When a shooter is airborn and releasing a shot, what (if any) is the penalty for the defender running at the shooters feet (you know when the defender has no chance at contesting the shot so they run at the shooter and duck down like they are going to take out his feet)? Does the same penalty exist for the defender poking the shooter in the belly?

No contact, no foul. Poking the shooter in the belly? Never seen this happen.

The first one is probably OK as long as there's no contact. But it's a stupid thing to do so I might go out of my way to find some contact if I think it's gonna be a problem the entire game.

The poke in the stomach is definitely not good. Make them stop it immediately. This is a street ball thing that has no place in the game.

The problem with the poke is that no one else in the gym sees it because they're looking at the flight of the ball. When you call it, and you should, you have to sell it by making a very strong call. I've even used a secondary signal at the table to let everyone know what happened. Don't worry though, they still won't like the call.

The FED did have a rule many years ago about running under an airborne shooter. It was put in because they thought it was a potentially dangerous act and they wanted to discourage the practise. The direction was to call the act an unsporting "T" if there was no contact. Contact that dumped an airborne shooter hard was still supposed to be intentional or flagrant. That rule lasted about 2 years, and then it got taken out--mainly because it was being interpreted and called so differently all over the country.

The quick poke in the stomach is an old trick. Right along with the quick tap on a jump-shooter's elbow.