[Adam]

Originally posted by Starman311

I can't tell you how many times I've seen situations where the defensive player has established position, is stationary, not reaching, not leaning, in position before the offense has left his feet, etc. and significant contact is made by the offensive player, and no whistle results or else the whistle is ruled to the offense. The defensive player is often knocked to the floor as a result, and sometimes injury results. Instead of being rewarded for intelligent defense and taking one for the team, the defensive player is either ignored entirely or else charged with commiting a blocking foul.

There are a couple of reasons.
1. The defense was not in position in time, and the ref had a different angle and opinion on that than you did.
2. The defense slid a knee, hip, elbow, chest, or forearm into the offense, or simply walked into the player. I've called quite a few fouls where the defense had great position, the offense stopped just short of the defender, and then the defender pushed his chest into the shooter.
3. The defense initiated the fall. This is called a flop. I had a play this year where the defender was just about to take a charge and fell to the floor just prior to contact. Result. No contact, no foul, and a defensive player lying on the floor instead of playing defense. I could have T'd him, but instead explained to the perplexed coach why I didn't call a player control foul.

By all practical reasoning, how can this happen? And I'm not talking about close, judgement call situations. These are or seem to be (from an experienced point of view) clear cut charging situations that are interpreted differently by different people. What standardized training re: these types of calls is given to officials at the high school level? And how is this kind of thing monitored and/or corrected from game to game for individual officials?

i'm sorry, but playing, coaching, and parenting don't qualify one as experienced when it comes to judging these types of play. I'm guessing your officiating experience is at the AAU, YMCA, or CYO level. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm guessing from your comments that you don't have extensive training or experience as an official, or you'd know the answers to your queries.

Secondly, I also am perplexed by the following call being made time and time again. Here's the situation: Defensive player again is stationary, not leaning, not reaching out to impede offensive movement with the arms, arms extended vertically overhead (in his space), not moving in any way. Offensive player is attempting to drive around the defense and makes contact with either his own inside shoulder or leg with the defensive man's torso or knee. The offense initiated the contact because he chose not to go around the defense. Yet the call is made on the defense as a block.

A similar scenario is when the offensive man goes up for a shot and makes contact with this same defensive man in the same defensive position thru the offensive man's forward motion either directly as he goes up for a shot or thru the follow thru motion on his way down. Again, how can this be a foul on the defense?

9 times out of ten, it's because the defender had his arms at an angle other than 90 degrees when contact was made.

SNAQWELLS