Individual Mechanics Question

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by Eckley

I'm a first year official and I've received great advice from numerous officials about individual mechanics. My question deals with visible counts. An official told me last week that whenever an official counts, he should count with his arm that is farthest away from the action. He said this applies for the five- second throw-in count as well as the ten-second count. This necessitates, in some cases, chopping time with the left hand. Is this appropriate? For some reason, I thought that starting and stopping the clock was only done with the right hand. I wish that NFHS would publish some manual just on officials mechanics, etc. Thanks in advance for your help.

Eckley,
You will find that there are differing "schools of thought" on some of the mechanics that are not spelled out in the mechanics manual. There are folks who feel that the five-second throw-in count and ten-second back court count should always be done with the hand nearest the benches so that the coaches can see. You will have others who subscribe to the theory that you should always count with the hand away from the player.

The challenge is that on a throw-in that takes place in the back court, the five second count along with the 10 second count would be done with the same hand.

I think that nearly all officials would tell you that you should use one hand for the first count and the other for the next count (regardless whether that is a 10 second count or changing from a 10 second count to a 5 second closely-guarded count or when changing from one closely guarded count to another).

I try to subscribe to the Theory of Rome on such mechanics -- as in when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Do what the assignor(s) are looking for you to do. If they don't have a preference, do what is comfortable for you. In the case of count-based mechanics, the most important things are that they are VISIBLE and that they are started/stopped at the PROPER TIME.

By the way, I have never heard that you start/stop the clock only with your right hand. I have always been taught to stop the clock with the hand that will allow you to point team direction without turning your back to signal the ball being out of bounds.