Hi all. I'm new to basketball officiating and will just be doing some youth ball for now, but I was hoping someone could refer me to a guide for beginners. Mostly I'm concerned with positioning more than rules. I know the rules fairly well but it's the intricacies of officiating that will be knew to me.

Having played all my life, it's funny I never noticed where the officials stood before and things like that.

Any help is appreciated.

Welcome to the forum, Saint, and good luck with your upcoming season. The best resource for you in terms of learning positioning is probably the FED Officials' Manual. It describes and diagrams positioning for all kinds of situations. You can order it from the NFHS web site. Another good resource would be some fellow refs, if you are in a local association. Find a guy who has a few years under his belt and just ask him to go through some positioning with you.

Having played all your life, it'll funny to realize how little you really know about the rules, too. :)

Good luck!!

Welcome to the fire.....

My best advice is to contact your state high school association and try to find out what are the approved officials associations.

Then contact and join an association, read the rules book, officials manual, and case studies to the point of knowledge saturation.

Go purchase some "professional gear".

Read the rules book, officials manual and case studies AGAIN

Attend their meetings and camps then hook up with some assignors in your area to get some assigments.

Keep studying your books and try to apply what you know in your games. Learn from your peers and try to be a sponge with an open mind.

Welcome critiques from those who know and have been there before you.

You might want to give some thought about what are your goals in officiating and note your expectations as a starting point. Be prepared to modify those thoughts as you progress with patience.

Above all...have FUN!

Welcome to the forum!
 

I've got a thousand dollars that says you don't!

Take the Backcourt Violation Quiz if you think you do! ;)

Thanks for the replies.

Re: Welcome to the forum!
 

I want some of that action! Those are indeed famous words from X coaches and players!

Re: Re: Welcome to the forum!
 

X Coaches and Players? How about the parents in the stands!

Re: Re: Re: Welcome to the forum!
 

Parents in the stands? How about "experienced" officials that haven't read the rules in more than 5 years or hit a camp in the last 10!

Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to the forum!
 

Or how about "<b>new</b>" officials who line up to get the FED test <b>answers</b> e-mailed to them, but when it comes to actually <b>writing</b> a good refresher test like BktBallRef's, they're nowhere to be found. There's 4 pages of them around in another thread.

My advice is to listen as much as possible to coaches, players and parents - then do the exact opposite.

UL,

Like you, I am brand new. This is my first year. I just finished my Fed test. It is to be handed in tomorrow (actually, I finished it Friday but I went over it AGAIN tonite since I had a few I wasnt sure of my interpretation and wanted to spend some more time with). I'm still not sure about Question 99, but that is beside the point.

Anyway, I recently ordered the Referee Magazine publication called "The Basektball Official's Guidebook, Vol III." It was, for me, exactly what the doctor ordered. It focuses on High School 2 person mechanics and it goes through many of the common plays and situations and has really great diagrams and drawings that help me visualize the plays. It is a supplement to the Official's Manual (which I have read over and over) but this book actually gives in play examples and diagrams. And it deals with situations for all parts of the game. It helps walk you through exactly the right procedures for calling violations and fouls and how to do and and when and where to go. It is really good for the newbie. I found lots of my questions answered there. There is a chapter of examples for jump balls and free throws and throw ins and full court press and lob passes to the post and dealing with transitions and officiating half-court vs. zone or man to man and three point offenses and officiating defenses and traps and spread offenses. Each chapter has a good number of examples, but not so many it is overwhelming. I found it to be very thorough and usable but not in so much minute detail as to be difficult to digest. Plus the layout is just great. Can you tell, I love this book. It is really helping me pre-visualize certain situations. It is about $30 but it is nearly 300 pages long--not cramped though, lots of big diagrams, very easy to read. Much more consise than this post :)

I also have been real fortunate to get hooked up with a veteran official in my area who is helping me to not learn bad habits early. Finding a mentor has been key for me. We have association meetings on Monday night at 6:30 and I meet with my "mentor" at the school at 5 pm and we go through floor work for an hour and a half. One session with him was more informative than all the association training classes put together and then some. I would recommend you find a senior official and get them to help you. My experience (YMMV) is that the squared away senior officials are more than happy to find an eager newbie and show them the ropes.

Clark

Clark,
Who is your mentor?

PS #99 is False. The backcourt exception only applies to the airborne player landing. It does not include him passing to a teammate before landing.

[Edited by Nevadaref on Nov 15th, 2004 at 03:12 AM]

You may be interested in Officiating.com's <a href="http://shop.officiating.com/x/product/2person1_dvd"><b>Fundamentals of Two-Person Mechanics</b></a> DVD (or VHS).

Nevada-

Ron Thompson is working with me. He has been really great. I even met with him last week for lunch and we did a "step by step" from parking your car at the site until end of game (with the sage advice to stay for the varsity game and the ok to ask them if I could sit in their pregame, silently of course :) ).

Tomorrow night before the SNOA meeting at 6:30 he and I and another attorney (who is a newbie that I dragged into officiating) meet to do some 1 on 1 floor work. Then at the official meeting at 6:30 we do some group floor work for the first time as newbies.

As for 99, I guess I got it right since I said False. Here is what threw me and made me first think True until I thoguht about it. The "exception" that allows the leaping defender to land in the front and throw to the backcourt (R9-9-3 for my reference, not yours) refers to "a player from a team not in control" and it then says "(defensive player or during a jump ball or throw in)." So I read this as a [defensive player] OR [any player during a jump ball or throw in]. Which made sense at first since there is no team control during a jump ball or throw in. But then the case book in 9.9.1SitA is a violation and shows team control is established on the catch (and the case play has the recipient as a team member of the thrower, like the example in the test). Which means control is established in the fact patern of the question when it is caught. So that led me to the dilemma that it would have been ok for him to have landed and passed, but not ok to pass in the air, which seems silly. But then I decided that if I read it less like a lawyer and tried to read the rule and the case play in the most logical and consistent manner that the exception seems to simply exist not to accomodate a team mate of the thrower but to aid a defender who intercepts an inbound pass. Which, frankly, is about the only way it seems to me (as a total rookie) that it can make sense. So I said "False."

Whew!

Of course, your plain reading is even simpler and probably better than my convoluted thinking (though I got to the same result): "the rule says catch, not pass, so it would be ok to catch and land but not pass."

Sorry to hijack the thread UL!

Clark

[Edited by totalnewbie on Nov 15th, 2004 at 04:17 AM]

Brad

Do you have more info on that DVD? How long is it? How old is it? I was drawn to the Referee book because it was current for the 2004-2005 season.

Clark