Coast to Coast Camp 2006

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

1) You may have to stay behind the ball, but you also have to put yourself into a position where you can always see the separation between the dribbler and the defensive player. Sometimes that might mean being almost even with the dribbler. I let the defense dictate my position instead of following a hard-and-fast rule of always being behind.

I don't think the observer was trying to give a hard and fast rule for all situations. But the point is that you should never be ahead of the ball. If you're ahead of the ball, you can see the dribbler and the primary defender and that's it. Ok, come even with the ball if you have to, in order to see through the play. But don't get ahead of that defender. I think that's more of what the observer was trying to talk about. And really, that wasn't even his real point. He wasn't talking about position, he was talking about presentation (how it looks).

2) Who cares what coaches think?

Well, you better care a little bit. Coaches get to rate us. Coaches have phones with the assignor's number on speed-dial. If a coach decides that you're a lazy official, your ratings will reflect that. As roster spots get more competitive, that rating may effect your assignments.

I don't care what coaches think about my application of the rules. Because I know that I'm right and they're wrong 99.999% of the time (that's a conservative estimate ). So complain all you want, my assignor is just going to tell you that I got it right. But if the coach calls my assignor and says I missed a crucial call b/c I was too lazy to get into position, that can hurt me. So you have to care a little bit about what coaches think about how you look and how you work.

3) What difference does it make if the trail is in position, and is also moving to stay in position?

The difference is you can walk or you can jog. This particular observer thinks it gives a better presentation if you don't walk. If you think it's false hustle, I can understand that. But a lot of people think that running to the reporting box is false hustle (when you could just "walk and talk" for your reporting). And I can understand that, too. I don't think we can dismiss that kind of advice out-of-hand. I think it falls into the category of "If it works for you. . ."