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A friend of mine (a former Big East and current NFL official) told me what they look for in holding. Like everyone else has said "...gain an advantage" ,"...point of attack." But what do you actually look for when there's questionable activity at the point of attack? A great key to making this judgement call is to look for the defensive player "losing his feet." That is, when he's trying to move toward the ball carrier, his feet will be leading the way. If he's truly being held, you'll see his upper body lagging behind or in some other way moved to a position where it's not over his feet. That's one of the first things they look for in the NFL and in major college conferences. We recently had a clinic where my friend and three other NFL officials presented. We saw a lot of training film and in particular, when the holding plays were reviewed, inevitably they (including NFL U #5 Jim Quirk) would comment that it was a good call because the defender "lost his feet." Didn't necessarily mean he was on the ground; it just means that his feet were no longer in a position to support him. In fact, they said that if an offensive player has a handful of the defender's jersey and the defender is doing nothing to move toward the ball carrier (i.e. they're just "dancing") most NFL officials will pass on the flag.
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Bob M.
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