Understanding IRF’s Approach to Rules

With the release of the Spikeball Roundnet Association’s 2021 ruleset, we’ve received a lot of questions about the IRF’s stance on rules and wanted to share the board’s vision. 

The IRF is responsible for establishing uniform rules to be used in officially sanctioned international events. As an organization that is made up of National Governing Bodies, the determination of NGBs will establish the ruleset that governs official international competition, such as the Word Championships.

We are working to put those procedures in place and look forward to determining the process alongside our NGBs. The goal is that the IRF will be able to formally certify the official rules for international competition in September at our annual General Assembly. (Note - We’re targeting September for the annual General Assemblies so that it can coincide with World Championships and allow for the most in-person representation possible.)

In the meantime, each NGB has the autonomy to determine the rules and formats that they use in their own national competition. Similarly, independent event organizers are free to use whatever rules and formats they think will best serve their goals. 

If independent organizers seek to have their events recognized and supported by their NGBs, then they’ll align with their NGBs standards of play. If NGBs seek to have their events recognized and supported by the IRF, then they’ll align with IRF standards of play. 

The vision is that the standards of play for roundnet will be determined by a diverse perspective of participating countries and adopted universally. Right now, we are still a very young sport and experimentation is necessary to ensure that the rules we use allow roundnet to reach its greatest potential. We encourage players, independent organizers, and NGB leaders to try different approaches for themselves so that we can have more informed decision making process.