Comfort

[Adam]

I moved the coach's posts to another thread to keep this one on track.

This gets its own thread

[rockyroad]

A great pre-game would take care of all those insecurities about working with new partners.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

A great pre-game would take care of all those insecurities about working with new partners.

This made me smile quietly.

[Dad]

In our HS association we aren't allowed to work with the same person more than 2-3 times a month. It happens. So maybe allowed isn't the right word, but it's extremely rare.

While I do have the officials I enjoy working with more, this method, in my opinion, has made me a better official. I've found I can meld into just about any crew.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dad

In our HS association we aren't allowed to work with the same person more than 2-3 times a month. It happens. So maybe allowed isn't the right word, but it's extremely rare.

While I do have the officials I enjoy working with more, this method, in my opinion, has made me a better official. I've found I can meld into just about any crew.

In mine, there might be one partner I see 3 times a season.

[DRJ1960]

The question I have is this; is "comfort" a matter of personalities or of competence? ... Occasionally I work with someone I don't trust to get the job done when the pressure is on...which makes me uncomfortable. I couldn't care less about your personality.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by DRJ1960

The question I have is this; is "comfort" a matter of personalities or of competence? ... Occasionally I work with someone I don't trust to get the job done when the pressure is on...which makes me uncomfortable. I couldn't care less about your personality.

For most, perception is going to prevent these from being completely isolated from one another.

[Dad]

Originally Posted by DRJ1960

The question I have is this; is "comfort" a matter of personalities or of competence? ... Occasionally I work with someone I don't trust to get the job done when the pressure is on...which makes me uncomfortable. I couldn't care less about your personality.

Competence is more important. I'm definitely nowhere near on boat with not caring about personalities.

There is the occasional night, maybe once a month, where I'm thinking: oh dang how'd I get put with these two old grumps.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by DRJ1960

The question I have is this; is "comfort" a matter of personalities or of competence? ... Occasionally I work with someone I don't trust to get the job done when the pressure is on....

I have an occasional partner about whom I feel the same way, and he is a friend of mine. He has been officiating longer than me and has helped me along the way (once gave me a great piece of advice concerning officiating adult rec leagues), so I do not feel it is my place to critique him. I just make sure that when I work with him in tight games I communicate as much as possible to keep him focused.

[Terrapins Fan]

Originally Posted by DRJ1960

The question I have is this; is "comfort" a matter of personalities or of competence? ... Occasionally I work with someone I don't trust to get the job done when the pressure is on...which makes me uncomfortable. I couldn't care less about your personality.

For me, it's actually personalities. I would say the vast majority of our officials are very competent. I am the Secretary of the Board and we take 4 test per year we take National Federation part 1 for the state of Maryland and for the state of West Virginia we take Part 1 & 2, we also take the IAABO test.

I see everyone's scores. So I know as a board we know the rules and generally speaking we apply them well. But I also hear in the executive meeting how officials are critiqued. I got into this when I was 44 years old. I am now 60. So it's not like I am 35 or 40 years old with 15 years of experience.

I believe that most officials do everything they can do to groom and help younger officials. But there are a few who don't want younger officials getting better than they are so they don't help and they do cut down younger officials.

These are the guys that I'm not as comfortable working with. My first Varsity game I worked with a couple of these guys and they said to me, if you blow a call it's on you we're not going to bail you out. we're not going to make a call in your area if you miss it. You're on your own.

I have never said that to another official, I have said that if you see something in my area that I definitely missed, come in late and get it. I'd rather have the call right than for us to miss it in front of everybody. Maybe this explains my feelings a little bit better.

[Dad]

Originally Posted by Adam

In mine, there might be one partner I see 3 times a season.

This sounds about right. I'm just saying the max amount possible in HS for us. There's something on Arbiter that flags the assigner if you've worked with someone within 14 days.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dad

This sounds about right. I'm just saying the max amount possible in HS for us. There's something on Arbiter that flags the assigner if you've worked with someone within 14 days.

Ah. Not sure if that's the case here. There have been times I've seen one partner three times before Christmas, then not at all the rest of the season.

[BlueDevilRef]

Originally Posted by Dad

In our HS association we aren't allowed to work with the same person more than 2-3 times a month. It happens. So maybe allowed isn't the right word, but it's extremely rare.



While I do have the officials I enjoy working with more, this method, in my opinion, has made me a better official. I've found I can meld into just about any crew.

Round these parts, I work with the same level experience guys and mostly about the same 10 people. I would love to be the new guy and be uncomfortable around more experienced guys. I want to learn and get better and it sucks when you are generally the stronger whistle on the court. Not that I can't learn by working with a new guy but it's not the same as with a veteran

[packersowner]

Positives and negatives working with new people, on the plus side for me:

1. As Rich pointed out, I tend to be more focused and work hard to earn my stripes with the crew that night.

2. Enjoy meeting and learning from new people.

On the downside:

1. I find out crews are out of synch a lot more, it can be tougher to find a rhythm with the game.

2. It seems like partners reach more.

For me the biggest part of working with new people each night is that it required me to have more patience. The first year I experienced it, I would come home frustrated every night because "this guy I have never worked with" made a bad call and the crew suffered. Now I can brush those things off and enjoy the "down time" on the court.