Glossary
Below is a glossary explaining various terminology you may hear at a session or when watching wheelchair rugby. This glossary covers terms used in both Fours Series/Paralympic version and WR5s.
The terms are split into four sections,
Court understanding and basic terms
Rules
Attack terms
Defence terms
If you come across other terms that you want explained please feel free to email Hawks and we will see what we can do!
Court Understanding
and
Basic Terminology
Back-court The half of the court where the offence inbounds the ball after a goal is scored. Attacking team has 12 seconds to leave this area.
Control the lowie The low point players will cause a lot of interference on offence and defence, keeping control of them on the back-wheel or hip stops them doing their role on court
Court Playing area is the same as a basketball court with a centre circle and half way line. Difference is at each end with a key marked out rather than a shooting area.
Danger Zones These are areas on the court that put the players under extreme pressure and can be used to force turn-overs: base line, side lines, half way line and key.
Front-court The half of the court where the offence attacks the try line.
Inbounder The player passing the ball in from the base-line or side-line. The ball can be thrown or punted to a player on court. The ball must have touched the inbounder last before touching the court/on court player or wheelchair.
Key The key is a rectangular area encompassing the try line as one side of the rectangle, the rectangle sides willl be 1.75 metres out. This is a restricted area. The defensive side can only have 3 players in the key. Attacking players can only spend 8 seconds in the key at a time.
Punt/bump pass A pass made by throwing the ball in the air/bouncing on the floor, then hitting it with the palm, wrist or fist. Usually used by low pointers to generate extra power or Distance
Timeout - This has changed since January 2025 and will be updated.
Within the Fours game players have four 30 second timeouts that can be called in live play and two 60 second timeouts that coaches can call from the bench that are taken during dead ball situations. Within WR5s there are two 30 second timeouts that can be called by players in live play or coaches at dead ball situations.
Try line The try line is centred between the sidelines at the end of the court and is 8 metres in width marked by two cones. A try is scored when a player crosses the line in possession of the ball. A try in wheelchair rugby is worth 1 point.
Rules
To make it fun the rules have had a revamp in January 2025 with changes to time outs, length of time allowed for inbounding, between bouncing/passing, key areas, female classification for Fours and length of penalty bins.
Rules that catch people out:
Held ball This is a referee call (Article 72). If there is joint claim of possession when the ball is on the ground (e.g. no one person can pick it up) or a player has rolled over the ball (play must be stopped for the ball to be retrieved) or a player has the ball on their lap and has stopped but an opposing player is able to exert downward pressure on the ball for a few seconds then the called is a held or jump ball. The referee will look at the possession arrow to determine which side has possession (it can stay with the same team in which case the 40 second clock does not reset). The possession arrow then changes to point the other way.
One meter violation when a inbounder has the ball and is stationary, no one (from either team) is allowed within one meter, players can force a low receiver into this meter space and the penalty will be against the player in the space (turnover of the ball). The meter space stops when the ball is released by the inbounder. Now line trappers must allow the player onto the court. This is decided if the player comes on straight when the point at which the players big wheels touches the court.
Over & Back Once the ball has entered the front court it cannot go back into the back court. Unless the ball has been touched last by the opposing team. A particular play is to hit a player with the ball on the halfway line will push them back from the frontcourt to their backcourt and force a violation gaining a turn-over
Returning to court from inbound Once the ball has been inbounded a player must return on court straight or with a 45 degree angle from where the ball was thrown. This enables “line traps” to come into play. If your large wheel travels along the line or off court it shows you have gained an advantage and you will be penalised usually by a turnover.
Turnover the possession of the ball changes to the opposing team.
Attack
Corner When attacking the key, if the corner player moves in towards the middle of the key the attacking corner person follows becoming a guard to create a space for the ball carrier to score.
Give When the low point player inbounds to the receiver from the base-line and comes on to block or create space
Give-Go When a low point player receives the ball from the inbounder at the base-line and immediately passes back to them when they push on to the court
High Truck Trailer A particular set up when a low point player sits mid-court with the high point player to create a safe pocket for the high pointer to receive from the inbounder. Inbounder often has a decent throw, or the defence is stopping the players from reaching the inbounder.
Low Truck Trailer When the low point and high point players sit together near the base-line creating a safe pocket for the high pointer to receive from the inbounder
Post A player usually with good reach/hand function will sit close to the inbounder usually at the edge of the key and the inbounder throws to them and they can then throw the ball further than the inbounder to the player further up court.
Reset When attacking the key players may call for the attack to reset as players can only spend 8 seconds in the key and it is more effective if all players attack simultaneously
Seven, Eight, Nine This is shouted from the bench, it is not players learning to count, this is shouted when the bench believes their team on attack runs the risk of not getting over the half way line. The counting stops at nine so that it doesnt make it obvious to the refs how close the foul is!
Spread the play Used in attack to make use of the width of the court to provide different options and space to throw the ball into. If the player with the ball is to the left moved to the right side of the court. This also allows players to run onto balls that are thrown more central, rather than having balls thrown overhead.
Defence
Contain Defence position themselves on top of attacking players (so between the attacking players and the half way line) to make it difficult for players to leave their half within the 12 seconds allowed.
Defensive Press Double/Double Used when the offence has 2 high point functional players, 2 defenders are assigned to each high point player and will deny them receiving the ball forcing the inbound to a less functional player
Defensive Press Double/Single/Single 2 defenders on the opponents most functional player and a single defender on each of the other 2 players on court
Defensive Press Hard Double 2 Defenders contain a single high point functional Player, the hard double needs to be solid and give no room for the opponent to push or jump the chair to get free and join play, this is best achieved by having the defence position on the front and back of the opponent’s chair
Defensive Press Loose Double 2 Defenders contain a single high point Player, the defenders control the opponent but leave the option for one of the defenders to break off and help in other areas of the defence
Defensive Press Man4Man When the match-ups are in the favour of the defence taking a player each to defend can be a strong press
Deny This is used during inbounding when a player who is deemed to have a weaker throw (or may bat the ball in) is inbounding. The idea as a defensive team is to deny the ball to reach the attacking players by placing defensive players between the inbounder and the attacking player. This forces the inbounder to attempt to loop a pass which can be intercepted or call a time-out.
Drop If a player with the ball breaks free, players up court are to leave the player they are marking and head to the player with the ball, to try and force a pass.
Key Defence Chaser The defender/s sitting out of the Key putting pressure on the ball handler
Key Defence Hassle/Press Key defenders leave the Key area and attack the offence
Line trap Usually a low pointer/defence chair is used so that the inbounder or player in the penalty bin are trapped and out of that section of play.
Pick When the defender uses their pick bar or back-wheel to stop and hold the opposition
Pick-Backs Stopping a player after a try is scored and holding them, a good tactic if the team wants to set up a Key-defence or you want to create a 4 on 3 on the Press
Press Usually means mark or hassle individual players (see Defensive Press), opposite to this is key up which means set up key defence (3 players in the key area the other/s stay out)
Rolling Pick When the player uses their pick bar or back-wheel to delay the opposition whilst maintaining the rolling motion and leaving them behind the play
Switch A call for defenders to swap which player they are marking. Also used in Key Defence for players to swap in and out of the key
Underneath/On top Refers to a player's positioning when marking a player. Underneath means the player doing the marking is between their try line and the player. On top means that the marker (player doing the marker) is between the player and the try line they are aiming to score at.
