[Rusty Gilbert]

Most of the time I have found that the "surprise" calls generate most of the difficult moments in our officiating lives. And newer officials have a tendency to make "surprise" calls more often than seasoned veteran officials.

The trick to effective officiating isn't knowing when to call a foul or not, which way to go on out of bounds calls, etc. (These come with time and experience.)

It's about communication and game management. Being in the right place at the right time looking at the right things with the right knowlege and understanding....these lead to right decisions.

The old adage "similar plays should have similar outcomes" is a good rule of thumb for newer officials at any level. This type of consistency enables players and coaches to adjust to a level of officiating.

If as a newer official you find yourself "blowing" the whistle a lot more than the veteran officials with whom you are teamed, or you are "blowing" the whistle for things that the veteran officials are not blowing, these realizations should at least give you "pause" to consider whether or not there is officiating team consistency. "Similar plays should have similar outcomes."

Reading between the lines in the original post, (and I could be very wrong about this) where you talk about the numerous calls your partners are missing and how many you are getting, I would have an initial suspicion that you might be ball watching a pretty good bit. Unless the ball is in the paint or in a transition area between primary areas, I seldom know whether or not my partner "missed a call" or "got it right" because I'm not looking at what he or she is looking at. I trust them to take care of their calls, just as I hope they trust me to take care of my calls.

One other thing I came across a long time ago (and this relates to the "patient whistle" advice) is the advice to not be in as much of a hurry to blow the whistle. One camp clinician put it like this, a slow or patient whistle on just about anything but travelling and it will elevate the quality of our calls. He illustrated it like this: See the play and take a picture of it, develop it in your mind, then decide if you like it or don't like it. If you don't like, THEN blow the whistle. All of this is "thin sliced" within milliseconds, but it does suggest that their is a decision process instead of just a reaction to contact. This has helped me.

While there are always exceptions, a general rule is that the most active whistle in the game ought not be the newbie's.