Penalty box

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

For information on the area of a football (soccer) pitch colloquially called the "penalty box", see Penalty area.

The penalty boxes in this ice hockey game are shown here. The one on the left is occupied while the one on the right is vacant.

The penalty box (sometimes called the sin bin, bad box or bin) is the area in ice hockey, rugby football and some other sports where a player sits to serve the time of a given penalty, for an offence not severe enough to merit outright expulsion from the contest. Teams are generally not allowed to replace players who have been sent to the penalty box.

[edit] Ice hockey

In ice hockey a period in the box occurs for all penalties, unless the infraction is a misconduct penalty or has resulted in the awarding of a penalty shot. If three or more players are serving penalties at once, the team will continue playing with three on the ice but will not be allowed to use the players in the box until their penalties expire. When a team has a player serving a 2-minute penalty, and an overall disadvantage in the number of players on the ice, the opposing team is said to be on a power play. If they score during that time, the time remaining in that particular penalty is discarded and the player may return to the ice. Goaltenders never go to the penalty box, and would either have their penalty time served by proxy or (in the case of a 5-minute major penalty) face a penalty shot.

[edit] Rugby football

A player being sent to the "sin bin"

In both codes of rugby (rugby union and rugby league), only penalties involving violent play, dangerous play, professional fouls or repetitive commission of a specific offence result in a sin binning. The referee usually signals such infringements by displaying a yellow card (this is not used in Australian rugby league). Often, if a team is committing one offence repeatedly, the referee will warn the captain that the next time they commit that offence, the player responsible will be sent to the bin. For the most serious offences and/or repeated misconduct, the referee may send off players, who take no further part in the game and leave their team a player short.

[edit] Other sports

Lacrosse, handball and field hockey utilise penalty boxes, as does International Rules football - which is a slight anomaly since penalty boxes are native to neither of the sports from which International Rules was conceived, namely Gaelic football and Australian rules football.

Proposals to introduce penalty boxes in association football (soccer) have been discussed by the International Football Association Board [1], but so far have never proceeded beyond discussion. Some Indoor soccer leagues and competitions already utilise them.

[edit] See also

• Penalty (rugby)
• Professional foul