3-Man SNAFU

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

The most typical missed rotation situation (and the one accounted for in mechanics books), is when the Lead makes a late rotation that Trail and Center fail to pick up. In that case, during transition, the old L/new T is instructed to move back to his original side, presumably because the old T did not see the rotation, and assumed that he would be Lead.

However, the OP situation is atypical, because it happens at the beginning of the game, and it is a real game, not a camp situation. I would hope that the OP crew redeemed themselves later in the game, but I think that the coaches would be questioning the crew's competence when they saw that display from the officials. Pre-game and jump ball mechanics in 3-person are standard for a reason: to enable a crew of any experience level to start the game correctly. If I was the C, and saw that R (who is Trail in jump ball situations), lines up behind me when he should be my partner, I go to Lead, and hope that my partner picks up on the error and goes to C. If not, we have very good endline/post coverage for 1 possession��. If I am R, I wait before I go to Trail, so that I fill in the correct gap (if the ball went left, I follow U1, if right, follow U2), based on where my Umpires lined up and where the ball went. This would be a good situation to break the ice at a pre-game, and get us to relax when needing to correct a bad rotation.

That's a bunch of BS. Everyone of the officials on the game would say the same thing, and yet s*** happens. Just adjust and pay for the beer. Unless it's one of the first 5 or so times you've worked three-person, there are far more important things to talk about than who goes where on a jump ball and what to do if someone goes to the wrong spot. It's something that only happens (we hope) once per game.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

That's a bunch of BS. Everyone of the officials on the game would say the same thing, and yet s*** happens. Just adjust and pay for the beer. Unless it's one of the first 5 or so times you've worked three-person, there are far more important things to talk about than who goes where on a jump ball and what to do if someone goes to the wrong spot. It's something that only happens (we hope) once per game.

A typical pregame we may have 10-15 minutes to talk as a crew prior to a game -- I'm certainly not wasting it on basic mechanics.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Rich

A typical pregame we may have 10-15 minutes to talk as a crew prior to a game ...

I'm retiring from my day job as a chemist in ten weeks, and I'll be making myself available to work 3:30 p.m. middle school, and 4:00 p.m. freshman, games, as a type of unofficial mentor. I can certainly see ten to fifteen minute pregames with brand new, or very inexperienced, officials.

But in my varsity games, working with guys that I've worked with for decades, as either the referee, or the umpire, the pregames seldom go past five minutes (maybe a few extra minutes) especially toward the end of the season.