[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by BktBallRef

Sorry Robert, but I think we're having difficulty understanding what you're saying.

Visualize the contact as in the table above, and tell me if that's legal or illegal use of hands & arms in blocking.

I'll give you another description: The opponent is facing and moving south, and the blocker is moving northeast. The top of the blocker's right shoulder goes into the opponent's right armpit. The blocker's right elbow is on the opponent's belly. The blocker's right palm is on the opponent's left breast.

But if it "looks" like a tackle and you take him to the ground, it's probably going to draw a flag.

The funny thing is that after I posted my question, I watched a video of a team with angle blocking in their "wall" drill, and they were all using that technique on the dummies. However, the dummies were considerably skinnier and certainly rounder than human beings of their size, so the arm attached to the shoulder really wrapped around the dummy, looking very much like a tackle. The funny thing is that they started with that arm in a flipper or chicken wing posture, but still wound up wrapping; backing the dummies was a chain link fence.

I would want the blocker to take the opponent to the ground, though I doubt they'd succeed most of the time, and if that happened, the blocker's arm would wind up across the frame of the opponent on the ground. I just hope the blocker wouldn't land on his chin; he'd probably turn and land on his opposite shoulder. Are you saying that if you saw that, you'd be more likely to flag it?

If this is ambiguous, I blame the rules makers when they dropped the requirement that the hands and arms be kept close to the body (and palms facing the blocker) when blocking with them, because if you take advantage of the current rules allowing hand placement anywhere on the front frame and any amount of elbow extension, it looks like a tackle if an angle block is most effective, even though only one arm is being used. I figure on having the players keep the elbow down and hand up, because if they extend the elbow it's likely to wrap around the waist even if they don't try.

Strangely enough, if they used both hands in an angle block, it would look less like a tackle, because the far hand would push off the armpit and the head would not be behind the opponent while they're in contact, but the block would be less effective AFAICT.