Poor Derrick - I think we've hijacked his thread slightly. I hope he's learning a little about mechanics anyway.
I've heard about Harry, but I've never had the pleasure of meeting him. But the comments about doing a mechanic different than the Fed. mechanic shows my point. He feels not bouncing the ball along the endline in the backcourt is important because officials aren't staying back. Valid point, but instead of teaching a different mechanic to the officials, how about just teaching them to stay back? How do we, outside the Chicago area, find out about this if we don't attend a camp where he is the clinician? Is there an "Illinois Mechanics Differences" booklet or paper somewhere? If I get the chance to do a game up in the suburbs sometime, and he happens to watch the game, would I get critiqued for not doing the way he teaches it in Illinois?
Granted, this is a relatively minor mechanic we're talking about. But it does kind of illustrate my point about doing things differently, even within the same state. With the state requirement on only attending a clinic once every 3 years, it could be a while before a mechanic difference shows up all over the state. That doesn't even address philosophy differences, such as how a game will be called on the south side of Chicago, vs. a game in the west central part of the state. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of trying to be uniform, and giving the kids a consistantly-called game, no matter where they go?
No easy answers, just thoughts running around my head. Obviously, if Harry tells you to do this, and you work for him, that is what you will do. But it just seems like Harry is doing what IAABO does, and each different state does, that is decide they like to do things a little differently than the Fed. It would be nice if we could all do it the same. I know, and I wish the Cubs would win a World Series in my lifetime as well...
