditions.

In the star-pass scenario, the letter J marks a jammer who is not currently wearing the star. The symbol changes after the handoff so you can follow the job independently of the player.

The new jammer inherits points, trips and passes from the previous jammer. A pass during an unfinished initial trip does not give the new jammer a fresh start or a free scoring lap. That initial trip still needs to be completed.

Only a skater who starts the jam as a jammer can earn lead. Passing the star does not transfer lead. A lead jammer intentionally removing the star loses lead, so a team cannot pass the cover to its pivot and keep its own call-off privilege.

That tradeoff is why a star pass is a decision, not an automatic upgrade. A team can change which skater attacks the pack, but it does not erase the position it has already earned or lost.

Watch the pivot move within reach of its jammer. Look for a clear handoff rather than assuming a lifted cover means the pass is complete. Then keep following the new star as the former jammer returns to blocking work.

Ask three questions: who is the jammer now, what trip are they on, and who still has lead? Those three answers explain more than the location of the cover alone.

A failed or illegal attempt can have different outcomes depending on its impact. The WFTDA rulebook and casebook are the authority for those edge cases; use the simple legal sequence here to establish the basic mechanism first.