Addressing a Team Practice

[Camron Rust]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.
I just officiated a girls' jr. H.S. basketball DH last night and the coaches from both teams had not bothered to teach their teams any of the fundamental rules of the game:

1: One and one free throws.

2: How to line up for free throws.

3: When Team A scores a field goal, Team B inbounds the
ball along the endline under Team A' basket.

4: When an official blows his whistle, all of the players
are to look and listen to that official for information
as to what is going to happen next.
...

Fifteen minutes cannot begin to do justice to what we can and need to give to the young basketball players that we see every year. If a coach wants to give me only 15 min. then he is telling me that he really does not think what we officials have to say is very important.

In addition to officiating basketball, I also coach youth soccer (currently U9---8 year olds---3rd grade) and have done so for 4 years. With the beginning years of any sport, the coaches job is more to teach fundamentals and enjoyment of the game. I don't even bother to try to teach anything about the rules of soccer until it is called and the kids wonder what happened. Even though offsides is enforced at our level, I have never tried to explain it since we've never had it called. I've got many more important topics to cover: dribbling, passing, trapping, spacing, defending, shooting, etc. They will benefit far more at this age from that than any real discussion of the rules. Just this year, we've had to concentrate on legal throw-ins. Last year, it was just get the ball back into the field.

I tell the kids to just keep playing until they hear the whistle...the ref will tell them what the call is. If they wonder what happened, I tell the subs on the sideline and later tell the ones that were in the game. Most rules situations would just go over their head until they see it happen.

Now, at 7th/8th grade, the kids are more educated and able to understand things that my kids are not. However, it would still be a general waste of time to cover any more than just a few basic things. They can only absorb so much at once. After that point, it is pointless....

Did he say it was a travel for the dribbler to bounce the ball off the backboard and catch the ball if the three points were not in the frontcourt while the defender was in a legal guarding stance with less than 0.3 seconds left in overtime after a designated spot throw-in after a foul that resulted in a correctable error of cancelling an unmerited FT while the subs were standing and the offical was counting to 10????

Just teach them to dribbler, guard, pass and shoot. The rest is secondary at that age.

[Edited by Camron Rust on Sep 25th, 2001 at 07:28 PM]

[Richard Ogg]

At the 7th/8th grade level I always include the message that they are not going to have NBA/WNBA officials. (The truth of the matter is they will have inexperienced officials who, in some cases, have almost no training yet. I don't say that.) Players will miss shots; officials will miss calls. The point is it is only a game, and they must play the game they get, not the one they want. Everything in life is not fair (just ask the families of those in the World Trade Towers). Expect opportunities to learn life-lessons and take advantage of those games.

Of course, you have to word this message however you can deliver it while being positive and not undermining officials.

[Peter Devana]

I wholeheartedly agree with Mark DeNucci. Also, if we were not professionals we would be refereeng BB for free.
I believe 1 Hr is the absolute minimum time to make the session worth while and only the very basics should be covered. There should be lots of play situations ie Jump ball, Free Throw , Guarding and screening situations demonstrated for the players and the coaches. Get everyone involved on the floor!!! If done correctly this session could be the best "practice" they have all year. I personally have witnessed Fred Horgan conduct such sessions with players, coaches , parents and other officials in attendance. It never mattered what the age groups of players, he simply kept it to their level, and it worked every time !!
Try to convince the coach to give you more time and failing that just go talk to them In Uniform and stress Sportsmanship and Safety issues only. You won't have time for anything else. Good Luck !!!
YIBB
Pistol

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Peter, I just checked with my accountant to see how much I was paying you and I told him to give you a 100% raise.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Ladies and gentlemen, as sports officials, we are educators, and the age level of the players at the start of this string is jr. H.S. age.

Beside being a structural engineer, in real life, I substitute teach mathematics, physics, and general science at the jr. H.S. and H.S. level. The fundamentals of basketball are not rocket science. Why should not a 7th or 8th grade basketball player understand what a one-and-one free throw situation.

My high school basketball coach was also a basketball official. He could never understand how a person could coach a basketball team and not know the rules of the game. Jr. H.S. students are capable of playing chess, Monopoly, and other board or card games whose rules are more complicated that the rudimentary rules of basketball but we, as officials, are willing to give a free pass to coaches who do not do their jobs to teach their players those fundamental rules of the game.

I am sorry, but it is not an official's job to teach a 7th or 8th grader what a one-and-one free throw situation or how to line up for free throws during the game; it is their coach's job to teach them these things. Those players should know that before they ever walk on the court for the first game of the season. Just this last night my partner stepped into the lane to administer the first throw of a one-and-one, it was late in the second quarter of a 7th grade game; it was the sixth game of the season for both teams. The shot was missed and rebounded back to the shooter. Not one single player moved after the shot hit the rim. The shooter caught the ball and then started to walk toward me with the ball. I blew my whistle and called traveling. Her coach was not happy with me. He wanted me to give his team the ball back because they did not understand what one-and-one meant; remember this was the fourth bonus situation of the game. My partner and I told him that we were not going to bail him out because he did not do his job as coach; he did not like being told the truth.

I will address any group of players, coaches, parents, or media, about the rules of the games. We should all be willing to do that from time to time but we should also be willing to make sure that we do it in a manner that befits us as sports officials and not in a manner that belittles our position as sports officials.

[mick]

Originally posted by Richard Ogg
The point is it is only a game, and they must play the game they get, not the one they want.

Richard, yer a poet.

mick

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.


(sermon snipped)

I will address any group of players, coaches, parents, or media, about the rules of the games. We should all be willing to do that from time to time but we should also be willing to make sure that we do it in a manner that befits us as sports officials and not in a manner that belittles our position as sports officials.

Mark, here's the deal in a nutshell:

1. 7/8 graders, church league
2. Limited gym time, maybe 2 to 3 hrs per week including
games probably, liable to be reduced if there's an extra
bingo or school function.
3. Dad coach asks ref to give 15 minute talk on the rules.
4. Ref says sure, comes here for suggestions
5. Ref gets a fistful of grief because he's not
"professional".
6. No good deed goes unpunished, QED

[stripes]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.
I will address any group of players, coaches, parents, or media, about the rules of the games. We should all be willing to do that from time to time but we should also be willing to make sure that we do it in a manner that befits us as sports officials and not in a manner that belittles our position as sports officials.

Excuse me, but how does addressing a team for the 15 minutes allotted "belittle our position as sports officials"?

We should, as sports officials IMO, be grateful for any opportunity to help players, fans, coaches, etc. to understand the rules of the game and their application. Expecting an hour to do this might be nice and desireable, but is unrealistic. Do you really expect 7th and 8th graders to pay attention for an hour? Remember this is a lot more interesting to you than it is to them.

You might want to ask the coach what it is that he wants covered. Take what you can get, hit the high spots and answer all of the kid's questions. That is the best thing you can do.

[doghead]

Something else with regards to sportsmanship...."You don't have to agree with what the official calls...You don't have to like what the official calls....All that you HAVE to do is show respect!"

(This is from a ref that also happens to be a Mom of a 11-year-old basketball playing son!)

Good Luck!
Becky

[donfowler]

Reading over the replys shows various opinions, but I think we have lost sight of what's important. IT'S ONLY A GAME.
Go over basic rules that occur in every game (travel, 3sec, palming, etc), but tell the kids, coaches and parents to have fun. Officials are here to help everyone learn more about the fine points of this great game.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by stripes

Do you really expect 7th and 8th graders to pay attention for an hour? Remember this is a lot more interesting to you than it is to them.

You might want to ask the coach what it is that he wants covered. Take what you can get, hit the high spots and answer all of the kid's questions. That is the best thing you can do.

As a someone who teaches at the jr. H.S. and H.S. level I most certainly do expect students at that age to be able to sit attentively and listen to an adult and to be able to ask intelligent questions.

School sports in the U.S. is supposed to be part of the learning experience (I do not necessarily buy into that school of thought). The quality of education in the U.S. is a major concern to the citizens of this country. One major problem with quality of education is that we do not demand more of our students and their parents. Telling me that 7th and 8th grade students are not capable of sitting attentively and listen to an adult for one hour is a classic example of the dumbing down of our students.

There have been a number of times when I have been told by a mathematics teacher, for whom I have substituted, that I am teaching over her students'heads. When following a teacher's instructions to go over a homework assignment, I have found that the students do not even know how to set up the problem to be able attempt a solution. Instead they are shown example problems which are very simplistic, but the teachers do not follow up with more demanding problems that require the students to think logically, and in the process discover how the example problems relate to a similar problem.

Today's students are more sophisticated than we think. We need to challenge. We do not challenge them because we do not want anybody to fail. But we cannot learn unless we do fail sometimes.

[Dan_ref]

Hey Chuck, looks like you are just a cog in the massive
movement to dumb down America's childrem after all.
Forget the basketball rules, those kids need an hour on
partial differential equations. Next season we're
gonna tackle Maxwell's equations.

[BMA]

Chuck: Since there is a limit on the time that you have been give. Ask the coach if you can have the one whole pratice have the other players,coachs,parents to come, ask some of the other officals in your area to donate some time , and run a rules clinic for the kids. Cover the rules they will play under, let them ask some questions.
This will help them for the next level (H.S)and let them know what they see on TV (NBA)is a BUSINESS.

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by BMA
Chuck: Since there is a limit on the time that you have been give. Ask the coach if you can have the one whole pratice

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but how do these two things go together. I've been given a time limit, so how in the world am I going to get the whole practice? There's just no way the coach can give up that time. I agree that I would love to do what you suggest, but there's not a chance of that happening.

Chuck

[rockyroad]

How the heck did math problems get involved in this conversation??? I am a Middle School teacher - I teach 7th and 8th grade Math and History classes. Ask any of my students, and they will tell you that I am very demanding and have very high expectations of them - academically and behaviorally. I also am not fool enough to think that I can walk into their PE classes and give them a lecture for 60 minutes without having LOTS of disruptive behavior...the kids at that practice will be there to run around and practice basketball...try to sit them down and give them a lengthy discourse on rules and you WILL lose them after 10-15 minutes...come to my open gym time and try to give the adults there a lecture and you WILL lose us in about 5 minutes...they are there to play...don't be an *** and demand things from the coach...take the time allotted and give the best 15 min. presentation you can!!