I attended the California State Championship match this last weekend, and it was stated to be run strictly according to AAFTA rules.
I asked several competitors and the acting officers, and none claimed to have a copy of those rules on hand, nor, more importantly, had any acknowledged to have recently READ the rules.
My point though, is this is nothing really new! Folks that come here and post about new rules we need are not usually very knowledgeble of the existing rule details, yet they are able to generally able to compete successfully in, and even routinely conduct regular matches with no reference whatsoever to these rules DURING the matches, rather instead, they simply follow the lead and general practices of a few of the others involved at the event.
Not sayin rules are needed, but I AM saying that since we don't pay them much heed AT MATCHES, maybe we mostly only "need" em HERE?
Selectively enforced/adhered to without consistency. As such the Rules are reduced to being nothing better than theoretical Internet forum discussion because the rules have been diminished in application.
Regards,
Tony