How to watch
 

I'm having problems and maybe you can help me. When I'm in Lead I have trouble watching, when the ball is in my area, the A player, the B player, any activity between the 2 when a shoot goes up by A, and A's feet, in does he travel or not. When I watch for contact between A & B I've had coaches yell that A is traveling. If I watch the feet I miss the contact.

How do you guys do it? My thinking is I may be too close to the end-line and need to back off to get a broader view. What are your thoughts?

It sounds like you might be too close to the play. Take a step back or two so you can see the whole play. After that, it is a matter of building habits. A great place to start is by officiating the defense. This will allow you to see if the defender has established legal guarding position and evaluate whether contact is a foul or just incidental. As far as watching for violations, by seeing the whole play, you will be able to pick this up. Not a great complete answer here, but a start I think.

Oh yeah, btw, coaches will almost always say you missed a travel. :D

DING DING DING, widen out, get off the endline and you will see more of the play....officiate the defense first, you will get to the point that the travelling call will become second nature to you if it happens without having to stop and stare and go "ok there is his pivot, ok he lifted it, ok there is the shot no travel"....it all sort of flows together after a while...but definitely get wider and watch the play develop..and there is nothing that says you have to have a whistle IMMEDIATELY, let the play happen, let it process in your brain what you just saw (the time to do this gets considerably shorter over time), THEN blow the whistle and make your call...better to make a correct call late than a bad call right on time...

When I first started an experienced official told me to get further from the line and move to create the best angle. Then - think in terms of looking through the play instead of at the play. When doing this you are more aware of everything instead of focusing on just one thing. It worked great for me.

This is not at all what I thought this thread was about. :D

Getting a wider view of the play allows you to correctly call this. It also is important to get help from C/T in these situations.

Deeper and wider, got it. Thanks guys. I'll try it tonight (I've got a double) and see how that works. I'll let you know.

... and don't be overly focused on travelling. The little ones, well, oh, well. I mean if you see it call it. But if there's close defense and the dribbler goes up to shoot, and it's not obvious, well, you missed it. It's better to miss the occasional travel but get the fouls every time, imo. As long as you do it that way on both ends of the floor in both halves of the game.

I agree with everything above, but also wanted to point to this quote specifically.

If there's one call in basketball that's easier to get the further away you are it's traveling. It has to do w/ exactly what's in the OP - distance which allows you to see the entire play. So, with the officials I've worked with we've often even pregamed that the on call to get in your secondary if you see it - with no worries of your partner being ticked for blowing in their primary - is traveling.

This seems to happen more often w/ C blowing a travel across the paint than anywhere else. That's my experience anyway.

Anyone else have thoughts on getting traveling calls outside your primary?

Hmmm. It may be better, but not best. Go after both of those weevils and don't be content with getting the big one. For one team that [little travel] is an important call.

I have seen too many bad, long-distance travels called, made by officials that are ball watching. Yes, they may see the feet move, but are they actually seeing that the player is holding the ball rather than fumbling the ball ?
To help a Lead in the post from T [and rarely from C] help with the feet while L is with the contact.