team control signal for NFHS

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by Kajun Ref N Texas

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.