Everybody is told to drive with confidence when attacking the rim in basketball. However, sometimes that confidence can cause you to play outside the rulebook, and mistakes get made. It’s a double-edged sword. This does bring up a good question though, especially when it comes to playing outside the rulebook. Can you extend your arm while driving in basketball?
The answer to this is that you could extend your arm, as long as you don’t make contact with another player and prevent them from acting naturally. This means that you can extend your arm on a normal drive to the rim and not touch anybody, not making it a violation. Although, if you extend your arm and make contact with aa defender, you’d be hit with a violation because it stops them from getting over to defend against you.
This is a pretty confusing topic to cover though, which is why it is still happening on the court. So, let’s dive a bit deeper into how you can extend your arm, and what makes it illegal.
Straightening The Elbow
Before we really keep on driving down on how you will receive a violation for extending your arm, we must first talk about what it means to really extend it in the first place. Most officials in professional leagues will believe that you extended your arm if you straighten your elbow. It’s a pretty simple thing to understand. If that elbow straightens out in any way, the referees know that you straightened the elbow.
If you don’t straighten the elbow, then referees usually believe that you were just moving your arm and not officially attempting to push out or use any force with that arm. However, it’s not always easy to keep your arm tucked in. Often times people just instinctually move their arm out to create separation, but that would get you whistled for a foul. Just remember, keep the elbow tucked and avoid straightening it out or else you could get hit with a violation.
Advantages It Gives You
If for whatever reason you straighten your elbow and get whistled for a violation, you might be a little upset. But here’s the reason why the referees call this play a foul. If you straighten your elbow out, you are usually sending out some type of force in your arm. That force, if directly contacted with a defender, can create extra and illegal separation between the two of you. Even if it doesn’t feel like you really created space with the contact, an official can tell if you impacted their trajectory when defending you after the contact.
Straightening your elbow all the way and holding people back during a drive can also keep the ball in your possession and get you to the rim. Again, there’s a reason why this play gets whistled dead by the referees. You create too much separation, protect the basketball, and forcefully push yourself all the way to the rim on the possession. Basketball is already a minimal contact sport, extending your arm to generate some type of force against a defender clearly gives you an advantage, and therefore gets blown as a foul.
Keep It Tucked For Different Reasons
Some of you might be under the impression that keeping your arm tucked in doesn’t give you any positive benefits at all. However, you’d be wrong. If you keep your arm tucked enough to where you don’t get whistled for a foul, you can be effective in different ways. The first way is that you protect the ball more. You’d have your arm closer to your chest, to almost act as a secondary cover for the basketball as you drive your way in.
Another way that keeping your arm tucked can help is in creating space. You don’t always have to extend your arm for space. You can keep your arm tucked and use your body to go up against your defender and make your own space without exerting force with an extended arm. It might not sound like it makes sense on paper, but in the middle of a game it will feel a lot easier and more legal than extending that arm and straightening the elbow.
Can’t Prevent Movement On Defense
Just like how you would be whistled for extension contact on offense, you’d be hit with the same thing on defense. The second that you extend your arm and attempt to keep an opponent in place with your extended arm, the second you receive a violation for your actions. Plus, there usually isn’t a consistent reason for you to have your arms fully extended unless you get blown past on a drive and are attempting to catch back up to them.
It’s stated pretty clearly in the rulebook though that you can’t prevent movement. That’s a specific situation that will get called all the time. You can’t just stand there on the perimeter and extend your arms so that you can hold an opponent in one spot on the court. Simply put, you’re going to just be hit with an easy foul.
You Could Swipe Or Push An Arm
If you want to extend your arm and protect the ball, you could technically swipe or push an opponent’s arm away from you. It’s a clear violation if you extend your arm and push another player in the opposite direction, or if you place your arm on their chest to keep distance. However, if you use your arm to swipe or push down on an opponent’s arms, you could prevent them from trying to steal the ball away from you.
The only thing that you need to think about with this is that you can’t just blatantly slap or grab your opponent’s arms while doing this. A gentle push or swipe is about all that you’d be able to get away with. Especially when it comes to the topic of extending your arm during a drive.