Staccato Whistle
 

He guys I was wondering how many of you guys use a staccato whistle during your games. If you don't what it is, it's when on plays the official blows the whistle more than once to make a call. I need some help fella's. I use the staccato whistle often. On crashes going to the hole or an off ball foul, as well as traveling, hand checks, and bang bang out of bounds plays. Thing is fella's I realize im using it on almost every play. I need help breaking that habit. Can you guys recommend anything that I try doing. I was working with a good friend who is a DI womens official today doing a h.s. boys var. game and she brought it up. I have men's college game tomorrow and was wondering if guys can try to provide with some ideas, on how to break the habit of using on almost every play.

Thanks,

Tommy

blow it so hard that when you tweet it, it flies out of your mouth :)

actually, I do the same to...have been trying to break the habit as well...

That's not funny; that happened to me Thursday night. I was under the basket administering a throw in when the defender made contact with the player looking to throw the ball in. I went to whistle the violation and spit the whistle right out without a peep from it. My partner whistled it (through his laughter) and the coach gave us the "why didn't he make that call" rigamaroll. Geezus.:rolleyes:

ya it's a pain. i do it on big plays but then i keep doing it for everything else. big plays with that type of whistle is fine. my buddy brought up a good point. She said if u keep doing the staccato on ever play the coaches will pick u out and know when that particular official called something.

Stand in front of a mirror and practice not blowing your whistle in a staccato manner.

MTD, Sr.

Force yourself to call / report a multiple foul (one foul for each twet) when you do this. Since you won't want to have the multiple, you'll break the habit. ;)

Or, send me $1 for each excess "tweet". :)

Try to blow every whistle for a little longer and trust that all will hear it.

Drive out to the middle of nowhere, where you won't bug anybody. Put in some earplugs, because you're going to need them. Then practice blowing the whistle the way you want to do it. Do about 1.5 million reps. Drive home. Remove the earplugs after the wife is done ranting about how long you were gone. :D

Where do you buy your Staccato whistles? I tried buying whistles from this guy but he told me to take a hike. I didn't want to push it. :D

http://www.pandora.ca/pictures26/430627.jpg

Ways to break a bad habit:

1. The best way: simple substitution. Don't think about what you DON'T want to do. Concentrate on one solid whistle every time you blow. To speed up the process, use a tape of a game from TV. Blow the whistle whenever they do, and do it right. Using a tape means you can concentrate on your whistle, and not on the action. You can practice watching the game and blowing the whistle, but then doing it again if you goof.

2. I don't know any other ways to break bad habits. #1 always works.

Tommy,

Why not focus on the play and go with one sharp whistle blow and freeze in position. If it is nice and loud, there will be no need to blow the whistle more than once. Just think about blowing the whistle as loud as you can when you are calling something.

I think you have to "ween" yourself off of the multiple/stacatto whistle (not sure you can quit "cold turkey"). Try this....1 tweet for fouls and multiple tweets for violations. Then follow the advice of those above who said practice, practice, practice......it is simply a habit that you need to correct. Keep in mind that it takes 21 days to form a new habit; so you have to work on this everyday whether you have a game or not.