Flip 58 AP switch experiment

[Scrapper1]

I have no problem with using a device to keep track of the arrow. But I do think it looks much smoother if you don't need to check your pockets before signaling the direction of the held ball.

One trick I heard at camp was to remember the arrow as you're counting. For example, when you have a backcourt 10-second count, instead of counting "1 one-thousand, 2 one-thousand. . .", try counting, "1 red arrow, 2 red arrow, 3 red arrow". This has actually worked great for me. I can still take a quick peek at the table to make sure I have it right if I need to. But when a held ball happens, I've beaten the arrow into my memory so I don't have to check the table or my pockets or the switch on my whistle.

As far as having an arrow at the table, I read a story (I think it had to be on this website a long time ago) about an official who used to carry a child's stuffed animal in their equipment bag. It was a toucan, with a long beak. And if there was no arrow at the table, he would leave the toucan at the table to be the arrow. There were jokes about having to "flip the bird" after every held ball.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

There were jokes about having to "flip the bird" after every held ball.

Nice!

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

I have no problem with using a device to keep track of the arrow. But I do think it looks much smoother if you don't need to check your pockets before signaling the direction of the held ball.

Here, in my little corner of Connecticut, as opposed to the entire State of Connecticut, that I can't speak for, because I don't know what the other parts of the State do, we have to, by local mechanics, keep a whistle in our pocket to keep track of the arrow. We've been doing this since the introduction of the alternating possession rule. It's become so second nature to me that I don't have to actually physically "check" my pockets. Since I never keep anything else in my pockets, I can just "feel" the whistle in one pocket, or the other.

Now, I will admit that it would look a lot "smoother" if I didn't have to change the whistle after each alternating possession. This is an easy switch at the beginning of a game, but as the game moves along, and gets more intense, and I start sweating, it's gets harder to get the whistle out of one sweaty pocket into the other sweaty pocket.

[Rob1968]

Several years ago, when I arrived on the court to do the first game, boys soph, they had no arrow. I got a Coke can from a fan, who was sitting close to the table, and we used the can for the direction indicator for our game.
Since I live just 3 miles from the school, at the end of our game, I went home and made a wood arrow, that could be flipped and got it back to the school at half time for the JV game. They used it for half of the season, until they got an electric arrow and then they used my wood arrow in their auxilliary gym for a few seasons.
Last year I fashoned an arrow out of a white box, that originally had some short stem roses in it, to use on AAU and wreck games, that usually have no arrow available.
I've tried the "whistle in the pocket" but just haven't been able to get accustomed to it.

[Freddy]

Another solution would be to always have Steve Martin serving as a table official.

Pasted image by BillyMac no doubt forthcoming.

[shavano]

Ran some V scrimmages yesterday with the whistle switch, I think I'm gonna like it! Didn't have to look over at table, and got every AP correct.... This is a keeper. Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys!

Though if we could get Steve as a table official, I'd lose the switch..

[Adam]

Originally Posted by shavano

Ran some V scrimmages yesterday with the whistle switch, I think I'm gonna like it! Didn't have to look over at table, and got every AP correct.... This is a keeper. Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys!

Though if we could get Steve as a table official, I'd lose the switch..

My only suggestion is to be careful. If the officials working the games you want aren't using it, you might not want to use it.

[shavano]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

My only suggestion is to be careful. If the officials working the games you want aren't using it, you might not want to use it.

A good point Snaqs and thanks. The switch itself is barely noticeable under the whistle, and I didn't let on to my P's yesterday that I was using it.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Another solution would be to always have Steve Martin serving as a table official. Pasted image by BillyMac no doubt forthcoming.

Originally Posted by shavano

Though if we could get Steve as a table official, I'd lose the switch.

I tried to resist, but two things made me post it. First, this is one of my all time favorite Saturday Night Live performances. Second, many of our younger Forum members have absolutely no idea what Freddy, and shavano, are referring to. Martin performed this skit on April 22, 1978. How may Forum members weren't even born yet? We all can be sure that Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. was alive. He was sixty-five years old, and ready for retirement, at the time of the skit.

Steve Martain- King Tut - YouTube

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I tried to resist, but two things made me post it. First, this is one of my all time favorite Saturday Night Live performances. Second, many of our younger Forum members have absolutely no idea what Freddy, and shavano, are referring to.

Steve Martain- King Tut - YouTube

Company computers here at work block YouTube.
Pleeeze post an image.
"He hates these cans!"