I'm a Ball Watcher...

[cmathews]

Originally Posted by Welpe

"Watching balls go by."

Well according to a fellow official that was waiting for his game after mine, I was doing a bit of ball watching outside of my PCA. He didn't offer any specific details after I asked but said he noticed I was doing it at both lead and trail. We don't often get other officials observing us so this is good information to hear. I thought I was doing a good job of focusing in my area too as I was picking up off ball contact and talking with the post players at lead but maybe not as well as I thought.

Does anybody have any tips to ensure you are staying in your PCA?

We have 1 evaluator in our area that always says we all are ball hawking. This is from the very best officials we have to the ones working their first varsity game. When I started hearing this I started watching guys, and I think this is part of the problem. 1) yes sometimes guys do watch the ball, and should concentrate on PCA, but not always. There are times that the ball is "behind" your PCA and while watching the PCA you also are "facing the ball" giving the perception that you are watching it while in reality, it just happens to also be in your line of sight.
IMHO

[grunewar]

Welpe - I find that I get into the "bad habit" of ball watching when I do a lot of Wreck Ball with none-so-experienced officials.

I find when I get to my HS games a good pregame gets my mind straight and I work really hard in that area. Sometimes I catch myself and concentrate real hard not to do it....and of course my partners will tell me if I'm having issues in that area. It's an area of my game I constantly work on.

For me; More Rec = More Ball watching.