Short boccia rules
Short boccia rules
- The basic principle of boccia is to throw the balls as close as possible to the target.
- Players can play boccia against each other:
- Individually (one against one, each player has 6 balls)
- In pairs (two against two, each player has 3 balls)
- In teams (three against three, each player has 2 balls)
- Boccia balls are made of leather and filled with granules. The set of boccia balls contains of 13 balls: 6 red, 6 blue, one white, target ball (Jack). The balls have the following parameters:
- The circumference of the ball: 270 ± 8 mm
- Weight of the ball: 275 ± 12 g
- Boccia is played on a smooth and flat surface, mostly in interiors. Playing on a 6 × 12.5m sized court (see layout). The court consists of the following parts:
- Boxes: there are players in the game
- Playing area: the court minus the throwing boxes, players are throwing their balls here; the playing area is still divided into:
- Space before the V-line: the jack must not be dropped at the beginning of the game to this area, it must cross completely the Vee across the court to be in play
- Space behind the V-line
- The center of the playing field is marked with a cross
- The player should remain within the 1 × 2.5m box during the game and may not cross the line during the throw. In case of individuals playing, they occupy the middle boxes 3, 4, where the player with red balls is always on the left. When pairs are played, players occupy boxes from 2 to 5 and the colors alternate starting with red in the 2nd box (red 2, blue 3, red 4, blue 5). Similarly, the teams are occupied by all 6 boxes and the players occupy them alternately starting with the player with red balls in the 1st box.
- Players are sitting during the throw-in - either on a wheelchair or on a chair. Players may also stand, that case all the players should stand though.
- The game consists of 4 ends, 6 ends for teams. During each end, players must throw all their balls out. The scores are determined by the rule that all the balls that are closer to the jack ball than the opponent's the nearest ball are counted in the score. Points for scoring bets are added for all 4 shifts.
- In the case of the same distance of the balls from the Jack, both balls are counted in the score.
- In case of same score at the end of the match, an extra end is played: Tie-break. The end begins by placing the jack on the cross. Toss the coin decides which player starts the end. Whoever winning the tie-break wins the whole match with the tie-break balls not counting to the final score. If the match ended 4:4 and tie-break would win blue, the final is 4:4 with a blue win. If the tie-break ends up with equal points, it is repeated until one player wins.
- The end starts with throwing a Jack into the playing area. Jack must stay behind the V-line, otherwise it gets removed and the opponent next to the left starts playing the end. Jack gets shifted from player to player until its thrown into the playing area behind the V-line.
In the game of individuals, the players in each substitution change each other. For couples and teams, the Jack moves from left to right to each player throwing the Jack one time. - If Jack gets out of playing area during the game, it is placed on the cross and the game continues according to the rules.
- The first, contact ball is thrown by the same player who has thrown the Jack. They try to throw as close as possible to the white ball. If the ball is valid - the ball remained in the playing field and the player did not have a foot fault during the throw - the opponent follows. He tries to get his ball closer to Jack than his opponent. Players alternate the throws according the rule - there is always one that is further away from the white ball.
- The ball is valid if thrown in has remained in the playing area and even during the rolling does not exceed the outline.
- Players have a time limit for launching all their balls. The time of the game gets measured - for each throw, it is the time from the referee’s call to the player to throw until the ball stops worthy on the court. For different categories of players, the time limit for the game varies, ranging from 4 to 8 minutes.
- In event of a violation of the rules, the referee gives the player a penalty: a warning (for example, non-sporting behavior), exclusion (for example leaving the court during a game), removal of a worthy ball (for example throwing the ball out of order), 2 penalty balls (crossing the box line by the wheelchair during the throw-out) ...