Commonly Misunderstood Violations

Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Jess
Customer Service & Admin Specialist

Being in a self-officiated sport, it can be a bit nerve-wracking to know that you are in charge of calling both your own fouls as well as your opponents. We’ll go through a list of common violations to ensure you’re all experts out there and know what to keep an eye out for!

Kicking the Ball

At no point during a basketball game should you intentionally kick the ball. Some would argue that this warps the ball, and I’m not sure if that’s actually true. However, warping or not, if you attempt to block a pass by sticking your foot out and the ball connects with any part of your foot or leg, that is considered a “kick ball” and your opponents will gain possession.

If the ball accidentally comes into contact with your lower extremities (because let’s face it, most basketball players are not watching where their feet are in proximity to the ball), that is not a violation and teams can play on.

Travelling

We all know the basic rule – if you are in possession of the ball and wish to move around, you must be dribbling. But what happens if you’re trying to be a little too fancy with the ball and temporarily lose control? No sweat. If you regain control of the ball and keep the dribble going, it is not considered a travel.

Similar rules apply if you dive for a ball and end up sliding across the floor. Once you gain control of the ball, either pass to a teammate or start dribbling before you stand up. Don’t get too excited and jump to your feet, or else your opponents are going to call a “travel” on you and you’ll have to hand the ball over.

Jump ball

This is not an opportunity to show how strong you are by aggressively ripping the ball out of your opponent’s hands. If two players have their hands on the ball and one does not gain sole possession within approximately a second (I’ve seen players get injured this way and wish to avoid that), it is considered a jump ball. Unlike the pros who line up for an actual jump ball on the court, in situations like this the defensive team will gain possession and take the ball to the sidelines.

Over and Back

As you (the offensive team) bring the ball up the court, once you cross the half court line, you cannot return the ball to the backcourt unless it is touched by the defensive team. If you have the ball and your foot steps into the backcourt, you lose possession.

10 Second Rule & the Shot Clock

Basketball should be a fast paced game, and there’s actually a penalty if you’re too slow out there. To start, the offensive team needs to move the ball into the frontcourt within 10 seconds of the ball being inbounded from the backcourt. This is pretty easy in our Standard leagues where full-court press isn’t allowed. But for you Rec Plus players, this means you really need to get that ball in and up the court as quickly as possible.

As for the shot clock, this is a little tricky to manage without a visual 24-second countdown. Standard rules state that, from the moment a ball is inbounded following a basket, the offensive team has 24 seconds to either attempt a shot or lose possession. Since most of our facilities don’t give us access to the shot clock in their gymnasiums, we rely on the GCs to call out a 10 second warning if teams are running out of time. And yes, the 10 second rule is part of the total 24 second shot clock.

3 in the Key

We’ve modified this one to a “5 in the key” violation which is one of few violations that only the GC can call. Just keep moving in and out of the key, and don’t let either one or both feet remain in the key for more than 5 seconds at a time. If a shot is taken, your 5 second time limit restarts.