With all this talk of the legality of padding in shirts and issues with some guns and 'bounce' be it switch bounce or extra shots due to the gun's recoil. I think the major tournament series need to develop a group of people with the understanding and experience to asses equipment according to the rules and judge wether it is legal or not. And adjust the current rules or make new rules as necessary.
This will not be an easy position or thing to do.
There needs to be some independent assesment of such things. Maybe this is something for the likes of the disciplinary committee to be responsible for?
Gun Trigger Pulls
Certainly there were cases of some players being banned last year from events due to 'illegal triggers' (it happened at many events to my knowledge and I am not just talking about one incident).
I think the assessment of the penalty also needs to be relevant to the offence. Banning players from a tournament for a gun that occassionaly double fires (as I believed happened at Amsterdam) is not correct in my opinion.
In the USA at the World Cup if this happened you were just prevented from using the gun for that game.
If it's not an intentional cheat then the equipment should just not be allowed for that game until it is detuned. If it is intentional or very easy to achieve then maybe the player should be banned from that game etc... on up to the event for very severe circumstances of intentional cheating with equipment.
Maybe we have a standard test to asses what is a single shot per trigger pull?
Pulling it at a 'normal' pace and pulling it fast. Let's face it, no-one on the field is going to pull their trigger very slowly to get two shots so why are the guns being tested this way and people getting penalised on the results of such tests?
When pulling a trigger slowly I can get almost any electrical gun to fire two shots. I wouldn't have that happen on the field though.
I know I've argued the legality of FA before, but I also believe that to be a somewhat seperate issue. As well as safety concerns we also need some sensibility concerns? (Am I getting old or what? nah I just want to play and don't want to see people getting penalised unfairly).
Padded Shirts
Once you allow such an open interpretation of 'excessive' it is going to be abused. I'll copy in some of what I posted before about this...
If players are going to have padding for safety it should be implement as such and in the relevant areas.
If it's 'not excessive' then does this mean the padding is not doing the number one intention of safety implementation? If so then it shouldn't be allowed.
If it is doing the safety thing then it should only be allowed where there is a legitimate risk. Fronts of shoulders are not a legitimate location (coming from some one who stopped playing serious rugby due to shoulder dislocations and had to wear a shoulder support for years).
Previously padding has ONLY been allowed for safety issues and that ought to continue. It wasn't allowed on hoppers (only there to look good and get bounces) it was allowed on tanks (to avoid tank damage... and then secondly to look good.) The looking good part is second to the intention and use of the padding and should not be the deciding factor in it's use
Oh and I'm allowed to wear two jersey's right? Am I allowed one Dye 2003 on top of another? Or does that then become excessive? If one jersey is legal why wouldn't two be?
If two are legal then surely I could have that same amount of padding in just one jersey and it's not excessive... oh but then we get back to the 'if wearing one jersey is legal, is two?...'
You need to set a solid standard that can be assessed. I don't see how you can assess 'excessive' very easily and between different manufacturers, so in my opinion you shouldn't allow it at all.
Elbow pads on Fore arms
Tough one this, the modern game does justify padding on the forearms. It's also one heck of a bounce advantage given how we expose ourselves to play? Should it be allowed or not?
Head Protection
On and what about head protection? I wouldn't play without something on my head nowadays but what should be allowed? Some rolled up beany hats with two bandanna's must be taking it just a little too far, no? What about the guys with loose 'veils' flapping in the breeze to slow down the balls and stop them breaking... funny that exactly the way I did it with my indoor firing range
works a treat.
This will not be an easy position or thing to do.
There needs to be some independent assesment of such things. Maybe this is something for the likes of the disciplinary committee to be responsible for?
Gun Trigger Pulls
Certainly there were cases of some players being banned last year from events due to 'illegal triggers' (it happened at many events to my knowledge and I am not just talking about one incident).
I think the assessment of the penalty also needs to be relevant to the offence. Banning players from a tournament for a gun that occassionaly double fires (as I believed happened at Amsterdam) is not correct in my opinion.
In the USA at the World Cup if this happened you were just prevented from using the gun for that game.
If it's not an intentional cheat then the equipment should just not be allowed for that game until it is detuned. If it is intentional or very easy to achieve then maybe the player should be banned from that game etc... on up to the event for very severe circumstances of intentional cheating with equipment.
Maybe we have a standard test to asses what is a single shot per trigger pull?
Pulling it at a 'normal' pace and pulling it fast. Let's face it, no-one on the field is going to pull their trigger very slowly to get two shots so why are the guns being tested this way and people getting penalised on the results of such tests?
When pulling a trigger slowly I can get almost any electrical gun to fire two shots. I wouldn't have that happen on the field though.
I know I've argued the legality of FA before, but I also believe that to be a somewhat seperate issue. As well as safety concerns we also need some sensibility concerns? (Am I getting old or what? nah I just want to play and don't want to see people getting penalised unfairly).
Padded Shirts
Once you allow such an open interpretation of 'excessive' it is going to be abused. I'll copy in some of what I posted before about this...
If players are going to have padding for safety it should be implement as such and in the relevant areas.
If it's 'not excessive' then does this mean the padding is not doing the number one intention of safety implementation? If so then it shouldn't be allowed.
If it is doing the safety thing then it should only be allowed where there is a legitimate risk. Fronts of shoulders are not a legitimate location (coming from some one who stopped playing serious rugby due to shoulder dislocations and had to wear a shoulder support for years).
Previously padding has ONLY been allowed for safety issues and that ought to continue. It wasn't allowed on hoppers (only there to look good and get bounces) it was allowed on tanks (to avoid tank damage... and then secondly to look good.) The looking good part is second to the intention and use of the padding and should not be the deciding factor in it's use
Oh and I'm allowed to wear two jersey's right? Am I allowed one Dye 2003 on top of another? Or does that then become excessive? If one jersey is legal why wouldn't two be?
If two are legal then surely I could have that same amount of padding in just one jersey and it's not excessive... oh but then we get back to the 'if wearing one jersey is legal, is two?...'
You need to set a solid standard that can be assessed. I don't see how you can assess 'excessive' very easily and between different manufacturers, so in my opinion you shouldn't allow it at all.
Elbow pads on Fore arms
Tough one this, the modern game does justify padding on the forearms. It's also one heck of a bounce advantage given how we expose ourselves to play? Should it be allowed or not?
Head Protection
On and what about head protection? I wouldn't play without something on my head nowadays but what should be allowed? Some rolled up beany hats with two bandanna's must be taking it just a little too far, no? What about the guys with loose 'veils' flapping in the breeze to slow down the balls and stop them breaking... funny that exactly the way I did it with my indoor firing range
works a treat.
