The opening rush of a game is summarised for a range of age groups in the video below:
To start a game off, players stand on court with one foot touching the back line. When the referee signals to start, players may rush to pick up the centre ball and the balls to the left of it. In effect, this means that one player from both teams can race for the centre ball. Once players have picked up balls, they must activate it by moving the ball behind the attack line (otherwise any hits they make with this ball will not count). They may block attacks with a ball they have picked up immediately from the rush.
Task:
Which team can rush for which balls? Drag the players to all of the balls they can run to during the opening rush:
Adapting the Rush for Casual Games of Dodgeball
If you are in a school or community setting and are playing ‘big games’ involving lots of people and balls, it is beneficial to have a method of allowing the rush without risk of collisions. This could be done by:
- Using different coloured balls: Having Team A run for blue balls and Team B run for red balls.
- Splitting the space in half: Setting out one cone in the middle of the center line, and having Team A run for the balls to their left, and team B run for the balls to their left.
False Starts
Players can move before the referee whistles, but their back foot must maintain contact with the back line before the whistle is blown. False starts are called when a player’s back foot leaves the back line before the referee signals “Go!”. The images below explain the penalty for false starts at different age groups:
If a player breaks contact with the back line between the referee’s ‘Ready’ instruction and their ‘Go’ instruction (or whistle), they have False Started. The penalty for a false start is a turnover, which works like this:
- Team A false starts
- Pause the match clock
- Team B are given all 5 balls
- The set timer is reset
- Announce time left in the half/set
- Start both clocks with a blow of the whistle
In u11/primary school dodgeball, players are given one warning per half for their first offence, and sanctioned wth a turnover for subsequent offences in that half.
