Tales from a 1st Year: Workin' my Mechanics
 

Finally I've reached the point... 45 games in... at the point of the foul... to get my preliminary info out at the spot of the foul.

Whistle/ Signal. this is the new part: "Blue 23 with a hold" (signalling hold). White ball endline (point to spot). THEN go report the foul to the table.

Is that so hard? It has been for me. I think it is from training over the summer where it was hard for me to get to the right spot to report. That became an overriding concern, and I neglected to focus on preliminary call. I got some feedback on that, but not as much.

Anyways... progress.

I'm curious about your area as well as others - what kind of emphasis is there on giving the preliminary at the spot of the foul?

In my previous state, it was emphasized every year at rules meetings that every foul should include a preliminary at the spot. Where I am now that is much less common and we are only asked to do it on calls that are not clear.

Just interested in everyone's philosophy and what is taught in their areas.

Working around Kansas City, preliminary info and spot indication is strongly encouraged as a way of communicating to your partner(s) what you have and where they will be going, as well as preventing the players from standing around going "huh, was that on me? what did I do?"

1. Whistle, stop clock signal.
2. drop stop clock and signal nature of foul
3 Call number of offender and team color.

Listing them is kind-of wierd, because I do it all basically at the same time. Sometimes I call the players number before signalling the nature of the foul.

Player control, I don't call any number or team color, I signal player control, then to team foul and call player after the whistle. I just don't see any need to call the players number and team color at the spot. I do that at the table.

off topic- I learned to bring food to a game because you never know if you will have to stay extra games.

Other than indicating that we are shooting, or identifying the OOB spot, there isn't too much emphasis on prelims here. But I have made it a PPOE this season to do a better job of this. I still rarely give the fouler's color/number. I will communicate number of shots and number of my shooter (along with pointing to him/her), or identify the throw-in spot. If there is some confusion I will identify the fouler and perhaps the type of foul. If the situation warrants, I may do a little "selling" at the spot.

My yardstick on this is whether anybody on the floor has to ask me questions. If a player has to ask, "Was that on me?" or "Who was that on?" then I didn't communicate clearly enough (I overestimated how obvious the call was). If, heaven forbid, my partner has to ask whether we are shooting, etc., then I didn't do a good enough job communicating with him/her.

I will say there is an official here who does a much more thorough prelim on most fouls, and I think it adds a lot to the credibility of his calls. So I'm slowly working on doing what he does to see if it works for me.

Bird Dog ???
 

The only option we have here in Connecicut is a fairly recent one, whether we want to bird dog, or not. I'm a veteran official who has been bird doging throughout most of my career, so I still do it, almost every time.

Earlier this week. I had a varsity high school player raise his hand after I called him for a foul. He wasn't trying to take the foul for a nearby teammate who had a lot of fouls, because he wasn't near any temmates. It really felt weird, like I was in a time machine.

Veterans. When did players, by rule, stop raising their hand after a foul?

Mid 70's iirc. It was a technical foul if they didn't before then for 2-3 years. They had 5 seconds to raise their hand straight up.

They changed the rule because it was...well....really dumb.

I know what you mean. Not many refs here do it, but the ones who do are the one who gets noticed by the board. I have been working with the youth leagues to improve on that.

I just take my time, I:

1. Blow my whistle
2. Call who made the foul
3. Type of foul
4. Shooting or Spot
5. Go to table and report the same thing using the proper signals.

I have gotten a lot better on it, took me a few weeks though. Just keep trying and do what you are comfortable.

When I was a junior in HS, I had to raise my hand. When I was a senior [1974-75], it was optional. The reason they did away with it was one of those 'feel-good' measures. We don't want Johnny to feel bad because he did something wrong. I am not kidding.

You might not be kidding but you're wrong iirc. The rule was instituted because the FED thought that it would help to make the scorer's job more accurate and easier. The FED took the rule out because they finally figured out that if officials simply reported fouls better, there really wasn't any problems. At the same time that they took the rule out, they emphasized that we had to use correct reporting mechanics. It was just a dumb rule that didn't make any sense from the git-go.

Now, work on getting rid of the "with a hold." :)

It's simply "23 blue...hold!"

It's like yelling "Blue ball!"

No, it's just "Blue!"

I'm with you CA Rump- My first year as well and the mechanics are sometimes my nemensis. Sometimes I have problems while signaling OOBs, whereby I forget to stop clock and while pointing direction of possession. I tend to rush those calls. So many things to work on, but I've been told that I have good judgement on fouls and look good out there other than some mechanical gliches. In fact, after games, coaches have always told me that I called a good game dismissing any mechanical flaws in which they never notice anyway. But oh do those evaluators notice everything!!!!! lol

I hear ya.
 

That is part of the PPOE as well, say less but communicate more.
Especially trying to get rid of "I've got a... (illegal dribble, traveling, etc)"