This is my first year and I have done quite a few adult rec league games and now am doing AAU tournaments. My question for you more experience folks is-- I seem to have more trouble calling games where the level of play might be a little lower but the players are very aggressive with lots of tie-ups and rough play. In those games it seems there are calls that can be made on every posession but then you would just be marching back and forth between free throw lines. Or do you find that if you just start calling the games really tight the players back off. Thanks, Mike

You have to set the tone early, make the players adjust to your calling. If you don't set the tone early it will be too late to do anything later in the game. Players will learn fast what you are going to call and should play cleaner.

Thanks, that is kind of what I thought I should do but especially with the little kids, they are like bowling balls going through pins sometimes. Thanks, Mike

The worst part of these type games is that you can never develop any tempo so it throws off your timing and makes it difficult to relax and let the game come to you. Hang in there!

What Snake~eyes said.

What the Assignor and evaluator in my league has instructed us to do is call more fouls early not less. That way the players will adjust or foul out before anyone can get hurt or lose control. Sometimes the younger kids jsut don't get it and have trouble adjusting, be consistant and call it the same at both ends of the court. Not that you wouldn't of course. I ahve also found that once the players are around 11 or 12 years of age they will listen to your instructions more as well so I have had some success by talking to the players aas well. Its not our job to coach but if I can prevent on the floor I will do that, it is cool when you finally see the lights come on for a kid and they realize why the calls are being made the way they are.

Hope you had a good season.

All you can do is keep blowing your whistle. Some players are smart enough to figure it out, others aren't. Hopefully since it's lower level you have a running clock. A few years ago I worked a JH weekend tournament. We called 28 fouls (including a T on the one coach) in the first half, and were well on our way to that or more in the second. I'm going to L, a pretty strong, fast kid (no coordination) comes flying in and trips himself on the way to the rim and takes a header into the bleachers. I call the coach out right away, but instead of going directly to his player, he comes at me first complaining. I tried to be especially nice and said, "coach, I had a great look at it and the kid just lost his balance." His response can't be written here, but now both head coaches were on the bench for the rest of the game. After the T shots, and a fan ejection (my partner did this) the coach wants to talk to us and the other coach. We decided to meet quickly and he wants us to do something before someone else gets hurt. What were we supposed to do, call more fouls? My partner explained that all we can do is call the fouls, the players need to get their hands off each other. Coach didn't like that answer so my partner tells him his other option is to take his team off the court. We made it through the rest of the game without any big incidents if I remember correctly. My point (not that I really have one, I was just sharing) is that you have to call the game as it is played. If they learn, great, if not, they get their 5 fouls and they can go to the bench.

I agree that you should set the tone early with your consistent whistles... I also think that the following may help you out too:

After you've had a number of fouls occur within a short time frame and the players are lining up for free throws, as the lead official you can say, "We have more whistles than you have fouls. We will keep blowing the fouls if you don't adjust. If you guys clean it up then we will let you play."

This IN ADDITION to the calls you've been making will sometimes help the players grasp the play you and your partners will accept.