[yeahboats]

The ball must be kicked through and must be below the tips, so no punting way over:

>All gates must be cleared with a drop kick or grubber kick.

>Gates must be cleared below gate tips.

For the center gate, you only have to clear it to unlock scoring, looks like then you can ignore it (other than not stepping through it)

[jerf]

"For the center gate, you only have to clear it to unlock scoring, looks like then you can ignore it (other than not stepping through it)"

I believe you can see that idea in pick-up basketball when you only have one hoop; the opposing team who steals a ball must "clear" the ball by taking it back to some line (like the half-court line) before attempting to score, simulating a full court. In this case it is "intended" [1] to prevent you from just grabbing the ball from a scoring team and scoring immediately yourself. It adds some momentum to the game, otherwise it's rather unstable.

[1]: Or, if you prefer, "without this rule Speedgate would have been much less likely to survive the winnowing process and thus been found evolutionarily unfit".

[chrisco255]

Ah I didn't catch that you could score on any gate. Does the ball not change hands after a score?

[tempestn]

I found the rules a bit unclear about this, but I don't think you can score on any gate. It talks about scoring on end "gates", but it also says your team's three defenders can only travel to the offensive side of the field once you've cleared the end gate, which implies that you're trying to score on only one end gate.

[CydeWeys]

Shouldn't the center gate have a top crossbar on it then, like an association football goal? Unless you're going to have a lineman at each side looking across the tips of the poles, it's going to be hard to judge if the ball goes through or over.

[aidenn0]

They want the poles to be springy for safety, and a crossbar would add rigidity.

[CydeWeys]

You're not allowed to walk through the middle zone at all, so springiness doesn't seem to be of much concern.

Also, it's not like this isn't a solved problem in association (or American) football -- just pad the poles.

[pbhjpbhj]

>Moving through the center gate will result in a foul.

You can enter it, just not go through it; on a strict reading. It's sport purgatory.

[dragonwriter]

Well, you should be able to escape: if you enter from and exit to the same direction, you have not moved through the gate