How Do You Slow It All Down?

[derwil]

One of the biggest things for me was to start trusting my partners more - especially when I'm off the ball. Many younger referees get in the habit of ball watching, thinking that they need to call every violation or watch every dribble of the basketball. This is no where close to being true! Thank goodness for our partners who can help in this area. Practice this next game - when the ball is in your area, referee the ball play. When it is not, look away from the ball into your primary area and watch your players off ball. They will let you know where the ball is by the way they are positioned and what they are doing, but you can also keep the ball in your periphal vision if you need.

Funny things will start to happen - you'll see illegal screans, you'll see two handed shoves in the back. Sometimes you can miss things too - example last night I was lead off ball and ball went OOB baseline from top of the lane opposite me. I had NO CLUE who had hit it - I had a nice post match up and was reffering these players. I tweeted raised my hand and looked at C for help. He gave a quick point and we went white ball. He had a great look because the ball was in his primary.

One other thing you could try is to focus on the closest 2-3 matchups. You don't need to ref all 10 players, just 4-6 of them. Let you partner earn their game fee.

Experience too helps. I would try to go to any summer camps you have in the area - referee or team camps who would need officials. Nothing like understanding situations that arise in games from first hand experience. Stay with it, it will come you ya......