Air Hockey - Rules

Rules

Here are some basic rules as defined by the USAA:

  • A face-off or coin toss decides which player gets the first possession of the puck.
  • The first person to score 7 points by shooting the puck into the opponent's goal wins the game. When the puck breaks the horizontal plane inside the goal, a point is counted, whether or not captured by the electronic scoring device.
  • Once the puck is on a certain player's side of the center line, he/she has 7 seconds to hit the puck back across the center line. Otherwise a foul is committed and the opponent receives possession of the puck.
  • Placing one's mallet on top of the puck, known as topping, is a foul. Here the opponent receives possession of the puck.
  • A player cannot touch or strike the puck with any part of his/her body or with any object other than the mallet. Doing so causes a foul and possession changes hands.
  • If the puck is on a clear path into the goal and the player stops it with anything other than the mallet, this is goaltending. Here the opponent receives a free shot.
  • Hitting the puck when it is on the opposite side of the center line, or crossing the center line completely with one's mallet causes a foul. Here the opponent receives possession of the puck.
  • Red lines in the air hockey should not be crossed by the air hockey mallet. (Catalan Champion Chip)
  • If there is a red line on the goals, it means that you can not keep the air hockey mallet behind the red line. (Catalan Champion Chip)
  • If the puck leaves the table, a foul is called on the player that caused the puck to go out of play due to offensive motion and the opposing player gets possession of the puck. Generally, when a player causes the puck to leave the table with a forward motion of the mallet, even defensively (known as charging), the foul is charged on them. An out of play foul results in the opponent receiving possession of the puck.
  • The players playing can not touch the puck at any time during play, but if one player scores they can put the puck in loser's side.

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Famous quotes containing the word rules:

    “Fergus rules the brazen cars,
    And rules the shadows of the wood,
    And the white breast of the dim sea
    And all dishevelled wandering stars.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “You’d leave your own mother here, if the rules called for it.”
    —Michael Wilson (1914–1978)

    “Children can’t make their own rules and no child is happy without them. The great need of the young is for authority that protects them against the consequences of their own primitive passions and their lack of experience, that provides with guides for everyday behavior and that builds some solid ground they can stand on for the future.”
    —Leontine Young (20th century)