Teaching the Foul Tip

[M&M Guy]

Originally posted by blindzebra
I have no problem with signals that can communicate an unknown for either our partner(s), the table, or the coaches.

I think it's safe to say everyone here agrees that communication is important. The best officials are the ones that are great communicators - signals, verbal, facial expressions, even body language.

Now, let me play devil's advocate. The reason we have a prescribed set of signals is so everyone is consistent at the level that is being worked. That is part of our communication; if a player/coach/fan sees a signal one place, but travels 100 miles away and sees a different signal for the same thing, we have not communicated properly. If you go back to mick's original post (and I'm not sure where he's been since - maybe he's in the back yard with his pet skunk) he asks what we are communicating if we DON'T use the tip signal. Does that mean the defense did not tip it, or did he just not see it? My contention would be to not show anything at the time; if it's a violation, we blow the whistle, if it's not, we do nothing. BZ mentioned a pet peeve of mine (although only a small one ), of pointing to the 3-point line and signaling a "2" to the table on a close play. It's either a 3-point shot, or it's not. If it's a 3-point shot, we have a signal for the attempt, and a signal for the made shot. If we do neither, it's not. That's our communication. How far away does the foot need to be for us to not need to signal a "2"? The table shouldn't need to watch for any other signal other than the "touchdown". (Oops, there's another sport's signal in basketball.)

Sure, if there's a question about a play, we can communicate an answer. And as JRut mentioned earlier, if your local association wants you to communicate that way, then by all means do it. But we have to be careful about over-communicating; that includes using unnecessary signals all the time, as well as, say, talking too much to the coaches.