[Back In The Saddle]

There's a bit of a circular definition involved with this.

NFHS 4-15-1 "A dribble is ball movement caused by a player in control who bats (intentionally strikes the ball with the hand(s)) or pushes the ball to the floor once or several times."

NFHS 4-12-1 "A player is in control of the ball when he/she is holding or dribbling a live ball inbounds."

He has to be "in control" of the ball to be considered dribbling, but dribbling is one way he can be in control of the ball.

For my money, until the player clearly demonstrates that he has the ball under control I am judging that he's trying to get it under control. A bat to the floor in this situation is, in my experience, part of the process of getting the ball under control. Especially if he bats it just once and then picks it up on the bounce.

If, however, he pushes it to the floor a second time, I'll turn that around and by default judge that he is now dribbling unless he clearly demonstrates that he does not have it under control.