[Thad House]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

In 2006 I remember thinking "This is GREAT! I never thought FIRST would let us SHOOT things." and they cautiously introduced flying nerf balls with a maximum velocity limit.

Then we got to shoot ten pound earth balls. Then more nerf balls, but without a velocity limit. Then... hard flying discs!!! Then big, heavy, inflatable balls that humans actually had to catch!

FIRST would have no problem with high speed hockey pucks... all they'd have to do is put a requirement that teams not shoot the pucks outside the playing field. First infraction is a warning, second is DQ.

But there is also no reason that NHL hockey pucks are required to play hockey. As has already been pointed out, street hockey balls, tennis balls, foam pucks, old balls of tape, crumpled up paper and hackey sacks have all been used as hockey pucks.

In fact, I believe red and blue hockey pucks played a role in the FIRST VEX Challenge in 2007?

Jason

The nerf balls and the 2014 balls were not super dangerous. Even at full speed one of those balls shot wouldn't hurt a person too bad. The Frisbees were alot more dangerous, which required the nets. If an frisbee had gone into the crowd at an event, it would have been a MAJOR safety issue. I fell like the same thing would happen with any type of small balls, or especially pucks. The first time an object like that hits someone in the stands, even if accidentally, that would most likely lead to some major legal issues I know FIRST doesn't want to get involved in. So I don't think FIRST will do a small game object because of this, unless the nets can GUARANTEE nothing will go flying into the crowd.