first 3-man
 

I'll be working my first 3-man crew next Monday....any suggestions on how to prepare myself are welcome.

Do you know the Officials Manual ?

Bring your shoes, striped shirt, whistle, all that good stuff.

Prepare as much as possible before the game, but come game time, worry about the play in front of you instead of the mechanics of 3-person. Don't get too caught up with the mechanics and forget to officiate.

Mregor

Make sure you know the areas of responsibility and referee your area. When you're the C, work off-ball as hard as you can. Also as the C, hang way back to help with any pressing. As Lead, rotate aggressively. Find a reason to move. Don't leave your C with the ball and a post matchup.

I hate rotating aggressively and finding a reason to go. Hate it !

Hate it !

Like Scrapper1 say's study your area's. Work the game and do not worry too much about the rotation. you all on the court will be the only one's if it get screwed up. Just fix it. as LEAD find your post players for both teams and stay ball side with them. Learn the teams offense. Have a good pre-game. This year we went with to 3 man. It is the only way to work a game.

The main problem I had when I first did 3-man was noticing the rotation.

In the camp I went to a super procedure is to take a quick look back to see if another official is behind you.

That's what I started doing and I haven't had any problem with picking it up since. Of course in the third rec game of the night earlier this year I was running down court after a FT began working as C, problem was it was a two man game and I was supposed to be the new lead. :o By the time my brain quit farting, my partner "covered" for me and became the new lead.:D

Buy him a beer.

Me too. "Find a reason to rotate" is mostly camp-speak. If there's a reason to go then go. This is especially bad advice for someone new and gonna spend most of the game wondering whether or not he's rotating 'aggressively' enough and getting his partners confused.

Obviously, since I wrote it, I disagree. The reason that it is GREAT advice for someone new is that the new guy almost never rotates enough. They're always tentative. You say that they'll wonder if they're being aggressive enough; but I think that most newbies wonder if now is a good time, nope, too late, now, no, ok, no wait, ok, shoot. . . And they get stuck either just standing still or ball watching until they decide to go. So instead of that, just go!!

The whole point of that expression is to make them realize that it's almost always ok to rotate. If you go and the ball swings back, it's ok to just come back. It's better to over-rotate than under-rotate. So rotate aggressively.

New guys/gals usually aren't really comfortable with rotating. So just go! We'll adjust if you have to go back.

Yep, and in 2-person they knew that if they rotated as lead, they were leaving something uncovered. They need to learn that if they rotate at a bad time, there is still an official (the new C) on the side they vacated so it's not the end of the world.

I always tell the newbies to "rotate too much and we'll reign you in later" (and of course, they still don't rotate enough when they are first starting 3-person).

Stay in your primary...stay in your primary....stay in your primary....

Trust your partners...trust your partners....trust your partners....

Patient whistle...patient whistle....patient whistle....


Those are my suggestions.