Whistle Blown Out of Mouth - Never Seen It
 

Had a first the other night in my game. I am in C and my partner in the T has an offensive foul. He turns his body the other way and blows his whistle with authority. The next thing I see is his whistle airbourne and traveling about 10 feet into the 2nd row (no lie). He doesn't use a lanyard. He pops his signal and goes to report and pulls out another "round" and sticks it in his mouth and moves on. At halftime in the locker room we had a good laugh. Maybe he will use a lanyard from now on.

Is going sans-lanyard something he does regularly? I know when I tried going without one (in some throw away rec league games), I had the whistle hit the floor a couple of times before I got used to grabbing it.

Yes. He does it well, except for this mistake.

We have a couple veterans in our assn. that go lanyard-less, so of course a few rookies see it and think it's cool so they try it. The veterans claim it slows them down when they report. I call "nonsense". I've seen several "whistle missle" occurences over the years and think "why the heck would you not use one?". This is the same type of thinking that caused us to go to grey shirts instead of traditional zebra stripes.

Some people just can't resist the newest trends, regardless of how absurd they are. Sheep.

IMO it needlessly draws attention to yourself. And I certainly don't buy the "A lanyard slows me down". How? You blow the whistle and let it drop out of your mouth. Seems like it would take less time then blowing the whistle, bringing my hand to my mouth, putting the whistle in said hand and then reporting. Would be nearly impossible to report "55" if they used 2 hand reporting!

You either put it in your pocket or place it snug against the waistband whilst reporting.

I personally don't see the big deal about an official going sans-lanyard. I don't see it as drawing attention to ones self...in reality, the only people who notice this stuff is officials. I still use the lanyard due to it being mandated by my assignor, but if a partner doesn't use one, I don't think anything of it.

You've got it backwards.

Not using the lanyard makes you more conscious of the whistle, so you have a slower whistle. I've done it in AAU and yes, it does work.

We have several guys who don't use a whistle lanyard. I would say 99% of people in the building have no idea they don't have a lanyard.

We have a few of those guys too. ;)

That is quite a feat. Do they place two fingers in their and blow to stop play?
JK. I blew my whilstle out of my mouth two games ago and was glad it had I had a lanyard.

Official Lingo ???
 

Is not using a lanyard the same as "going commando"?

Another in a long list of things.....

I'm with BktBallRef.

I don't worry about how the whistle is blown as long as it's timely for the play being called and it's loud. I do worry though about why the whistle was blown and what we/you do after we/you blow the whistle. If it works for one official without him having any problems, fine. If another official is having problems with it, then just tell him to use a damn lanyard. But if it ain't broke, there's no need to fix it.

And I'm the one in the Ol' Folks home? :)

Dirty Whistle
 

My issue w/ going lanyard-less is more about hygeine. The less I touch my whistle the better.

Gimme a break. :rolleyes:

Whether you have a lanyard or not, you're constantly grabbing the whistle and and placing it in your mouth.

Further, I don't think your whistle hanging down against your shirt is any more hygeinic than holding it in your hand.

I was wondering the same thing.

Or, you carry more whistles and just keep spitting them out and replacing them.

I go lanyard-less in rec games and aau ball. it does slow you down. maybe it doesn't slow down your whistle but it slows down your mechanics so you never end up looking like you're rushing. blow the whistle, get the number, think about whistle, pull out of mouth, hand in air and go from there. i religiously did this all year since the beginning of aau season and the difference between this high school season and last are huge. i'm much more aware and i find myself taking my time and i believe that my mechanics come off much more crisp now.

this year was the first time i ever tried it. first game i tried it on i was R. went to throw up for the jump and on the first whistle before the game began my whistle ended up on the floor between both jumpers. i'm sure i looked like a complete fool.

i do not go sans-lanyard in high school games because on the off chance that i jump the gun and spit it out of my mouth i don't want to be chasing it down the court in a game like that.

also, in this area, if both guys in the aau game go without the lanyard, you owe your partner $5 for everytime it hits the floor during those games. makes for good laughs when someone ends up owing you 20 bucks...