Held Ball Signal

[CJP]

As a newer official, all I have ever known is to signal to stop the clock with the open hand first then go to the thumbs. The first year I officiated, local association head officials made this a point of emphasis for everyone. I never read into it so I didn't know any better. This past year I moved and all of my partners went straight to the thumbs. Yes, there were double whistles, I don't recall a time where we had conflicting calls though but the potential is there. After discussing this with my new partners, a couple of them agreed that it made more sense to go with an open hand first. For me, it is a habit - either an open hand or fist on a whistle and I may never break that habit.

[frezer11]

If I have a jump ball, I hit the whistle more than once. One of the few times that I'll tweet about 3 in a row while I close down. I don't show any signal until I've closed down sufficiently, and then give the thumbs up.

The reason I (and others that I frequently work with) have adopted this system, is that it stops play, and doesn't create a differing calls situation. Especially in a competitive boys game, I think the most important thing is to get them to stop before competition and testosterone gets the best of them, and we have an elbow or something fly. So by hitting the whistle quick and multiple times, this seems to decrease any extracurricular activity we might have. Closing down is self-explanatory, but the delayed signal then also allows a partner who may have had a foul or travel prior to the jump ball come in and make their call as the only signaling official.

It has worked very well for us over the past couple years, and other than the mechanic book saying to go straight to the thumbs, I can't really think of a negative to doing it this way.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by frezer11

If I have a jump ball, I hit the whistle more than once. One of the few times that I'll tweet about 3 in a row while I close down. I don't show any signal until I've closed down sufficiently, and then give the thumbs up.

The reason I (and others that I frequently work with) have adopted this system, is that it stops play, and doesn't create a differing calls situation. Especially in a competitive boys game, I think the most important thing is to get them to stop before competition and testosterone gets the best of them, and we have an elbow or something fly. So by hitting the whistle quick and multiple times, this seems to decrease any extracurricular activity we might have. Closing down is self-explanatory, but the delayed signal then also allows a partner who may have had a foul or travel prior to the jump ball come in and make their call as the only signaling official.

It has worked very well for us over the past couple years, and other than the mechanic book saying to go straight to the thumbs, I can't really think of a negative to doing it this way.

That's what we do. Thanks for writing this more clearly than me.