New Referee on the town -- need advice

[fiasco]

Originally Posted by kwatson

Im new to it as well and my biggest problem is how to stop ball watching. Any trick or tips that will help me cure this bad habit would be appreciated.

Ball watching essentially means you don't trust your partner. If you trusted your partner, you wouldn't feel the need to watch the ball all the time.

I love catching off-ball fouls. In my evaluations, I've always been praised for getting fouls off the ball. That's because I trust my partner, and when the ball's not in my area, I'm looking for illegal contact away from the ball. When you start valuing refereeing contact and violations off-ball, you'll stop ball watching.

It's just about understanding your role on the floor and understanding that there's a lot of contact that goes on away from the ball. If you're ball watching all the time, you're not doing your job. Just care less about what the ball is doing and more about focusing in on your primary area of coverage. And remember that there's not a whole lot of point in watching the ball when it's out of your area anyway, because how bad is it going to look when you call a foul or travel that's right in front of your partner? Now you've thrown him under the bus and he doesn't trust you anymore.