Obstruction Rule Revisited

I had a question about the obstruction the other night in practice, and I decided I would just consult the handy-dandy rules guide to get clarification.

Turns out the rule is a little vague.

Here is how obstruction is currently defined:

17.12.1 A player is deemed to be obstructing if the player endeavors to block another player's direct line to the puck

So I wrote my own obstruction rules, stealing heavily from basketball rules. I'm posting this in hopes that someone who works on the rules might look over them and think about changing how the rule is written.

Let me know if this makes sense.

Definitions

Offensive Player
An offensive player is defined as a player whose team currently has possession of the puck.

Defensive Player
A defensive player is defined as a player whose team currently does not have possession of the puck.

Incidental Contact
The mere fact that contact occurs does not necessarily constitute a foul. Contact which is incidental to an effort by a player to play an opponent, reach a puck, or perform normal defensive or offensive movements, should not be considered illegal.

Incidental Contact by an Offensive player:

• curling whilst in possession of the puck
• Pulling the puck back under their body while stationary

as long the puck remains on a player's stick.

If lost of possession occurs, the official must decide whether the contact is incidental or a foul has been committed.

1. Guarding an Opponent
In all guarding situations, a defensive player is entitled to any spot on the court they desire, provided they legally gets to that spot first and without contact with an opponent, irregardless of the offensive player's speed or position.

A defensive player may continue to move after gaining a guarding position in the path of an opponent provided they are not moving directly toward their opponent when contact occurs.

Any defensive player who conforms to the above is absolved from responsibility for any contact by an opponent which may dislodge or tend to dislodge such player from the position which he has attained and is maintaining legally. If contact occurs, the official must decide whether the contact is incidental or a foul has been committed.

2. Loose Puck Fouls (General Obstruction)
When neither team has possession, an opposing player is deemed to be obstructing if the opposing player:

• Blocks another player's direct line to the puck while not attempting to obtain the puck.
• Covers or hides the puck with any part of their body or equipment, to prevent access to the puck by other players
• Initiates contact that results in the dislodging of the opponent from their established position

3. Blocking (Defensive Obstruction)
A defensive player who extends a hand, forearm, shoulder, hip or leg into the path of an opponent and thereby causes contact is considered to have caused an obstruction foul.

4. Shepherding (Offensive Obstruction)
Shepherding occurs when a moving offensive player blocks a defensive players direct line to the puck. [Note: I don't think this is good enough. a defensive player should at least be attempting to defend for shepherding to occur. Any ideas how to better word this?]

An offensive player who has established position on the court and is not moving is not considered to be screening, even if during the course of play their position crosses a defensive player's direct line to the puck.

5. Barging (Offensive Obstruction)
If an offensive player causes contact with a defensive player who has established a legal position, an offensive foul shall be called and no goal may be scored.

An offensive player who extends a hand, forearm, shoulder, hip or leg into the path of a defensive player and thereby causes contact is considered to have caused an obstruction foul.

An offensive player who pulls the puck back behind their body while advancing forward and using their body to 'push' a defensive player out of the way is considered to have caused an obstruction foul.

Dear Mablair (can't find your first name),

Great job, I think it's always good to get more precision on the rules and since uwh is still a young sport we get the chance to make it evolve in the right way. Getting inspiration from a reputed sport like basketball (what about handball?) is easy for all of us to understand, so thanks for the big step forward.

> Shepherding occurs when a moving offensive player blocks a defensive players direct line to the puck.
What if, as an offensive player, I put my body between the defensive player and the puck, by pulling the puck down to my hip or rotating? We see that a lot and I think it's fine. What's not allowed is either to hide the puck under your body or use your free arm to cover the puck or run into the defensive player who already has position. However, I think these cases are already covered, aren't they?

What do you think?

Julien

theres nothing wrong with sticking the puck under your body or moving your body over/around the puck to hold possession. thats just a part of the game and the whole concept of hockey is based around it.

as julien says what youre NOT allowed to do is hang the puck behind you and then swim into someone... thats barging.

i applaud the attempt to make things better, but uwh isn't really too much like basketball, and a couple of key differences are pretty crucial. one is the concept of possession, which is easy to keep in basketball but generally a very temporary thing in uwh. quite often neither team or both has possession at the same time.

the way the rule is worded now is a bit crap, i agree.

perhaps it would be better to amend it...

"A player is deemed to be obstructing if the player endeavors to block another player's direct line to the puck, and in doing so not attempting to play at the puck themselves."

... thats pretty much the crux of the rule, are players trying to play at the puck or trying to get in the way, and the refs are determining body position for accidental obstruction like sheperding and intent for deliberate obstruction.

i dont actually think its that complicated myself, and there arent too many times when refs cock up the obstruction call, compared to some of the other interpretations.

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Julien,

So "Shepherding", as least as we talk about it in the US, is when a 2nd offensive player gets in the way of the defender. This most commonly happens when a forward, going down for a pass, ends up running into the defender and takes them out of the play.

So that's another important part of defining that rule - the 2nd player, which I didn't talk about.

Matt

Wow have I been gone a while, not too much to catch up on though.

Matt, as I understand Shepherding... or think i do, it would be closer to what you are describing as "loose puck fouls". A little akin to interference in Ice hockey or Shepherding that used to be a foul in soccer, but either that was just youth leagues or they took it out at the international level because it was ignored. When the ball is rolling out of bounds and the defensive player rather than play the ball just gets in the way of the offensive player "shepherding" him away from the ball so he cannot save it from rolling OB. Basically playing the player not the ball. Anyway the time it happens most in UWH is when the puck is in the corner, or maybe along the wall, and a player rather than takeing possesion of the puck uses hands arms to support himself and positions his body to not allow the oppossing player access to the puck.

2nd player obstruction I would just call it that. A pick or screen in any other sport is obstruction here, and still should have to do with movement of the player doing the obstructing.

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An aquifer is a water bearing layer of rock or soil. Aquifers are separated by impermeable layers of rock or clay called an aquitard. Aquitard, however may sound a bit offensive to some, and therefore we will be changing the name to Aquachallenge.

I would call that just simple obstruction. If the player in question is not making an attempt to play the puck (s)he is obstructing and subject to the wrath of the referee.

A second player from the team in possession blocking a defender is what I understand as shepherding.

Then, of course, a third player from the attacking team also blocking a defender would be the infamous "double-shepherd" which results in any scored goal from the play being counted as 2.

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Faster than a speeding puck...

the thin red line will be when the second attacking player shows interest in receive a pass from the player with the puck, just in front of a defensive player, and keeps moving toward the goal, ahead of the play ??
I think it's one of the hardest fouls to call, as usually both are right saying "the other guy was obstructing me!!!" (speaking about the second attacker and the defender).

There does not appear to a clear definition of shepperding in the rules, i would say it boils down to preventing a defender from getting to the player who is in possession of the puck, in particular in an attacking position. Having said that, the player deemed to be shepperding would have to be really close to the player in possession, otherwise he could just be there to support his team mate. This is a very difficult one to call, unless it is very clear that the defender cannot get to the player with the puck.
Trust this makes some sense.