Offensive Rules

If an offensive player is thrown a pass and with one hand stops the pass and knocks the ball to the floor, it bounces once, then the player controls the ball with both hands. Can he still dribble, or is that a double dribble?

Thats pretty much like a fumble.... you drop the ball, you can pick it up and dribble it. Lets see if there is a Ref in the group.

This is directly from the NHS Federation rulebook:

"A player shall not dribble a second time after his/her first dribble has ended, unless it is after he/she has lost control because of: a try for field goal, a touch by an opponent; or a pass or fumble which has then touched, or been touched by, another player."

Most of the time, your situation is called a travel. Even though, I have seen it not called before.

I forgot to add this:

"The dribble may be started by pushing, throwing, or batting the ball to the floor before the pivot foot is lifted."

I don't think I have ever seen it called this way... but then again... there are a lot of rules they don't enforce.
I asked my assistant this question and he agreed with me... but I guess we can always learn something.

In all the years I coached I saw this happen a lot.. I never asked for a double dribble call - and no other coaches did either. I guess its one of those NO CALLS.

My interpretation could be wrong, but I'll ask my referee buddy.

Never trust a Ref LOL Just kidding.... let us know what he has to say.

This is the answer I got from my ref buddy:

Well it is a judgment call on the officials part, but more times than not, it is a missed call by officials including myself I'm sure at one point.

Unless it is an obvious one-handed dribble off the pass you can't travel or double dribble if you never had control to start with.

In the situation described in the post, they can pick it up and then dribble and should not be called for a violation. Really it's just like if you throw me a pass and I muff it and it falls to the ground, I can pick it up and dribble it legally.

If I attempt to end a dribble and muff the ball, I can go and recover the ball (pick it up), but if I start to dribble it again after attempting to end my dribble, I have double dribbled.

Hope that answers your question.

Hey thanks for all the info on this it was very helpful. I can see this is going to be a very good website. Great job, thanks again!

Welcome aboard..... there are some pretty smart coaches in this group thanks to Jeff & Joe.