Experiment 1 - No halfway line, standard pitch size, 5 vs 5, players needing to play both attack and defence, unlimited subs. All other rules the same. Open to any team.

Experiment 2 - No rebound block. Any rebound obtained by doing the block would be blown as an offence in a similar fashion to the cutting rule. The idea being to encourage tactical creativity and athleticism e.g. run-on collects, hard drives to the post prior to shots going up etc. Open to teams at top local league division and above - I'm interested in seeing what the more skilled and tactically sophisticated players would do if we take this option away, no point banning a move that newer/less experienced teams might not be using yet anyway.

Experiment 3 - Change to the scoring system - 2 points for a goal within a two metre radius of the post, 2 points for a long range goal (maybe 9-10m out), 1 point for everything else. The idea of this being that spectators like it when people score big longshots or burn past their defenders for short range opportunities (or mug them off at the post for something cheeky). All other rules the same. Open to everyone.

I'm sure I'll get a bit of flak from people accusing me of wanting to make the sport like basketball, but that's not where I'm going. I think the core identity of the sport is dependent on the defending rule to encourage participation for people of all shapes and sizes and the mixed gender element. I don't feel there's any harm in taking those core features and seeing if we can do something a bit different with them.

So let me know what you think. I'm also open to different rule change ideas if people have any.

i didnt like the 2 point shooting line when it was tried at the korfball challenge a few years ago but that was because it was just to easy for the dutch boys whereas i thik it would be something that could improve english korfball as teams look to improve there long shooting which in turn would lead to teams having to defend tighter then leading to players attacking more in a 1 on 1 dual.

the block that you talk about is not used to obtain the rebound.
when it was first used it was because teams where so good at front defence noone could ever get a feed,now they just walk up to the collector and its there. the colector then walks around becuase at the top level if the feed is inplace the defence tries to take away the collect so its a simple way of getting both now.

ive seen alot of korfball this year from different contries and the block is only slow in england and im of the view that this is only because the shooting is poor so teams drop off and mess the block up.

in holland if your 1/2cm out of position it cost you a goal or a pen so defenders just get in a 1 on 1 defending postion the whole time

For your three variants listed:

1. Not for me, but some people might like it!

2. A good idea but might be hard to implement. Players quite often "run a block" to get a good position but without resorting to the slow walking move you're talking about. I'd love to try this out but you'd need to think about it carefully to avoid the inevitable rules lawyers... ;)

3. I'd like to try this one. I'm not 100% sold on changing the scoring system but thats the whole point of doing something like this... :)

2 is interesting, as has been said already, you'll have to be tight on the rules.

3 is again, interesting, the Saint Andrews Beach tournament usually has a '2pointer from the corner' rule, but that's quite different. It does encourage big crowd-pleasing shots, but it's especially hard when the wind is up...
Marking out the '2point' areas would be the main challenge, otherwise it sounds good to me.

In my view, the important thing to think about at this stage is how to implement the rule variation in a way that's clear to players, coaches and referees, and leaves no doubt as to how the rule should be applied. The sorts of questions you should be asking are (taking your Experiment 1 as an example) "How should a 5x5 team be composed? 3 male and 2 female players? If not, how should gender-specific defending work?"

Usually, though (going back to the softball world again), rule variations are applied with fun in mind, rather than any serious ambition to contribute to the evolution of the official rules. A common (and popular) variant in the softball season is a single-sex tournament; instead of the usual mixed-gender teams, separate men's and women's tournaments are played side-by-side. I think a single-sex tournament would be a very interesting addition to the korfball calendar as well.

In principle, though, absolutely! Do it! If you're on the organising committee for a tournament I honestly see no reason why you can't play a variant on the rules. If it's popular in principle then teams will "vote with their feet" (i.e. you'll see it reflected in the number of entry forms you receive).

quote:

---

Marking out the '2point' areas would be the main challenge, otherwise it sounds good to me.

---

-----------------------
http://www.mitchamkorfball.co.uk
http://www.highburykorfball.com

Gav - Any chance you can do me a poll so I can get a quick snapshot of which variant people are most interested in?

Really good idea.

I saw that in Holland, they had a 1 v 1 competition - there is a clip online somewhere. I think that could be really competitive.

Equally, you could have some part of the day for a 2v2 competition, one boy and one girl per team. Who is the strongest pairing in British korfball?

Graham

An alternative option if people don't like that idea is to force teams to field 2m and 3f or 3f and 2m, but I'm not sure how you'd justify changing the rules to make teams more male or female dominant. I don't really want to go to 4 vs 4 or 6 vs 6 because I think 4 vs 4 would be too demanding on the individual players and limit how many people could get involved, and 6 vs 6 would cram the division with too many people and make the games too chaotic.

Korfball.com Forums - Viewing Message

© Korfball.com 2000-2012