Gotcha. Went back to re-read the preface paragraph. And I starting thinking about my provincial rule on this sage age group. :o Sorry, OP.

It's actually refreshing to see that my provincial body's rules changes for these youngins isn't the only place that has these controversies. :eek:

The youth rec league I work has a similar "no pressing" rule that goes like this:
11U: no press at all in the first half. Press allowed in the second half until one team obtains a 10+ point lead. At that point, the leading team cannot press, but the losing team can.

12U - 18U: pressing allowed for any team that isn't leading by 20+ points.

Here's how we interpret it:
If B clearly (in the judgement of the officials) secures possession in their backcourt and makes no attempt to advance toward their frontcourt (in the judgement of the officials), then all of A's players must retreat into their backcourt (B's frontcourt) until B crosses the mid-court line.

If, however, there is any doubt over possession, or if B attempts to advance immediately, all pressing restrictions are off and A is free to play defense in the frontcourt. In other words "If your player runs herself into trouble, that's her fault"

It causes some confusion, to be sure, but I try to make sure I get the coaches (especially the 11U coaches) on my side and ask them to instruct their players to "fall back" when necessary, because they players will listen to their coaches voice and not my voice.

Some good points
 

In the younger leagues we sometimes have to blow the whistle to stop the play and remind the players about the rule (in the heat of battle and all). Thankfully, the coaches are pretty good about it.

These next two weeks/weekends are "playoff time" however, so, much good demeanor and sportsmanship will go out the window as the players endeavor to witn their trophies and make the All Star Team, coaches to get their "pay raises" and win "coach of the yr" honors, and for their parents to secure those coveted scholarships for the D1 schools of their choice! (sarc) :rolleyes:

Should be fun starting at 6:15 tonight! HOORAH!

Our youth league uses NFHS rules with some modifications. As for BC-guarding; 5th grade on up to HS players are allowed full-court press/zone/trap defense until they are ahead by 20pts or more.

Once ahead by 20pts they cannot guard in BC (even "inadvertently") the defense must allow the offense to advance the ball into FC before guarding them. HOWEVER, we allow "transition-defense". This means no BC-guarding on ANY inbound play (such as after a basket or a whistle), but if ball is rebounded, stolen, etc... the defense can still guard them in the BC.

+1

Much of the time, these leagues/tourneys will say "all high school rules apply" without knowing some of the ones that are drilled into our heads. (Just be prepared for, "well, we didn't mean THAT rule!")

Those illegal defense rules can be problematic, too, particularly, "no pressing if you're up by 10 or more points." You'll just have to keep your eye on the scoreboard at times. Also, I make it clear in pre-game that, if you commit a foul during an illegal defense, the foul still stands. (Some have argued that there should have been a whistle prior to the foul.)

You think it's bad in basketball, try working youth football where certain positions aren't allowed to rush the passer and only certain players (weight restrictions) can handle the ball. What a mess. More arguments about this made up crap than about the actual base ruleset we're using.

In retrospect, I think I will look at those. Other than my head ref's familiarity with the rules, I mainly went with NCAA rules since they are freely available for download and when I went to nhfs.org, it said I had to be a member of a high school sports association to download the NFHS rules. Is anyone aware of any other place to get them?

Actually, it's not. It's a completely independent neighborhood league sponsored by our local church. We had no basketball programs in the vicinity and tons of kids in 4th or 5th grade that didn't even know how to dribble. (For someone like me that grew up where *everyone* had a hoop in their backyard, it was inconceivable). We started with very basic rules, even for the older kids, for this reason.

We started it last year with about 100 kids and it grew to over 250 this year and we had to turn people away. We were overwhelmed with the positive response -- so much that my wife quit her corporate job to be the full time Recreation Director of the church primarily to run this league.

We do that as well for our younger leagues (K & 1st grade). We don't impose any penalties for dribbling violations or fouls -- we just stop play, tell them what they did wrong, and then continue without forcing a turnover.

Indeed. We used to say that only the trailing team could press, but it became a problem in a few see-saw battles, so we just changed it so everyone could.

The main reason it's in place is because there is no 10-second rule, so the leading team could simply hold the ball in the backcourt to run out the clock.

I'm not aware of a free place to download the rules. You have a couple of options. Spend about $7 on a book, or contact a local high school official to see if they have any extra copies. IMO, the rules are more suited to your kids' age group.

No 10 second rule? Why not? Even if you want to make it 15 seconds, I would still think it's worth keeping the rule.

I'm fine paying for it, I just didn't see where to do that? When I tried to access online publications, it keeps saying:

ACCESS DENIED. YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN AND BE A MEMBER OF AN NFHS PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION OR STATE STAFF MEMBER.

It's a long story, but generally, my wife was trying to keep the rules as simple as possible. She felt like it added an unnecessary complication and didn't have any faith in our referees enforcing it. We had to beg and plead to get her to agree to 5-second inbound and 5-second closely guarded.

To be honest, without any formal training for our refs, I can kind of see her point. Next year will be different (I'm on a mission!) ;)

The ten-second violation isn't exactly excessive elbow swinging. This is a well-known rule.

For what it's worth, even in the games I work with the no-press rule, we still do a ten count in the backcourt. I can't remember ever getting to ten in those games, but we still count.

You could try the "order online" link on their website. It's on the top right area of their homepage.

IAABO Home Page is another option, go to their merchandise/price lists section.



Honestly, you've got bigger problems if you don't trust your refs to enforce 10 second rules.

You should at least look at Upward basketball (Upward.org). Upward provideds both a coach training DVD and a basic officiating DVD. The coaches books provide a pre-planned practices and drills for the coach who needs that kind of guidance. Also included is a "How to setup a league" guide.

Maybe it is not for you, but I recommend you at least give it a look.