Advice for rookie officials

[Camron Rust]

Originally posted by cdaref
I didnt say dont study the rule book. In fact, I said study it.

Wait, let me go check:

Yep, here is what I said:

"1. Read the rule book. I dont mean "become a rule book official," but a working knowledge of the rules will give you confidence and confidence will help your game."



The point is, a rookie doesnt really need to know what a false double foul is.

But a newbie shouldnt be afraid to call a game. I see more newbies holding a whistle because they are overthinking. You know what a block is, call it. You know an out of bounds, call it. You know a travel, call it. The vast majority of the game are calls that you already know how to make if you know anything about basketball. Blow the whistle, newbies!!! And blow it with authority.

I know exactly what you said.

You also said: Originally posted by cdaref
Here are a few ideas:

Originally posted by cdaref

95% of all the basketball stuff you will see will be stuff you already know--you know what a foul is, you know what stepping out of bounds is, you know there are 4 quarters, you know all that stuff.

If you take a noob and have them call it as they already know it, they'll be wrong a substantial part of the time. They DON'T know what a block is or what a travel is. If that many people actually knew what a block or travel was, we wouldn't have so many players, coaches, and spectators disagreeing with them.

To expect them to call it as they "know" it will only propagate these all to common myths of the rules. The myths just gain that much more credence with actually being called in a game.