Hey Trashy, I randomly came to your message board today just checking things out. In an ITSF Officials Clinic in 2012 we reviewed this in France.

Rule 23.2 A player cannot make the ball strike the side walls of the table (or the side strips if present) more than twice before passing or shooting from the five-man rod. Regardless of which wall the ball touches, a total of two times is all that is allowed prior to advancing the ball. If the ball goes to the wall a third time, it may not be struck again by any player figure on the passing rod.


Interpretation... If the ball hits the wall and you trap it without the ball coming off the wall first, you are fine. A safer solution is probably to just allow the ball to bounce off the wall a third time and then NOT TOUCH the ball. Once it rests to a stop you can take a time out as long as you have not touched the ball after the 3rd wall.

That interpretation doesn't sound right. I used to be a certfied ref, and the rules have changed. Hence, I could be wrong.

IMO, it is an automatic turn over if the ball hits the wall 3 times, regardless if you don't touch the ball after hitting the wall a third time. You can't call a time out to reset your walls after hitting it a wall a 3rd time. That just doesn't seem right. Plus, I have never seen anyone try to pull this move on me. If they did, then I would call a ref and stop the shenanigans.

Carter - I had the same question actually after hearing the ruling in France. It was also brought up at the HOFC 2012 in Vegas (only three months later) and Adrian Zamora / Tom Yore ran the Officials Clinic, they confirmed the ruling too. Those are the most recent clinic's I've attended, so I'm not sure if anything has changed since then. Here is the rest of the ruling for 23.2 which is in relation to walls on the 5 row.

23.2.1 Defensive trap - if an opponent's pass or shot is caught by trapping it
against the side wall, that does not count as one of the two times allowed to
touch the wall by the player who made the trap and is now in possession of the
ball on his five-man rod.

23.2.2 Once the ball has touched the wall or side strip, it will not be counted as
hitting the wall again until it has rolled off the side strip or is sufficiently
maneuvered away from the wall if there is no side strip present and the ball
has come to rest against the wall.

23.2.3 Following a time-out, any strike the ball makes against the wall prior to
touching a second man will not be counted against the allowed two strikes.

The main point of interest there is that once the ball has hit the wall, if it takes a few tries to get the ball off the wall(as long as the outside of the ball doesn't come completely clear of the entire side strip, it is still your first wall. If you had the ball pinned on the wall after a defensive block, then it takes a few tries to get it off the wall, you are still clear with 0 walls.

Working on a pinned wall pass, ain't ya Trashy?

Open hand Sam use to work on a bounce near the wall, that he could flick over the foot of the D man, pinned against the wall. Not high percentage, but was amusing.

There wouldn't be a discussion if they just got rid of the rule period. Why have a limit on walls, there's only 10 seconds to pass regardless, who freakin cares how many times the ball hits the wall!! Stupid rule!

I agree w/ Rick, get rid of the 2 wall rule.

Not a shenanigan Carter, just checking the rule.


NoPinnedPassingTrashy

Rippin might have a good point here, especially since there's only 10 seconds. I suppose it could be a slight advantage, leading to more possessions and more scoring. But isn't that what Tornado wanted in the first place?

News Flash

You can change anything you want in foosball and it still won't lead to a mass influx of fans, especially those not into foosball. Puhleeeez!

Dream Weaver!

Foosball has no large fan base outside of foosball. Changing world, no going back. If it wasn't for boring things like the rollover foos would have less than half of what they do now.

My favorite plane of all time is the P-51 Mustang. Why don't they bring that back into service? More people would join the Air Force I'm sure!

This is like Japanese baseball where players just keep going up to the plate slapping at the ball hoping to get singles vs. American Home Run hitters. Which is more fun to watch?

There's nothing fun about watching someone use 10 walls in a 2-5 series over 14 seconds. There's NO offense in there vs. a 2 bar bomb.

I'm not saying take out the 2-5, just give it the same rules as the 5-3. You have 5 more seconds with the 2-5 pass, and less men to pass through. It's rediculous.

Like Jim said - no rule change is going to bring in more players.

X

Edited by user Friday, December 20, 2013 5:06:41 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified