A little help

[181174]

I do like the idea of getting the tape of the games I am working. I have never watched a tape of a game that I worked. I do feel that I do look the part and I work hard, hustle and give good effort each game. Watching the ball is something I do struggle with from time to time, I think I have improved in the past few years in watching for off the ball contact and not watching the ball when its not in my area. Something I know I need to work on is not watching the shot, sometimes I get to watching the ball go thru the net or clang off the rim instead of watching the players battling for rebound position, so I will be the first to admit I miss a push off from time to time.

I do enjoy officiating and by the time the season starts I feel I will be ready to go again. I think I just get this way in the off season. After the regular season ends I usually work a few AAU tournaments and those seem to burn me out on officiating, so then I work a varsity league during the summer so that is a little past my comfort zone. I lose a little confidence working in the summer. Last season I got off to a slow start, was nursing a sore calf muscle and I was thinking too much, just needed to relax and call the game. The last 3 1/2 months of the season was much better and ended up being a good season. If the relaxing and enjoying the games doesn't work maybe I will as the guy said change my meds! lol

Anyway, thanks for the advice. For now I will continue to strive to get better and try to make it up to the boys varsity level and not just settle on being "just" a girls official.

[love2refbball]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

You can also move to women's basketball, if the boys games are too fast for your to have good consistent judgment. If your passion for officiating is there, that should be a viable option to consider.

One of the reasons why I no longer work a high school schedule. For the most part in my area the girls games get assigned to the old officials who can't keep up with the boys anymore, or the officials who aren't "good enough" to do boys games. Not who I want for a partner in a competitive girls game.
If you have been working high school JV ball on the men's or women's side for 11 years and are working just a few varsity games,(and working varsity's what you aspire to do), you are not doing something right. Great suggestions by everyone as far as going to camp, breaking down game tapes, getting a mentor. But to say if you're not good enough to work the boys - try the women's side is bull to me.

[TheOracle]

Originally Posted by love2refbball

But to say if you're not good enough to work the boys - try the women's side is bull to me.

You and the rest of the brilliant folks can go back and read his initial comment. He said he struggles with the speed and athleticism of varsity boys. If that is the case, girls basketball may be the best alternative for him, or he may be capped out at JV, whether he goes to a camp or not. This is not a "men's officials are better than women's officials" statement in any way, shape, or form.

[Camron Rust]

It should also be noted that the availability of games and the demand for officials decreases dramically as the level of ball goes up....which directly support the several claims that waiting X years is not all you need to do. Some people are just never going to move up....there's never enough space at the next level for eveyrone to move up if they wait long enough.

The number of games can be visually represented by pyramid. The NBA needs <100 officials. NCAA-D1 Mens/Womens each only need <1000 officials. Not sure what the numbers are for D2, D3, etc. but I'm sure there are a lot more CC/JC games than D1....then FAR more HS Varsity games than all college games put together....probably a similar number of JV games as Varisty games. I'd even go so far as to say there are far more MS games than there are HS games.

In my association, we cover games from a few grade school games to HS-varsity....about 25% of our games are varsity...25% JV...20% JV2/FR...and 30% MS or lower. We cover ALL JV/V games in our area while we only cover a fraction of the available MS games...most are available through other sources. Additionally, the most commonly desired set of games (6A boys) account for only about 5-6% of the total. So, the average official in our group will not likley get a lot of Varsity games. Only the top 25% or so can count on getting a regular schedule of any level of varisty games. Those not getting them may not like it but its pretty simple math....only so many to go around.