Most of these arguments have been had before, but I might as well defend the rules...
/1 - I can't think there are many, if any, sports halls in the country that fit with the pitch dimensions you've laid out. I don't think I've ever played indoors where the endzones were 7m deep! In fact I've played on some that were barely that wide... the point being that you're trying to regulate something that just isn't going to work, but more so whoever wrote this has got the pitch dimensions horrendously wrong. If any indoor TDs out there have actually provided a sufficient number of pitches to run a tournament where each pitch meets these regulations, I'd love to hear from you. /This is simply wrong, as the rule is NOT rigid. It says 'as close as possible', thereby setting a maximum, but no minimum. At European tournaments, where they have access to lots of handball courts, two 20x40 pitches are not uncommon, and I believe (Retter will set me straight) that that was the 'official' pitch size well before I got involved./ 2 - The ability to drop the pull is without doubt the worst idea I've ever heard. I cannot believe that anyone ratified it. Why exactly was this introduced? Let's put this into perspective; this is not a slight variation on the actual rules, it is the *exact opposite* of what happens outdoors. Give it a few months and we'll be at outdoor regionals arguing with people who learnt to play indoors and think it's ok to drop the pull. /You might not like it, but it was voted on extensively. My original proposition was different to the one we ended up with, which was reached after suggestions from lots of people. The aim of these rules is to speed the game up - you never have to go and fetch the disc from the next court if you play to these rules (unless a: you're not organised enough to catch a disc that /is/ valid, or b: the pulling team are fools, and at least then you get to brick it. Anyone attempting a valid pull and failing will not normally lead to a big fetching-delay - that can only happen if someone deliberately chucks it miles away. The fact that we vary the outdoor rules so much was discussed at length, and some were against it, but the fact is pulling outdoors is infinitely different. 95% of players, even in their first year, are capable of throwing a flat crappy hammer indoors that won't be caught, and giving themselves time to set up, whereas a severely limited number can pull well outdoors. And what about the fact that if the disc slides out, it can be brought up to the line? You're not going to stop something in the endzone on an indoor surface. There are too many possible delays in such short indoor games. The fact is (and this was recognised long ago) indoors NEEDS different rules. Previously in this country they were informal (flat and catchable) or we used the swedish rules, which were semi-formal. But very rarely did anyone play the outdoor rules. / Further more, how exactly do you define a "geniune" attempt to catch? How about I fail to catch the disc but in doing so manage to mac it up the field 10m? How exactly does this benefit anyone? /Easy. A genuine attempt to catch is defined by spirit of the game, just like lots of other rules that could theoretically be taken advantage of. You know yourself when you've tried to catch it, and that's all that matters. You play it from where it lands, again for reasons of speeding things up (so you don't have to walk it back to where you dropped it). It's pretty unlikely you'll be able to mac it 10 metres, because the onrushing defenders will be in the way, and they'll stop it. And if you try it deliberately, you're cheating. You could wait for the disc to drop low and then lay out, hoping that if you miss it you'll whack it up the pitch, but if you really are trying to catch it, you might as well take it high and get on with it, rather than letting it drop another metre or two./ According to the 'valid pull' definition, any pull that doesn't make it to the endzone (or touched by a receiving team) is invalid. Doesn't this seem a little harsh on beginners? /By analogy with outdoors, no. An 'invalid' pull outdoors would be bricked, but a beginner couldn't even reach the brick mark with their best effort. Pulling is supposed to be a skill, and making exceptions for beginners doesn't come into it. / Seems like the best pulls now will be nailed hard and low to slide out the back corner of the endzone... if you try to float one into the back of the endzone then all it takes is someone to "catch" (I mean try to catch but actually drop) it to gain more yards than the brick would give you. 2m high box? That pretty much stops you from floating anything out of reach anyway. /The hard flat pull has been tried, and attacking teams should be aware of it. If they're not alert, and don't catch it, then it's an effective pull (and will slow the game down slightly, which is unfortunate); but the fact is it won't work more than once or twice a game at best, because they'll be ready for it, and then it becomes a very poor pull indeed because they start playing very quickly. The flat fast one was used last year, but certainly didn't become dominant, which is as is it should be. I've nothing against trying to catch the other team out with something unexpected. And the whole point of the 2m box is that it ISN'T out of reach, so we start playing as quickly as possible. The skill is in getting it to land there while floating for as long as possible - just putting it out of someone's reach, indoors, is not exactly a challenge. / Or we can all see sense and attempt to play the game the way it was intended to be played. Scrap these 'rules'. /All I ask is that you re-examine the rules, keeping in mind the whole time that the sole object is to get as much playing time as possible into the 17 or so minutes of pitch-time available. If you still think they're useless, then you're entitled to your opinion. B // __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed
