Topic: Rule 8.4 Intentially making ball dead.

[foospecialist]

Hello, with the new rules being released 2016 ver. i just want to pick a mind or 2. Rule 8.4 has been around for a bit now and when the ruling of intentionally making ball dead by going in an upward motion was added it really did not change anything as the same objective(making a dead ball) can be done by moving in a downward motion.

My question and possibly an amendment to follow; if a player in control of a moving ball in the goalie area lets say, is setting up, and the ball has rolled away, but not completely out of reach. This player then waits for ball to roll dead in a spot out of reach and thereby regains possession as per the rule. i would argue that in all cases players know their tables and the good spots, bad spots, rolls etc.. and will know just as we all know how the ball reacts on different tables we play on weekly. I would consider this an infraction of 8.4 as a player has without making any attempt to gain positive control, intentionally  let the ball go dead ( as it was in a position wheras if they touch the ball it would roll forward to the 3 man opposing.) I know rules can be interpreted in many ways but i think the rules could have a few more direct wordings like "must make an attempt" prior to ball going dead.
 What are your thoughts?

[bolt115]

You will need to define what you mean by "make an attempt"  ?  clearly going from underneath is not making an attempt - hence the rule     so  any attempt would be from top down     what you would like i think is that if goalie can't advance ball to  next rod ball goes to opposite 5bar?    As stated the rule is clear and will not create any arguments / judgement calls or disrupt flow of game.  In this case it is more beneficial to the game to eliminate "grey area"  then try to legislate intent