John Holt Camp
 

Before I get into the whole camp, I thought I give some insight about myself. First off, I am 16 years of age. I love refereeing and have worked a lot of games. Credit though, it's only YMCA or a few Middle/High summer games, that both work a two man crew. So a friend of mine, who too is a referee, said "Hey, you gotta come to this camp...since you love to referee, you can learn a lot of become better and get in the WVIAC.

Anyway, we had games off and on through the day. 75 were the maximum officials that were allowed to attend; had seven courts, 2 twenty minutes halves, and a lot of team. Each official was assigned a number and the rest of the boring stuff you don't need to know.

Anyway, I learned a lot. First game I worked like any other game. At the end of first half, he said 'try doing this' or 'do this instead'. We had MANY different observers. I was actually pleased to have different ones because not observers watch for the same thing. So I took all the things they said, tired them out in the second half and most of the time it worked out. Then if I didn’t quite get it, or it wasn’t on my list of things to work on, on THAT game, I wrote it done and would do it the next game.

From the beginning to when the camp was over, I felt that I personally improved my game to about 30-40 percent. I learned A LOT. Mostly I had trouble on three man rotations, since I really haven’t worked three man too much, and a few things here and there, such as not be loud enough.

I may write down a little briefing on what I learned, but at the moment, I just wanted to say I learned a lot. I have to thank the John Holt camp in West Virginia and to all the observers who helped me out and better improved on how I played the game.

This is the best thing to do. Get you a journal and use it before and after each game. Most of your partners will give you feedback after games. Listen to what they have to tell you and write it in your journal. Each game after that, take two or three of those things and try to work on them. If you fill that you have accomplished those items, scratch them off your list. If not, leave them on there.

Most importantly, whenever fellow officials are giving you advice, "Don't make excuses, make improvements!"

Good Luck!

This is probably the hardest part to learn or have a complete feel for when it comes to 3 person. It seems people need literally hundreds of games under their belt before they get this aspect of the mechanics.

Peace

I have no doubt that some learn quicker than others, but I definitely classify myself in the "slow learner" catagory when it comes to 3-man. I was at Gerry Pollard's camp this past weekend and had my first real taste of both 3-man mechanics and high level VB basketball (at least, higher level for me as I'm used to working small 1A and 2A schools). My biggest problem with initiating rotation as the lead is just a mental hang-up: I was wanting the ball to "settle" on the off-side before moving....and by the time I started to move, the ball was either swinging back around, stolen by the defense, or a shot attempt was made and dumb ol' me is stuck in the center of the lane not knowing which way to go and confusing the hell out of my partners.

The experience was incredible and the critiques were mostly right on the money...especially after watching tape of myself! With one exception, the clinicians offered both positive feedback and ways you could improve your game.

This was my second camp of the year and I'm now completely sold on the necessity of attending camps during the summer to step up my (limited) skills.:)

One thing that will lessen the required number from "hundreds", is to be fully conscious of and utilize your "peripheral" vision. While working 3 man, focusing on your primary, make sure you can see both partners in your peripheral vision. This also helps you to keep the desired "wide triangle" and you will see your partners moving and triggering the rotations.

What I mean by "hundreds of times" is the fact that knowing when and when not to rotate is more of an issue than what you see in your peripheral vision. It really takes that time when you are so used to working 2 Person on a regular basis because you tend to think of when not to move rather than when to move. It takes those hundreds of times to get a complete feel for what you are really supposed to do. And when you work with different people often, that feel takes even more time because all officials might not be able to recognize the rotation you are making which can stunt your understanding of the mechanics as well. Of course it is not rocket science, but it is something you have to work at and experience over and over again. Even last year I was still learning about more and more things about rotations and I have been working 50+ 3 Person games a year for over 10 years.

Peace

I think the best thing why I learned and picked up on this so quickly is because I really haven't had too much involvement in three man. Before the game, I had about an hour to kill, so what I did was asked on of the observers that I really haven't been exposed to 3 man and I needed to learn and quick. So he pulled out a diagram and showed what all I need to watch at each position, when to rotate, predict (such as if its a reverse coming back).

I do though, write down everything they told me to work on and mark out the ones that I have accomplished. I did that from the very beginning. Since then, i have been taking one item from the list and work on it each game. So I am working on my VERY long list but I too have a lot marked out as well.

Thanks

-Lucas