New Referee on the town -- need advice

[TimTaylor]

Originally Posted by fiasco

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 strongly disagree. As several others have pointed out, not trusting your partner has nothing to do with it - it's an issue of training and experience.

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.

This is the only part of your statement that I agree with. As was pointed out earlier, the focus of the action is usually where the ball is and it's a natural tendency to look there. A good official learns to focus on their coverage area away from the ball, and that takes time and experience.