Legal guarding position question

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Not according to my high school coach. When he was teaching us our full court zone press, he would have us put a foot on the sideline to insure that we didn't give our opponent even a slight chance of dribbling past us up the sideline. I taught the same technique to my middle school team when I coached.

I'm sure this was discussed back when it changed--why the change? This change has never made sense to me--maybe its that bias of having been taught to plant the foot on the line myself.

I just can't figure out what problem the rules committee was trying to solve that made it worth changing the rule. Seems to me they just made the play more complicated and harder to officiate.