Penalties
- Suicide play: A suicide is NEVER allowed. This entails jumping from you side into the air, throwing the ball in mid-air and landing on the other team’s half. This will result in an immediate out of the player who attempted the suicide player, a 2 game suspension and no results of the play can benefit the throwing team.
- Early Start Penalty: An early start is when at the beginning of each game, a player runs for the safe-line balls prior to the referee's whistle.
PENALTY:
i. The team being called for an early start may be penalized by having all 6 balls on the court automatically being handed over to their opponents. Most of the time the balls are re-set and the start of the game is re-done. - A player is not allowed to deflate a ball by squeezing it. Pinching the ball to throw it is allowed but if the ball is crumpled and then thrown the team will receive an initial warning. The second this action is conducted by any player on the team, that player will be removed from the game.
- Honesty Penalty: As noted, honesty is essential in dodgeball. If a player is hit, it is the players’s responsibility to call themselves out, whether the referee sees it or not. Players are expected to leave the game upon an obvious and/or direct hit/catch on their own honesty and volition. If a player does not leave the playing area in a timely fashion after an obvious and/or direct hit/catch regardless of a referee's call then it is at the referee's discretion to remove that player and/or call a penalty.
PENALTY:
1) The player who refused to remove himself or herself after an obvious and/or direct hit/catch will be removed from the current game and the possibility of future games within the match.
2) All 6 balls may be provided to the other team at that point in time.
3) At the referee's discretion, the team may be further penalized by having to play the rest of the games within the match with only 5 players (regardless of how many players the team may have on their roster). - Non-cleared ball: A non-cleared ball is one that is not brought behind the clear line at the start of a game. If this ball is thrown and hits a player, the player is not out. If the non-cleared ball is caught, then the thrower is still out. The team who throws the non-cleared ball, cannot benefit from the play.
