Adjusting from 2-person to 3-person mechanics (2PO to 3PO)

[sdoebler]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

What I have noticed so far in my 3-man games is that I do make calls, but I sometimes feel that other people are beating me to the punch on calls in my primary area (either I am about to blow the whistle and they blow ahead of me, or I blow the whistle at the same time as them). However, the calls that I do manage to make without stepping on my partners or being stepped on tend to be correct, because I work to be in good position and focus on the actions of the defenders. Any tips to get quicker timing?

I also do not hesitate to rotate, but sometimes I see that the rotation situation has fallen apart as soon as I am on the other side. Is that something that often happens to you, and how do you deal with that?

You should not be looking to increase your whistle timing. Repetitive double whistles are a good sign that you or your partners are refereeing outside of their PCA. That discussion should be with your crew about primaries. Primary coverage should have a primary whistle, secondary coverage area secondary whistle if a whistle at all. Start, develop, finish, decision. If the whistle is coming at the exact point of contact/violation there are other issues.

The rotation situation did not "fall apart." Maybe one of the situations arose in which you should have backed out of the rotation: Drive, Shoot, Pass. The ball position and players could have changed since you rotated, this does not mean it was a bad rotation but another rotation might need to happen. There is no limit to the amount of times you can rotate in a possession.

[ilyazhito]

OK. Now I know about what really needs to be hammered down in 3-person pre-game conferences: Primary areas and their intersections. That way neither I nor my partners will be making calls outside our primary areas without good reasons to do so.

RE: Rotations, thanks for the advice. I'll keep that in mind, and go back if the ball goes back to the other side, or if a pass, shot, drive causes me to abort the planned rotation.

About no limit to the amount of rotations, does that apply to shot clock games? AFAIK, CCA Men's and Women's manuals discourage rotations at 5 seconds on the shot clock or less. Is it the same for high school shot clock games, in the states that do use a shot clock at the high school level (MD,DC,CA,MA,RI,NY,WA,ND,SD)?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

OK. Now I know about what really needs to be hammered down in 3-person pre-game conferences: Primary areas and their intersections. That way neither I nor my partners will be making calls outside our primary areas without good reasons to do so.

You work with veterans or the further you go in your career, this will never be a topic of discussion in many cases before a game.

I was at a camp this weekend and there were officials that I worked with that not one time we talked about our primary or secondary coverage and I have never met them before the camp or will likely see many of them again unless we are both on the same staff.

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

About no limit to the amount of rotations, does that apply to shot clock games? AFAIK, CCA Men's and Women's manuals discourage rotations at 5 seconds on the shot clock or less. Is it the same for high school shot clock games, in the states that do use a shot clock at the high school level (MD,DC,CA,MA,RI,NY,WA,ND,SD)?

I have never heard anyone suggest we should not rotate when needed. Even under 5 seconds on the shot clock you still should rotate under the right circumstances. Mechanics are not hard-fast rules, they are guides. There are always exceptions to things that are even in the book for a lot of reasons if you have the experience to know when to deviate.

Peace