Hand Checking

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by carldog
JRutlege, whose insights have certainly helped me learn a lot on this board, has said recently in another thread about 'Most Overlooked Calls' , that for a hand check to be a foul "you have to have displacement." The implication seems to be that only displacement shows that advantage has been gained.

This is from the FED POE in the 2001-02 rulebook concerning handchecking:

4-HAND CHECKING, ROUGH PLAY
Hands off:
- Defenders are not permitted to have hands on the dribbler!
- No displacement of a cutter
- The measuring up of an opponent (tagging) is hand checking, is not permitted, and is a FOUL.
- Use of the forearm, regardless of the duration of the contact, is a foul.
- Hand checking is not incidental contact: it gives a tremendous advantage to the person illegally using theur hands.
- This applies to both offensive and defensive players.
- Principles in incidental contact (Rule 4-27) apply."

Note that the POE only mentions displacement of a cutter. Handchecking is still supposed to be a foul on other players- dribblers, post players, etc.- even though dispacement may not be involved. It's a judgement call usually as to whether an illegal advantage is gained with the hand on the opponent. For instance, we tell our guys to call a handcheck if the defender's hand stays on the dribbler for more than 2 steps, even though there might be no actual displacement of the dribbler.