Quote:
Originally posted by JRutledge
This is where you judgment has to come in. You also have to use some logic and common sense as well. You cannot call and it is not to your benefit to call a foul on players that just touch each other. There has to be some kind of displacement. And if I am not mistaken, handchecking only has to do with the ball carrier, not the "off-ball" player.
Really what is legal and illegal is up to you and your partners. Without seeing the particular play, it is not good judgment to just call players touching each other.
Peace
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Rut, I concur that displacement should be the key, and I also concur that "it is not good judgment to just call players touching each other." This is great advice, and I hope that all officials, coaches, and players follow it.
I take exception, however, to your statement that "what is legal and illegal is up to you and your partners." This may reflect the reality of a given game, but is along the same vein as "the only crime is getting caught." Officials cannot (and I have not seen anything from posters here to indicate that this community does) treat questions of legality and illegality as subject to their own whims. I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that officials can make up the rules as they go along, and that as long as they agree among themselves it is ok, but that is kind of what your statement sounded like. If one set of officials feel that "touches" are illegal and call it that way, then another set deems that displacement and advantage is required, then what is the use of rules? Coaches, players, and even partners would be forced to guess about many, many situations in every game. It would be worse than trying to guess an umpire's strike zone in baseball.
Hand-checking is a perfect example of how things can get ambiguous very quickly. The wording in the POEs have not been as good as they should be, and it seems to take about half a season for sanity and consistency to work its way in to the games. Discussions about it, as started on this thread, are a great way to clarify and alleviate the confusion.