I had been meaning to pose this question to forum--as I had observed this to occur frequently in "girls/women" games and it was not called--could someone here pls lend some insight / experience.
Sitch: Female player (A1) receives a pass coming off an elbow area screen, and prepares to shoot a jumpshot; however, prior to releasing the shot A1 does a small hop step without taking a dribble. All of this is part of A1's "gathering" process--then A1 shoots the shot.
Is this "gathering" process a travel violation? If not, then when a similar type of "gathering" occurs in boys/men games it is called a travel. I have yet to observe that it is called a travel in girls/women games--at neither the NF, NCAA, nor WNBA levels.
Which led me to wonder: do we as an officials community tend to treat such a 'gathering' step with bias--i.e., allowing it on the female side, yet penalizing it on the male side? I can honestly say that in this past NF season when I observed it to occur I did not whistle it a violation--neither did my partners. OK, so I admit I have become an "enabler" to this issue.
There are at least four other types of biases that inhere with girls/women games on various violations that are also not called---but let us focus first on the above-cited one first.
Thanks in advance for any input/guidance.