Raised hand - or not?

[Danvrapp]

Just attended my first camp this weekend, and it went great. However, most all of the clinicians were telling me something that went against just about everyone else that's given me officiating advice.

When I have a situation where the ball goes OOB, I've always been taught to raise your hand, open palm, to stop the clock, then point the direction that ball's going. These guys were trying to get me to do away with the whole raising of the hand thing, just to point and say the color. Externally, I agreed with them that it felt better and seemed easier, but inside I wasn't too sure that's what HS assigners want to see (...or "not" see?).

Bearing in mind that most of the clinicians were college level, what do you fine folk do at the HS V/JV level?

[Brian Watson]

When in rome, do as the romans.

At the camp, do what they want. Raise the issue with your association or assigners to see what they think. They may agree with the camps and want refs in your area to do away with it.

Having said that, when in doubt follow the book to a T. No one can fault you then (actually they still can, but at least you will know you did it right).

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by Danvrapp
Just attended my first camp this weekend, and it went great. However, most all of the clinicians were telling me something that went against just about everyone else that's given me officiating advice.

When I have a situation where the ball goes OOB, I've always been taught to raise your hand, open palm, to stop the clock, then point the direction that ball's going. These guys were trying to get me to do away with the whole raising of the hand thing, just to point and say the color. Externally, I agreed with them that it felt better and seemed easier, but inside I wasn't too sure that's what HS assigners want to see (...or "not" see?).

Bearing in mind that most of the clinicians were college level, what do you fine folk do at the HS V/JV level?

Dan, I think you were not well served. As a fairly new
official you have a long way to go before you start to worry
about looking good as an NCAA guy. In a recent post Tony
pointed out that raising that hand gives you a heartbeat
to think: OOB or foul? which way to point? My advice:
keep raising that hand until your *NCAA* supervisor
tells you he'll fire you if you don't stop.

[Tim Roden]

Last I checked the NF Mechanics Manual said raise a hand first. The CGA(NCAA) manual doesn't say anything about raising the hand first. These guys were working on college mechanics. You should be working on NF mechanics. Next summer attend a camp that is High School minded.

[BktBallRef]

Dan, the other guys are correct. When you go to camp, the college guys are going to talk to you about college mechanics. That's fine. As Brian said, when in Rome... But my guess is that your HS supervisor is going to want you to continue to raise hand.

[Mark Padgett]

Also, if you do summer leagues or rec leagues with running clock, don't get in the habit of not raising your hand. It's easy to do, but it hurts your mechanics when you start doing school games later in the year.

[dblref]

This was a point of emphasis within my association this past year because about half of our varsity officials also do college ball. It had even gotten to a point that a lot of officials were using "college mechanics" during rec games. We were told in no uncertain terms that the proper HS OOB mechanic is to blow the whistle to stop the clock, raise your hand straight up (some guys do open hand and other do fingers together), point the direction. Some guys like to call color before direction and some don't. I believe the officials' manual says to call the color and point the direction. I usually call color because I have been known to point the wrong direction while calling the opposite color (senior moments are becoming more frequent).

[mick]

Originally posted by dblref
I usually call color because I have been known to point the wrong direction while calling the opposite color (senior moments are becoming more frequent).

I hate it, when I do that! It is usually followed by, "I'm sorry! ...This way!"
mick

[stripes]

Dan, I think you were not well served. As a fairly new official you have a long way to go before you start to worry about looking good as an NCAA guy.

I disagree with this. I am a believer in going to the NCAA camps as soon as possible. Why learn from anyone, but the best? It is not about "looking like" an NCAA official, it is about learning from their experiences and not making makes because they correct them before the mistakes are too deeply ingrained into what you do.

Next summer attend a camp that is High School minded.

Once again, I disagree. While you are learning how to ref, go to the best source of information. Absolutely learn and practice the NF mechanics--that is very important, but you will always get better instruction from better instructors. Go to the college camps, you will not regret it. I know I haven't.

My advice: keep raising that hand until your *NCAA* supervisor tells you he'll fire you if you don't stop.

Good advice.

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by stripes

I disagree with this. I am a believer in going to the NCAA camps as soon as possible. Why learn from anyone, but the best? It is not about "looking like" an NCAA official, it is about learning from their experiences and not making makes because they correct them before the mistakes are too deeply ingrained into what you do.

Once again, I disagree. While you are learning how to ref, go to the best source of information. Absolutely learn and practice the NF mechanics--that is very important, but you will always get better instruction from better instructors. Go to the college camps, you will not regret it. I know I haven't.

Good advice.

You'll notice I didn't say to *not* attend college camps.
What I did say is that he was ill-served at this particular
camp. I said that because the people running it should have
realized that he works HS & is there to improve on that.
I agree with you that it's never too early to attend any
camp, as long as you go to learn & improve. You're not
improving if they make you use mechanics that are not
appropriate to your level.

[mick]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dan_ref

You'll notice I didn't say to *not* attend college camps.
What I did say is that he was ill-served at this particular
camp. I said that because the people running it should have
realized that he works HS & is there to improve on that.
I agree with you that it's never too early to attend any
camp, as long as you go to learn & improve. You're not
improving if they make you use mechanics that are not
appropriate to your level.

* * *
* * *
* Sparky sparkles! *
* * * *
* * *

[stripes]

You'll notice I didn't say to *not* attend college camps. What I did say is that he was ill-served at this particular camp. I said that because the people running it should have realized that he works HS & is there to improve on that. I agree with you that it's never too early to attend any camp, as long as you go to learn & improve. You're not improving if they make you use mechanics that are not appropriate to your level.

I disagree with your premise here. Mechanics is not the only thing in officiating. Very important to be sure, but not everything. To say that one is not improving if one uses mechanics not appropriate to one's level is blatantly wrong. Anyone can improve their athleticism, stature, game awareness, game management, handling of coaches and players, judgement, concentration, focus, positioning, etc. regardless of the mechanics used at a camp. I do not believe that danvrapp was necessarily ill served at the camp, but did he get what he wanted out of the camp? If it was to improve NF Mechanics, maybe not, but if it was to improve his officiating, he probably did.

Often we get bogged down, IMO, on things that are not that important. Good judgement and game awareness are much more important than mechanics. Why? Because bad judgement or lack of game awareness will get you into a lot more trouble than bad mechanics will. Mechanics are simply a matter of practice. Anyone can learn them--and they are important, but if you go to a camp and think the camp failed you because the evaluators told you to use NCAA Mechanics and your NF mechanics didn't improve--then you didn't do a good job as a camper. Go and learn--anything and everything you can. "Be a sponge" is a term you'll often hear at the beginning of a camp and it is good advice--soak in as much as you can from the evaluators, the director and the campers.

That being said, choose your camps wisely. Don't just "go to a camp", go to a camp that will help you get to where you want to go. Have your goal in mind before you go.

Off the soapbox...

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by stripes

I disagree with your premise here. Mechanics is not the only thing in officiating. Very important to be sure, but not everything. To say that one is not improving if one uses mechanics not appropriate to one's level is blatantly wrong.

...

Off the soapbox...

Ah, come on. Are you tellng me that a first year guy is
comfortable enough with the rules & NF mechanics
that he should be learning "advanced mechanics"?
I don't believe that & I'm sure that you don't either.
I also disagree strongly with the rest of your post but
life is too short.

[JeffRef]

Originally posted by Dan_ref

Ah, come on. Are you tellng me that a first year guy is
comfortable enough with the rules & NF mechanics
that he should be learning "advanced mechanics"?
I don't believe that & I'm sure that you don't either.
I also disagree strongly with the rest of your post but
life is too short.

I agree with your post stripes.

I'm sure Dan did learn a lot at this camp outside of the whole raising the arm or not dilemma (only he can answer that though). I too agree mechanics are not as important as overall game management. Don't get me wrong...you need to have excellent mechanics but when you're going to camp there is so much more to take in. If we dwell on mechanics criticisms, we miss all the other stuff.

No coach has ever questioned me on a mechanics slip up!

Jeff.

[Danvrapp]

Hmmmm....seems to be that most of you are agreeing with me--raise the hand. That's what I figured, but I wasn't sure if this was something that's begun to trickle down to the HS level, and I want to stay "trendy" without going against NFHS mechanic rules.

This "tip" aside, I did think the rest of the camp was great for me. It was geared toward the younger official (it was the first time they held this camp) being transistioned into 3-person mechanics, and they people there offered all kinds of great advice. So, I don't think it was against what I needed, I was just unsure about the hand thing, since so many clinicians mentioned it.