Closely Guarded

[stewcall]

Tonight in our manditory clinic the 6 feet rule was discussed. 6 feet and legal guarding position. All officials were asked to look closely at what six feet really is. the radius of the free through semicircle. Also not to use the unauthorized signal of two hands apart when their is no closely guarded.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Most officials seem to have thier own distance (usually around 3-4 feet) Sorta like the strike zone in baseball it will be nice if we all can have the same ruler to measure with

Stew in VA
CVBOA

[Stripes13]

I know not all measure everything by the same ruler, ask our wives...

But a second issue I see is related to the position of the defender in a closely guarded situation,

ART. 2 . . . To obtain an initial legal guarding position:
a. The guard must have both feet touching the floor.
b. The front of the guard' s torso must be facing the opponent.

I see the defender getting set in a position where the guard is in a position where the torso is facing to 2-o'clock not really facing the opponent...is this "legal guarding position" relative to "closely guarded" or by applying the "letter of the law" the defender does not have the torso facing the opponent so the defender has not obtained legal guarding position so no closely-guarded situation exists until the defender "squares up" first then rotates his torso to the 2-o'clock position or 10-o'clock if the defender is trying to force the player to go a different direction...

I guess I am considering the defender to have "legal guarding" position even if they don't really "square-up" initially but do get in front of the opponent [I guess a diagram would help here but I don't have one] what's the thoughts of others here.

[Nevadaref]

You are probably being way to picky, but I'll also add a thought.
Closely guarded and INITIAL legal guarding position to not have to connect. A player could establish ILGP while 10 feet away from an opponent just by meeting the criteria you listed. Then player could then turn sideways and slide up to the offensive player. When the within 6 feet requirement is met, a closely guarded count should be started.
In short, there is no requirement that ILGP be established within 6 feet of the offensive player in order to get a closely guarded count; only LGP must be maintained.

[Jurassic Referee]

"Closely Guarded" is a POE this year- POE #1 to be exact. There is a good explanation of the call on p69 in the POE's.