New Product
 

:confused: I’m not sure if any of you already use this product or have heard of it in the past and if you have I’m sorry. I recently received an e-mail for my assignment secretary which was a forward from the creator of this product.

http://www.possessionswitch.com

This product is a small piece that fits right on your whistle and allows you to keep track of alternating possession.

What do you think? Worth it or nah?

Nah. Not needed.

Use your memory to retain the status of the arrow. With time, you can even recall where the ball was when the TOs were reqeusted. Imagine the look on the coach's face when you recite the exact situations he took his timeouts. ;)

It doesn't sound very helpful if it screws up the sound of your whistle. Maybe a good alternative(for the officials who feel that it is imperative that they absolutely <b>must</b> do the scorer's job) would be to buy a 2X4 and a piece of chain. Cut the 2X4 into the shape of an arrow and then attach the chain to it; maybe even paint the 2X4 a nice fluorescent color that can be seen anywhere in the gym. Wear this during the game and just switch the way the 2X4 is pointing after an AP throw-in. The 2X4 may also come in handy for reasoning with some of the coaches that you might encounter also.

Maybe they'll come up with some kind of gadget next that will allow you to keep track of the fouls, TO's, score, etc. also. Maybe something that is attached around your waist and you can clip your very own scoresheet to and keep it up-to-date during the game. Attach a pen to it with a cord and you're all set to go. I'm sure that the <i>keep-track-with-something-in-your-pants-pocket</i> group would give an innovation like that a try also.

Or maybe(this is revolutionary thinking so bear with me) you can try to keep track of AP's, etc. in your head.I've heard a rumor that there actually <b>are</b> officials around that are able to do that.

How about using a downs counter to keep track of team fouls? :)

Yup, you could also sharpen up the base and use it as a javelin when you want to get a coach back in his box.

Good idea, Juggler.

Or you could have a velcro association patch which you could move from side to side...

That's a good one!!!!!

Believe me, you only need to count the "downs" up to one around here.

(that's an inside joke in this area) :D

Or something like an umpire's ball/strike/out clicker. :)

The problem I think you'd have with a gadget like this, Brandan, is the same one you'd have with moving a whistle, coin, chapstick, whatever from pocket to pocket. You've got to remember to do it, every time.

I briefly tried the pocket pool thing and I found that it took as much effort to remember whether I had switched the thing after the last throw in as it did to just remember the arrow.

An approach I learned from our dear, departed ChuckElias (RIP), and prefer, is to make the arrow part of your count. One-red-arrow, two-red-arrow, etc.

YMMV

What happened to Chuck Elias???

He was abducted by aliens.

Who?<i></i>

Nothing, Brandon. Don't let these clowns kid you.

http://forum.officiating.com/showthread.php?t=29315

I still post all the time in the annual baseball thread. Glad to see you back on the forum!

Just my opinion, but this may be the dumbest product ever thunked up. But, I'm sure someone will buy it. Personally, I will not. This thing just looks stupid, and how stupid are you going to look, checking out your whistle on every jump ball. If you can't remember the possession arrow, try carrying a whistle or a dime in your pants pocket. But, if you really want to be a more than just a warm body in a striped shirt, learn to remember the arrow.

CLH

B,
You buy this and some of your cajun friends are going to be asking "Who Dat?" and "What Dat?" when they see you using it! ;)

Alternating Possession
 

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.

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

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

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

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!

To repeat, I'm responsible for the game but the <b>SCORER</b> 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?

Huh? Is is is what??? :confused:

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....:)

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

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.......:eek:

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.

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.

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