Rich's area - Is it time to drop the 3-man officiating crew?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

I agree with teaching 3-man after the first year. This would allow the newer officials to see the connections between 2 and 3-person officiating (the 2-person Trail position is more similar to the Center position of a 3-person crew than to its 3-person namesake), get familiar with the 3-person system (with possible reinforcement in non-scholastic leagues and/or subvarsity games), and be considered as varsity alternate officials. 3rd years might then start seeing a limited varsity schedule (with more assignments depending on ability and availability), and thus there will be a pipeline of qualified 3-person officials to supplement and eventually replace the veterans.

It is up to you to decide what you want to know as an official. It is not up to anyone to require you to learn anything. There are plenty of resources to learn any mechanics system you wish. I did not wait until anything when I started in the 90s to learn 3-person. I went to camps, read books and watched officials work. I picked it up very early.

Peace

[ilyazhito]

I was referring to what Raymond said earlier. Raymond: "I still believe brand new beginners need to be taught 2-man exclusively if that's all that's going to be working in their first season. Teach them 3-man after their first season." If associations were to teach 3-person on a consistent basis starting with each official's second year, it would make the transition to the varsity level and/or playoffs easier, simply because the official in question would have been familiar with 3-person mechanics from either the classroom sessions, on-court practice, or both. This might also be the way to get 2-person areas to transition to 3-person, by making the membership as a whole knowledgeable enough in 3-person mechanics to mitigate the growing pains that Camron alluded to.

[JRutledge]

I got that, but the point is that it is ultimately up to the official to seek whatever training they can get. Heck officials half the time do not even seek training in my experience. So I am happy anytime they seek anything, but caution as well that they need to learn the stuff they are doing and not totally concentrated on something they may never get an opportunity to try out. But again I live in an area where we have many options to get training and it is up to each person to decide when to take advantage. I teach a new official's class in the fall and there are many camps and association meetings to attend and that is up to the official to decide. But I do agree with Raymond to an extent.

Peace