False Start
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In sports, a false start is a disallowed start, usually due to a movement by a participant before (or in some cases after) being signaled or otherwise permitted by the rules to start. Depending on the sport and the event, a false start can result in a penalty against the athlete's or team's field position, a warning that a subsequent false start will result in disqualification, or immediate disqualification of the athlete from further competition. False starts are common in racing sports (such as
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
, track,
sprinting Sprinting is running over a short distance at the top-most speed of the body in a limited period of time. It is used in many sports that incorporate running, typically as a way of quickly reaching a target or goal, or avoiding or catching an op ...
, and
motor sports Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...
), where differences are made by fractions of a second and where anxiety to get the best start plays a role in the athletes' behavior. A race that is started without a false start is referred to as a ''fair start'' or ''clean start''.


In sports


Association Football (soccer)

Football games cannot be restarted unless certain conditions are met. For example, both teams need to be in their own half of the field for the start of the game or restarts from goals or half-time and free kicks require players to be a certain distance from the dead ball position. A referee may call the players back if one or more encroach into the wrong part of the field. There is generally no penalty for this type of encroachment, although if the referee considers it to be delaying the restart of the game they can award a yellow card. One famous example was during the 1974 World Cup when Brazil had a free kick near the Zaire penalty area was booted far away by Mwepu Ilunga before the restart. At a penalty kick, the restart is blown by the referee before the actual kick takes place. In this situation, "encroachment" may take place, where one or more players from either side go into the penalty area or penalty arc before the kick is done. The goalkeeper can also be called for this offence if one foot leaves the goal line before the kick. A variety of punishments exist depending on which sides were involved and the result of the kick, or the result may stand if one team defends the kick or scores it but their opposition infringed.


American and Canadian football

In
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
and
Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...
, a false start is movement by an offensive player (other than the center) after he has taken a set position. For
offensive linemen In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...
, this movement might be as minimal as a couple of centimeters, although the rule's intent is to prevent offensive players from unfairly drawing the defense offside. A false start brings a
penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...
. Unlike an offside penalty, where the play is run as usual, the play after a false start penalty immediately becomes dead. This is done to prevent a defensive player reacting to a false start from hitting the
quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
while he is going through the snap count, which would make the quarterback more susceptible to injury. At the end of the 2005 NFL season, owners complained regarding false start penalties on players whose flinches have little effect upon the start of the play, such as wide receivers. In response, the NFL competition committee has said that they plan to inflict fewer false start penalties on players who line up behind the line of scrimmage. In the 2021 season the false start penalty was the second most issued penalty in the NFL with 573 penalties being issued for 2,736 penalty yards.


Athletics (track and field)

In track and field sprints, the sport's governing body, the
IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
, has a rule that if the athlete moves within 0.1 seconds ''after'' the gun has fired the athlete has false-started. This figure is based on tests that show the human brain cannot hear and process the information from the start sound in under 0.10 seconds, even though a IAAF-commissioned study indicated in 2009 that top sprinters are able to sometimes react in 0.08 s. This rule is only applied at high-level meets where fully automated force or motion sensor devices are built into the starting blocks that are tied via computer with the starter's gun. In the vast majority of lower-level meets, false starts are determined visually by the officials. If there is a false start, it is signalled by firing the starting gun twice, and the race is stopped. Since 2009, the offending athletes are immediately disqualified. Before 2003, an athlete making a false start would be allowed another start and would only be disqualified after a second false start. Between 2003 and 2009 (inclusive), if there was a single false start, then the whole field would be warned, and the original offender would be allowed a second start. If anyone made a false start on the second start, then they would be disqualified (even if they did not false start the first time). An analysis of start times by sprinters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics demonstrated that male and female sprinters can achieve reaction times of 0.109 s and 0.121 s in one out of 1,000 starts. The same analysis showed fewer false starts among the women and it suggests that the apparent sex difference is caused by the use of the same starting block force threshold for males and females. The authors calculated that were the force threshold to be reduced by 22% for females, to take into account their lower rate of developing muscle strength, then males and females would exhibit similar reaction times and numbers of false starts.


Horse racing

In thoroughbred horse racing, a false start occurs when a horse breaks through the starting gates before they open. There is usually no penalty, and the horse is simply reloaded into the gate. In some events, a horse who breaks through the starting gates is disqualified. A notable example was the 2006
Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...
when Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke through the gate early; he was reloaded and the race was started properly. The 1993 Grand National was declared void because the recall flag to signal a false start was not unfurled, so that most jockeys continued to race.


Ice hockey

In
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
, a false start occurs when a team commits a
faceoff A face-off is the method used to begin and restart play after goals in some sports using sticks, primarily ice hockey, bandy, floorball, broomball, rinkball, and lacrosse. During a face-off, two teams line up in opposition to each other, and ...
violation. When this occurs, the player taking the face-off from the offending team is disqualified from the face-off and replaced by a teammate. A second faceoff violation by the same team results in a minor penalty.


Motorsports

In motor sports that have a
standing start A standing start is a type of start in auto racing events, in which cars are stationary when the race begins (different to the rolling start, where cars are paced). Procedure In a standing start, cars are completely still but with their engines ...
(e.g.
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
), if there is a false start then the offender is subject to a time penalty and the race is normally not restarted. One notable exception was the 1999 European Grand Prix, where six drivers, including the top five qualifiers, jumped the start due to the starting lights malfunctioning. No driver was penalized and the race was restarted. In
drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most c ...
, if there is a false start, the driver who jumped worse is provisionally disqualified, pending the result of the run (if a worse violation occurs during the race, that offender instead is disqualified, and the false start is nullified, with that offender declared the winner. In motorsport with a rolling start (lane violations, passing the leader before the start), the penalty may be positions lost or a pass-through penalty.


Sailing

In
sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
, the race committee decides at the preparatory signal (usually 4 minutes before the start) what the rules on false starting will be by display the P, I, Z or Black Flags. A P Flag means any boat on the course side (OCS) of the start line at the starting signal must return, clear the start line and then restart. The I Flag means a boat which is OCS must round either end of the start line by coming back to the pre-start side and then restarting (the 'round the ends' rule). The
Z Flag The Z flag is one of the international maritime signal flags. International maritime signal flag In the system of international maritime signal flags, part of the International Code of Signals, the Z flag stands for the letter Z ("Zulu" in the ...
means a boat which is OCS in the minute leading up to the start or at the start itself is given a 20% scoring penalty. The Black Flag means a boat which is OCS in the minute leading up to the start or at the start itself is disqualified. Failing to return to start correctly under the P or I Flag rules means the boat is scored O.C.S and receives points equivalent to disqualification.


Skiing/Biathlon

The sport's governing body, the
FIS FIS or fis may refer to: Science and technology * '' Fis'', an ''E. Coli'' gene * Fis phenomenon, a phenomenon in linguistics * F♯ (musical note) * Flight information service, an air traffic control service * Frame Information Structure, a Se ...
, prohibits any athlete from moving before the gun sounds or within 0.1 second after, since 2009. As in track and field, in biathlon or cross country skiing, any false start from any athlete(s) risks immediate disqualification.


Speed skating

According to the rules set by the ISU a false start occurs when one of more competitors are intentionally slow at taking their starting positions, or leave their starting positions before the shot is fired. The first false start by an athlete will be cautioned, and the next, immediate disqualification.


Swimming

In
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
, any swimmer who starts before the starting signal risks immediate disqualification. If a step-down command is given before the race starts, the swimmer is not disqualified. A notable example during the 2008 Olympics occurred when
Pang Jiaying Pang Jiaying (; born January 6, 1985, in Shanghai) is a female Chinese freestyle swimmer who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of ...
was disqualified due to a false start. This allowed
Libby Trickett Lisbeth Constance Trickett, OAM (; born 28 January 1985) is a retired Australian swimmer. She was a gold medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was the world record holder in the s ...
to advance to the final round, in which she won a silver medal. At the 2012 London Olympics, Chinese swimmer Sun Yang jumped into the water too early in the 1500m final, but was not judged to have false started because Sun Yang misunderstood 'stand please' as beeping soun
by the article 101.1 0.3 D
. A similar incident occurred in the women's 100m breaststroke final.


Triathlon

In the men's triathlon at the
2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...
, there was an improper start (commonly reported as a "false start") in the opening 1500m swim because a camera boat blocked some of the participants from entering the water, which
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
termed "bizarre".


References

{{Gridiron football penalties Sports penalties Terminology used in multiple sports American football terminology Sport of athletics terminology Metaphors referring to sport Ice hockey terminology