Chapter 7: Violations, Penalties, and Documentation
Introduction
Most matches run from start to finish without a penalty. When a rule is broken, though, the Head Referee is the one who decides what happened, applies the right level of response, explains it to the team, and records it. That can sound like a lot, but the Game Manual gives you a clear framework for each step, and the goal of this chapter is to make that framework feel routine rather than daunting.
One thing shapes every part of this process in VEX IQ: the students. VEX IQ teams range from early elementary through middle school, so the Drive Team Members you speak with at the field may be eight years old, fourteen years old, or anywhere in between. At these ages, most violations are an accident rather than a strategy, and students vary widely in how well they can absorb a ruling in the moment. Start from the assumption that a rule break was unintentional, and let what you actually observed tell you otherwise.
Penalties are not about punishing teams. They exist to keep matches fair and safe, and most of the time the right response is small — often just a verbal warning, delivered in words the student in front of you can understand and act on. Giving students the benefit of the doubt does not mean letting rules slide; the classifications and outcomes in the Game Manual still apply exactly as written. It means applying them with a tone that assumes good intent, so a young team leaves the field knowing what happened and how to do better next time. Alongside the framework for classifying and documenting violations, this chapter includes practical guidance for those conversations, written for referees who are not education professionals.
The time to complete this chapter is approximately 30 minutes.
In This Chapter
This chapter covers how a Head Referee handles a rule violation from start to finish: recognizing and classifying it, deciding whether it improved a score, applying serious penalties when they are warranted, documenting them, and talking them through with the team in an age-appropriate way. As in earlier chapters, the Game Manual remains your official source for exact criteria. This chapter directs you to the rules that apply, but it does not replace reading them.