I have been tapped to run a Church Basketball Program (LDS Church in Michigan) We have an adult and teenage league.

I am inexperienced, and we recruit volunteer dads and others to referee. We have fun, don't have too many problems. But I need guidance on how to call foul's underneath. We follow High School rules, (but quality of play is probably lower rec-ball), but can anyone give me a rule of thumb for calling fouls underneath the basket.

If we called every bit of contact we would be blowing the whistle all night. Should I, and my other inexperienced ref's just blow the whistle on any major contact, and call it on the defense, (if it isn't obviously on the offense.)

As I think about it, my problem is I have been brought up in the US, where our system of justice is "Beyond a reasonable of doubt" so I find myself looking for the absolute visual proof of a foul, before I blow the whistle. What I sometimes end up with is 2 guys no the floor after a collision, and me not making a call. I see the evidence of someone's foul, but not knowing who to call for it. Any elementary tips for untrained volunteer ref.
(Obvious answer is get trained, but that is not an option, at least for this season)

don't watch the ball and you should be able to see "displacement" or "significant restriction" which translates to pushing (over the back), or holding. Don't just make something up, but if there is significant contact ask yourself who caused it and the foul is on them, doesn't matter whether it's defense or offense, you are making it too hard.

You have a thankless job reffing church league basketball. My advice to you is not to worry about calling a foul just because there are two players on the floor. If you can't determine which player had legal position before the collision, a "no call" is better than a wrong call. If you are really concerned about this happening, you must work on officiating the defense. What I mean by that is rather than just watching the ball all of the time you need to get a wider view to determine positions of the defense before the contact. If the defense had position before the contact, it is an offensive foul. If they weren't in legal position before the contact it is a defensive foul. If you aren't sure, don't make a call. If you work on this you will be surprised how many of these calls you actually see and get the right call on.
Good Luck!!!
You'll need it.

To call the play, make sure you can see the play. Don't get caught underneath the basket and too close to the action. You will be surprised how much more you can see if you stay back. Just a quick tip.

Hi Slim.

Couple of questions. Are you reffing these games by yourself, or do you have another official? Also, if you are by yourself, where are you standing while the rebounding action is going on?

Ideally, you should have another guy to help you ref. That way, one of you can watch the ball to see if it goes in and the other one can ignore the ball and watch the guys who are rebounding. That's really the best way to see who initiates the contact.

If you're by yourself, it's tougher. If you're reffing alone, you should probably be standing around the free throw line extended. In other words, if the free throw line continued all the way to the sideline, you'd be standing where the two lines meet. This makes it more difficult to see the bodies under the basket, though.

Without knowing a little more about how you do things, it's tough to offer concrete advice. But I would offer this. As much as possible, during rebounding action you should watch the rebounders instead of the ball. It might not always be possible, but if you try it as often as you can, it might help. Good luck.

Chuck

To answer the question, we usually have 2 guys reffing. Some are better then others, since I am in charge I am trying to get better to help others.

I see a weird thing with our pseudo ref's. How they "play" the game seems to show through on how they "call" a game.

Big, rough, under the board bangers (pretty much me) let a lot more go under the basket. Smaller guys, guard types call it very tight under the boards. Those guards never call anybody for traveling, or palming the ball, while us big guys (who may subconsciously be jealous of their ball handling ability)call traveling more. Big guys are more likely to call charging on a drive, while the guard types will always call it on the Defense. Just an observation.

Thanks for your replies so far they will help, any other general hints will be appreciated.

Missed ChuckElias's other question. On one end of the court we have about 12 feet from the OOB line to the wall. I will usually back up to the wall there. at the other end it is about 3 feet, so I don't have any option on that end.

Call the obvious. Nothing more, nothing less.

If a guy goes up to shoot, and you see him get whacked, call a foul. If you THINK you saw something, best to hold the whistle.

Good advice from Chuck....REF THE DEFENSE and stay wide on the baseline.

If you are in charge of all the other refs, I reommend that you have a get together at some point in time and discuss what you are observing. Treat is as an observation and commend everyone for doing a good job, but let them know what they may not already know - that their individual experieinces currently appear to govern their style of officiating.

Having an open discussion, especially when you have experienced big guys to present the view from the inside and the guards to present the outside view, it might help everyone improve their knowledge and make for more consistent reffing. However, I would note that the inside calls tend to be the most difficult for inexperienced refs. The lesser experienced refs also tend to be less consistent within a game. The longer you ref, the more you see and the more you understand how to make consistent and appropriate calls.

I'm in the same boat
 

I feel for you. I'm also organizing ref's for our church league here in LA.

We have two one-hour training sessions scheduled. The "ref's" can attend either one.

During these sessions we cover the very basic rules with a handout. We will also explore "common misconceptions like those outlined here http://www.sfcyo.org/athletics/basketball_rules.html)

The last thing we will go over is positioning and court responsibility. That takes about an hour.

Lastly, just prior to the jump ball, when are all gathered around, I give the following pep talk:

"Gentlemen, we are here for fun and exercise. I've seen you warm up and I know that none of you are former NBA players. Likewise we are not former NBA refs, so let's all have fun and show good sportsmanship"

If you don't have a training session I've found that the quality is really spotty.

At this level with a crash and two players are on the floor, I call a foul. Even if I close my eyes and pick. It isn't right but it keeps the fisticuffs to a mininum.

I've seen adult leagues where the players call their own fouls and it works well in our stake. Then again, I don't play 'cause I don't enjoy rugby.

Good luck.

Playground Rule of Thumb
 

if you wouldn't call it on the playground, it ain't a foul.

Thanks for the link leptallbldgs.

I too tried to educate players before play started, however was not brave enough to try to get them to attend a workshop. I considered it, but figured no one would show, and our sports program had been so disfunctional for so long, I couldn't take the chance that that would flop, and we'd start a new season on a downer.

Instead I created a "Sportsmanship Contract" which was a short collection of writings by church leaders on sportsmanhip, explainations of commonly misunderstood rules, and our "House rules". It took about 10 minutes to read. Then they had to take a one page test on both sportsmanship concepts, and rules. They literally couldn't play until it was completed (first couple of weeks a lot of people madly flipping through the brochure and answering questions on the bench while their teammates were already out and playing on the court. We let them go into the game only after it was turned in.) It seemed to work pretty well. Just having everyone actually know some basic rules has cut down on arguing very much.

I have contract, and my version of rules (crude, ongoing work, but it's a place to start, I will check your link and add good stuff from that resource that I can add) Also on the site is schedules and standings our website. http://groups.msn.com/Stakesports. I also print a copy of the rules on the back of the schedule that we hand out. We adopted a theme "Goal Beyond Victory" as well, which is repeated everywhere on everything we hand out.

5 weeks into season, everything going well, keeping fingers crossed.

-Working hard to keep church ball from becoming "The brawl that begins after prayer"-

Roto

link doesn't work, I believe it is because of the that period at the end of the sentance.

http://groups.msn.com/Stakesports

should work.