Chadminton Rules

THE LADDER

Chadminton is played on a field called the ladder

The field is 50 yards long and 33.3 yards wide.

The field is split into two halves of 25 yards by 33.3 yards, and each half is further split into an offensive zone (within 12 yards of the goal) and a neutral zone (the other 13 yards).

Along the end lines, the offensive throw-in point is marked 8 yards from the sideline.

The goals are 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide. In front of the goal is the crease, which is half of the circle with the center at the mid-point of the endline and a radius of 2 yards (6 feet).

See the image below for a diagram of the field and its dimensions.

POSITIONS

Chadminton is played with teams of 4-7 per side. Chadminton players generally fall into one of 5 different types:

Strikers are primarily offensive players who are focused mainly on scoring goals and crashing the net.
Sweepers are midfielders who play both offense and defense and are focused mainly on ball movement.
Defenders are primarily defensive players who are focused mainly on stopping the opposing strikers and creating turnovers.
Chads are midfielders who carry a pillow who are focused mainly on distracting the opposition and blocking for their teammates.
Goalies are defensive specialists who stay in the crease to block shots and are allowed to use their hands and feet to stop the ball.

Note that players often trade positions during games or even during a play.

See the image below for more explanation. The example shows two teams of 7 players, the white being on offense and the black being on defense. The orange circle shows posession of the ball.

SCOOPERS

Scoop players can only move the ball with the scoop.

The player must always have the scoop in his/her hand.

The player can use the scoop to defend - incidental contact (i.e. a defensive swing that misses the scoop and hits the hands, face, body, etc) is allowed.

The player is allowed to hit other players with his/her shoulder or hips - there will be no cross checking or any flagrant hits with the scoop as well as no punching, kicking, or fighting.

The player may NOT hit in the back. A hit in the back or from behind is ILLEGAL. Incidental contact may be allowed at the refs' discretion.

If the scoop player kicks it as a result of incidental contact (e.g. bounces off a player's foot in a scrum), there will be no stoppage of play.

A scoop player may not grab the scoop of another player or the chad's pillow but stiff arms are allowed.

Play stops for broken scoops on NON-BREAKAWAY plays and begins once the player has swapped his/her broken scoop for a fresh one. Breakaway plays are defined as when the player with the ball has no defenders between him or herself and the opposing team's goalie.

If a team holds possession of the ball when a scoop has been broken, play begins with an indirect inbound from the team that held possession.

If a team does not hold possession of the ball when a scoop has been broken, play begins with a drop ball.

When there is a breakaway, the player may continue forward motion for 2 steps and then shoot. If the player scores, a point is given to his/her team. If the player misses or his/her shot is stopped, the ball is returned to the breakaway player's team at the spot of the break.

CHADS

The chad can only move the ball with the pillow.

The chad may hit other players with the pillow in any way as long as the pillow is making all of the contact.

The chad may NOT hit in the back. A hit in the back or from behind is ILLEGAL. Incidental contact may be allowed at the refs' discretion.

The chad CANNOT be behind a player and wrap his/her arm around the player's body for a "hit from the front."

The chad is allowed to throw the pillow.

The chad may carry the ball with the pillow, but the ball cannot be covered by the pillow (i.e. can't fold the pillow over the ball like a book).

Kicking by the chad follows the same rules as with scoop players.

GOALIES

Goalies must keep possession of a scoop in their hand at all times.

Goalies may use any part of their body to stop a shot.

Goalies can pick the ball up with their hands within the crease, or 6 feet from the center of the goal. After picking up or catching the ball, the goalie must stay within the crease (again, at the referee's discretion).

If the goalie USES (catching, picking up, batting down, etc) his/her hands outside of the crease, a spot foul is awarded to the opposing team.

Goalies can play in the field just as any scoop player, but must abide by the rules detailed in the "Scoop Player" section.

A goalie can gain possession of the ball and run out of goal to play in the field if he/she picks the ball up using only the scoop.

If the goalie picks the ball up with the scoop, he/she is considered a "Scoop Player" and may be defended as such regardless of whether he/she runs out of goal or not.

If a goalie uses his/her hands (e.g. grabbing the ball, stopping a shot, etc) before gaining possession, he/she may not run out of goal and may not be defended as a "Scoop Player."

In this case, a goalie's scoop or body cannot be touched by a defending player, but an inbounding pass can be blocked.

The goalie may not be hit at all when he/she does not have possession of the ball (i.e. no goalie interference).

If a team wishes to conduct a goalie switch (wherein the current goalie leaves the crease and another field player comes into the crease to act as the goalie), they may only do so at either a dead ball OR when the ball is at the opposing team's half of the field.

SCORING

If any player causes the ball to cross the opposing team's goal line, they will receive a point. Once a team has scored 5 points (pick-up rules) they win the game. In league play, the team with the most goals once time expires wins the game.

BOUNDARIES

This section of rules deals with out of bounds and inbounding. For the following rules, "out of bounds" means that the player or the ball is completely across the line. So, when there is still contact with the line, the player or ball is to be considered "in bounds."

If a player has full possession of the ball (i.e. the ball is not touching the ground) and his/her foot steps out of bounds, play is dead and the other team is rewarded an inbounds from that spot.

If the ball is on the ground, a player can be out of bounds and scoop it off the ground as a pass (i.e. not gaining full possession) without stopping play.

A player has 10 seconds to inbound, otherwise a delay of game penalty will be called and the other team will inbound from the spot.

Goal line inbound:

If a team is inbounding from the goal line of their defensive side of the field, the inbound can be done by a goalie or a scoop player. The inbound occurs near the side of the goal from out of bounds.

If a team is inbounding from the goal line of their offensive side of the field, the inbound must be done at the throw-in point, 8 yards from the corner, on the side where the ball went out.

PENALTIES

The following acts result in a spot foul at the referees' discretion, free throw-in for the opposing team.

Guarding the ball (holding the mouth of the scoop close to the arm(s) or body in order to prevent it from coming loose)

Touching the ball with the hand(s) or foot(feet) [goalie excluded]

Throwing the ball at player of the opposing team

Deflecting another player's stick by grabbing it with a closed hand

Purposely throwing a scoop

The following acts reult in a 2 minute hockey style power play.

Purposely hitting a player of the opposing team with the stick

Purposely checking a player of the opposing team from behind

Elbowing

Other acts of indiscretion determined to be in bad sportsmanship

Particularly malicious hits will result in a captains' meeting. Results will either be a 2 minute hockey style power play or an ejection from the game (the team will then be playing a man down for the rest of the game).

FACEOFFS

This occurs at the beginning of the game (and if applicable, the beginning of each subsequent period) or in the event of a free ball. The ball will be placed on the ground and one chad from each team will face one another on either side of the ball. On the referee's signal (or on simultaneous count down from 3) the chads may attempt to gain possession of the ball.

During the faceoff to start a period, the other players on each team must remain in their defensive zone until the ball has been touched.

SERVING

This occurs any time a team scores a goal.

A player on the scoring team shall throw the ball to the opposing team from within their defensive zone while the receiving team is in their own defensive zone.

The serving team must stay at least 5 yards away from the ball until it has been touched by the receiving team.

If the ball goes out of bounds on a serve, the receiving team gets a free throw in where the serving team cannot enter the receiving team's defensive zone.