'06 Rules Updates from the Convention
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:17 amConvention Updates on new rules:
The biggest changes this coming season will be in the faceoffs and flag-down situations;
Faceoffs:
1) Players will be directed to come down to the ball together. If one player is lagging, the ball will be awarded to the other team. This is because the feeling is that the second man in has an advantage.
2) Players should assume a legal position; ball centered on the head, hands off the plastic, stick vertical, both hands wrapped around the crosse and on the ground, everything left of the head, etc., when they come down for the faceoff. There will be little or no warnings given if you're not in legal position, the ball will just be awarded the other way.
3) NEW THIS YEAR - gloves cannot be touching the center line, which will increase the space between the ball and the sticks.
4) NEW THIS YEAR - no "set" call. Once the players are down and motionless, you will get the whistle, very quickly.
5) We were asked to be more consistent in when the whistle is blown. This is a big change from the past, where we were instructed to vary the cadence ever so slightly, to avoid players anticipating the whistle.
We were told that all of these changes were designed to "clean up the faceoff". *Editorial comment* To me, it's hard to see how eliminating the Set, and being consistent with when you blow the whistle is going to improve things. With the "set" call, there was a moment when you had to be legal and completely stop moving. By varying the cadence slightly, you could see if someone was "jumping the whistle". Until this is put into wide practice, I think we're going to see more variance from ref to ref, and the tendency is going to be for players to be doing rolling starts. It'll be interesting!
Flag Down Slow Whistle Situations
The other big change, which some teams used in the fall, but many did not, involves flag down slow whistle situations.
Now, when there is a FDSW, the offended team, if they maintain possession on the foul outside the box will continue to play, just like they always have. If possession is lost outside the box, there will be an immediate whistle.
The difference is once the ball is in the attack box, there should be no stoppage of play unless the ball leaves the box, the D gains possession, the ball goes out of bounds, a goal is scored or the offended team commits a foul. This will take some getting used to by the officials, since we're so much in the habit of whistling as soon as the ball hits the ground. Note to other officials: A technique was presented that says as soon as you see a FDSW, take the whistle off your finger and put it in the palm of your hand. That way when your instinct is to blow it, you'll think twice before doing so. Great idea!
The other big change, which has been discussed, is that Any technical foul committed by the offending team during the FDSW (with possession OR even with a loose ball) will automatically become time-serving. This is a change from the normal call on a loose ball technical. As others have noted, this is a big advantage now for the attack. The thinking behind this is that the defense, if there was a loose ball during the continuing slow whistle, would have been encouraged to simply push an attack player from the back to draw a whistle without any penalty for doing so. Now there is a significant price to pay for that violation.
I'm writing this from memory. There may be a few other changes that will be posted as I look over my notes. (I also thought this would be enough to get some interesting discussions started!)[/b]
The biggest changes this coming season will be in the faceoffs and flag-down situations;
Faceoffs:
1) Players will be directed to come down to the ball together. If one player is lagging, the ball will be awarded to the other team. This is because the feeling is that the second man in has an advantage.
2) Players should assume a legal position; ball centered on the head, hands off the plastic, stick vertical, both hands wrapped around the crosse and on the ground, everything left of the head, etc., when they come down for the faceoff. There will be little or no warnings given if you're not in legal position, the ball will just be awarded the other way.
3) NEW THIS YEAR - gloves cannot be touching the center line, which will increase the space between the ball and the sticks.
4) NEW THIS YEAR - no "set" call. Once the players are down and motionless, you will get the whistle, very quickly.
5) We were asked to be more consistent in when the whistle is blown. This is a big change from the past, where we were instructed to vary the cadence ever so slightly, to avoid players anticipating the whistle.
We were told that all of these changes were designed to "clean up the faceoff". *Editorial comment* To me, it's hard to see how eliminating the Set, and being consistent with when you blow the whistle is going to improve things. With the "set" call, there was a moment when you had to be legal and completely stop moving. By varying the cadence slightly, you could see if someone was "jumping the whistle". Until this is put into wide practice, I think we're going to see more variance from ref to ref, and the tendency is going to be for players to be doing rolling starts. It'll be interesting!
Flag Down Slow Whistle Situations
The other big change, which some teams used in the fall, but many did not, involves flag down slow whistle situations.
Now, when there is a FDSW, the offended team, if they maintain possession on the foul outside the box will continue to play, just like they always have. If possession is lost outside the box, there will be an immediate whistle.
The difference is once the ball is in the attack box, there should be no stoppage of play unless the ball leaves the box, the D gains possession, the ball goes out of bounds, a goal is scored or the offended team commits a foul. This will take some getting used to by the officials, since we're so much in the habit of whistling as soon as the ball hits the ground. Note to other officials: A technique was presented that says as soon as you see a FDSW, take the whistle off your finger and put it in the palm of your hand. That way when your instinct is to blow it, you'll think twice before doing so. Great idea!
The other big change, which has been discussed, is that Any technical foul committed by the offending team during the FDSW (with possession OR even with a loose ball) will automatically become time-serving. This is a change from the normal call on a loose ball technical. As others have noted, this is a big advantage now for the attack. The thinking behind this is that the defense, if there was a loose ball during the continuing slow whistle, would have been encouraged to simply push an attack player from the back to draw a whistle without any penalty for doing so. Now there is a significant price to pay for that violation.
I'm writing this from memory. There may be a few other changes that will be posted as I look over my notes. (I also thought this would be enough to get some interesting discussions started!)[/b]
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