Things the Mechanics Manual Doesn't Tell You

[ilyazhito]

Are there things that you do as officials that are not described in the mechanics manual, things that you do that are in addition to what the book says, or mechanics from the manual that you do not use, because they are counterproductive?

This is not about differences between specific mechanics manuals (NFHS reports fouls tableside and has the calling official replacing the tableside official, IAABO reports fouls tableside but has the calling official replace the opposite official instead), rather about real-life application of mechanics. Some manuals may be more comprehensive than others (The IAABO manual describes when and how rotations occur, the NFHS manual describes how rotations occur, and the CCA manuals (both men's and women's) also describe when rotations do not occur), and there are practices for resolving unusual situations that are described differently (e.g. in the CCA men's manual, an official making a call out of his primary area blows on his whistle an extra time to indicate that he wants to make the call).

Last-second shots are also treated differently in the different manuals. The women's manual is very comprehensive on last-second shots (1 finger in the air with 1 minute remaining, C taps the chest at 5 seconds, and mentions other things like no rotations in the last 10 seconds of game or 5 seconds of the shot clock). The high school manual is also comprehensive (1 finger in the air with 1 minute remaining, opposite side official taps the chest with 15 seconds left, and non-responsible officials can help calling official with information), but the men's manual is very brief on the subject (opposite is responsible, unless otherwise agreed to. Everyone aware of clocks, and those officials other than calling official have normal responsibilities, while calling official rules on last-second shots).

However, how do you actually deal with these situations in your games? I always put up a finger as close to the 1 minute mark, expect my partners to copy me whenever possible, and tap my chest around 15 seconds if I am responsible for the shot, when it comes to last second shots. I understand that the NFHS way of calling fouls is very formulaic (fist, inform player at the spot of the foul, preliminary signal at the spot of the foul, show consequences, go around players to reporting area, stop, and report in reverse order (score goal, if needed), color and number, signal, consequence)), so do high school officials use the men's college procedure, women's college procedure, or something completely different? When do officials most frequently go off-script, in your experience? What might be good reasons to do so?