Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
Mark T. DeNucci, Sr., this is right in your wheelhouse.
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Actually, it is in mine. The NFHS changed the wording of its FT lane-space violation rule in response to an inquiry from my state interpreter. The impetus was that the action you describe, a player in a marked lane-space losing his balance and placing a hand on the court inside the FT lane without moving his feet, happened to me about a dozen years ago while I was working a HS contest with our local commissioner. I did not call a violation on the play and he did. He was aware that I knew the rules quite well and asked me about the play after the game. He was shocked to hear that the rule only restricted the movement of a player’s foot and as an example I told him that a player could legally do push-ups with his hands and body extended into the lane as long as he kept his feet in the marked lane-space. He even got out the NFHS rules book and consulted the actual text.
The rule was changed to contacting the court a year or two afterward.