New rules: 3 strikes and you're out!
I've suggested this on some other X-ball thread but I'm hoping for some discussion of this proposal:
Let's put into the Millennium, NPPL/PSP and X-ball rules that any player who is penalized three times for the same violation (e.g. playing on) gets pulled from the tournament (the team can continue with a full team, if they have the available bodies).
The background to this is the need to get the conscious playing on under control. It is obvious that the top teams have made a system out of playing on in tight mugging situations and we must at least try to slow it down.
Any of you who have judged know that it is virtually impossible to sort out all of the mugging situations properly. And most top players know from experience that there is a less than 50% chance they will get caught when consciously playing on to get out the opponents they set out to eliminate. I'm sure many of us have heard the command (directly or indirectly) to do what it takes to get certain opponents out of certain key positions, especially towards the end of a game.
The 3-strikes-and-you're-out rule needs to be complemented with a more pro-active decision by the promotors and league boards to make sure all the refs in a tournament are properly trained and motivated to deal with all rule-breaking with "extreme prejudice", fairly and consistently.
We can also consider complementing further the suggested rule with saying that any player who gets pulled twice from a tournament is suspended from the rest of the season or at least the next tournament. I also believe that any suspensions should be carried over to sister leagues (Millennium, NPPL, etc.).
The main thing is to try to dampen the frustrating trend towards blatant playing on, to try to modify behavior towards playing within the rules and to make it more likely that the players who don't break the rules get to play instead of the reverse. (I know this from experience: I was told, in confidence, on a team I was with a long time ago, that I was kept on the bench much more than a couple of other clearly less skillful players because it was known that I didn't consciously play on. I'm not trying to be the moral hero here, I have pulled the trigger a couple of times too many on occassion.)
If what I've read about the Nations' Cup is true, then the frustration level exceeded boiling point, not because of biased judging, but because the aggressive American playing could not be kept up with (I know there were other difficulties too). Could it have made a difference if the judging crew, who I understand were generally very competent, had been a little better trained for the hard situations, had been rotated out with other, rested judging crews, and had been armed with the above suggested rules?
Would like to hear opinions.
Check it!
I've suggested this on some other X-ball thread but I'm hoping for some discussion of this proposal:
Let's put into the Millennium, NPPL/PSP and X-ball rules that any player who is penalized three times for the same violation (e.g. playing on) gets pulled from the tournament (the team can continue with a full team, if they have the available bodies).
The background to this is the need to get the conscious playing on under control. It is obvious that the top teams have made a system out of playing on in tight mugging situations and we must at least try to slow it down.
Any of you who have judged know that it is virtually impossible to sort out all of the mugging situations properly. And most top players know from experience that there is a less than 50% chance they will get caught when consciously playing on to get out the opponents they set out to eliminate. I'm sure many of us have heard the command (directly or indirectly) to do what it takes to get certain opponents out of certain key positions, especially towards the end of a game.
The 3-strikes-and-you're-out rule needs to be complemented with a more pro-active decision by the promotors and league boards to make sure all the refs in a tournament are properly trained and motivated to deal with all rule-breaking with "extreme prejudice", fairly and consistently.
We can also consider complementing further the suggested rule with saying that any player who gets pulled twice from a tournament is suspended from the rest of the season or at least the next tournament. I also believe that any suspensions should be carried over to sister leagues (Millennium, NPPL, etc.).
The main thing is to try to dampen the frustrating trend towards blatant playing on, to try to modify behavior towards playing within the rules and to make it more likely that the players who don't break the rules get to play instead of the reverse. (I know this from experience: I was told, in confidence, on a team I was with a long time ago, that I was kept on the bench much more than a couple of other clearly less skillful players because it was known that I didn't consciously play on. I'm not trying to be the moral hero here, I have pulled the trigger a couple of times too many on occassion.)
If what I've read about the Nations' Cup is true, then the frustration level exceeded boiling point, not because of biased judging, but because the aggressive American playing could not be kept up with (I know there were other difficulties too). Could it have made a difference if the judging crew, who I understand were generally very competent, had been a little better trained for the hard situations, had been rotated out with other, rested judging crews, and had been armed with the above suggested rules?
Would like to hear opinions.
Check it!