Concentration and Delaying Whistle

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by CDurham

Whats everyones keys to concentrating on play in your calling area? I find it hard to concentrate when the ball is close to my area. When looking for off the ball illegal contact I catch myself glacing in the direction of the ball to make sure it hasn't reached my area. Is this normal? I'm a first year official doing JV/Middle games in 2 man.

One thought on this that really helped me out in my development. It's about body position for me. If the ball is not in my area, I turn my body toward where I'm supposed to be looking. I rarely am standing parallel or perpendicular to the lines, I'm usually angled to where when I'm looking ahead, I'm looking at my PCA.

That said, even moreso in 2-man than 3-man, you have to be very aware of where the ball is. But focus, focus, focus on the action in your area. Pick the two players who are most likely to be the focus of the play, and pay attention to what they do. You have to be aware of all players, but normally there is just one or two matchups that really has the potential for "trouble".

Originally Posted by CDurham

Also, I know one of the keys in our area this year is delaying our whistle for a split second to rule if contact was advantage/disadvantage.
-Is there any so called "tricks" anybody uses for delaying a call?

My game came a long way in this area when I got comfortable with two ideas: first, a late whistle that's correct is always better than an early whistle that's incorrect; secondly, watch the entire play. That includes what happens after contact.

There are some calls that are just there. A clubbing that has to be called and you can whistle immediately. But most contact requires seeing everything that happens including how contact impacts a player. If you are waiting to see the "result" of the play, you will automatically have a more patient whistle.

While working on this, by the way, you will have to be willing to blow your whistle quite late sometimes. I still have a whistle or two a game that seems "late". But I get many more of these right now, and a lot less of them wrong, than I used to.

Good luck in developing this part of your game.