hand's part of the ball

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

Absolutely not. The flight of the ball is set by the contact of the ball with the club head. End of story. Once that contact is over, it's impossible to further affect the flight of the ball in any way, shape or form, no matter what you do, as long as you don't touch the ball again.

The physics you describe are correct. The real question is whether you can plan to stop your swing one foot after the contact, without changing the contact. Probably not, as I'm sure you would agree.

But that's not a good comparison to the contact after the shot in basketball. The shooter should plan on following through, and then take whatever hit comes afterward. The defender should hope to influence the shooter to alter her shot to avoid the effect of the blocking. This is not, in itself, illegal.

If there's slight contact after the ball is gone, it's usually incidental, as long as the defender is maintaining legal hand and arm position. However, it doesn't matter how slight the contact is, a foul is committed, if the defender's hands aren't in a legal position. There may still be good reasons not to call it, but it's much more justifiable a call than the slight contact after the ball's gone with the hands completely legal.