players on the floor-held ball situation

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Iow, if they're ignoring the whistle from 15 feet away, what do you do if they ignore the whistle from 3 feet away?

Well, at least in my experience, I've never had them ignore me at 3 feet away, at any level. There must be something about my ugly mug, or the striped shirt, that gets them to stop. Maybe players get accustomed to hearing the whistle and knowing 9 times out of 10 it has nothing to do with them, so hearing the whistle doesn't always have much of an effect, where seeing an official that close takes their mind off all the tugging.

I guess if they do ever ignore me, I'll treat it like a fight. We'll try our best to keep it from happening, but if it does, get out of the way and start writing down numbers. I do think Chuck has a good point - blow the whistle loud enough that close and they'll be using their hands to cover their ears rather than pushing and tugging on each other.