two man chop?
 

Rarely do any two man varsity in my area, but had a few two man tournament games over holidays. Does trail chop clock only in three man? I was surprised to hear from a partner in a two man game that I didn't need to chop.

Is he correct??? Doesn't make sense to me. I must confess my two man mechanics are weak.

That is correct.
You do not mirror the chop in 2 man.

The trail mirror chop mechanic (front court, three man only) was instituted a year or two ago. Someone should be along soon with a page reference in the Officials Manual. I think I saw a reference in an earlier thread.

I believe the reasoning was to make it more visible to the timekeeper for starting the clock.

Personally, I'm not sure it's really necessary but I try to comply. A lot of veterans I know tend to ignore it.

The timers rarely watch us, they watch the ball. I hate the mechanic.

Our timer today rarely listened. We must've put time on the clock at least 5 times today. I do like the mechanic. It would be tougher with two, but it could occur. I wouldn't mind it. Especially, if they coupled it with coaches only requesting TO during a dead ball.:D

My records show it as a Mechanics Change for the 2009-2010 season and for the reasons as discussed - to help the timer with "sightlines" especially when the ball is in the corner.

I must confess, as the T, I always chopt it now - regardless if it's two or three person.

I did it tonight as T in two-person. About 90% of the throw-ins were to my area anyway.

Wouldn't the reasoning for the mirrored chop in three man also apply to two man? Are sight lines different in two man? I think we still have ten players on court regardless of number of officials.

It would seem that it would, but the FED didn't do it that way. Nor did IL

Makes no sense.............I'll continue to chop as I have one or two small school two man games and want to be consistent.

In my area we've been instructed to mirror the chop when at trail in 2 whistle.

I always thought that the reason FED didn't want the T to chop in two person was that the trail official has a different coverage area and if he/she had their attention on the ball, they would miss the off ball illegal stuff.

Stop thinkin like that you are sounding like a well informed official.........

Jurassic Ref or Billy Mac won't be able to scold you if you sound reasonable !!!!!!

The same is true in 3-person.

Except that in 2-person if BOTH officials are watching the ball, there is NO ONE left to watch off ball. At least in 3-person, we still have ONE person focused completely off-ball.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the trail chopping (in either case) for sight line purposes. However, I think if NFHS wants the trail to be watching to chop, I think that the trail should have 100% of the responsibility for starting the clock. In the event that the pass is tipped by the inbound-defender, the lead could give the infamous "foul tip signal" to indicate to the trail that the clock should be started. I think this current mechanic (especially if done in 2-person) causes too many eyes to be on the ball and not enough (in the case of 2-person -- NONE) eyes off of the ball.

Just my humble opinion.....