Held Ball Signal

[bucky]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

As a service to the hearing impaired and the visually impaired?

The stop clock signal is specifically designed for, yes you guessed it, the clock operator. I have never seen a visually impaired clock operator. If one was hearing impaired, they would be watching the action until it stopped, at which point they would see the mechanic, if quick enough to pick up the ref, and understand what happened. Only players/sub need to hear whistles. It communicates to others of course but generally speaking the whistle simply means "look at me".

If someone was visually impaired, why would they be watching? And if they are watching, they are listening to the announcers to understand what happened.

People infrequently look at the actual hand (fist/open) in the air. Just stop and think what harm would occur if we did not put an arm in the air during a whistle. Maybe I am missing something glaringly obvious but I can't think of any and it would be one last thing we have to do while officiating. Happens all the time in the NBA and there does not seem to be any problem, especially with communication.

And the blarge double whistle was mentioned. Good point..kinda. During a blarge, aren't you looking to your partner anyway? Just like a blarge with arms in the air where you immediately communicate to one another who is taking the call, do the same. Only difference is you do not have your arms in the air. I can live with it, just don't think it is entirely necessary. That is a foul situation with fist in the air. Let's eliminate the hand in the air for everything else. It will help my distal clavicle osteolysis.

(by "impaired" I mean not having the sense)