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”.