New Product

[ernesto5]

I am the maker of the Possession Switch. I am not an official, but was a basketball coach for 15+ years. I started at the high school level and finished at the NCAA Division III level. I developed the possession switch in response to alternating possession management problems I experienced. My hopes were to place a mechnaical device in the Officials control that would allow them to assist in the accurate administration of alternating possession. The mechanical device had to be extremely easy to operate, reliable, professional, and visible to the participates of the game. Is all the switch is is a mechanical device. There needs to be a habit developed around the use of the device for it to be successful. That is true of any mechanical device!!!

There seems to be a lot of support of this board for memory management of alternating possession. That seems to be the only acceptable manor is which to adminster alternating possession. Along time ago business and industry found out that mechanical devices worked much better than memory. Microsoft Outlook is better than your memory, your cellphones that store telephone numbers works much better than your memory, a mathmatical calulator works better than memory, an address book works better than memory, and on, and on, and on, and on. I would guess that the quality of the folks working on the table have a lot more to do with successful alternating possession management than memory does.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

There seems to be a lot of support of this board for memory management of alternating possession. That seems to be the only acceptable manor is which to adminster alternating possession.

I would guess that the quality of the folks working on the table have a lot more to do with successful alternating possession management than memory does.

That's exactly right. It is the job of the SCORER to administer alternating possessions. Now tell us why you expect us to do the job of those people on the table.

You don't seem to understand the concept. Again, it is the job of the SCORER to keep track of the arrow. Says so right in the rule book. Really. You should be trying to convince SCORERS to buy your little device, not us officials.

On second thought, SCORERS already have their own little device, don't they? It's called the arrow.

[ernesto5]

First of all, your probable a Div. I official, and if you are you don't need it in the regular season. You have great people at the scorers table.

But back to the discussion. Your the one responsible for the game, so when the table makes a mistake you have to fix it. And the question is, is a mechanical device operated correctly better than the memory? I think it is!

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

Your the one responsible for the game, so when the table makes a mistake you have to fix it. And the question is, is a mechanical device operated correctly better than the memory? I think it is!

To repeat, I'm responsible for the game but the SCORER is responsible for the arrow. Let them buy one of these from you. What next? A miniature scoresheet so that the oncourt official can keep track of the score also in case there is a mistake?

I can't agree with you. I think that any official tinkering with a gadget like yours is simply unprofessional. It just ain't that hard for any official to keep track of the arrow in their head.

Good luck to you. Personally though I'd never recommend your little gadget to anyone and I'd also recommend to the officials in my association that they keep away from it and anything like it. JMO.

PS- btw...what about your gadget screwing up the sound of a FOX40 whistle? Comments on that?

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

Is all the switch is is a mechanical device.

Huh? Is is is what???

[CoachP]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

First of all, your probable a Div. I official, and if you are you don't need it in the regular season. You have great people at the scorers table.

But back to the discussion. Your the one responsible for the game, so when the table makes a mistake you have to fix it. And the question is, is a mechanical device operated correctly better than the memory? I think it is!

What's next then?
Isn't a stopwatch better than a "one-mississippi"?
There ya go, a stop watch for all 3,5 and 10 second violations.
No, wait, that's for MLB....

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

PS- btw...what about your gadget screwing up the sound of a FOX40 whistle? Comments on that?

Don't worry about that, most people won't remember it.

[ernesto5]

In 15+ years of coaching never once have I seen the scorers table take the lead in solving an alternating possession problem. They're consulted, but they don't issue the final verdict in straightening the problem out, that's the officials job.

It is really interesting to me that you'all get so wound up about this issue. If you don't like it that's fine, don't use it. The overwhelming majority of basketball officials have some system of keeping the alternating possession. That should tell you there's a problem. If you want to use your memory, use it. I hope it works great for you.

[CoachP]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

In 15+ years of coaching never once have I seen the scorers table take the lead in solving an alternating possession problem. They're consulted, but they don't issue the final verdict in straightening the problem out, that's the officials job.

It is really interesting to me that you'all get so wound up about this issue. If you don't like it that's fine, don't use it. The overwhelming majority of basketball officials have some system of keeping the alternating possession. That should tell you there's a problem. If you want to use your memory, use it. I hope it works great for you.

In 13 years of coaching, I can count on one hand how many AP problems I've had. Thats because there is a device already at the table with the timer and 2 bookkeepers.

An official can just as easily forget to flip the device. I can see it now. 3 man crew. 2 have white, 1 has dark.......

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

It is really interesting to me that you'all get so wound up about this issue.

Hey, I'm not wound up about your product. I could care less. I doubt that I'll ever see one to be quite honest, because I really can't think of any official that would ever buy one. It's completely needless and unnecessary imo. And that's all that I'm saying anyway. It's just my opinion.

I'm still waiting for your comments though on the reference in your ads to the quality of sound being reduced on FOX40 whistles when your product is attached. What's more important in the grand scheme of things? Being able to hear the whistles or to have some gadget that is basically a backup to existing table equipment?

Btw, you are aware that the scorer not only flips the arrow, they actually are also supposed to record jump balls for the AP procedure into the scorebook too, aren't you? That's NFHS rule 2-11-7 in case you're interested. What you're selling is a backup to a backup.

And here's another little hint for you....if you're going to put endorsements from officials on your ads, it's not a bad idea to attach names to those endorsements. That kinda makes those endorsements a l'il more believable.

[ernesto5]

The discliamer reads.... This product may reduce the performance of the Fox 40 whistles. That means it may or it may not reduce the performance. All officials blow the whistle differently. Blow it soft, sounds different than those who blow it hard.

I'm very aware of scorers entering ap in the book, that's something that was done by some scorers many, many years ago.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by ernesto5

In 15+ years of coaching never once have I seen the scorers table take the lead in solving an alternating possession problem.

You've never been to one of my games. I've definitely corrected the refs regarding the arrow many times.