Advantage/Disadvantage

[Adam]

Originally Posted by drinkeii

How do they learn what they're doing wrong if they don't get called for it? I don't have any problem calling these kinds of things - and many coaches have actually complimented me on it because they are trying to teach their kids the right way to do things. The refs who ignore things like that teach the kids bad habits.

Two things, and they may seem contradictory.
1. At certain lower levels, if you call them for every violation you see, they won't learn anything. You call 40 travels in a running clock game, all they're going to learn is how to run their in bounds play. I'll tell you flat out, when I'm doing a game like this, I'm looking for advantage on a travel before I call it; same thing with double dribbles.
2. It's not our job to teach these kids to play basketball. In a way, it's to allow the coaches to teach them. By blowing your whistle every 20 seconds, we remove that opportunity from the coaches.
3. I don't care about how many coaches compliment or complain. (I know I said two, but consider 3 a bonus.)

[drinkeii]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Two things, and they may seem contradictory.
1. At certain lower levels, if you call them for every violation you see, they won't learn anything. You call 40 travels in a running clock game, all they're going to learn is how to run their in bounds play. I'll tell you flat out, when I'm doing a game like this, I'm looking for advantage on a travel before I call it; same thing with double dribbles.
2. It's not our job to teach these kids to play basketball. In a way, it's to allow the coaches to teach them. By blowing your whistle every 20 seconds, we remove that opportunity from the coaches.
3. I don't care about how many coaches compliment or complain. (I know I said two, but consider 3 a bonus.)

Good point on #3 - i'm simply saying I have some coaches that agree with my philosophy.

As for 1 and 2 - they're not going to learn the rules (which is bad enough as it is - no one seems to know the real rules except for the refs, which is a major part of problems with basketball and rule enforcement - players would play better if they knew what was really legal and not, rather than wanting reaching and over the back fouls), if they're just allowed to do whatever they want to. I've seen 5th grade games which every kid travels every time he moves, and I've seen 5th grade games where every kid is able to recognise his pivot, set it, and move legally. Most are somewhere in between. If our job isn't to teach, then we should be calling it every time, and every coach should be explaining to their kids what they're doing wrong. In a perfect world...