Injured themselves while signaling?

Hard faught game right down to the end and a 3 pointer to tie it up was released after the horn, so I'm really selling the wave off.

And I jammed my little finger on my left hand with my right wrist, and I got it bad.

Swollen, and more than a little bit deformed, and it hurts like a son of a gun.

I've jammed a finger whacking a player before, too, but not anywhere near this bad.

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I havent.. A guy in my assoiciation was calling a T this past year and broke 3 of his fingers. Must have been a hard T. Hmm... Good Luck.

I've hit my forarm a little too hard before when signaling a foul.

I also once almost pulled my teeth out. The lanyard loop on my shirt broke and I had wrapped the lanyard (smitty) around my fingers since I didn't have a spare standard lanyard with me. On a travel call, I started to signal too quickly after blowing the whistle. :D

Anybody got a towel? I just spit coffee all over my monitor and keyboard.

I cut off the tip of the middle finger of my right hand when I was little, and so the edge of the nail is clear above the rest of the finger, even when the nail trimmed very short. My first T, I used that hand for the "support" of the T (as opposed to the cross-piece) and broke the skin in the palm of my left hand. Hurt like the dickens for days. I quickly switched my T formation and now always use my left hand for the support piece.

Been there, done that.

Blue 15, hit, (wince in pain), two . . . two shots.

I once tried to use 2 hands to signal a number and got a headache.

Math is hard....

Thanks for checking in on this thread, Barbie.

I'm glad our pain amuses you so. I bet you'd need to change your pants if an old lady fell and broke her hip. too.:D

I was on a court that had very little baseline room on one end. As the ball and two players went out of bounds in front of me, I had to back up. When I blew the whistle and extended my arm, my hand hit the hinge arm that sticks out over the top of the door. Man, did that hurt. I hate courts without baseline room.

Discovery Channel has that reality series called "Deadliest Catch" where they follow Alaskan crab fisherman to show how dangerous their job is. Maybe we could get a show called "Deadliest Call." People could get a kick out of us jamming fingers, cutting hands, and getting screamed at by fans and coaches. Or maybe not. . .

[Edited by drothamel on Jun 7th, 2005 at 12:27 PM]

About 6 years ago, I broke my right wrist right where the thumb joins (slipped on a tile gym floor backpedalling -- dumb! dumb! dumb!). Missed a couple of weeks worth of games and then reffed with a cast. Caught myself right before putting the hand (cast) behind my head on a player control foul. I usually throw it up there pretty quick, and I have been known to do it forcefully. Had to learn to ref left handed in a hurry.

blindzebra:

I whacked a coach in early Jan. of this year and my middle finger is still sore.

I did this early in my career, but have since adopted the "gentler" T signal that you see a lot in the NBA. I simply use the index finger from each hand to form the T.

You'd be amazed at a couple of things. First, you almost can't hurt yourself doing it this way. You just can't generate enough force with one finger (as opposed to your whole hand) to do much damage. No more hurting yourself "like the dickens" for days.

Second, your demeanor appears much calmer by using the smaller T sign. Even if you really wind up to give the T, it just looks less angry than the traditional signal. Give it a try.

Some people here use a flat hand fot the crosspiece, but the other hand only uses two fingers straight up. The other fingers are curled in and the palm faces away from the body. For some reason, this comes across more gently. It's also less likely to cause injury.

If it works, fine. But the injury is usually caused b/c the person slams the flat hand too hard in the heat of the moment. Using just one finger as the "crosspiece" eliminates almost any possibility of slamming too hard. Just can't do it with only one finger.

Do what works, obviously. I would just suggest that you try the two-finger method. I think you'll like it.

One time I was standing in front of a team's bench and signaled the direction for a ball that had just gone OOB. As I extended my arm, one of my fingers went right into one of the coach's holes in his head.

Although I wasn't injured, it was frightening. Fortunately, there wasn't anything on my finger when I withdrew it, since the space inside the hole was empty.

Not an injury story, but Mark's post reminded me of my favorite reffing story that happened to me.
I'm in a small tight gym and going up the court at Trail in two man. I'm on the sideline and counting with my left hand, running on the sideline because there is pressure on the ball handler near the sideline. My right hand somehow finds it's way between a lady's rear end who is walking down the sideline. I mutter an embarrassed 'sorry' and keep going. At halftime, I come out and she is right at halfcourt sitting on the front row. I apoligize again and she laughingly says "I told my husband it's been a long time since I've been touched like that" I was rather red in the face and hoping he wasn't too big an ol boy..

They would say..."Bad call!"

That shoulda been Goose's post.