A new first

[Ref in PA]

I am the R doing the opening toss at a BV game. One of the jumpers is about 6'5'' 270lb., a lineman in football. I toss with one arm, and as he goes up, his arm smacks my elbow on the underside. Fortunately, I had released the ball, but my arm went numb for the next five minutes and then it hurt like heck. I have been kicked before by one of the jumpers but never hit in the arm.

Anyone else have this happen to you? What do you do to avoid being hit/kicked?

[deecee]

i usually ask one of the players to throw the ball up for me or just let my partner take the beating

[wildcatter]

I've had this actually happen twice. After the first time, I made sure both players were back - still didn't matter, got slapped. Second time, I made sure the players knew not to steal the toss, and when I see big guys, I'll go up underhand.

EDIT: when I say underhand, I still have my hand right around in front of my face (not down low near my waist) - just not above my head where my arm is exposed!

Has anyone ever seen a ref "fake" the jump ball? - I don't know whether this is legal, I see it happen in hockey on face-offs as well (where I know it can be encouraged).

[BoomerSooner]

Originally Posted by wildcatter

Has anyone ever seen a ref "fake" the jump ball? - I don't know whether this is legal, I see it happen in hockey on face-offs as well (where I know it can be encouraged).

I couldn't think of a basketball referee ever faking a toss; there's no reason that comes to mind why one would want to.

In hockey, however, its not a fake that you are seeing. It's a response to the rules of the face-off. I'm being very general since my only experience is playing and that was many years ago, but essentially both players are required to keep their sticks on the ice until the puck is dropped. The way this is managed is the visiting team is required to place their stick on the ice and then the home player is required to do so within a limited time period. Typically the puck is dropped immediately after the home team complies with the rule. The "fake" comes in however, when the one player or the other lifts his/her stick prior to the puck being dropped (usually the visitor, as it is common to react to the opponent and not hte puck actually being released). If this happens such that the linesman can catch it before dropping the puck, he simply holds onto it and forces a reset, although this appears to be a "fake". Once this goes on some many times, the offending player is bounced from the face-off circle and replaced by a teammate with continued violations resulting in a delay of game penalty. Also of note is that if the puck is dropped, but the linesman feels a player violated, he can bring it back and start from scratch. Again this is pretty general from my playing days, but I've never heard of it being an acutal fake by the referee or linesman.

[Adam]

Not a fake, but a slight lifting of the arm(s) to keep the players off balance. Some refs will go to odd lengths to prevent the players from stealing the toss. Personally, I'm not a fan of this; I'd rather not worry about it and just call the violation if it happens.

[SMEngmann]

I was told at a camp that the official needs to do something to fake out the players to prevent them from stealing the toss. Basically, the whole point was to vary your routine so that the players can't time you (kinda like a base runner timing the pitcher's move in baseball). The key is finding a balance so that you don't get the players to jump at a fake toss, but to also prevent them from getting a jump on the toss.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by SMEngmann

I was told at a camp that the official needs to do something to fake out the players to prevent them from stealing the toss. Basically, the whole point was to vary your routine so that the players can't time you (kinda like a base runner timing the pitcher's move in baseball). The key is finding a balance so that you don't get the players to jump at a fake toss, but to also prevent them from getting a jump on the toss.

Since we usually only toss once a game, how are they going to learn how to time us. I doubt well all toss the same and in the same rhythm.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by SMEngmann

I was told at a camp that the official needs to do something to fake out the players to prevent them from stealing the toss. Basically, the whole point was to vary your routine so that the players can't time you (kinda like a base runner timing the pitcher's move in baseball). The key is finding a balance so that you don't get the players to jump at a fake toss, but to also prevent them from getting a jump on the toss.

Persoanlly, I think that would be a game interrupter. It might affect the jumpers' SBPR or sumthin'.

[tomegun]

You can either toss with two hands off the bounce, in one motion, or really work on tossing without dipping. Anything else, that I've seen, will allow the jumpers to time the toss. Any dip tells them you are going up. This is something that normally happens once, but if you want it right some attention must be paid to it.