Technicals

[ref1bal]

I'm a bit confused lately.
When I hit someone with a technical not even mention eject someone, I always get the feeling when telling about it to my coleagues and/or regional managment that either:

A. That i'm a bad referee and if someone else was there their wouldn't be a need for T's.

B. I'm young an inexperienced and therefor hit T's too fast when They think I can solve the incident by talking it over.

It seems like they are looking for officals who don't make a mess (Hiting T's)

if you're an offical and can get a game over without hitting T's than you're a great Ref. but if you hit T's then you must have made a mess or called bad calls and therefor the game heated up.

Before each T' I call I get to think 10 times because "a Referee who calles T's is a Bad Referee"?

what do you people recommend? should I continue to do what I think is right no matter what the implications might me (quote from a team - "His a great Ref but we don't want him") or should I just get whatever I'm beeing thrown at?

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by ref1bal

what do you people recommend? should I continue to do what I think is right no matter what the implications might me (quote from a team - "His a great Ref but we don't want him") or should I just get whatever I'm beeing thrown at?

1. Be yourself--You and only you can decided what your tolerance for certain behavior is. You need to set some guidelines in your mind for things that are not clearly stated in the rulebook.

2. Listen to veterans--Someone has been down this road before you. It does not mean you have to agree, but understand that someone knows what is best based on what they have seen and what they have seen others handle. This also does not mean that you do what everyone tells you. Officials are like snowflakes, we are can be very different about the same things. Do what your mentors do and listen to people that are on a higher plane than you in officiating. Usually they can give you some idea.

3. Ask your mentor--If you do not have one, you might need to get one. I already discussed some of this in #2, but this will help you with this and many other things.

4. Trust yourself--After you gather all the information, you must trust your own judgement at some point. If you care about the implications, then you might have to adjust. If you do not, then you probably need to stay with what you feel is right. At some point you will have to be your own person. You need to follow what the body might think, but there is always room for individuality in that way of thinking. You have to learn to pick an choose your own philosophy. Do not reinvent the wheel, but if you can find a better way to make the wheel work, by all means do that.

Peace

[BktBallRef]

I think most officials go through this. I don't like to take sh!t but I'm a lot more tolerant than I used to be. You have to take some crap. But I think the more you work, the more tolerant you become. Also, coaches tend to try younger officials more. They're not going to talk crap to a 30 year vet. But you're new, so they'll try you.

As you gain experience, you'll learn what to say an dwhat not to say. I had a coach today that yelled for a foul, right in my ear!. I yelled back at him,, "Coach, tell yell in my ear! I don't appreciate it!" Know what? He didn't yell the rest of the game.

Live and learn which T's were good and which ones you could have passed on.

[ref1bal]

I'm not that young I'm a 5 Year referee though young in age (not yet 21) and a national league referee (3rd highest in my country)
the thing is I feel I would only be promoted if I stay out of trouble i.e not Piss coaches and players off by hitting T's.
this year I had a few incidents that resulted in letters being sent to the managment.
these obviously didn't seem well to them - I even got a talk over about it.

so what should I do be the nice guy or continue doing what I think is my job?

[Bart Tyson]

Communication and game mgmt. These two things are the hardest to get because it comes with experience. Are you going to camps? As JR said get a mentor.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Bart Tyson
Communication and game mgmt. These two things are the hardest to get because it comes with experience. Are you going to camps? As JR said get a mentor.

You need to learn how to communicate to players and coaches that they are crossing or coming close to crossing the line. Experience should tell you when that time is. Learn to prevent a storm before it happens.

This is another reason you need a mentor bad. You can discuss the many little things that goes into officiating.

Peace

[BktBallRef]

Originally posted by ref1bal
I'm not that young I'm a 5 Year referee though young in age (not yet 21) and a national league referee (3rd highest in my country)
the thing is I feel I would only be promoted if I stay out of trouble i.e not Piss coaches and players off by hitting T's.
this year I had a few incidents that resulted in letters being sent to the managment.
these obviously didn't seem well to them - I even got a talk over about it.

so what should I do be the nice guy or continue doing what I think is my job?

I still wouldn't change anything I wrote. Although you think you're not that young, you are. 20 years old is very, very young in the life of an official. As you get older, you'll mature and gain experience, not only in officiating but in life.

Whether you're right or wrong is of no consequence. If you're getting letters written about you and getting called in for a talk, you need to back off.

Also, you're asking the wrong question, "so what should I do be the nice guy or continue doing what I think is my job?" That's the wrong way to look at it. You need to ask, "How can I change my game, stay out of trouble, yet still do my job?" And there's no easy answer. But here's a few things:

1- Learn how to talk to coaches and diffuse situations, rather than inflaming them. A T is not always the answer. Ignore them and don't make eye contact. It's time to call a T, when everybody in the building understands why it needs to be called.

2- Rather than whacking a player for saying something to you, just tell the coach, "I need you're help with 22. It's going to hurt your team if he doesn't be quiet." Put the burden on the coach. Then when 22 gets one, it's no surprise. Or, go to 22 and tell him, "Knock it off or you're gonna get into trouble!"

3- Don't get yourself into trouble by calling minor little infractions that no one else in the building sees. Most officials first learn "what to call." Then, they learn "what not to call." With only 5 years experience, you may not realize it, but you're still learning "what to call" and haven't gotten to "what not to call." That's not a slam, it's just a fact for most officials. And if you're staying in the soup, it sounds like it applies to you.

Hope that helps!

[Bart Tyson]

Originally posted by BktBallRef

3- Don't get yourself into trouble by calling minor little infractions that no one else in the building sees. Most officials first learn "what to call." Then, they learn "what not to call." With only 5 years experience, you may not realize it, but you're still learning "what to call" and haven't gotten to "what not to call." That's not a slam, it's just a fact for most officials. And if you're staying in the soup, it sounds like it applies to you.

Hope that helps! [/B]

This is very, very good advice. This is the question you need to ask your mentors and your partners. For the last 8yrs, after every game, i ask my partners " what did you see that i can improve". Many times it is just some little thing that only your partners will notice, but those little things add up.

[Doug]

I agree w/ rut, I believe there are 4 stages to officiating:
1) you call nothing
2) you call everything
3) you learn to make a no-call
4) you are a great official!!

trust yourself, if it is "t worthy" hammer them, but if it isn't don't. always try to talk things out first. as you become more expierenced, you will hopefully learn how to "calm the fire" in a coach, and use preventive officiating to solve problems you may have on the court, it doens't always work, but you would be suprised at how much it does. NEVER threaten (that only leads to problems because if you don't carry through w/ it, you're in big trouble!).

remember that as officials, we are to fade into the background, do not come off as arrogent (some might percieve the reason you call t's is to draw attention to yourself).

you'll get it, have a little faith, and keep working hard!! talk to someone who you work w/ and see what they think, ask them if they honestly think it is you being a "bad referee", which I doubt, or some other reason that can most likely be cleared up. before every game, i ask my partner what he wants to work on during the game, and afterwords, he asks how he did, and vise versa, this works great!! and finally, be patient, make sure you construct a firm foundation before you move up, hustle, and always give it your all, no matter what level of play, your talent will be noticed. Good Luck!!

[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by Doug
I agree w/ rut, I believe there are 4 stages to officiating:
1) you call nothing
2) you call everything
3) you learn to make a no-call
4) you are a great official!!

With apologies to Cary Grant (who first said something similar) - here are the real 4 stages to officiating as they pertain to me.

1) who is Mark Padgett
2) let's book Mark Padgett
3) let's book a young Mark Padgett
4) who is Mark Padgett

Now, as for calling technicals, as I've said before, Ed Hightower repeatedly makes the point that the purpose of a technical is to stop bad behavior - if you can stop the bad behavior without calling the technical, you're just that much ahead.

Personally, I'm addicted to them and give them out just for fun!