Quote:
Originally Posted by Freddy
I appreciate this particular discussion. Back in the early 70's our veteran high school coach taught us to always put a foot OB so that the dribbler couldn't possibly get around us on that side. "Take the charge!", he'd say.
When officiating in the 80's and early 90's, I acknowledged no problem with this and recall no rule against it.
When coaching in the late 90's and early 00's, I coached defenders the same way.
When resuming officiating in the mid-00's, I see that a rule change must have taken place. Either that or my high school coach was incorrect and I wasn't as up on the rules as I should have been.
Last year I polled a variety of varsity coaches on this "legal guarding position = in bounds" issue, and about 70% of them got it wrong.
Of course it takes a while for the rules to catch up with the coaches, doesn't it!
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Freddy,
This change began back prior to the 2003-04 season when the NFHS tried to pass it off as an editorial change. We knew then that it was really a rule change and said so. Case plays and interpretations came out the following season. Here are a couple of our early discussions about this on this forum:
legal guarding position
Has anyone seen the new wording on "legal guarding position" must have both feet IB
More on Rule for 2003-2004
One Foot on the Line, The Sequel
The last one is my favorite.
