lanyard or carry?
 

Any feelings about wearing/not wearing a lanyard? Does it make a difference for you as a partner? Should other officials care if you wear a lanyard or carry? Personally I like carrying for any number of reasons.

They shouldn't, but I guarantee some of them do. Stand by, more to follow.

I wear a lanyard, and right now I can't see myself ever not wearing one. I would definitely drop my whistle on the floor!

Only person I would worry about is my supervisor, assignor, and/or observer for that particular game.

Personally, I wouldn't dream of going without a lanyard; any perceived benefits are far outweighed by the risk (launching my whistle into the stands) and likely expense (replacing "lost" whistles) I would incur.

No one in my area is going without a lanyard, and this is not an area where I would prefer to "stand out." Some (rightly or wrongly) look at officials going without a lanyard as show-offs and fad-chasers.

I use a smitty.

In some low-level men's league games, I was able to work into my mechanics the carry-method, as seen by some NBE refs. I tried it as a challenge from another official. After we realized how much better the smitty is, I went back to the smitty.

I couldn't begin to tell you which of my partners use a lanyard and which don't.

Agreed. Many that have worked some Pro-Am believe in not using a lanyard and to many it looks stupid to not use one as well. At the end of the day it is up to the supervisor. I personally think it looks stupid, but that is just me.

Peace

It makes no difference to me, but it seems to me to be one of those fashion things that are about style over substance.

I have worked games sans-lanyard and don't find it benificial to my game.

As an observer I don't particularly like it. To me, the mechanic of blowing and taking the whistle out of the mouth is a distracting extra movement.

I have a good friend that I worked with in 5 games over the span of a week ( 2 nights of 2-person HS JV/V Boys double-headers & a 3-person JUCO game). In the HS games he worked without the lanyard; come the JUCO game he uses the smitty and on an easy OOB call he almost rips his shirt when he moves his hand up to tug the whistle from his mouth. We were strong side on that play and I had a good look at his mechanics. I thought it was humorous. :)

I work basketball with a smitty and I carry in soccer. I've thought about trying carrying in basketball, but there's too much signaling with the hands for me to want to do it.

I think the big difference also is you ref whistle in mouth in basketball and whistle in hand in soccer.

For some it is, for others it's a tool to force themselves to slow down and focus after they blow their whistle. Again, a very small benefit to accompany the risks IMO.

If your partners are good at carrying the whistle you shouldn't know...but if it starts to effect that officials performance you would know, short burst or whistles that are so soft the players continue to play. Poor mechanics because the officials is so concetrated on not dropping their whistle.

The NF and the NCAA CCA manual say that lanyards are mandatory.

Slowing down their mechanics is a bunch of crap is you ask me.

I can't agree more...I think it is a cool factor for some of them.