Well one of the "crawl under a rock" moments in officiating happened to me. My smitty broke in the middle of a game. Now mind you I keep about 10 whistles in my bag but only had one smitty. So I had a choice. Try and keep a regular whistle in my mouth or pull out my soccer whistle and put it on my left hand. I chose the soccer whistle and while it felt a bit awkward at first, it really worked without a hitch. So I pose for thought, why not?
P.S. I live 10 minutes from Honigs and am on my way to buy 4 more smittys lol.

That's why I don't use them. That's also why I carry a
spare whistle AND a lanyard in my pocket.

I use a smitty, but always carry a standard lanyard/whistle as a spare. I once had the loop on the shirt break. I had to carry the whistle for the rest of the game (it broke in the first quarter). I spit it on the floor more than once. Since then, my backup is failsafe.

around here (michigan) they dont want us using the old lanyards. I have known I needed backup smittys and just kept putting it off.

I use the Smitty but keep a spare whistle and full lanyard in my pocket. The lanyard I have has a slider on it (NBA style) so it looks like a Smitty when it's on except for the thin black circle around my neck. I started doing this when my loop on my shirt broke and I too spit the whistle a few times.

Never had a Smitty or the loop on my shirt break... I did try going sans Lanyard this summer just for kicks -- dropped the whistle three times in the first 2-3 minutes, but after that I didn't let myself! :) It's really not <I>that</I> hard...

A lot of the NBA guys do it -- with Precision Timing and now being miked sometimes they probably don't want any more things around their necks! :)

I haven't had a Smitty problem, but I did have a partner rip his loop once. He just clipped the Smitty where the V is and it worked pretty well the rest of the night.

So let me ask, why not the hand clip type whistle? I never thought of using one before but it really worked well.

1- Because there are signals in basketball that require you to use both hands. There's nothing worse than seeing a football official with a finger whistle stopping the clock with one hand. :(

2- Because things happen more quickly in basketball than football, you should have the whistle in your mouth, not in you hand.

3- Because, IMO, it would look stupid.

You asked. :)

lol yes I did.

;)

Think about your mechanics for a simple foul. Arm (fist) raised in the air, bird dog the guilty player. You seem to be out of hands on which your finger whistle will reside.

I always wear a standard lanyard around my neck tucked inside my shirt. Use a Smitty. If the Smitty or the loop breaks, in about 2 seconds my backup is out and I'm ready to roll. Beats trying to pull the lanyard out of the pocket and get it over your head on the fly.

dk

Had the clip break on a Smitty for the 1st time over the summer. I think it got rusty and just gave out. You're right though, it is more likely that the loop will break on the shirt before the Smitty gives out.

As an aside, if you had invented these, would this discussion be about "Padgettys"????

dk

I worked a scrimmage last night. We had several officials so we were taking turns working quarters. I worked in as the R to start the second quarter. As I'm administering the throw in, I go to blow my whistle to start the quarter when my smitty comes off in my hands. The loop broke on the brand new shirt that I had just taken out of the bag 10 minutes prior.

I spit my whistle on the floor about 3 times in the first minute of play before I was able to grab an old lanyard from a waiting official.

Note to self: Buy backup NBA-style lanyard to keep in pocket.