15B Legal Guarding Position
Comments about this discussion:
Started
From FIBA
"Legal guarding position
A defensive player has established an initial legal guarding position when
• facing the opponent, and
• having both feet on the court.
The legal guarding position extends vertically above (within the cylinder) from the court to the ceiling. The defensive player may raise the arms and hands above the head or jump vertically but that player must maintain them in a vertical position inside the imaginary cylinder."
This does not make sense for unicycling.
I recommend we clarify that an established legal guarding position begins with the unicycle oriented perpendicular to the direction between the opponent and the basket and the player is in a still stand, hopping, or idle. We should also probably include some examples of charges vs blocks based on unicycle movement.
Comment
I agree that the Legal guarding position must be clarified in our case.
But first, for completeness, let me copy and paste parts of the next articles of the FIBA rules (33.4 and 33.5):
The defensive player may remain stationary, jump vertically, move laterally or backwards in order to maintain the initial legal guarding position.
When moving to maintain the initial legal guarding position, one foot or both feet may be off the court for an instant, as long as the movement is lateral or backwards, but not towards the player with the ball.
[...]
Once a defensive player has established an initial legal guarding position, that player may move to guard the opponent. The player may not prevent the opponent from passing by extending the arms, shoulders, hips or legs in the opponent’s path. The player may turn within the cylinder to avoid injury.
For the initial guarding position, I would avoid mentionning the basket, because it would not apply either for two defenders blocking the attacker, nor for a screening. I would rather define it as "with the unicycle oriented perpendicular to the direction between the guarding player and the guarded player", or something similar.
Concerning movements, we cannot forbid rolling forward, so I would say:
The defensive player may remain stationary, jump vertically, or move without decreasing the distance to its opponent in order to maintain the initial legal guarding position.
Also, I would not allow idling because it would allow to almost double the width of the defense. (A 24-inch wheel is already large enough compared to a pedestrian cylinder.)
Comment
Idling could be lateral movement. The main issue is establishing stationary position. I agree with your comment on unicycle orientation being better.
"Concerning movements, we cannot forbid rolling forward"- why not?
Comment
Concerning idling, what I mean is that you can rather easily do, while idling, a quarter revolution of the wheel in front and behind the "middle" position of the idling. If the wheel is perpendicular to the direction between the players, it creates a very wide barrier for the attacker. In other words, I consider that the defender is making the foul if a contact occurs while the defender is idling.
If you forbid defending while rolling forward, then you can only maintain your defending/guarding position by jumping sideways or rolling backward. The first solution is too slow to actually defend, and the second one is dangerous.
In fact, my problem is that "the movement is lateral or backwards, but not towards the player with the ball" combined with "Contact must occur on the torso" somehow imply that "you must either strafe or walk backward, but not walk forward". I guess the spirit is that "the defender should not make decrease the distance between them and the guarded opponent". I think we should use the latter formulation because we unicyclists have to be able to roll forward to defend as efficiently as pedestrian players do. (And rolling forward corresponds to moving laterally wrt the opponent, because of the perpendicular position of the wheel.)
Comment
I think we need some diagrams to discuss but what you view as the issue with idling I view as a benefit and equivalent to lateral movement on foot. I agree that the makes it harder to pass a defender in unibasketball than foot basketball but there are other differences.
Comment
Allowing idling as a guarding position seems problematic to me. What happens if the defender enlarges the range of their idling? Even if changing the range is not allowed, which would be difficult to judge, what happens if the contact occurs during the first move of idling? How do you make a difference with a normal move ?
For me, idling is like extending the leg to increase the size of the cylinder and prevent the player from passing. Therefore I think idling should be forbidden as a legal guarding position.