What Do You Know Now That You Wish You Had Known When You First Started?

[Texas Aggie]

Hmmm. Quite a few things. I'll try to scratch the surface. Some of these things I did fairly well from the start, either because of excellent teaching or luck. The rest came with years of experience and screwing up.

1. Learn your signal mechanics and work them by the book and stick to the ones in the book. Don't get lazy and don't pick up bad habits. Just because someone with experience is doing something doesn't mean it is correct. The better your mechanics are from the start, the better you will be perceived as an official by coaches and your peers. It will take game experience to learn floor mechanics and positioning, but you can start work on your signals NOW.

2. WATCH THE PLAYERS. During a dead ball, freeze your eyes on the players. It isn't your job to chase the ball -- get the players to do that. In boys games, they almost always do it. In girls games below JV (and in some cases, Varsity), you have to tell them. Either way, unless you've got business to attend to -- e.g. foul reporting -- freeze your eyes on the players.

3. Until you become experienced dealing with coaches, do NOT respond to comments by the coaches unless you are taking action by rule (i.e., technical foul). Respond to questions, but not comments, at least not verbally. Later on, you can pick and choose your spots, but even now, I still don't respond much at all. The two best letters in your vocabulary are "OK." Say "OK" when a coach tells you something -- but wait until he's through. You've told him or her that you are listening, but haven't committed yourself to anything else.

4. Ignore the fans. Always. Don't respond, engage, or anything else. If there's a problem, get a game admin to handle it.

5. When you warn, don't issue an ultimatum. Don't say, "coach, the next time you say something, it will be a ..." Instead, say (e.g.), "OK, coach, that's your warning about being out of the box." Then, blow your whistle (assuming dead ball or soonest one) and say, "coach/bench has been warned about being out of the box" loud enough for your partner(s) to hear it.

6. Don't tolerate any abuse or bad behavior by players.

7. After a game, take your whistle off and and get off the court. Even if you have another game following. There's no reason to stick around and doing so asks for trouble. Make sure there's no problems at the table, but after that, leave.