Tip of the Week

This is a very large topic, so we’ll start with what a foul is, what a violation is, and the “call / contest” stuff.

Basically, a foul and a violation are both ways that the rules of the game are broken. A foul is defined as “non-incidental contact between opposing players… in general the player initiating the contact has committed the foul.” A violation is “any infraction of the rules other than a foul.” So basically, if you hit someone on the other team and it affects the play (e.g. marker hits thrower’s arm and throw is affected), it’s a foul, if you break a rule but don’t touch them, it’s a violation (e.g. double team or fast count). The person that is fouled calls the foul / violation, usually, though in the Spirit of the Game with new people involved sometimes the person committing the foul/violation will call it on themselves. After it’s called, the person that broke the rules can either agree or contest (disagree), in the case of a foul; or in the case of a violation, “fix” whatever the violation was (e.g. move farther away, slow the stall count). There are specific responses to calls, contests, etc., based on the foul/violation, which are detailed in the rules. Next week we’ll look at the continuation rule, and then we’ll start in on the fouls, violations and appropriate “following actions”. 

Zone is a type of defense in which you are responsible for covering an area rather than a person. The intent is basically to close off the throwing lanes on the field so that your opponents can’t throw upfield, and to force a turnover when they try it. The type of zone will depend on your team and probably your captain’s preferences, but generally there are three parts to a zone: front, mid, and deep. The people in the front are the ones on the disc, one marking the thrower and counting, and the other(s) just over 3 metres / 10 feet away from the thrower, blocking a portion of the field. The mids are (hmm) the middle of the zone, and it’s their job to cover runners in that area and / or knock down the mid-length throws. The deeps are the ones nearest the end zone your team is ‘protecting’ and they are the ones that stop the long throws – usually they are fast and tall or can jump well. They are also ideally going to call guidance to the mids when there are runners coming into their area. For more specifics, your captains will set you up!

The boundary lines are marked by cones, and in some cases there will be a painted line on the field for one or more of the boundary lines. Inside the line is IN, on and outside the line are OUT.

Whether you are in or out depends only on the first point of contact.

If you catch the disc in the air, it’s your first foot touching the ground that counts—if that foot is in-bounds, you’re in-bounds, even if you then keep running out (just back up to where you first touched down and keep playing).

If that foot is on the line or out, you’re out—the other team gets the disc.

If you’re standing still and straddling the line, you’re out.

If you can keep a body part in and on the ground and catch the disc before touching the ground with a body part on or over the line, you’re in.

If you can jump from IN bounds, catch the disc out of bounds and throw it back in before you land (if you’re going to be landing out), the disc is still good. And, you’re awesome!

When checking to see if you are in (either in bounds or in the end zone for a point), use the two closest pylons. Whether you’re in or out is up to the person with the best perspective.

If you were reading the disc overhead as you caught it, you probably didn’t have the best perspective. But, then again, neither did the guy at the other end of the field shouting “Check feet! You’re out!”. This is where Spirit of the Game comes in—if you’re out, say so. If you’re in (and think you had the best perspective), you can call back some polite version of “nope, I’m in, play on”.

As noted in last week’s tip, a time cap is a way to determine when the game ends and who wins it. As you’ve probably seen by now, it can take more time than we have good light to play to 17 points. There are two kinds of time caps, soft caps and hard caps. A soft cap is partially reliant on score – if a certain score has been reached by the soft time cap, the game ends and the team with the most points wins. Generally the soft cap is the end of the game if one team is up by two or more points at the predetermined cap time (e.g. 8:30 p.m.). A hard cap is a predetermined time when the game is over, regardless of score. In our Rec league, ties are allowed. For both soft and hard time caps, captains decide on them before the game, and the current point being played is finished if the time cap is reached during a point (so if it’s 8:30 p.m. but you’re still playing a point, you go until someone scores it).

Games can end in two ways, either by points or a time cap. We’ll go over points this week, and time caps will be next week’s tip. Games are “to 17, win by 2″. This means that the first team to get 17 points wins, as long as the other team has 15 points or less – hence “win by 2″. If the score is 16-16 and one team scores to make it 17-16, at least one more point must be played so that the score is 18-16. If the games goes from 17-16 to 17-17, at least two more points must be played so that one team wins 19-17. (and so on until one team has at least 17 points, AND 2 points more than the other team).