[Hornets222003]

This past weekend, I was doing an 8th grade boys game. A5 gathers a rebound and proceeds to swing an elbow behind him. There's no one near him at the time, but i couldn't judge his intentions and I didn't want something like this to happen again in the game so I blew the whistle and called a violation per 9-13-1. Although he only did it once, I thought that was excessive.

I called the violation and the scorer called me over to ask what I called. They thought it was a foul. I explained it was a violation just like traveling, illegal dribble, etc. The coach tells the scorer that I made up the call. I wasn't paying that comment any attention.

After the game, my partner says that maybe I should just stop the game and give a warning next time instead of calling the violation. I try to explain to him that that was the warning - to everyone - that I wasn't going to allow someone to swing an elbow like that. Was it the right move to call the violation?

Also, later in the game, a post player makes a legal pivot with his elbows out and contacts a defender in the jaw. I deemed it a legal move (his elbows were not moving faster than his torso, and in my mind, I though the contact was incidental since the gaurd was in his space trying to knock the ball away.

If the player makes contact with the elbow during his pivot, should I call the foul? I wasn't sure so I didn't. Thinking about it after the game, I thought that I remembered someone telling me that it was a POE at some time in the past to call that type of contact a foul.