Guidelines on roughing passer

[ljudge]

I'm curious as to what guidelines some of you use in determining roughing the passer. Some say two steps, some say one step, some say a second. In my scrimmages I've been using "The ball's away." If he gets hit after I utter those words I thought that would be a good guideline in determining if a flag should be thrown.

Any arguments?

Better guidelines?

[Warrenkicker]

Was the contact avoidable? is my first. I'm not as concerned about a certain distance as avoidability. Also is it reasonably certain that a pass will be thrown?

Now even when the defender is a foreign exchange student from Belo-Russia, has never played the game before, can't speak the language very well yet, 5 steps is a liitle too much. At least he didn't hit the QB very hard but hard enough for the flag.