I think chseagle was my timer tonight

[TimTaylor]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Seriously, for the game clock, I can teach any half-way intelligent person that has watched any decent amount of basketball how to run the necessary parts of most clock systems in about 5 minutes.

The #1 thing they need to know is to stop the clock when they hear a whistle and, when the clock is stopped, find an official with their arm raised and start the clock when that official chops in time. There is usually one switch that does that for them (sometimes two buttons...start/stop).

They will need to know how to add points to either team (and take them off if they get it wrong). A lot of modern boards have 4 buttons for each team: +1, +2, +3, and -1. Not exactly rocket science.

That is IT. Forget the rest.

They can get help in resetting the time for the next quarter or resetting the time in case of an error. We can depend on the scorekeeper for the foul counts. Fouls on the board is just a nice-to-have. They really don't need to know how to program the board to calculate their taxes.

To add to what Camron said, most any experienced official can walk over to the table and in a few seconds reset the time if needed- even though we're looking at it upside down.

I've done as Camron described - taken a student with no experience and taught them the essentials in 5 minutes or less and they did a great job. It just isn't that difficult......

[chseagle]

I wasn't saying anything about it being hard.

Depending on the game, a person can become nervous or unsure of themselves if certain situations are presented. Especially if they have no prior experience & are being trained on the spot.

The first varsity games where I was timer was during the 4A Regionals back in February 2009, although I had been doing Girls' Varsity shot clock throughout the year.

Originally Posted by TimTaylor

To add to what Camron said, most any experienced official can walk over to the table and in a few seconds reset the time if needed- even though we're looking at it upside down.

I've done as Camron described - taken a student with no experience and taught them the essentials in 5 minutes or less and they did a great job. It just isn't that difficult......