I usually work 4-5 nights a week of Varsity basketball here in Minnesota. Enjoy the heck out of it, I look forward to each game because it presents new challenges each night.

Mental Toll ......
 

I officiated about 60 games so far this season, not counting scrimmages, starting in mid December. About half are boys and girls varsity high school games. The other half are Catholic middle school games. I have looked forward, and still look forward, to every game that I officiate. However, I notice that every season, about this time, mid-February, my mind starts to wander, pointing the wrong direction for out of bounds, forgeting alternating possession directions, etc. The other night I found myself reporting to the table, "Blue, Four, Block", while holding up three fingers. No physical problems, just mental lapses. Other than camps, that's why I seldom do offseason ball. I don't think that my brain can handle more than three months of officiating in a calendar year.

ALL NINE were high school and D3? That's not what I heard...

I'm not upset. When I'm upset, "Ugh" isn't how I express it. It's just that for every "travel" call in a TV game, there will be 10 more explanations needed for calls that I don't make in one of my games. Ugh.

That might not be true. I'm pretty good friends with a pretty big dog. I went to one of his games recently and he incorrectly signaled travel on the thrower who violated the wide of the spot throw-in boundary. I asked him about it afterwards and he said, "what's the proper signal?" He was actually a little embarrassed (he did it because he saw another big dog do it that way long ago) and will not do it again.

This is the worst time for having mental lapses, since mid-February games have postseason implications. If I were having mental lapses, I would cut back on my middle-school games. If you're working a full high school varsity schedule, then the middle school games aren't helping you get better; and in fact, they're making you worse, apparently. There are guys who will benefit from working those games, so I would stop taking them, personally, and keep myself sharp for the varsity games.

Minnesota? As a Mighty "Vol", I had always assumed you were in Tennessee.

[QUOTE=Scrapper1]This is the worst time for having mental lapses, since mid-February games have postseason implications. If I were having mental lapses, I would cut back on my middle-school games. If you're working a full high school varsity schedule, then the middle school games aren't helping you get better; and in fact, they're making you worse, apparently. There are guys who will benefit from working those games, so I would stop taking them, personally, and keep myself sharp for the varsity games.[/QUOTE


Spot on..........I've done so many games this season that my mechanics have gone to heck for varsity games the past two weeks. Had two regional games for state last week, and I've done better.

Four In A Row ...
 

Thanks for the advice. The mental lapses come in the middle school games, usually in the last two games of a four game Saturday morning, especially if they're blow out games. I didn't mean to imply that I'm having problems concentrating with my varsity games. With very few exceptions, I only do one varsity game a day.