Hand Checking guidelines

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Jimgolf

The GPBOA website ( http://www.gpboa.org/Rules%20&%20Mechanics.htm )has some good articles for beginning officials.

One in particular is regarding hand checking, and was written by John Basorist, a D1 official in Michigan. The full article is at http://www.gpboa.org/Articles/Handchecking.pdf but the gist of the article is :


Also:


Are these guidelines appropriate for NFHS?

These guidelines look very similar to the NCAA-W guidelines, and considering one of the articles on the GPBOA website is written by Don Rutledge, supervisor of officials for the WNBA, it doesn't surprise me there's some NCAA-W influence there. However, I've been told there are no cut-and-dried guidelines such as this in NFHS. I would suggest talking to your assignor or supervisor to see if that's how they want the HS games called.

My personal opinion: I think it takes away some of the judgement involved in the call. For example - two hands on an opponent is a foul. But what if A1 came right at the defender, and B1 puts up their hands as a reaction and A1 contacts both hands. You have to call the foul. But there's also no rules basis for calling it; your explanation to the coach is that's how your association told you to call it. At least in NCAA-W, the guidelines are in the rule book, and when we call it the coach has no basis for a complaint because it's written right there.