Rookie-my hat is off to you veterans
 

How do you handle the constant criticism? I'm a rookie who is getting tired of the comments from coaches and fans. I worked boys' B and JV games this week and they were all close games, but all but one of the coaches was decent, the rest were jerks.

For my double-header on Tues, my partner held a pre-game with the coaches and introduced himself as a varsity official who sometimes helps the assignor by working a couple less than varsity contests each season. He then introduced me and added that I was "pretty inexperienced." Both of the games that night were buzzer beaters, so things were tense. All but one of the coaches griped about almost everything. One coached yelled at me, "THAT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU." Hate to say it, but a kid moved right in my line of sight before I could adjust to see the supposed violation.

I'm getting better at seeing violations and fouls and immediately responding, but I acknowledge missing a bit more than my share or just plain hesitating on blowing my whistle. I issued my first "T" to a coach two weeks ago, but I'm still not sure when to draw the line and how to draw the line.

I want to do a good job, I study, I work at it, but I'm having trouble tolerating the comments. Does it get better? Any advise? Or is retiring at the ripe old age of 41 my best option?

Sounds like your partner hung you out to dry in the pregame. He may have had good intentions, but it's none of the coach's business how much experience you have (or how much he has, for that matter). There's no reason to give the coaches your resume before the game.

Now, he's told them that he's slumming and you're green. He set you up without even trying (I'm being charitable here).

Coach screams at you like that, it's worthy of a T. At this point for you, though, you have to decide how much of the griping you can handle. To keep your focus, you probably want to stop it early by telling the coach politely but firmly that you're not going to tolerate the officiating from the bench. If you have to, give him the T and you'll likely have a much quieter game from that point forward.

LOL. As Homer Simson would say...."Its funny 'cause its true"

I am also new, and believe me brother, "I feel your pain". Sometimes, I think the verterans don't remember how painful it can be.

Its part of the game. You study the rules, you learn the mechanics......then you need experience.

Another memorable saying:
You can't be good unless you have experience. Experience is learning from your mistakes. You can't learn from your mistakes unless you make mistakes. (or something like that)

So, for now, our job is to go out there and make mistakes. LOL.

It might help if you look at it this way:

I am new, so I am working the lower levels. I am trying to learn out there and I'm going to make some mistakes. When I get better, I will be working Varsity.

The players at the lower levels are new. They are trying to learn and they will be making mistakes. If they were better, they would be playing at the Varsity level.

It just follows that......The coaches at the lower levels are new. They are tyring to learn and they WILL be MAKING MISTAKES. If they were better, they would be coaching at the Varsity level.

If the fans were any good, they would be on the floor. They will never learn, but they will continue to make mistakes. (in reality, its a few, vocal, bad apples making the rest of the crowd look bad. Ignore them)

So, in a nutshell. The whole gym is full of people making mistakes. Get used to it. It comes with the territory.

Also, it helps when you work with a veteran that remembers how was to be new. It won't always happen. Sometimes, you get a jerk for a partner like you had that "throws you under the bus".

The leader of my association put it this way. There are basically four types of officials working the lower levels:
a) New officials working there way up the ladder
b) Veteran officials who are "giving back" to the game. (helping newer officials & schools)
c) Older officials who have been to the top and are slowing down in there career. (slowing down, but still good)
d) Older officials who NEVER DID and NEVER WILL make it to higher levels.

Sounds like you got one from catagory D.

Hang in there. Learn from EVERY game. NEVER listen to the crowd. After each game, write notes about your game. Note things you did right and things you did wrong. Pick out TWO things that you did wrong. Concentrate on getting those two things right the next game. Work on them until you get them right. Go to the next two things on your list and work on them until you get them right. Listen to veteran officials, don't waste their time explaining why you did something wrong. Just listen to what they say. After a while, you will learn which category they fall into. Listen to all. Immediately forget what officials from category D tell you. LOL.

Don't forget to come to the forums to learn QUITE a BIT about the rules and situations. (Don't forget to apply the above paragraph to the forums........Uh, Hum.....no names, you have to figure out who is who.....LOL)

Have faith in YOURSELF and your PARTNER. You can do it. It won't be easy, but it WILL be worth it.

One last thing. NEVER throw your partner or ANY official "under the bus". That includes making comments about the calls being made on the floor of the game you are watching.

Enjoy the experience you are gaining now. Never forget how it feels to be new. So, when you become a veteran, you will help newer officials.

AND NEVER FORGET: Have fun out there.

I feel bad for you. Your veteran partner hosed you! Tell him to go F!@# OFF!
He should not have said that. Period! He was only trying to show boat himself.
He is a jerk.

Stick with it
 

Rookie,
I started refereeing at 44. I am now 51 and I love it. Stick with it. It gets better and better.

Bad partners are something you have to live with. Coaches on the other hand, never change. They try to work a referee forever. After 3 years I began to do Varsity games. The first year all I ever heard was " That's a JV call" I still make the same calls now that I made my first year on Varsity, but no more complaints from the coaches, well, I mean no more " That was a JV call", now that just tell me I was completely wrong about the call regardless of what the call was....I can be 6 feet from the play and they are 60 feet away and they see it better than I do.

Stick with it, with time you will learn to love it much more than you do today.

Terrapins Fan,
Are you the official from the other forum?
Nice to see you again ! :)
Thanks for coming.
mick

It always gets worse this time of year, as the overall record starts to catch up with the coaches, and they've got to find someone to blame it on.

THere are two things you can do to help you feel better about all this, and get your head back in the game.

First, I think you're nearly at the end of the Not-Enough-T's stage. It's time to morph into the Way-Too-Many-T's stage. This is a normal stage of ref development, especially the very old (you and me and Terrapins Fan) and the very young. Go through it, knowing that there is balance in another year or so. WHACK everybody. Well, okay, that's an exaggeration. But quit hesitating. You'll find that a lot of the time (especially at your level) it actually helps the coach by getting him out of officiating mode and back into coaching.

Second, get a tape of one of your games, and study ways that you might appear green and uncertain. Facial expressions, body language, habits of voice that seem tentative or less than confident. I remember the first time I caught a glimpse of myself as I ran past a mirror on the way off the floor into the dressing room. Wow, I looked awful. No wonder coaches yelled at me. I made a change in my make-up routine and the very next game the yelling was cut down by half. Now that particular change probably won't help you much! But find something in your appearance that could look significantly more calm. Work on it.

It also might help to take a few days off, right now, if you can. You might be able to collect yourself, and feel better, and also come across better to observers.

One more thing. Learn to ignore the fans. They are the definitive Clueless and not nearly as attractive as Alicia Silverstone. Learn to have a curtain up that just stops all the yelling and all the crap. You can do it. It's not always easy.

We are all here for you, Dan!! Stick to it!

"Sorry, coach. It was a JV violation!"

Pretty new myself
 

Well Dan I have had some of the same things happen to me. i was working with the D level official who showed up and promptly told both coaches it was my first year. And yes I got to work on my game management skills ALL NIGHT while my so called partner went through our 2 game set without a care in the world. He also lectured me on the T I awarded the coach for his screaming at me as I reported a foul. It just comes with the territory....

Last week working with a 6 game vet. He had a total of 6 games under his belt. The only problem was he knew all the coaches. He played on an adult rec team with them and didn't block them from his schedule. So I became the mark. Gratefully my personal POE this year is coach/bench control. We didn't have too many problems after my first T minutes into the game.

I also started at 41. My first year I worked on mechanics, my coverage area, and putting air in the whistle. I am into my 3rd season and I am a competent Frosh/JV ref. Perfect-not even close. But my assignor handpicks me for the bigger match ups in town. The second half of my JV game had over 1300 people show up to make sure that got seats for the varsity game.

This board has been the MOST important asset in my improving as an official. I do all the other things-listen to vets, watch the vets,read my books etc. but this board has made a difference in that I get to stay away from personal philosophy and stick to the books and manuals......

Maybe we should start a club!! "Late bloomers United!"

My thoughts exactly.

This is also my first year certified doing hs ball. I just keep focused on the game and tune out the fans and their comments. If a coach has a question regarding a foul or something, then I will address him/her. However, if he/she is just griping about a call then I brush it off and move on with the game.

Just keep your mind on the game, you're going to miss some things, especially with a two man crew, you're not going to see EVERYTHING. But, just call the games to the best of your ability and you'll be okay. Just remember, one team is always going to be upset with what you call.

My thoughts, too. I've worked 2 games this year at the varsity level where it was the first game of one of our crew working 3-person. It does not benefit the crew or the game to hang the "rookie" out to dry. They each did a fine job, BTW.

I started working basketball a month after my 18th birthday, the first season in my area with the 3-pointer. This is season #20, although in my 5th year in Wisconsin I still feel like an outsider in a way.

I couldn't imagine being a new official now, although I recruited 2 experienced officials to my football crew and they are the best 3rd and 4th year football officials I've ever seen. Unless I take up volleyball or something like that, I don't think I'll have to worry about it.

Thanks for your input! It helps a lot.

As Rainmaker mentioned, I do feel like I am getting to the end of my non-T stage. I've had a nagging feeling for a couple of weeks that I've been too tolerant. I understand a certain amount of criticism comes with the stripes, but it's been more than that, especially in the two games when my "partner" introduced me as being "pretty inexperienced."

Although I'll approach each game from this point forward with the realization that I need to let some comments go in one ear and out the other, as it is a competitive environment, I will learn from the things you've mentioned and use some of the things I've picked up from various threads in this forum since finding this site last month:

1) Stop sign-"Coach that's enough"
2) If it continues-"Whack"

Skip the stop sign & go right to the T. JV coaches normally have no idea of what the stop sign means, and there are some that say the stop sign should rarely be used at any level. Normally new officials wait too long before giving a stop sign anyway.

When you T, do it as calmly as possible - no emotion, it's just business. Quick tweet, touch the fingers of 1 hand to the palm of the other, get the other team's shooter. Stay calm. As rainmaker said, don't be afraid to become T happy, it won't be long before you figure out you tolerance level and start to apply it without wondering if you've done the right thing. That won't stop your partners from telling coaches your new at this (if that's what they like to do whee you work :rolleyeys: ), but it might get them to add that you will not take even the slightest amount of sh1t from then so beware.

Good luck, this part of the game is pure judgement. You'll learn a lot about yourself if you master this.

OK, the first game - after his awesome pregame - I would have covered my mouth and told him if he ever said anything like that in a pregame about how great he was and how inexperienced I was - he could work alone! I assure you, if he doesn't need me there - I'm heading to the house. There aren't enough games or there isn't enough money to put up with a$$e$ like that.

I'm insensed at his actions and words.

Reminds me of Muhammed Ali's great poem:

<i><b>Me
Whee!</b></i>

-back to the football game.......

I didn't say anything after his comment before the first game because I thought he may have just slipped and didn't mean anything by it (I hadn't met the guy before that night).

I've been giving officials that partner with me a lot of latitude, as I'm trying to learn and not make waves. Once he introduced me the same way before the second game, I tried to distance myself from him as much as possible. He'd corner the coaches and drone on about unique basketball situations he's come across. All of his story's had a similar pattern, he was always right and others were idiots. Rather than confront him, I got out of there as soon as the home team hit the last second game winner. As the home team's players and coaches were running onto the court to swarm the hero, I was running for my bag to get the heck out of there.

Incensed. Sorry, had to do it before someone else beat me to it.:o

If you do have to work with him again, God forbid, when he says that stuff in pre-game again, which he will, you look at the coaches, laugh flippantly and say, "He's such a card!" Then say seriously, "We're both going to work hard for you and with you, and give you our best game ever!" Then just turn and walk away. Let him stew in his own juices.

Being around HS students working games frequently reminds me why I'm so glad that I'm not in HS any more. And reading your original post reminds me why I'm so glad I got through my first couple of years.

Being a rookie is tough. Setting aside those, hopefully few, idiot partners (hey, what else can you really do, you can't fix 'em!), just learning to do the job takes time and patience. You will make a lot of mistakes. You will look at a lot of plays and just scratch your head and wonder what you should have called or done. You'll look at plays and realize too late what you should have called. You will hear reactions from players/coaches/fans at something you called or no-called and wonder what game they are watching. Actually, that part never really goes away. :D

All the while, you'll be getting better at calling stuff that you previously missed, or mishandled, or just plain screwed up. Little by little, game by game, you'll get better.

And once you get the T thing sorted out, and learn when and how to use it effectively, you'll find that you get more respect, and coaches will begin to pick their battles more intelligently. Or could it be that by that time most coaches will have seen you and come to accept you more anyway. Kind of a chicken and egg thing for rookies.

Then, every once in a while you'll get a game where there is a lot of stuff that you've gotten good at, and nothing much that you're not good at yet, and you'll walk away feeling like you completely nailed that game. You won't be able to stop grinning for days. It'll remind you once again why we do this...

BECAUSE IT'S FUN!

So stick with it. Hang in there. Keep working hard. Find something that motivates you (perhaps even the thought of passing up all those D-level officials who made your life difficult in the early days), and keep on keepin' on.

And like Rainmaker alluded to, this time of year it just gets more intense. Around here, and I assume it's similar in most areas, we're just starting region play. Now it's for real. All the games up to this point were to get the teams ready for region. Region win/loss records determine who moves on. You get more rivalry games, the intensity goes up, and sometimes the ugly comes out.

Case in point, before this week, I have not had a single non-administrative T in any of my games. This week, I've had five. Three have been on players, two on coaches. Three were in one game. In both coach cases, I've warned and then (shortly) T'd, and the game became significantly better. I think you'll find equally remarkable results.

As for the whole to-stop-sign-or-not-to-stop-sign debate, new officials should absolutely make the stop sign a part of their bag of tools for controlling coaches. Inexperienced officials usually take too much crap. And then only T when they're completely frustrated and fed up with a coach. They haven't learned the skills of how to deal with coaches in the time between when the behavior starts and the T is warranted. Using the stop sign gives you a tool to use in that space. But if the coach runs the stop sign, T him immediately. And if the behavior has no "escalation," if it is immediately over the line, whack without warning.

Bottom line, stick with it. It'll get better.

Rookies that Quit
 

I have heard that about 1 out of 3 people who take the training, quit after the 1st year. In our association it seems to be much higher than that.

Lasy year we had 8 start and on 2 in the ned. this year, 10 started the classes and there are only 2 left now.

We start our officials off with middle school games, the pay is low, the travel distance is high sometimes. I was offered a middle school game the other day, the pay is $35 but the travel was 65 miles each way. I can see why someone wouldn't want to take an assignment like that. And on top of it deal with the fans, coaches and players....

I would dare to say that 1 out of every 2 officials who get in, are out within the first 3 years after starting. A lot crap to put up with. Get in there, do your job the best you can, then get out of there and reflect on your performance. Don't let fans bother you . . . 99.999% know less about the rules of basketball than G.W. Bush. As you improve as an official, your confidence will also improve. Your issues with coaches will also decrease because of better game management. Hang in there!

As for your partner . . . YOU GOT HOSED!!! I would NEVER sell out my partner. As far as coaches know, we all have at least 20+ years experience calling NCAA D-I basketball, or at least that is what they can think. :D

Your partner selling you out at the pregame was a bad move on his part. I worked with veteran officials who were jerks when I was a newbie too as I am sure we all have. The guy who comes in for your freshman game and lets you know what a big favor he is doing someone by working such a low level game because hey, he has done college games. Then he tells you all about how great he is.:rolleyes: I hope to God I never become that guy. I will say that 95% of the officials I have ever worked with were great people who tried to help me when I was less experienced.

I didn't start officiating until I was 39 so stick with it. It does get better and so will you. I don't think I could have done it when I was 18 because I was probably too much of a hothead. The maturity of the additional years is a good thing for me. As you get more comfortable with yourself on the court, the criticism from the coaches will bother you less and you won't take it as personally. You will also become more comfortable dealing with them. Don't be afraid to give out a T, it is just another violation. Don't make it personal, it's just one call out of many you might make during a game. I honestly don't even hear coaches or the fans most of the time anymore. Good luck and hang in there.

It's my first year too...
 

I don't let anyone get to me. Now saying that, I realize there is a line where a 'T' is warranted, but I tend to not let it get to that point. That being said, some coaches want to get a 'T' to fire the team up.

I'd just ditto what everyone else has said before and that is to just relax and have fun! Also, SELL THE CALL! I've learned if you sell the call, even if its your first or 40th year, the coaches tend believe you know what you're doing if you sell the calls.

Hmmmm.....

I've always found that the calls usually sell themselves. Get 'em right and there's no real need to sell 'em.

There might be a case for selling a tight block/charge call at a critical point of the game, but other than that I personally don't believe in the <b>big</b> sell. Just making the call <b>confidently</b> is good enough imo.

in the beginning over T it up baby -- then as you get more comfortable tone it down. but new guys take tooooo much from coaches. you could always tell a coach

"coach you are talking to me like you assume this is my first game I have ever officiated. you keep it up and your assumption will be proven very wrong very fast."

DO NOT YELL THIS ACROSS THE GYM -- this is a you to coach line -- some might say you are baiting him I call it a test.

First, if I'm the lead and hear a coaches comment that I feel is over the line, do I stop the clock and then go to the coach or wait until the next dead ball?

Second, I just read a highly debated thread having to do with rookies who may be calling too many violations/fouls, therefore, "interupting" game flow. I, on the other hand, am a rookie who leans to the other side of the spectrum.

For background, I was a basketball player with a football body. As a result, and not being the quickest player on the court, I played post and banged a bit more than most. I, so far as an official, have allowed a more physical style of play, but I've also considered my bias and have been cognizant of advantage/disadvantage. Also, being new, I have assumed , rightly or wrongly, that my more experienced partners wouldn't want a rookie blowing a ton of whistles.

I'm thinking too much out there. I sometimes allow a bit more contact than maybe I should and then a split second later kick myself for not blowing the whistle.

With the amount of griping by the coaches, it seems like they want everything called. Maybe other rookies aren't experiencing this, but it's as if their griping results in less experienced officials calling a tighter and tighter game.

[QUOTE=dan74]I'm thinking too much out there. I sometimes allow a bit more contact then maybe I should and then a split second later kick myself for not blowing the whistle.

I also let too much go in my first year and a half or so. ALL the coaches unhappy,even the winning ones, and a majority of my games went sideways. Kids tackling, shoving etc. A vetearn ref and someone I thought did a great job cornered me at half-time one game and said " Blow everything, they breathe on them tweet. " I was not having fun and tried that and forgot about Adv/Dis. It took about 15 games or so and lo and behold I could now start learning about Adv/Dis.

I was also a football player in school so if the kid could get up after another one of my no calls I felt okay with my no call of letting them play. Am I still learning about Adv/Dis , of course I am but I am not lerning in the middle of a riot. Out of 60 or so games this year only have had 1 go sideways - I didn't stop the rough play on the ball handler. I am having alot more fun. FWIW I regularly get the losing coach come up and thank me for a nicely called game. IMO I needed to do that couple of weeks of blowing everything then I was able to start learning Adv/Dis.....

1) Stop the clock if you're going to call a technical foul. If not, wait until the next opportunity to smarten the coach up, be it a whistle or when you're by his bench next.

2) Sigh. Every time you blow your whistle, you interrupt game flow. Does that mean that we're all supposed to stop blowing our whistles? This "game interrupter" nonsense just means "If I blow my whistle, it's OK. If you blow your whistle, it may or may not be OK- depending on how I personally feel about your call". That's my take on it anyway. Just more gobbledegook! Some officials call a tight game; some officials call a loose game. If you're consistent, the players will adjust.

One partner I had at halftime, yes, the same one who gave me the glowing introductions, provided me input on a couple of my calls in the first half. I never could understand how he, as the trail (two person), had such good looks at plays in my primary-near the baseline-with a bunch of players in the paint. My guess is to him I was interrupting flow by making incorrect calls; however, to me, I called what I saw.

Nod and smile, say "uh huh," a couple of times, and go home knowing you did your best. There are maybe going to be three or four calls a game that he sees you make where he has a good angle on the call as well. These aren't among them. As you officiate longer, you'll get a better feel for what to call; but you need to start by calling them when you see them.
Until you get an observer who is there just to watch you officiate... Then you can listen to his/her advice on whether a specific call made sense.

One quick thing I learned when I stepped foot onto the floor for the first time ever. Remember only 50% of the people in any gym will like you and for only until you make the call against their team and the other 50% of the gym will like then. I keep that in mind every time I step foot onto the floor. Then again I don't care who likes me or not. I'm there to call a game.

Can I join? I ref'd my first game when I was 37. :D

I did my first varsity basketball game 2 weeks after I turned 16. I also did my first varsity football game when I was 15. I was too dumb to be nervous. Never got any smarter either.:)

Morning-Late Bloomers United (yes, Jurassic, the board has approved your membership)

Someone mentioned that it gets better. I agree. I had a good week. First, I took my time. Second, I called what I saw, rather than second guess myself all night. Third, all the coaches were composed and seemed like they've been coaching the game for a while.

Question: When working two person and at the trail, with the ball being controlled by A1 in your area (front court), where do you look. I had a partner tell me that he thought I was looking to low, which I quite possibly am, as I'm trying to see traveling.

Do ya's look at an area; waist of ball handler/defender; lower, like towards the feet. My parter said he looks at an area-he said about shoulder high but can also see the feet for any traveling calls.

It does get better. It also gets harder rather than easier. The more you learn, the more you realize that you still have got so much to learn. And that never changes or ends.

Never stop learning. That's why you see some very experienced and capable officials posting here. We're (almost) all here for the same reason.

It sounds like you might be too close to A1. If you've got the proper view, you can see all of the defender if he's close to A1 as well as all of A1. You should be able to see A1's feet as well as any action up top.

Too close to the play can be as bad as being too far from the play. The key imo is to always keep moving to get the best view possible.

They had sports back then?

I am surprised he remembered anything about those games. :D

Peace

We had stone basketballs. Damn hard to dribble, I tell ya.

It's true, it's true.....

I move quite a bit...sometimes finding myself a bit too close when the ball quickly comes back around the top. I've worked with some officials that are quicker than I at making traveling calls, so I've been working at better seeing the ball handlers feet. However, I must be looking down too much. As I'm trying to progress in steps, I will attempt to move back and consentrate more on the torso areas of both the ball handler and defender. Hopefully with more experience, I'll be better at just seeing an area rather than concentrating on single things.

I've also been using an extra whistle to keep track of AP when there isn't an arrow on the table/clock, or when the table's way at the end of the court rather than between the benches. It sounds like I need to do this in my head, but with all I'm trying to learn and apply, I don't want to bit off too much in my first season.

Also, I've deepened up when working two person and in the lead (front court). Assuming there's plenty of room at the end of the court, do people recommend four-six-or more feet from the end line (I'm in the four to six range depending where the ball is and what's happening).

What's getting better for me is that some things are coming more subconciously, rather than my mind working overtime trying to remember to do everything, such as raise my hand as the trail in two-person when a foul shooter releases the ball or raise it as the lead on a successful last free throw.

However, I understand what you're saying. This forum has helped me a lot. I, not unlike the vast majority who visit this forum, are striving to improve. I'm impressed that so many people give a darn...bodes well for the sport.