[just another ref]

Working jr. high tonight with a veteran partner. He asked if I minded if he pointed out a thing or two he had seen me do wrong recently. I said go ahead. The problem was that I was giving the held ball signal without giving the open palm stop clock signal first. I said I thought that either was acceptable. He gave a condescending smile and said that my way was not acceptable, that there was no signal to stop the clock. I knew that the official NFHS signal had at one time said "stop clock for jump/held ball" but it was not something I had looked at recently. He went on to say that our association was going to discuss some things and try to be more uniform in calls as well as mechanics, and I said sure, who wouldn't be for that? Well, I check my new book and I see that the held ball signal still says stop clock just like always. My question is how this is done by others. Is the open palm first ok followed by a held ball signal, or is it considered overkill, or what?