Within my association, yes, I am. (I certainly am not trying to brag and I'm sorry if it sounds that way, but you asked.)

1) I'm not going to dump a bunch of new stuff either. I'm talking about one new thing, which is an essential part of the 3-man system. I'm going to encourage him/her to rotate, even if it means rotating too much at first.

2) You obviously don't like the mid-summer BS camp-speak. No problem. So don't use that expression. The point of the words is to rotate. If you're not going to rotate, just work 2-man.

That doesn't even make sense, particularly from the go-to-guy of your association.

I could be worse than breaking someone into 3 man in a February game. Here, we're going to 3 for all tournament games even though much of the state only works 2 all season. In my first tournament game I was with one of my regular partners but our 3rd was new to us. He had worked some 3, but there were some positioning things he didn't do the same as us (he was way deep as trail). My district final I worked with a 2 man crew that had done exactly 2 3 man games all year, in the 1st round of the tournament and in the second round of the tournament. They actually adjusted very well. We had a long and intensive pregame that really helped, and yes, we did rotate. :)

Sure it does. The responsibility of the lead official is to put his/her crew in the best position to referee the game. More often than not, that means having the lead on ball side. Rotate. Watch how often the NBA guys rotate. The lead pretty much just mirrors the ball.

Sorry if it doesn't make sense. Here's what I mean. The whole point of the 3-whistle system is to have 2 officials on the ball side as often as possible. If you're not going to rotate and actually put 2 officials on the ball side, then there's no point in using the 3-whistle system. That's all I meant.

This makes no sense to me either.

It's like telling someone to just find a reason to shift and just do it when he's driving a standard for the very first time. I'm sure not even the go-to driver ed guys could pull that off.

It's not even close to being like that. :(

Might be what you meant but what you said was "find a reason to rotate", as if those words of wisdom gives even the faintest clue as to what any of those reasons might be.

Of course your argument that the entire reason for 3 man system is to rotate is obviously silly so I won't comment further on it. Except to say it's misleading at best and to conclude that all a newbie needs to do is "find a reason to rotate" and he'll be OK is simple minded.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Bob, shut up.

Of course you don't think so cause you're in the "find a reason to shift" camp.

I disagree with this. The main point of the 3-whistle system is to provide better coverage. Even without rotation, you have better coverage.

Is that what this is all about? You don't like the words "find a reason to move"? Regardless of what they mean, you just don't like the words? So that even after I explain what they mean, you're still kvetching about the phrase? It gives you a bad camp flashback? (Insert picture of Cartman on acid :) ) So don't use the phrase. It's just a shortcut. Explain it out. I don't have a problem with that. Just get the new guy to move.

Of course it is. But since I never said anything remotely like that, I don't know why you bring it up.

Nope, nothing to do with bad camp flashbacks or liking the words. It's the advize I object to. It has to do with using shortcuts and not explaining them that I have a problem with. "Find a reason to rotate" is a simple-minded, inane, content free knee jerk response that offers no help to the reader. In fact in the context of the game he's going to work it hurts more than helps.

Again, I'm much happier telling this guy to not worry about rotations, or to maybe give him 1 or 2 concrete examples of when he might want to go so he can focus on the game instead of running back & forth on the endline.

Obviously I'm not the go-to guy on this, but I think my advize makes sense.

I have to say that as a newbie who has never worked 3-man but is trying to learn it, "find a reason to rotate" makes absolutely no sense to me. I would think I should be taught the reasons to rotate and within the game I should look for those reasons and then rotate accordingly. I think perhaps saying "don't be afraid to rotate (or over-rotate)" would be better.

This is exactly what I am saying. Go!! Rotate!! Over-rotate!! Don't be afraid of rotating at the wrong time, because the only people in the building who will notice will be the officials. But apparently that's innane and simple-minded. So don't do it.

Yeah, but that's way different to my ears than saying "find a reason to rotate."

To someone inexperienced with 3-man as I am, the reasons for rotating aren't very clear, so "finding a reason" pretty much sounds like "make up a reason" to me.

I hear what you're saying, but I think that Dan_ref does have a point about your specific verbage.