Basketball Rules: When Does a Ball Come to Rest?

[bigseths]

Hello all,

I officiate high school and college basketball. One of our rules concerning a dribble states that any time the ball comes to rest in a dribbler's hand, it is a violation. I won't concern you with all of the details of our argument, but I will pose a question that if answered like I believe it will be, will support my side.

When dribbling a basketball, or even slapping the ball down with your hand, does the ball come to rest everytime it is pushed back to the ground? However short a time it may be.

Or when a ball is shot and bounds off of the backboard, does the ball "come to rest" on the backboard before changing direction?

Thanks in advance for your responses, Seth Smiley

 

[pixel01]

It depends on how you define 'at rest'. If 'at rest' means the velocity of the ball is zero at any time then the answer is yes. If ' at rest' means the velocity is zero at a time interval (can be small but different from zero) then no.

 

[bigseths]

just had a flash back

Wow I just had a flash back to my last physics class. Anyway, I'll bite. So you're telling me that the "time interval" when the ball has a velocity of zero cannot be measured?

 

[berkeman]

I just took a scorekeeper's clinic last week where the officials were talking about this rule (it's CYO basketball, and we follow the standard high school rules). The ball will come to rest at the top of each dribble (vertical velocity goes to zero), and it can pause there briefly, but it cannot be held there with the hand supplying the upward force. Most of our kids don't have big enough hands to hold the ball in that position anyway. Palming the ball is a separate issue.