Quote:
Originally Posted by SC Official
NFHS: K may not touch a free kick in flight unless blocked into the kick, even if no receiver is in position to catch the kick (KCI). Once the ball has touched the ground and gone 10 yards, K may recover it.
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Under the NFHS code, the governing rules are "Catch" (NF: 2-4) and "Recovery" (NF: 2-36) which apply to kicks.
The practice of immediately driving the ball into the ground (hopefully) creating the "big bounce" over the receiving team's front line, is designed to eliminate many of the benefits afforded to "catching" the kick.
The practice can cause confusion with deep officials, who may not see the initial contact with the ground, underscoring the importance of
ASSIGNING the responsibility of
OBSERVING the path of the ball to one of the "Up" (depending on configuration) officials, who may have the necessity of communicating with "deep" officials regarding flags thrown, that may need to be reconsidered because of the immediate ball grounding.