I think the tail is wagging the dog here and an official will look crazy trying to do a ton of signaling when all is needed is the punch, whistle and voice. Then when you get to the table, signal what is was a push, block etc.

deecee and IREFU2 - here's where I find myself becoming old fuddy-duddy. In my younger days I would've agreed whole-heartedly with you. What the hell difference does it make what signal you use, as long as everyone knows what the call is. Getting the call right is the most important thing, right? Well, as I've gone through the ranks, I've found that doing the proper mechanics says as much about you as knowing the rules. And, more often than not, people will judge you on your appearance, including mechanics. They may not get to judge you as often on rule knowledge, because there may be plenty of games where nothing unusual happens where you can show off your knowledge. But you do get to show off your mechanics <B>every</B> game. Do you come to a game with mud on your shoes? How about those wrinkles in your shirt? If you're careful about those aspects, why do you want to be sloppy in your mechanics? Why not "do it by the book"?

Trust me, mechanics is the one thing that I am strong in and I have never had a problem in that area. I was just stating what I do in regards to the TC Foul. I really appreciate your input though. I guess we should just wait until the Fed's come out with the proper procedures.

I don't remember whether or not we were to raise the fist first. But in the last couple of years it has been just to punch the fist in the direction the ball is to go next.

That's also a NCAA-W's mechanic, and has been for several years. I have heard a men's supervisor say they don't like that, and he wants his officials to "use the men's mechanic, not the women's mechanic". That may not be true for all. I have also heard from our good buddies Kurt and Beth that we are to specifically "stop the clock" (raise the hand) when we blow our whistle in HS, and to not just point.

JR, stop being so defensive. If that is not what you meant by your comments, it is OK. I likely misunderstood you. This is why I made the statement in the first place.

Well the signal came from the college ranks. According to the Men's CCA Book, you are supposed to give the type of foul you have and indicate that you have a TC foul. Only when you have a PC, intentional, excessive contact foul and double foul are you not supposed to give an indication of the specific type of foul.

Peace

We need to go to precision time so when the whistle blows, the clock stops automatically and then we can just punch or point!!!!!!!

Well a lot of things changed without explanation when Referee Magazine started publishing the CCA Books. The same thing happens on the Men's side with out of bounds plays. All of a sudden they took out the comment "You do not need to use the stop clock signal on out of bounds calls." Then it was made clear that you had to use the stop clock signal. It makes me wonder if CCA consciously knew what was in their previous books.

That is true depending on whom you work for and who you are as an official. Remember some officials can do a lot of things that a lowly official like myself cannot do.

I also heard the same thing from Harry B. when I attended his camp this summer. I still see how things will be confusing to those that either did not attend the right meeting in their association or attend the right camp.

Peace

The precision timing system is not going to avoid a possible double whistle situation.

Peace

Very true.

I don't understand what you mean by this? What has a double whistle got to do with this sitch?

We call the hand/fist in the air the "stop clock" signal. But that's really a misnomer. No timer that I've ever worked with has ever looked for an official's raised arm. They stop the clock on the whistle.

But there's another reason we raise our hand on the whistle: double whistles. On a double whistle you need to know both that your partner has a whistle (and we've all had double whistles that were so completely simultaneous that we were surprised to see our partner's arm in the air) and then what call your partner has. And you need to know it before either of you signals anything. The hand/fist in the air is our safety net in this situation. You see your partner's arm go up, you confer before you signal.

If you're using precision time, and you've decided to dispense with the arm in the air because you don't need it to stop the clock, you've eliminated your safety net and increased the odds of having a blarge.

Sure, you are less likely to have a double whistle in a TC situation than say on a drive to the basket, but it's not impossible.

Thank youl. I completely missed your point. I thought you were trying to say that the precision timing system didn't work well with double whistles...hello:)

Maybe you haven't been reading all the posts in this thread, but JR has already pointed out that the FED has already come out with the approved mechanic procedure for the team control foul. It's posted on the FED website. The mechanic is:

1) Stop clock (fist over head).
2) TC signal (fist straight out in front of body).
3) Preliminary signal (block, push, etc.).
4) Designate spot for throw-in.

So you can stop waiting. :)

That's nothing you've have to worry about with IREFU2. I think he even irons his socks. :p