Topic: Rationale Behind Passing Rules

[Joel]

During some games today, one of my coworkers made an illegal pass by passing the ball to his 3-bar with the same guy that started the movement of the ball. We usually just let those kinds of things go, but in the spirit of educating everyone I tried my best to teach them what is and what isn't a legal pass. After going over the rules, he began to question the motives behind such rules (namely passing a stationary ball and passing a ball that was put in motion by the same man). The only thing I could come up with was that those kind of illegal passes give the offense way too much of an advantage in passing and would be too hard to stop. To which, he then said, "Well then why aren't snake shots illegal? Those are too hard to defend"

It got me thinking. Is there really any more rationale behind passing rules other than to level the playing field?

[alaskan thunder]

I believe in the 70's there was a pass patented by someone that was literally unstoppable. I think the story goes that they actually stopped a tournament and created a new rule on the spot. BTW if your co-worker thinks a snake shot is too hard to defend, have him try to block a pro/master level pullshot...

[crazy8]

Regarding two of the passing rulles (2-bumps off the wall; 10-second time limit) my understanding is that it prevented a long (minutes upon minutes) series of bouncing the wall before passing.

Paul

[papafoos]

Back in the 70's, some of the forwards just got to the point where they didn't miss passes.  It got kind of boring to watch.  They used a stick pass.  I remember watching a match between Mark Crowell and Tony Turner.  Nobody missed a pass the entire match.

Now, the top forwards are still nearly unstoppable.  But at least with the ball moving, there are the occasional screwups.  And if you've ever seen Spredeman pass, you can see how it is much more exciting to watch his series with it's occasional misses as opposed to the sitting stick pass which almost never missed.

As for your co-workers, don't make them follow the rules to the letter until they start showing some intention of picking up the game.  Too many rules can take the fun out of it for a true beginner.  Do explain the rules.  Just decide among yourselves which rules you would like everyone to follow.  (no spinning, no slamming the rods, etc)

Time became an issue during the 1975 TS championships in Denver. (not 100% sure on the year).  One of the forwards would get the ball and sit on it until the goalie wore himself out.  Something needed to be done.

[bbtuna]

all the passing rules were put into place for the reason you assumed...there was a significant advantage to the offense...the way it is now, the advantage is, all things being equal, the offense still has the advantage but it is much closer than when there was no time limit, stopped ball passing was legal, no limits on bouncing the ball off the wall, or using one man to pass...only exception is passing 2 to 5 and you can see the advantage when someone is good with this and they have no limits on bouncing the ball off the wall

and the snake is as stoppable as any other shot...again, all things being equal, it is a 50 50 battle when equal offense meets equal defense

[jkhFoos]

In large part I think rules change when things are too easy or too uninteresting. I guess that's why a first down in football is 10 yards (not 5) & in basketball there's a 24 second shot clock ( not indefinately).