You Decide (Clip)

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by APG

MTD...the very act of guarding requires the defender to be in the path

NCAA (Men and Women)

Rule 4

Section 17. Guarding
Art. 1. Guarding is the act of legally placing the body in the path of an offensive opponent. The guarding position shall be initially established and then maintained inbounds on the playing court.

NFHS:

Rule 4-23
Art. 1 Guarding is the act of legally placing the body in the path of an offensive opponent. There is no minimum distance required between the guard and opponent, but the maximum is 6 feet when closely guarded. Every player is entitled to a spot on the playing court provided such player gets there first without *illegally contacting an opponent. A player who extends an arm, shoulder, hip or leg into the path of an opponent is not considered to have a legal position if contact occurs.

APG:

Point taken. But I have never liked that phrase in the rules because of what I said in my recent post (Post #91) in this thread. Furthermore when defenders trap a ball handler, at least one of the defenders may not be in the path of the defender even though he/she has obtained/established a LGP; besides what path has a stationary offensive player established?

It is always been my position that a defender either has a LGP or he does not with regard to a particular offensive player.

I would rather see "the act of legally placing the body in the path of an offensive opponent" phrase be changed (or delete it completely) to "legally obtaining an unoccupied spot on the playing court" because guarding really comes down to one of five things: 1) denying an opponent a spot on the court; 2) denying an opponent the ball; 3) keeping an opponent from shooting; 4) denying an opponent from passing the ball; or denying an opponent from dribbling.

And NCAA R4-17 and NFHS R4-S23 do a good job in describing what a defender can and cannot do with regard to an offensive player that is moving.

MTD, Sr.