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This little "shuffle step" is definitely a travel and I will call it if I'm the only ref in Massachusetts that does. This is a pet peeve of mine, sorry. The way I explain it to kids: Let's say you have a pivot foot while holding the ball (or even no pivot foot yet)with two feet on the floor. If you then jump up high in the air and land on both feet, this would be a travel, right? Well, if you take a very mini tiny little jump (foot shuffle)and land on both feet, then THAT"S a travel, too. Of course, I mean if player doesn't release the ball.
It's true, in my experience, that boys more regularly commit this infraction. Unfortuantely, many have been doing it for years in rec and travel leagues as youngsters.
Of course, it is never pointed out to them that it is a travel. When they get to high school and have a ref who calls this (I saw it called five or six times in a Varsity Boys games last week), the boys and sometimes the coach think the ref has two heads. This is NOT the same thing as judging if a players feet came down "simultaneously" as in cathing a pass while airborne (although that's not too hard to determine).
Please don't tell me that someone's assignor has instructed them to ignore this violation.
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