Adjusting to co-official's style

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by just another ref
I agree that you should concentrate on calling your own game and not adjust to fit your partner. I think the main problem is when you get the "no blood, no foul" guy you must resist the urge to call the whole game yourself. If you reach across the court to make a call that is blatantly wrong, you will catch even more heat than he will for calling nothing. The line that goes through my mind in this case is: "I think that was a foul, but if he can't call it from there, I sure can't call it from here."

It should not matter one bit what kind of foul your partner is calling or not calling. You could have the official that calls everything imaginable and you still have the same problem. Just call your own game. It will be apparant who belongs and who does not. Coaches will know who belongs (at least good ones) and will not necessarily hold it against the officials that are doing there job. Despite what many would like to admit, coaches at many levels have great influence over what happens to an official's career. If the coaches like what you do, there is not a whole lot that can hold you back. If the coaches hate you, it can make that rise a very short one. And if you call a game just to mirror a weak official, you might get lumped into that description.

Peace