I'm a very new ref. first year only officiated one game. i am 14 yrs old and officiated a 5th grade recreation game yesterday. and i was wondering if there was anything you guys do special to become a better ref?

Find a mentor. Talk to that mentor as often as possible. Go to multiple basketball camps. Read many publications on officiating or buying tapes on the subject (Referee Magazine, this site, NASO). Work as many games as I can handle. Repeat the same thing every year. There is nothing magic there. Learning how to officiating is a constant, ongoing process.

Peace

Welcome aboard!

Work as many games as you can, and watch as many as you can.

When you watch basketball on TV, try to make a point to watch away from the ball. Keep an eye out for what the officials are watching. Then see if you are focusing on the same things when you work.

Best of luck!

Good luck to you. I would agree with everything above. Have fun and enjoy the game.

I try and get as many girls as possible because I look so good in stripes. Thats the reason we all ref...the girls

Hey
I'm a second year guy, but I learned alot from the older guys. Just ask as many questions as possible, ask during half time or anytime you get a chance. Most of the guys you work with will want to teach you so just listen up and learn

Work on positioning and mechanics, you are currently working a level where you will see everything. Place your nose in the casebook, rules book and manual. Do what everyone else stated. Good Luck!

If you know anyone who works HS varsity games in your town, ask if you can ride along and see how they prepare in pregame. I had the opportunity to travel with my mentor to a college conference tournament and hear a pregame done by an NFL official who also works NCAA Div II hoops when I was starting out as a newer and it was very helpful for me to hear what experienced guys were looking for, and that pregame works the same on every level.

All good advice. I also would add, go to a camp sometime in the next year or 2. I waited until I had worked some games to go to a camp. It was nice because I already had a decent foundation to work from rather than getting tons of suggestions and making my head swim. And don't forget, as my mentors put it, don't put up with any....uh, stuff from coaches. Edited for language.

Someone said to watch as much hoop as possible, but I would be cautious about watching too much NBA. That is where alot of misconceptions are formed by fans. Also, forget terms that are used by Billy Packer or turn down the volume when he is talking :)

Be sure that you control the things that you have direct control over. Work on your signals, strong signals can go along way in gaining credibility with partners, coaches, and assignors. Understand the rules inside and out. Hustle and look the part. Find a mentor and go to camps for additional training. The rest comes from getting as much experience as possible (working games).

Oh yea, one last thing, don't say "yea, but,...."

Good luck!

agreed...
 

I suggested watching as much ball as possible...and I agree. Watch college (both men's and women's) rather than NBA. Watch the officials' eyes...ask the question "What are they looking at and why?"

Doing all that will take some time, but do it.

In the mean time, you're still the ref and still in charge. Don't go out there and act mousy. Act like you know what you're doing. Look like you know what you're doing. Talk like you know what you're doing. That doesn't mean be cocky or condescending, but exude confidence. Fake it if you have to, but act confident. It'll help a lot as to how your calls are received.

Welcome to the fraternity :)

Advise before your second game (if you already do this stuff, then do it again):
1. Tuck your shirt in.
2. Show up early for the game.
3. Read both the rulebook and casebook.
4. If you know someone who is a respected official, go watch his game and sit as close to the table as you can. Go in the dressing room with them before and after the game. Also at half-time if you can.
5. Blow your whistle like you mean it.
6. Have fun!

Watch as many games as you can. Watch the next level up from yours, with the best refs that work that level. Also, watch the highest level games you can get to, to get an idea of where you're going.

Study the rules, and keep studying the rules. Use this board, read the books, go to training meetings, to study the rules.

Tape yourself working, and then watch the tapes. Get a very good ref from your area to watch your tapes and make suggestions.

Work as many games as you can. Keep a journal of your successes and failures. Don't ever give up.

It helps to be addicted. When you are breathing, eating and sleeping officiating, you get better a lot faster. If your first few games don't do it, try working an all-Saturday tournament where the refs go out for dinner together after it's over. If that doesn't hook you, take up needlepoint!

Grow really, really, really thick skin!

:D this is fun, becuse I'm 14, and I've only been reffing for 1½ year. You don't happen to have an msn or email you can send ot me? I'd love to share excperiences with somebody who knows how it is to ref as a young person (in our case, 14)

And also, tips:

1. Like said, find a mentor, I just did this and found out it helps a lot

2. Work games, get excperience, always go through games afterwards thinking, what you did good, what you did wrong, how to prevent it from going wrong next time

3. Read through mechanics, read rules, you can't be a good official if you have to think all the time. The stuff should be printed so deep you don't have to think

4. Learn from mistakes, we all make them, but if you're smart, you just don't do them, you use them and turn them into a good lerning excperience.

good luck, and don't forget to pm a mail and msn (if you've got any) to me please ;)

thanks. my dad has officiated for a long time, and he is thinking about coming back into it. If he does, i'm just going to follow him to all of his games. thanks for the input.

Hey, sorry I'm late to the conversation but there are a few things that make up for inexperience (I'm only at 5 years myself).

Hustle - I'd be pissed too if some ref that was 30ft from the play blew a whistle on a play he couldn't keep up with.

Blow loud and have a straight arm - they'll believe much of what you say as long as you're confident and crisp.

Never do the wrong 'over the back' mechanic - I hate that. It's a push or its not. None of this hula-dance signal bullsh*t.

And if you can, find someone who can critique you from the sidelines. I started working for a college intramural department and there's no better way to learn than having someone assess you every 3rd or 4th game.

Oh, and give someone a T, so you get your first one over with - its such a big deal until you give a few.

Good Luck

I think it would be good for you-all to communicate off the board, but don't go away completely. For every question you post, there are lots more young officials checking this board who need to know the answers, but are too shy to ask. Make friends, by all means, if you want to, but also stay in touch here.

I love seeing guys this young working. I have been at this for 4 years (since I was 16) and I was bit by the bug.

I would have to disagree with not watching NBA officials, I personally love watching them and feel, since it is their sole job, that they do it better than anyone else in the world. Personally, I like the way they rotate because they move at an accelerated pace where as most college officials when they roatate just walk across the lane not caring if they rotate or beat the play.

I would definitely find a mentor and fast. Mine is a college official, which is where I aspire to go to, so if that is where you aspire to go to as well I would advise finding a college official within your high school assosciation, if not there are great high school officials out there so hookup with them.

Get to a camp and get to one quickly, they are easily the best thing for you. You pick so much up in those couple of days because you live and breathe officiating everyday.

The rulebook and casebook are your best friends. I have read both cover to cover, but that still doesn't mean you should apply all the rules literally. You should know the purpose and intent of the rules.

Good luck and once again welcome to the forum. It is so great to have another young official on the forum.

I disagree.

NBA officials are very good, there's no doubt about it. However, a new official can learn things he'll have to un-learn as he moves up to high school ball if he's not aware of the mechanics differences. So watch them, especially how they handle themselves. But be aware that not everything they do should be emulated at lower levels.

As for rotating, the college officials I've talked to and the camps I've attended teach walking across the key. You should rotate early enough that you don't need to run to beat the ball. Plus, you should be officiating as you go, and that's easier to do if you are walking briskly rather than running. The NBA system may teach a different philosophy, and keep in mind that it's an altogether different level of ball, but it's unfair to say that college officials walk because they don't care. They walk because their bosses tell them to and my observation has been that they rarely get beat.

There are a lot of things we can all learn from NBA Officials. It is still officiating despite what many think. Their mechanics and philosophies on calls are different, but it is still basketball.

NCAA Men's rotation philosophy is not to run during rotations. That is the philosophy in the NBA and NCAA Women's Officiating. It is not about caring, it is about what is taught and expected. The running philosophy is new. NBA officials used to walk slower than NCAA officials during rotations.

Peace

What i meant by saying they don't care is that it looks like they move as if they don't care. I see alot of times in the NCAA when a ball is in the post and the L either doesn't rotate at all and leaves it to the C to have what is known in my area as the "lone ranger" play, or rotates without an accelerated pace and is too late to see the start, develop, and finish of a play which I feel causes a lot of missed plays. I guess you can say I am biased as well, Cause that is where I want to be so that is why I watch them more than anybody, but at the same time there are things you can bring with you to a high school game from the NBA and there things you can't, same with college and the NBA. I say the college and the NBA, but when the SEC conference was under Guthrie almost everything was done like the NBA.

But that don't mean eat lots of candy and get fat.