rule books
 

I am a new official and this will be my first year. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about books other than the rule book and case book that might be helpful. I was thinking about the Rules by Topic book, but was not sure if it would help me or not.

I've been reading on here since mid-January and have already learned more than I thought there was to learn.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

Chad

Chad,
You may want to get one until you become familiar with the other books.

"Rules by Topic" presents the same information found in the rule Book and Case Book. The information is simply listed in a different format.
17 Topics [2007-08]:

1. Court and equipment
2. Players, subs, coaches
3. Scoring
4. Control
5. Jump ball and held ball
6. Free throw
7. Throw-ins
8. Clock and scorers/timers
9. guarding
10. Violations
11. Classifications of fouls
12. Contact fols
13. Technical fouls
14. Warnings and delays
15. Ccorrectig errors
16. Time-outs, halftime, and overtime
17. Officials and their duties

and Signal Chart.

I've found the rules by topic book to be useful; and where you're newer, I think you'll find it useful too. You probably won't buy it every year, but I would (and have) buy it at least once.

Personally, I don't care for the Rules by Topic book. It presents basically the same information as the Rules and Case books, yet the format is somewhat confusing. I don't see much value there.

For new officials (and even coaches :eek: ) the best book BY FAR is the Simplified and Illustrated.

<TABLE width=400 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cartList vAlign=top align=right>http://www.nfhs.com/gfx/view_cart.gif http://www.nfhs.com/gfx/checkout.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left bgColor=#ffffff><TABLE borderColor=#ff0000 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR align=left><TD colSpan=2><TABLE borderColor=#d72836 cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=0 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=2><TBODY><TR align=left><TD vAlign=top>http://www.nfhs.com/gfx/9/medium/BKSI08.jpg</TD><TD class=cartList vAlign=top align=left width="100%">2007-08 Basketball Simplified & Illustrated
Item #: BKSI08
Retail Price: $7.95
Details:
These books make use of cartoons and diagrams to clearly explain situations that might otherwise be difficult to comprehend.
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Agree completely.

I know the temptation is to learn all about the rules. And that is great. But for a new official, dont forget to spend a ton of time with the Official's Manual. If you know basketball or if you played, you probably know the vast majority of the rules that you will encounter in your game, and your partner can help with the wierd stuff (note: this is NOT to say you shouldnt study the rules, you should!), but what you likely dont know much of at all is HOW to be a ref. So I would suggest you immerse yourself in the official's manual. Too many new officials worry too much about just studying the rules and dont spend enough time in the Official's Manual.

Good luck with your first year!

The problem with this approach is that when you're just starting out, your partner is very likely also fairly inexperienced. If you have two guys out there who don't know how to administer a double technical foul, chances are high that you'll get it wrong.

Mechanics and positioning are important, no question. Practice your signals at home in the mirror, and study up on where you should be positioned in various situations. But, IMHO, you have to know the rules, first and foremost.

I have to side with cda in this debate. While people should know the rules, they don't. Heck, I work with people on VARSITY games all the time who don't know how to administer a number of things. But they can get those games because they know where to stand, what signal to give, how to report fouls, and can handle coaches and players.

Looking like you know what you're doing seems to be far more important than actually knowing what you're doing.

What I've highlighted in red is largely untrue....too many widely believed myths exist for that to be possible.

In reality, if you had to eliminate one book completely, the officials manual is the first book you could do without. It has a lot of procedural stuff in it that helps us look smooth and avoid awkwardness, but they're really the most dispensable. For most of it you could figure out something that would work without ever reading the book...not true with the rules.

Getting to the right spot is useless if you don't know what you're looking at and whether it is legal or not (or worse, you have it completely wrong). The wrong call form any position is always wrong. A call from the wrong position can still often be right. And which would the players/teams/coaches rather have? They don't care where you are, just that you get the call right.

I wouldn't say that the rules are the most important, just that mechanics are the least. Above mechanics I'd put judgement, people skills, game management, etc. You need a basic overview of mechanics to get started (boxing in, eye contact, etc.) but then spend the time in rules books and any materials you can get on dealing with players/coaches and come back to the mechanics later.



I was observing some games recently where I saw several different errors in several games. I saw mechanical mistakes, procedural mistakes, game management mistakes, judgement errors, rules mistakes, etc. There were 3 of them in last minute of the games. Two of those completely derailed the game.

The mechanical mistakes were unnoticed by anyone but me....occassionally they led to a call that wasn't ideal but they rarely led to a wrong call.



The rules mistake completely derailed the game...it unequivocally led to one team losing a good chance to tie/win the game.

Situation: A1, with team A down 5 with about 40 seconds to go, launches a 3 point shot. As the ball is dropping though the net, the L whistles a foul on A5 (good call or not, I don't know, didn't see it). The L wipes the bucket. The T attempts to inform the L that the basket should count. The L disagrees and reports. The coach for A is furious (and rightly so). The L T's the coach and ultimately T's the coach again. (I was too far away to hear what was said but it was not obvious from my position). After shooting the 6 FTs, the T again goes to the L to discuss the play and eventually they counted the 3 points. However, instead of A being down by 4 (personal foul FTs were made) with the ball and 40 seconds left, A was down 8 (6 FT's made) with the other team having the ball. Game over.

The game managment situation followed a close but correct call but also led to two T's and the ejection of the coach in a tie game with under a minute to go.


Rarely will a mechanical error lead to the game blowing up in your face...but blowing a rule sure can (did)....and likewise for not knowing how do deal with coaches even when you get it right.

Agree....fwiw.

You should know all the basic rules i.e. the most common violations and fouls...and how to apply those rules. What you shouldn't do when you're starting out is waste time over the once-every-30-years plays that we spend so much time lovingly discussing here.

Agreed...gotta know the rules that happen every game or at least a few times a season. Forget the once-in-a-lifetime stuff until you've got the rest down. Then come back to those as a way do more deeply understand the more basic rules.

I think what you're seeing is not the benefit of know where to stand but more of "can handle coaches and players" and simply carry themselves well on the floor. Their signals and positioning are probably just as incorrect as is their rules knowledge.

All I am saying is dont ignore the Official's Manual! That is in my view super-important for a new official. I am presuming you will do what is needed to acquire the basic rule knowledge. But dont forget the official's manual.

I just worked a summer league game where the idea was to pair some senior guys with guys who had just finished their first year last year, so we could report back and give the committee a good report on how the newer guys are progressing--because you guys are right, normally newbies dont get paired with the best when they get their real low level games. I, personally, think a better mentoring system needs to be in place in my assoc, but it just isnt.

So I work this game with this guy who had done a year. He isnt putting his hand up. He isnt stopping the clock for fouls or for violations. He isnt indicating direction. He doesnt really know how to report fouls well at all.

I came to two conclusions:

1. he failed as a new official to spend any time with his officials manual and to take an interest in making himself into a good official, and
2. that we as an association failed him. how we can have a guy finish a year with mechanics like that is inconcievable to me.

But that said, the calls he did make I thought were fine, to the extent I could see him (which was more than normal since part of the point was to observe him and see how he was doing; you cant do that all game but I tried to keep an eye on him much more than you would on a partner in a normal game where observing your partner isnt the point of the exercise). He blew his whistle. You just never knew what he had. Luckily, in a summer league game with 3 parents in the stands you can hear him say "white" and so little is going on that I can take a second and figure out what he had. But that garbage isnt going to fly in a JV game even.

So that experience led me to say to our OP--spend some time with your Official's Manual. It is invaluable and is too often overlooked in favor of the rule book. I think you have to do both. And I am not trying to say "look good but dont know the rules" at all.

or differently than you would if you were working with Jim Burr or Teddy Valentine? :D

As the self described more experienced official in this game, did you talk to your less experienced partner at halftime and perhaps suggest that he work on at least one thing for the rest of that game - maybe getting his hand up in the air when he blows his whistle? Did you point out any of the major mechanics problems to him? If not, then you might lean more toward conclusion #2 above. If so, did he seem eager to improve and at least try to do better in the second half?