Half way rule

[Tom]

What do people think about the introduction of a half way rule simular to basketball, once you bring the ball over the half way line into your opponents half you cannot bring the ball back into your own half.

This I think would speed up the game and would be a better solution to the shot clock. What are your views?

[Mareese]

I would not be in favour.

Having watched a game of basketball (North American NBA)over the weekend, I was thinking about how end to end the game was, and consequently how dull it was. The scoring was extremely high, but the teams still ended up within about 10 points of each other.

I think the game of canoe polo has changed from a few years ago. Then, teams were diligently playing a zone defense and were making little attempt to win the ball from the attacking team. The good teams have become much more creative than this in recent years and I think that it would be a mistake to introduce another rule to change this.

[Peter]

The idea sounds good as it will speed up the game. Has anybody tried it out yet. The shot clock would never work

[TheMasterG]

I don't think it would work. If a team wants to hold the ball outside the opposition's defence and slow the game down then half the pitch is plenty of room to do it in. It won't make a huge difference in that situation.
In a "man-on" game, I think it could really f**k the game up. Man-on can be fast and exciting and I think this proposed rule could really interfere with the natural play of the game. Just my 2 cents.

[michielv]

Personally I think a halfway rule might even cause players to get back to a more solid defensive style instead of chasing the opponent for the ball. Because once the ball is in your half you know they can't pass it back, thus causing all opponents to be in your half (or not play at all, basically).

Currently it is possible to pass the ball around, regardless of position, and a defending team can actually force an attacking team to hold back (if the defenders paddle hard enough).

With a halfway rule we will get lots of teams waiting for the opponent to be on their half and then break out. In order to prevent that one player might be holding back, thus not taking part in the game. All in all we might end up with teams who can paddle full-on for 20 minutes but lack tactics and strategy.

Just my 2 eurocents,

Michiel

[neklan]

i think it is a good idea.
but it depends on the size of the pitch. when pitches are at least 35x23m (icf-rules) it would mean to play on a playing area of ~17x23m. - it might work!, but we have to try it out first.
maybe we, from zürich tournaments, will play this rule in june when participating teams agree.
i would encourage other organizers to play this rule (for test) already in the first tournaments this year, i.g. in göttingen or ...
what do YOU think?

[Tom]

We are going to try this out at one of our tournaments this year. How about playing the rule and trying it as follows:

"Once an attacking team take the ball pass the half way line it cannot be passed back into their own half, unless a player from the defending team is in the attacking teams half."

This would mean that in a 5 on 5 game that you could potentially pass the ball back once a member of the defending team is in the attacking teams half. If we try the rule using the same interpitation we can then see how it works out.

Anybody else willing to try it out at competition?

[TheMasterG]

So effectively you're creating "offside" in canoe polo?
Sounds like a lot of hassle I think, I presume you'll also need another official on the halfway line then too?
I don't like it, it's making the game over-complicated. My 2 cent!

[Tom]

No its is not offside, it is simular to the basket ball back court rule. The interpitation allows for 5 on and may speed up the game. Lets try it and see. There will be no need for a 3rd official because if the referees are properly positioned they will be able to control it

[mark]

i dont particulary like this (suggested) rule. i feel that all this rule would be doing is taking away from the orginallity of canoepolo. i think that anybody who is playing polo at the moment is happy with the way the game progresses. dont get me wrong i am not against change but i feel that introducing rules like this or the shot clock will take more from the game than what they will provide. at each competition we can see changes in the play that these rules simply wouldnt cater for. it may sound like it will sped up the game but i feel it will also make it sloppy.
just my 2 CENT

[Pierce]

I think you might have some problems implementing the rule. In basketball you have a well defined line for half way but this would obviously not be possible on a canoepolo pitch. could lead to a lot of arguments.

[Malcolm]

I agree that it will cause more arguments - so many possibilities, and it will inevitably end up with more stopped time as players argue with refs, sulk, etc.

Not sure that anyone from the 'for' side of the debate has explained why it would improve the game at all, just that we should try it. I'd be interested to know what the justification is.

[Tom]

When there is a close scoring game that could effect placings in a major championships and one team are holding on to the ball playing it back constantly into their own half, this makes for boring polo. The crowd start hissing and shouting at the teams. If we try the rule to see if it will prevent this and then you can get a full 20 minutes of action rather than 2 members of a team throwing the ball to each other for 5 minutes

This is not a rule and some countries may want to try it out just to see how it will improve the game, or if it will improve the game. If we dont try different things then we won't know if they work or not. We all want to improve the way the game is played for the better

[michielv]

As for teams purposely playing boring polo: isn't it possible for a ref to take action when this happens?

It could be considered unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Besides: if the opponent doesn't do anything against this kind of playing then they sort of deserve such a game. Go get that ball!!

[BOB]

I AGREE WITH MICHEL IVE LOST COUNT OF THE NUMBER OF TEAM'S WHO SIT IN DEFENCE OF THERE OWN GOAL WAITING FOR AN ATTACK GO GET THE BALL.GO ON GO ON GO ON !!!

[Andrew]

Tatics are part and parcel of any ball games and playing 'boring polo' are just tatics. think what all the team wants is just results and playing down the time is what most teams would do if they are leading.
to prevent this would be to implement a shot clock system but requires alot of fine tuning.
just my penny's worth