Does anybody read the damn rule book anymore?

[DonInKansas]

I find myself at a loss someties when it comes to complex rule interps. I just finished up my first year with no major complaints, but I still had a lot of situations where I just had that feeling I messed something up. Out of the 18 dates I worked this season, only 2 of them were with experienced officials, and those were the LAST 2 dates. Needless to say, it was hard to get good on-court feedback from people who were just as ignorant as I was.

Yes, I need to keep reading the rules, but sometimes all the book-learnin' in the world doesn't help when that guy gets the rebound and throws you the ball and your brain freezes. Yes, I need to get to a clinic, which will require a 3-4 hour drive and some days off of work which is hard to explain to my wife, let alone my boss since I work with a grand total of 4 people and one would have to work overtime to cover me.

Just reading this board has helped me immensely, first in baseball, and now here since I started picking up basketball. The community here actually helped push me into it since I've lurked and read about the nuances and fun you guys have (most of the time. ) To all the vets, remember that for 1 guy asking the "simple" question and you answer, there are a whole lot of guys like me lurking, reading that answer, and going "huh, I didn't know that." The training that some of you receive is light years ahead of some like me who only have to pass 1 open book rules test to get Varsity certified and will be offered games due to a lack of officials. I didn't get certified this year for that pure fact. I'm not working Varsity until I feel I'm ready for it.