Quote:
Originally Posted by blueprint
Hello Everyone,
I am a new IAABO Official as of last year. To date I have officiated about 20 games. Love it! I seemingly have the itch to do more and more games when I am not officiating.
I was just wondering what words of advice you all can share with me that helped you all in your early phases of officiating.
Just looking for tips and tricks to get in a groove sooner rather than later.
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Glad to hear you have taken such an interest.
Find a mentor that has your goals in mind. Does you only limited good to find a mentor who has only done high school games, if you want to advance to college games. Conversely, if you only want to do high school games or midde school, it does you only limited good to find an NBA mentor, who has done the highest games possible. So find someone that can help you achieve what you want to achieve.
Study the rule book and case book. Everyone says this because this is the one constant. No matter what level you want to do, you have to know your rules.
On your off days: go to watch your mentor and other respected officials. You will begin to formulate your own ideas about what looks good and what kinds of things you would like to incorporate into your own refereeing style.
On your game days: stick around and watch the crew after yours, catch the pregame if you can, halftime adjustments, post game. Sometimes, there isn't much happening during these sessions, but sometimes big adjustments are made and it's nice to hear how veteran guys deal with issues.
Practice your signal calling in the mirror.
Get video of yourself and be honest in assessing it.
After the season, attend atleast one camp. Attend a camp that is geared toward newer officials. You don't necessarily want to go to a high level camp and pay twice or three times the amount for the same information you would get at a beginning camp. Once you have basics down, you can start looking at higher level camps.