New rule trial: no playing ball directly into circle from attacking free hit

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[ugals]

I don't know if the topic has already been mentioned, if so please move it where it should go.

I wonder if this rule is positive for the game, whick i think is not.. has it ever been tried as "experimental rule" in any competition?

It gives opportunity to several stupid-situations to occur, for instance:

-COuntertack 2 vs 1, the deffender holds the position and once the two attackers are in the 25 yards line, the one carrying the ball passes it to his mate who is in the D = FAULT.

-Countertack 1 vs 1, it's clearly better for the deffender to produce a fault near the area, so the ball has to be taken down 5 yards from the D for the game to continue (it gives more time to the deffending team to replace)

And it reduces a lot the tactical movements to be made in long corners and faults near the D, thus giving advantage to the deffenders (with a good hitter, a fault near the D in tghe actual hockey is very dangerous and can provide a lot of short corners/deflection goals).

What do you think?

[glossevans]

Ugals,

I'm not sure which new rule you mean, can you explain further which rule you are wanting to discuss?

[Hockeyjon]

Ugals
I think your first scenario sound a bit like a variation of the old offside rule??
That was abandoned 12+ years ago!! Im not aware of that perticular interpretation anywhere else.It may be a local or national rule, which sound silly as it discourages attacking play & ultimatly goals.
The second one does not appear to indicate a foul but a tactic used? Unless your point has been lost in translation. Are you questioning when the advantage rule should or should not be applied by the umpire?

[ugals]

I am refering to a new rule wich states that it is not allowed to hit the ball to the D in a static ball situation by the player that plays the ball (in fouls and long corners). Even if he plays himself the ball 1 meter and then hits it in, it is not allowed. There are only two possibilities, passing the ball to a team mate who is outside the D or playing yourself and then entering the D with the ball.

The think I want to discuss is the usefulness of this new rule, since it's going to apply to all FIH events starting on may (that is why we start using the new rule in spain for the second half of the season).

[scotty1]

I'm pretty sure you are referring to the 'self pass' rule. look here: http://www.fieldhockeyforum.com/index.php/topic,6777.0.html

[alex.]

I think this is the 'other' rule of the experiment, whereby a freehit outside the D cannot be directly struck into the D.

[scotty1]

Yes, but I believe it is covered in that thread as well - is it not?

[ugals]

Yes, it refers to the other rule, but since the post is called "self-pass" I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the other one here, since pretty much everybody after seeing the EHL experience seems to agree that this rule will speed up the game whereas the other one is (according to my point of view) quite stupid.

[scotty1]

TBH its horses for courses. The self-pass speeds the game up, but this part of the rule evens it up for defensive purposes. At this point I think this part of the rule is rather useful, otherwise you would see hundreds of FHA's outside the circle where the taker taps it into the circle then belts it into a crowd. Personally I have no want to see this and I think we can all agree that it isn't the safest of practices.

[keely]

Can a moderator please change the title of the thread then to alleviate the confusion (i.e. no FH directly into the D)?

[ugals]

sorry mate.. my english is not that good with speciffic words

Anyway... I think this rule is going to be removed after a while... because it slows the game down and has no benefits for the play, except security.. but I'd like to think there are other ways of increasing the player's security in this situations without changing so much the style of playing.

[Ireland40Vets]

This is only a proposal at the moment though isn't it? They haven't actually tried it anywhere.

Keely - correct me if I am wrong here....

[keely]

Perhaps ugals is talking about this in the context of indoor, where it was an experiment in 2007-08? Or maybe they adopted it prematurely with some inside knowledge that the mandatory experiment was coming for outdoor? Who knows.

[ugals]

I am talking about outdoor of course, according to the the Spanish Hockey Federation (RFEH) they have changed the rules (the self pass and this one) from January 09. The second round of the top leagues have not started yet but they said the changement was made so the players that play at international level could get used to it for the incoming international competitions at junior and senior level.

Is it not the case of the other leagues?

[simona]

According to the FIH website it appears that the FIH are proposing to introduce a new rule as described by ugals - having had a look at the self pass thread it didn't cover this proposed change (unless I'm being blind). Here is the wording of the statement on the FIH website.

  "An associated rule change will stop attacking free hits taken inside the 23 metres area from being played directly and potentially dangerously into the circle."

This appears to mirror the trial indoor rule - does anyone know if it has been tried anywhere in outdoor? I'm guessing the reasoning behind it is to stop crash balls into a crowded D which is not very edifying for spectators.  Anyone know the reason given for this change?