[mikesears]

IMHO, calling fouls early keeps the game from getting out-of-hand later. I, too, try to talk players out of fouls but experience has shown me that calling fouls early leads to cleaner play later. Again IMHO it is better to be too strict early and then loosen up later than to try to tighten things up when the game has gone progressed to the crapper. While I am by no means a veteren official, the games where I have called fouls earlier seem to go much better.