General Gameplay
Quidditch is a sport that many describe as the meeting of rugby, dodgeball, and wrestling. Mixed gender, full contact with tackling, and high energy, the sport has something for everyone to love.​
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Each team has 7 players mounted on brooms:, which include:
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- 3 Chasers
- 2 Beaters
- 1 Keeper
- 1 Seeker
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There's also the snitch, a neutral player that the seeker needs to catch.
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Each score through the hoops is worth 10 points. The goal is for a team to score the most points before the snitch is caught. The team that catches the snitch receives an additional 30 points and ends the game.
QUIDDITCH OVERVIEW
Chasing
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Using a partially deflated vollyeball known as the quaffle, chasers score goals through one of three hoops on either end of the field.
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Chaser defense involves one-handed wraps and tackles on opponents. Proper form during a tackle ensures that even smaller chasers can thwart the drives of larger ones.
Beating
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Beaters handle dodgeballs known as bludgers. Any player hit with a bludger must dismount their broom, drop any balls they have, and return to touch their home goals before being allowed to resume play.
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Beaters are the most tactical players of the game, requiring field awareness and knowledge of defensive formations to deter scores and make lanes for their chasers.
Keeping
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Keepers essentially act as goalies on defense, and are charged with defending their team's hoops. They can also act as a fourth chaser on offence.
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Given their usual position at the back of a play or defensive formation, keepers can use their wider view of the game to become shot callers on the team, directing the defense and distributing the ball on offence.
Seeking
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Seekers pursue the snitch runner, a volunteer dressed in a gold shirt and shorts. The snitch runner has a tennis ball attached to their shorts, which seekers must grab to end the game. Snitches thwart this attempt through evasion and wrestling tactics.
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While seekers tend to have subs for when they tire, the position usually requires tremendous amounts of stamina and perseverance, along with some martial arts skills. However, cunning seekers can gain the upper hand, using stealth and tactics to their advantage.
Other Rules​​
Any person in play must be mounted on a broom at all times. Snitches enter the pitch after 18 minutes. The game does not end until the snitch is caught, meaning the tennis ball is retrieved from the volunteer. Most games last between 30 and 45 minutes, but can last upward of an hour.
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As a full contact sport, tackling is allowed between players of the same position that possess a game ball. For example, chasers can tackle chasers in possession of the Quaffle and beaters can tackle beaters in possession of a Bludger. Seekers, however, cannot tackle other seekers because they will never possess the snitch tail until the game has ended. All players are limited to one armed tackles and will be penalized if found using two arms.
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As a mixed gender sport, each team enforces a “four maximum” gender rule, which allows a maximum of four players of the same gender on the field at any given time (excluding the seeker). Furthermore, each team contains a total of 21 players, and there are over one hundred fifty (150) official teams in the USQ organization, which is the overarching governing body that regulates Quidditch within the US (link at the bottom of the page).
