Referee The Defense

[kwv001]

"Referee the defense" is something we hear quite a lot. I've found though that those three words can be somewhat difficult to explain, and mean something slightly different to many officials. I'm curious to hear what that phrase means to many of you and how you apply it to your game.

Since I asked the question, I will go first. The way I interpret that statement and apply it is to first focus on the defender when watching any match-up in my primary. By focusing on the defender first, I can easily determine when legal guarding position is obtained, and then watch any movement with the play to determine if LGP is maintained. When there is contact with the defender, knowing when LGP was obtained and maintained is critical in determing which player was responsible for the contact.

How about others?