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Originally Posted by jmaellis
What about a situation in which B1 who has established LGP and extends his arm, bent at the elbow directly in front of him at a 90 degree angle to the floor; A1, who is dribbling the ball then runs directly into the front of B1 who never moved his arm from in front of him. 4-23-1 states that a player who extends an arm into the path of an opponent is not considered to have legal position if contact occurs. Since the vertical wall in front of B1 begins right at his face/belly/arms (I'm assuming that you mean arms against the body or at the side), the contact with B1's forearm occurred beyond the wall and in the path of A1 who was headed directly for B1 (block?).
Is there any allowance given to B1 considering, that if he had not had his arm in front of him, A1 would have ran directly into his torso?
I'm asking the brain trust because this exact situation occurred right in front of me during a youth rec. game. I called a block, which met with many boos, moans and groans from the stands. My partner was an experienced official and backed me on the court, but later told me said that he would have called the PC because B1's arm didn't put A1 at a disadvantage as he was running directly into B1 and made no effort to change direction. A different experienced official told me that he would have called a blarge because even though B1 was technically wrong for having his arm out in front of him, A1 was going to run into him anyway. I haven't had the opportunity to discuss it further with other refs. Anybody have any advice?
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Sounds like those arms are not extended "into" the path of the opponent. That rule is really refering to a player extending their arms to the side into the opponents path when their body is not in the opponents path.
The defender IS allowed to extend their arms in front of them to cushion an imminent blow....just as they are allow to duck or turn away from the contact to lessen the impact....and still draw the charge. They must be careful to only use the arms to cushion the blow and not push/hold/grab.
While I wouldn't advise calling a double foul on your play, I do see it as a charge unless the arms created some sort of advantage for the defender that didn't otherwise exist or did more than just have them out there.