I'll agree with your disagreement (wha?)

Rookies got a lot of bad calls to get out of their system.
Work as many games as you can tolerate, rec, or whatever.
At some point stop doing them, you'l know when it's time.
But for now just get out there & get some experience.

Claw, scream, kick and demand feedback from other referees. Someone mentioned to make sure you listen to veterans and keep your mouth shut. That's bunk. There's a difference between disagreeing and discussing. Ask questions. If you don't agree, find out their reasoning. Filter out what you can use, smile and say "Thank you, may I have another?"
If your association has mentors, get one and use him/her. Have them tape you on the court and review things you did right as well as things you did wrong. If your association doesn't have mentors, ask them to start!

Most of all, enjoy the ride!

I agree with this: tape, tape, tape!!! Go watch a good game with good refs, and then go home and watch yourself. You can learn a LOT this way.

With regard to rec games, during the season, it's probably best to avoid them. But the rest of the year, do as many as you can get. There is usually a good mix of levels, and you can work at a higher level than duringthe season, so it helps pull you up. Insist to your partner that you want to go by the book as much as possible so that you don't develop bad habits.

Decide ahead of time what you are going to work on, and then do it. If the game is going to be a blow-out, work on calling tight, or calling loose, and watch how your work affects the game. If the game is close, work on positioning, or off-ball attention. One really great block/charge call because you were watching off-ball, solves the whole block/charge problem. Your percentage goes up about 50 points. Rec games are the place to get this down.

Difference between boys and girls? Speed. Jumping ability. That was an eye opener. I called a game my first year in which the two girls in the jump ball cirle were 6'5". I threw the ball to the ceiling and neither one of them got more than 6" verticle in their jump. Yes there are exceptions but not many.

Another would be the tendency to not be able to wrestle free a held ball. In a boys game we can let them fight for a ball and one will win. In the girls game we will more often then not call a held ball. They also like to congregate in the lane during rebounding. All ten of the girls are there congregating and they can be there without creating a foul. Boys have to jump all over each other.

Of course the higher up you go, the better the play is. Girls do just as good of job of hitting 3 pointers and controlling the basketball as boys. I love a well played girls game. That game I mentioined above had more three point shots made then I had seen in many boys JV games.

In my first season of calling girls HS ball, after calling 7 years of boys ball, I had a situation that I will never forget which is a perfect example of Tim's point.

The ball had been knocked away from the dribbler and rolled a few feet. A1 goes to one knee to retrieve the ball. As A1 lifts the ball off the floor to attempt a pass to a teammate, B1 reaches down and puts both hands on the ball.

The moment B1 touched the ball, the two girls literally stopped playing and just looked up at me to blow the whistle. I even waited a couple seconds and they just sat there. I couldn't believe it. They just stopped. Finally, I had to blow the whistle.

This was a varsity game, too.

Chuck

Aaaargh, I hate that! We put all this work in the weight room. My player rips the ball away and here is a jump ball whistle to protect the fragile little girls. My most-used comment to officials during the game (well, right after "what did you see from your angle on that call?") has to be "They are big girls, let them play!"

I think you misread Chuck's post,Coach.Chuck was gonna let 'em play,but the girls stopped.Chuck had no choice but to blow the whistle.If you had used your most-used comment in this case,you would have been just another WRONG coach.

Not sure what you hate about my scenario, Coach, but please be assured that neither of these girls wanted to "rip" anything. They figured the play was over once they both touched the ball. I hate that, too :)

Chuck

Sorry, my bad. You did the only thing you could do in your scenario. I was making the jump in my own mind to what I usually see happen in our games.

My regular partners and I let 'em "Git it", however, there are some ugly situations on the floor when we'll call a jump, with the ball <u>not firmly in control</u> of anyone, in order to prevent something really messy happening.

(Maybe that come from once being a parent)

Anyone else do that?
mick

Absolutely!!! Goes a long way toward keeping things under control...esp. in a girl's game - those things can really come back to haunt you later...

Eddie,

Being a young official myself, I can probably offer a few things that have worked for me.

1. Find a Mentor

2. Get to a camp. I highly highly recommend JB Caldwell's camp in July. Its in Daytona Beach held in conjunction with Embry Riddle's team camp. Go the first session if you can (sun - thur) because the ratio of instructors to campers is 1-2 and the game schedule is only about 3 a day. Call JB at Embry for more info.

3. Get on multiple assignors sub lists and keep a uniform and your game bag in the car. You never know when opportunity will knock.

4. Dont send assignments back unless you have too.

5. Work. Nothing will beat game experience. At your stage....girls, boys, grade school, jr. high or high school, anything. The only thinkg I would not work is adult rec leagues.

6. Get into the casebook

7. Read this message board and dont be afraid to ask questions.

8. Stay after your JV games and ask the varsity guys for feedback. WOnt hurt to watch them work and it shows that you care about moving up. Word gets around.

9. Stay in your primary, ref the defense, call the obvious and trust your partner.

Good Luck

Larks
Veteran in Training

In my co-rec games, I generally come up quickly with the thumbs - probably to prevent anyone from becoming a parent. ;)

And "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10" all within 2 seconds during a throw in. :-)

Josh

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rainmaker

Quote:

Originally posted by Z REF we actually had more people sign up this year to be mentors, than mentees.

Juulie - you forgot the largest PBOA category - mentals!