not wearing lanyards?

[Kansas Ref]

I was watching junior nba and wnba games recently, I noticed that the officials mostly don't wear lanyards. It seemed as if they take the whistle from their hand and put in mouth; looks like a split second delay on reaction time. For me, I can't imagine not using a lanyard to stay my whistle, it would be so cumbersome to keep holding onto it while running up and down the floor,then to use it. I'd be dropping that whistle all over the place--forgetting that I don't have a lanyard. Do any of you NF level refs ''not'' use a whistle lanyard? How on God's green earth do you manage it? I had one guy tell me once "the pros [sic vets] don't need a lanyard"--however, I find this perspective to be impractical if not altogether pious and ineffective.