What are your preventative officiating techniques? When do you use them?

Was reading another thread about leaning and pushing prior to a free throw. Someone made mention of pushing for positioning prior to a throw-in.

Personally, I tend either stop and watch or take a step towards the pushers and wait until they notice nothing is happening except them pushing each other then ask "Are you guys done?" Then I'll give the ball to the thrower.

What are some of your techniques and the situations when you employ preventive officiating?

when shooting freethrows, if i see a player lined up with his foot on a line, i'll say "toe check". they usually all look down and the guilty one will move his foot and give me a smile.

may I have this dance
 

If I am administering a throw in and I have a couple of players jockeying for position and trying to front each other, I will just look at the two players and politely ask them if they are finished dancing and ready to play ball yet.

3 seconds, "Get out.'

5 seconds on throw in, "Get it in."

10 second back court, "Get it across."

5 second closely guarded, "Do something."

"Hands," once and then handcheck or hold.

Knee lift, "Get your knee out," once and then foul.

"Easy, stop pushing."

"Wait for the ball," when jockeying prior to a throw in.

"Straight up," when the chicken fighting starts on a free throw.

I've told my partner, while lining up for free throws "We are watching these two," and not in his ear either, but from 10 feet away.

I've gone to players, that were getting frustrated or looking for contact every trip down the floor, and told them to knock it off and play ball.

To coaches:

"It's like Jeopardy, it's got to be in a form of a question," when they are making statements AT US.

"Where are you at coach," for the box-impared.

"Prom isn't until later in the semester. You two can hold hands then."

(I'll probably get in trouble for this, but)...

"I usually only see actions like that in a girl's game" (even if I don't)

Let's see..I'll try to do this chronologically:

1. A good pregame with partner - make sure you're both on the same page. Typically this means getting to the site 30 min ahead of game time.

2. Watch the teams during warmups, especially their offensive/defensive drills (about 90% of the teams I've seen will do this in some form). If they're pushing, hacking, hand-checking, etc. during the drill, you can pretty much bet that's how they'll play in the game.

3. Captains meeting - I agree with keeping it very brief, but the one thing I do say is "You know who the hot-heads on your teams are - you keep them under control and we won't have to."

4. During the game, set the limits early in accordance with what you discussed in your pregame & stick by them. Well coached teams will usually adjust quickly. Nipping overly aggressive play in the bud is the best way to keep things from escalating.

5. Talk to the players, especially early in the game. Simple things like "don't reach", "hands off", "knock it off", and "clear the lane" can prevent unneccessary whistles for violations or fouls. That said, don't over-use warnings - give it the first time, but if it happens again, whistle and penalize.

6. At half time, briefly discuss with partner how 1st half went and what situations you might expect in the 2nd half & how you may need to adjust to deal with them.

7. Be aware of end game situations when the score is close. Don't be afraid to call an intentional foul when one is committed. In a game that looks like it might be close, I'll grab the floor captians before starting the 4th & tell them flat out "If it's close at the end and there's any fouling, you'd better make sure that your teammates are going after the ball and there's no excessive contact, because we will call intentional fouls."

There's lots of techniques and I'm sure others will post their own methods here as well.

Don't ever use, "Don't reach." It keeps a myth going. Reaching for the ball while in good defensive position is GREAT defense and is not a foul.

Not when the ball is in the hands of a player for inbounding and the instruction is to the defender guarding the inbound pass..... which is the only situation where I use "don't reach".

"Straight up," is better in that situation anyway because you are talking about a plane.;)

da plane?!!!

I'm a little suprised to see some of these!

You give warnings on counts? Do you also tell the defense..."Just 1 more second!"???

I disagree - the warning & subsequent T are for reaching across the boundary line - "don't reach" is about as clear as you can get.

[Edited by TimTaylor on Jan 17th, 2005 at 05:48 PM]

Do you tell a player to get out of the lane on 3 seconds?

Why should other timing violations be different?

Since this is about preventive officiating, I'll do a pre-emptive strike on your answer.

The other team's defensive effort could be what is causing a near 3 second violation.;)

No the warning is for BREAKING the plane, not reaching across the plane.

When a player hears straight up, their reaction is normally to put their hands up and stop leaning into the plane.

The word REACHING should NEVER be used by an official, EVER.

Lighten up Francis
 

Coach I am reaching my limit here..... :D