NEWS

During the April meeting, the Board of Governors unanimously approved revisions to the 2017 Optional Arena Tournament Conditions for Arena Rules 6, 9 and 10. The Revised Optional Arena Tournament Conditions, which were drafted by the Arena Rules Subcommittee and recommended by the Rules Committee and the Arena Committee, go into effect on June 1, 2017. The National Host Tournament Committee of the USPA’s Intercollegiate/Interscholastic (I/I) Program voted unanimously on May 19, 2017 to adopt the Revised Optional Arena Tournament Conditions for the I/I Program’s 2017-18 season. USPA Member Clubs and Host Tournament Committees are encouraged to use the Revised Optional Arena Tournament Conditions as an alternative to Arena Rules 6, 9 and 10 in club and tournament play beginning June 1 and provide any feedback they have to the Arena Rules Subcommittee. The Revised Optional Arena Tournament Conditions can be found here. The I/I program and Umpires LLC will be collaborating to teach I/I participants and USPA members about the Revised Optional Arena Tournament Conditions with clinic-based education, training videos and webinar sessions over the remainder of 2017.

Background
The overall goal of the original Optional Tournament Conditions was to provide a set of optional rules designed to speed up the arena game and make it more appealing to spectators. To do this, two key changes were made from existing Arena Rules 6, 9 and 10. First, the 2-point line was moved up from the center line to the 25-yard line to give players an incentive to hit directly to the goal rather than play to the wall and walk the ball in around the corner. Second, the penalty procedures were revised to give the fouling team one free clearing shot and thereby reduce the risk to players and horses and the frequent logjams caused by all 6 players charging the goal and backline on penalties 2 and 3 (and all players but the one already in the goal charging in on a penalty 4).

Feedback from players, spectators and umpires indicated that the original Optional Tournament Conditions accomplished their overall goal, but left three existing questions unresolved, made one existing issue larger, and created four new issues.

The unresolved existing questions included: (1) What happens if the ball is hit out of play on penalties 2, 3 and 4? (2) Why treat a penalty 4 block differently depending on whether it results from contact with the defender’s mallet as opposed to his or his horse’s body? (3) What constitutes an “approach” in the arena game?

The existing issue that was made more of an issue by the Optional Tournament Conditions was that an “own-goal” could count 2 points when it should not.

The four new issues unanswered by the original Optional Tournament Conditions included: (1) What constitutes “immediately” as applied to the fouling team’s obligation to play the ball on penalties 2, 3 and 4? (2) What constitutes “affect the play” as applied to the fouled team’s obligation not to interfere with that immediate play? (3) 15 yards seemed to be too small of an area in which to confine the fouling team’s “free clearing shot zone”; and (4) awarding 2 points is fine for a score from beyond the 25-yard line during live play but too much to award for a converted penalty 4 (taken from the 25-yard line).

The Arena Rules Subcommittee met several times between December 2016 and March 2017 to draft the revisions to original Optional Tournament Conditions, which address the issues mentioned above in the following ways:

1) “Immediately” as applied to the fouling team’s obligation to play the ball on penalties 2, 3 and 4 means “within 5 seconds of the rebound.” An infraction results in a re-hit for the fouled team.

2) “Affect the play” as applied to the fouled team’s obligation not to interfere includes not “being within a 5-yard radius of the designated player’s play.” An infraction results in a minimum penalty 5.b for the fouled team.

3) The fouling team’s “free clearing shot zone” is 25 yards, not 15 yards.

4) A converted penalty 4 counts only one point.

5) Consistent with the goal of speeding up the game and making it more appealing to spectators, on penalties 2 and 3, one member of the fouling team is placed along the end wall to the left or right of the goal, no closer to the goal than 10 yards from its edge, to play the rebound only. He or she cannot make a play before the rebound.

6) If the ball is hit out of play on penalties 2, 3 and 4, the fouling team is awarded a free hit from no closer than 5 yards to the end wall.

7) All blocked penalty 4s are treated equally, regardless of whether with the mallet or not.

8) “Approach” is defined as advancing forward toward the ball in a new Interpretation, and Examples explain what happens when a horse kicks the ball in an approach.