Game Play

A standard match duration consists of two periods of 30 minutes each, during which each team may call one time-out. If a game ends in a tie, two extension periods of 15 minutes are played, and if each of them ends in a tie as well, the tie-break is an individual shootout from the 7-metre line.

The game is quite fast and includes much contact as the defenders try to bodily stop the attackers from approaching the goal. Only frontal contact by the defenders is allowed; when a defender stops an attacker with their arms on the side, the play is stopped and restarted from the nine metre line, with the attacking team in possession. If the contact between the players is particularly rough (even if it is indeed frontal), the referees may award a nine-metre penalty to the attacking team, or a seven-metre penalty. In more extreme cases, they give the defender a yellow (warning) or a red card (permanent expulsion). For rough fouls they can also order two-minute expulsions, and the third two-minute punishment for the same player automatically leads to a red card expulsion.

Conversely, if the attacker is at fault the possession of the ball can be awarded to the defending team. Players may also cause the possession to be lost if they make more than three steps per one bounce of the ball off the floor.

The usual formations of the defence are the so-called 6-0, when all the defence players are within the 6 metre and 9 metre lines; the 5-1, when one of the players cruises outside the 9 metre perimeter, usually targeting the centre forwards; and the least common 4-2 when there are two such defenders. The usual attacking formation includes two wingmen, a centre-left and a centre-right which usually excel at high jumps and shooting over the defenders, and two centres, one of which tends to intermingle with the defence, disrupting the defence formation, and the other being the playmaker.