foul signal question
 

kind of a simple question, but what signal would you use. A player drives and the defender uses his body, kind of bellies the offensive player so a foul is called. Do you signal push or block? No hands involved by the defender.

Blocking foul. You can get away with a push here, too, but it sounds like a block.

I know a referee who is super anal about using the "push" signal for a body foul, insisting you cannot use the push signal unless the player actually uses his hands/arms to push the opponent. He uses the blocking signal for anything involving the body. I prefer to use the college-style "chuck" signal, but for those by-the-book high school games I use the two-handed push signal and verbalize "body!" YMMV.

The push signal also applies to "charge." That works here.

College style
 

Just a heads up, that college-style "chuck" signal isn't an approved signal in the CCA book either.

The one thing that amazes me is that the new rules received a lot of press this year and it was a great opportunity to put a few new signals in the book to emphasize them.

The extended forearm could've been given as....an extended forearm.

Two hands could've been given as....two hands.

Just a big whiff, if you ask me....which nobody has.

Opportunities are missed every year.

instropective on our mechanics
 

Now this is an interesting thread as it offers us the chance to examine the origin of the "mechanics".

Like how does the mechanic for "traveling" come to resemble me doing a dancing motion like john travolata on sat nite fever--what with me twirling my hands to indicate a "travel". I'm almost tempted to point one finger up towards the sky after doing the hand twirl to complete my dance move.

Like how does the mechanic for "charge/pc" come to resemble me punching the air with my other hand behind head? what does this have to do with one player charging into another?

And finally, as Adam cited in the above post, the NF has a great opportunity to either clarify, modify, sharpen, or add mechanics each year with would help the profession--why they don't do it--who knows? but it causes us refs to use "marginally relevant" mechanics to indicate violations that are not really symbolized by the said mechanic.

What is the form and function origin of our mechanics?

should we come up with our own mythology?

Ncaa vs fed
 

'Arm bar' is an NCAA-approved signal. So are tripping and hit to head. My guess is these will someday trickle down to NFHS. Too bad the idea of simply pointing on OOB and counting/chopping time in with the same hand haven't made it yet :(

Honestly, until they can get some basic rules correct, I'm not all that concerned with mechanics. Anything unusual enough to not fit into the mechanics will be obvious to most, and can be explained if it's not.