Guys - let's really read into this rule and get the exact meaning correct. The reason the wording in the rule "even though there is no contact" defines the reason you would make the call of a technical foul. I'm not trying to say you don't have the discretion of determining whether or not the swinging was "excessive" in order to determine if you should call the foul. My point actually has nothing to do with that. Remember, technical fouls are only called for non-contact events during play, or contact events not during play. If a player swings his/her elbows excessively and DOES make contact, it cannot be called as a technical, but only as a common, intentional or flagrant foul. I didn't state that just to be nit-picky, but to make the point that maybe you should use the following reasoning as your criteria whether or not to call the T when there is no contact: since a T carries the same penalty as an intentional foul, but more than a common foul, only call the T for non-contact if you would have considered it intentional (or flagrant) if there would have been contact, but not if you would have called only a common foul. This reasoning seems to make sense in defining "excessive" to me. By this I mean it was "excessive" if it would have mandated an intentional or flagrant call if contact had been made. Comments?
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