Correct mechanic??
 

OK.. you are trail on table side (2man) Ball goes out of bounds on table side in the front court right next to you. Pos is going the other way. Right hand goes up to stop the clock... do you.

a. signal pos with your left hand

or

b. reach across your body with your right hand and signal pos.

I have been doing A.) as I was under the impression that it was taboo to cross your body with your oposite hand...

I have always been taught to use the same hand to stop the clock and signal the direction. If you use one hand and then the other, it looks like you are directing traffic. :D

Concur with W&S, I was taught never to switch hands - just to use the one.

I also do not use two arms. I stop the clock with the arm that I need to point direction with.

Thats what I need to do... train myself to stop the clock with whatever hand that I'm going to signal pos with.

When you point across your body, you run the risk of turning your back to the play. Using two-whistle mechanics dead ball officiating is that much more difficult and having your back to the players makes it even harder.

I try to use the same hand when signaling to stop the clock and pointing the direction. When my brain can't process that quickly I simply drop my hand and then point with the other.

I was taught never to use two hands, and never to cross your body. So when this happens, I take the ball across the court where I'm facing the other direction, and then signal. ;)

Ha! ...Like those nails in my pouch are for the other side of the house. :)

Whistle and stop clock, (shoot! wrong hand again!), lower hand and shout color, look inquisitively at benches to "be sure I';m pointing the right direction", and then use appropriate hand. Only adds half a second to the process to look at benches first, but prevents pointing the wrong way, and takes away the "traffic signal" look.

OK.. so both are taboo.. so my question then becomes... which is worse??..

signalling with 2 hands.. or going across the body??

What if I goof.. am I to walk across the court as suggested by B.I.T.S.??

I prefer dropping the chop hand and pointing with the other, unless you need to "sell" the call, then the quick across the body can work.

Just be confident and decisive and don't let it happen too often. :D

Hey, if it's the deaf school, two hand mechanics are accepted and approved! ;)

Given the 3 choices, I'd prefer to watch going across the body.

I just point the direction on out of bounds calls, so I don't have this problem. I know this would be taboo in most areas of the country, so I say it tongue-in-cheek.

Seriously, you want to be facing the court. If the ball is going to the right, raise the right hand and signal with it. If the ball is going to your left, raise your left hand and signal with it.

My FAVORITE official is the one that just raises a hand and says a color without pointing. Followed closely by a point accompanied by a "stays here" or "that way." Gives me great confidence in the call, let me tell ya.

Frankly, I've never understood the angst over "stays here" and "that way". They both communicate just as clearly as calling out a color. Which is to say that in my game Friday I used all of them at various times (that way, stays here, white, black) and the home team seemed unable to understand them all equally. :rolleyes:

I have very little angst over mechanics, but this one does drive me nuts. Not sure why, except that it isn't that hard to get the colors right and it does seem a bit more confident you know what's going on.

Someone will mention that "it's in the book" but that reason doesn't really do it for me.

This I concur with!!!:D

Actually seeing the play may have prevented some of their confusion. :)

One would hope so. But one would have been frustrated in this case. :(

I'm very vocal and quite loud. People don't normally have any trouble hearing or understanding me. But there were still multiple occassions where I'm standing on H's baseline, holding the ball, while the other team is setting up to defend the throw-in, and I'm having to ask a second or third time for a thrower. One time, after having called "White" one girl looks at me and says, "I thought you said black." Really? Apparently none of the black players thought so. Another time, after calling out "stays here" and again having to call for a thrower, a girl (possibly the same girl?) says, "Oh, is it ours?" There were other instances in this game. In every case I clearly vocalized the direction and pointed. Maybe I should have asked the H-AC to text the call to his girls? :rolleyes:

Officiating of the future.

It's stunning to me how, so often after a timeout, a team will come out of the huddle and ask "whose ball is it?" I mean, what was discussed during the 60 seconds you were in the huddle? Post-game plans?

How can players (and it's usually girls who exhibit this trait) not have any clue what's going on in the game?

I'm not sure what level of ball you primarily do, but if need be, ask your assignor to take some lower level games where there's more time to work on such things. Getting that VB game with two state rivals is not a good time to try new mechanics, which might, imo, get you mixed up and look like a dork some times.

It Hurts !!!
 

Hey, I jammed some fingers "pointing" into a wall a few weeks ago. Not too much space between the endline and the wall. At first I thought that I broke or dislocated some fingers.

Yes! Good call.
Thanks for the chuckle.:)

I'm a first year official so I cannot work any higher then jv. I mostly do 7th and 8th. My first year I want to establish good habbits so.. I dont mind looking the fool now if I look much more polished later.

It might have something to do with the tightness of the pre-wrap on their head. :)

You keep working at it, Bearfanmike20, like you seem to be doing. All of a sudden, the little things will start to <click>.
...But never be content with "looking the fool". ;)