Three-Foot Restraining Line

[bainsey]

Middle-school doubleheader yesterday (girs/boys) in the smallest gym I'll work all year. The end lines are literally three inches away from the walls. (Sideline space was rather normal.)

All around the court, there's a restraining line that's three feet away from all sidelines and endlines. We went over this in pre-game with both teams: During throw-ins, don't cross the line or break the plane, and the thrower-in can step in to throw, provided he/she doesn't cross the restraining line. I don't know of any other gym in our area that has that line.

In a nutshell, we had the kids inbound from the regular boundary line (or standing on the endline), with all others behind the restraining line. In retrospect, that really wasn't correct, and it caused some confusion. Kids were breaking the restraining-line plane from time to time, and we had to stop play and clear up the matter. (My veteran partner and I decided not to push the DOG warnings, as the breakages were largely sloppy, not intentional.)

Instead, if I'm reading the rule right, we should have had the throw-ins take place directly behind the restraining line, with all boundary plane rules applying. Granted, the thrower-ins had every right to back up as far as they liked, but we probably should have encouraged getting up to the restraining line, so as to avoid any confusion.

Does anyone else have experience with the restraining line, and how they enforce it?