There is no rule that says it's only a foul if the defender initiates the contact. A good offensive player will initiate contact if he sees he has his defender in a bad position.

 

If the defender is in legal guarding position then it will not be a foul.

 

Therein lies the problem. All too often this year it is a foul against the defense. Officials who have never coached, don't understand defensive philosophy, and look only for contact are crucifying the defender this season.

 

I agree with the poster (passtheball) who said that the dribble-drive offense is being rewarded for initiating contact, because the contact is being called regardless of the postitioning of the hands, or who intitiates contact.

 

It boils down to this. The good officials are going to give you a good game, understand advantage-disadvantage, and are not going to penalize good defenders. Bad officials are going to look for contact and hand checks, disregard advantage-disadvantage and detract from the playing of the game. If you happen to draw a couple of the latter, you get a bad product and the kids who try to do it right get a raw deal.

Therein lies the problem. All too often this year it is a foul against the defense. Officials who have never coached, don't understand defensive philosophy, and look only for contact are crucifying the defender this season.

 

I agree with the poster (passtheball) who said that the dribble-drive offense is being rewarded for initiating contact, because the contact is being called regardless of the postitioning of the hands, or who intitiates contact.

 

It boils down to this. The good officials are going to give you a good game, understand advantage-disadvantage, and are not going to penalize good defenders. Bad officials are going to look for contact and hand checks, disregard advantage-disadvantage and detract from the playing of the game. If you happen to draw a couple of the latter, you get a bad product and the kids who try to do it right get a raw deal.

 

I just don't get it! We have played 6 games and in all of them we press, play a lot man and trap all over the court. We have turned all the teams over at a very high rate. What I'm getting at is we are all over you all over the court and still barely make it to the double bonus in every half we've played. Again, 18 refs now and 2 different regions.

 

Are we using the refs as a crutch that maybe we haven't spent enough time teaching defense? Everyone knew this was coming. You can play defense by moving your feet, anticipating and by helping each other. We have played plenty of teams that take it to the rim.

Therein lies the problem. All too often this year it is a foul against the defense. Officials who have never coached, don't understand defensive philosophy, and look only for contact are crucifying the defender this season.

 

I agree with the poster (passtheball) who said that the dribble-drive offense is being rewarded for initiating contact, because the contact is being called regardless of the postitioning of the hands, or who intitiates contact.

 

It boils down to this. The good officials are going to give you a good game, understand advantage-disadvantage, and are not going to penalize good defenders. Bad officials are going to look for contact and hand checks, disregard advantage-disadvantage and detract from the playing of the game. If you happen to draw a couple of the latter, you get a bad product and the kids who try to do it right get a raw deal.

 

By the same token, "some" coaches who have never officiated have difficulty changing philosophy on defense. The key to the hand check is did it interrupt "speed, rhythm or balance". I would agree that a driving defender lower their shoulder and initiating contact on the cut is offensive, going the other way…if that defender is sliding their feet, getting into a legal guarding position, then they have the right to the spot, regardless of "movement". I think this happens more in boys games than in girls games, which speaks to some of the posts on here likely.

 

The key is adjustment. The emphasis is to change the way the game has been being allowed to have been played the past few years, so obviously if you have been coaching one way and have to change, it's difficult. It is also just as difficult to adjust to making calls when you have seen it not be a foul for a long time.

 

By no means is it fair to say "bad officials will look for contact…etc…".. All officials have been instructed to change the way they have been calling the game. A good official can find that balance, but making the tough calls (coach view) does not necessarily mean the official is bad.

 

That's a broad brush to a sweeping change in the game.

For the first half of a game, I wouldn't even try playing a MTM pressing defense because all it does is get you in foul trouble. We will start getting more of a half court game with zone defenses being the norm. Sounds boring to me.

 

I've seen some pretty good MTM defenders getting fouls called against them while playing what appears is quality defense. (Moving feet, keeping hands off, beating Offensive player to spot, etc)