How much do you talk?
 

I have noticed more and more officials that do not say much during a game. Let me explain in more detail.

A travel occurs during a game. Some officials will hit the whistle and give the indication; some officials will hit the whistle and say, "Traveling" while giving the indication.

A coach calls a timeout. Some officials will immediately indicate whether it is a 30 second or 60 (75) second timeout before reporting to the table. Some officials will hit the whistle, barely say it is a timeout and have their partners in limbo (which way do I go?) until they report it to the table.

A foul occurs. Some officials will hit the whistle, go to the table and are barely audible during this whole process. Some officials will hit the whistle, immediately verbalize the foul ("Blue 32") and then verbalize - loudly and clearly - at the table. On a side note, when reporting to the table "three, two" are two different numbers and could create a problem with the table. On the other hand, "Thirty two" is clearly...#32.

Anyway, how much talking is too much and too little? I have actually never heard an evaluator say an official is talking too much, but many officials are just quiet as a church mouse. We talk about communicating with coaches quite a bit, but not really about verbally communicating better with the table and our fellow officials. At least not that I remember reading.

I have a big voice and use it alot. Plus I talk ALOT on the floor...to players, my partner(s), coaches, fans, cheerleaders. I also smile alot. It gives the imessage that I am having fun and I have found actually defuses some hard feelings when a call doesn't go the "right" way for someone.

Other than the fact that I've been getting over a cold for a couple weeks and have no voice, I verbalize pretty much everything as I call it. Especially fouls. My call goes - whistle w/ fist, drop whistle while action stops, "32 white, block" with the preliminary signal, if needed "40 red, 2 shots" so my partners can hear it.

Then go report and verbalize everything after making eye contact with the scorer.

The advantage for me when verbalizing is that I'm much more likely to remember the numbers! Nothing worse than forgetting on whom your foul was called.

One of the most important parts of our game, as officials, should be communication. Working NCAA-W, they have constantly reminded us that we need to signal and verbalize between partners, and I've tried to incorporate a lot of these ideas into my HS game as well. For example, the proper procedure on a violation is, stop clock, signal, direction, throw-in spot. We are told to verbalize things with our partners, such as, "Throw-in spot is right here, Tom", as we leave to go to our new spot. If there's a TO, we should all know as a crew where the ball is to be put in play even before the TO is reported to the table. If my partner has a shooting foul, I will try to tell them, "I've got your shooter, Tom" before they go report to the table. Before we shoot FT's, all three members of the crew will signal whether it's 1, 2, or 3 shots, so there are no mis-understandings and corectable error situations. When I call a foul, I usually verbalize as well, "White, 23, 2 shots". This way my partners will know what's going on rather than looking at each other wondering while I wander to the table.

I tend to verbalize quite a bit during a game, mostly to communicate to my partners and the table. Of course, there's the occasional communication with a player, coach, cheerleader, etc....

Well I have heard an evaluator at a camp say "we" talked too much in camps. I have changed the way I communicate in the past few years and it works out a lot better. I do not feel like I have to defend or respond to many calls. I will mainly talk only when talked to or when I am standing right in front of them. Now I will make myself available at times, but I try my best to stay away from most conversation. I have learned that saying a couple words is much better than a couple of sentences in most situations. It also helps that I am seeing the same coaches over and over and they know what I can or cannot do. I do not have to explain a lot as much anymore.

Peace

I don't talk a lot. I don't usually verbalize the type of foul at the spot. I will sometimes verbalize the number of the player who fouled (kind of verbal bird-dogging). I try ALWAYS to verbalize the shooter's number if we have free throws. I will say "the ball went in" if my partner has a foul and may not have seen the try enter the basket. I will tell my partner that I have his/her shooter (without saying the shooter's number).

Occasionally, I will say "good call, partner" on a bang-bang play if I also have a fist in the air.

For me, and I tell this to every inexperienced official, you need a good whistle and voice.

Our job is all about 3 things:

1. Judgment

2. Communication

3. Game management

Number two greatly impacts both one and three.

And I usually never do this. Only because I have a tendency to remember the last thing I verbalized if something unusual happens in between the foul call and reporting. After the foul, I used to say, "White 35 is my shooter." Then two players will give each other a stare-down, and I would step in between them to calm them down, call for someone with a towel to wipe up the floor, quickly answer the one player's question about what he did, another player comes up and wants a TO, so I tell them to hang on for a moment, and then when I FINALLY get to the table to report, I say "White, 35...(oh, crap)". That's why I started verbalizing the color and number of the player who fouled, and pointing to the shooter and saying, "Here's my shooter" so my partners are able to pick it up. This is just something that works for me; not everyone has the same problem I do of not enough space in short-term memory to remember everything... :rolleyes:

Works for me too.

What works for you too?

What were we talking about?

We were talking?

I am a talker.:D

Between partners, I don't believe it is possible to over-communicate. The more communication between us, the better...most of the ugly things that have happened in my games can be traced back to some lack of communication. Doesn't even have to be verbal - just looking and making eye-contact is a big thing...but when we have weird things going on, it really settles everyone down when they hear us communicating with each other.

Between us and coaches, the communication should be kept to a minimum...if they have a reasonable question, I will respond. If they want to whine and gripe, we're not gonna talk very much that night...

Between us and players, communication helps a lot. I talk to players during dead ball periods quite often. I stay away from things like "Stop doing this" or "Set better screens" and just keep it light with them...if they have a reasonable question, I will answer it. If they come in griping, they get told to knock it off...

I agree, it's almost impossible to overcommunicate with partners. I communicate more every year and verbalize way more than I used to also.

Don't forget that you communicate using many different "tools": whistle (volume, duration, etc); body language (lethargic looks indecisive or energetic/sharp looks confident); movement; etc.

IMHO, there is a solution to every problem and it will always include communication.