New Referee on the town -- need advice

[Newbie-ref]

I will need some advice on Referee. I did a examination and did really poorly. The commissionar asked me to retry. Need to know what position of Trail and Lead and what advise to give out. Have 2 more chances at this. One for each orginization.

P.S. I have taken and passed the NFHS exam on the first try.

Newbie Ref.

Sorry if it is a dumb question.

[ontheway]

what specifically about Lead, and trail? did you do poorly on the mechanics section alone?

[APG]

You're going to have to give us more information...what exactly are you struggling on? What scenarios are you having trouble with?

[Tio]

Be sure to read the mechanics or officials manual. These usually have the basics of court positioning.

More importantly, see if your local HS association has a training program. I think most of us get better at officiating by doing it. The book is helpful too, but not a substitute for work on the court.

[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.

[tref]

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.

It takes a lot of self discipline & self talk to stop ball watching. At L my mindset is, "I have #32 white & # 44 blue, who could hurt us next? Uhh oh here comes #13 white."

Not only does that help you to focus on your PCA (while seeing as many of the other players as possible, with knowledge of ball/partner locations) should you have to call a foul on anybody in your PCA you already have their numbers locked in.

[VaTerp]

Originally Posted by tref

It takes a lot of self discipline & self talk to stop ball watching. At L my mindset is, "I have #32 white & # 44 blue, who could hurt us next? Uhh oh here comes #13 white."

Not only does that help you to focus on your PCA (while seeing as many of the other players as possible, with knowledge of ball/partner locations) should you have to call a foul on anybody in your PCA you already have their numbers locked in.

Yup. Pick up the off ball competitive match ups in your PCA. Be it post play, cutters, screeners, etc.

It definitely takes self discipline and continuous self talk. Even those of us who have been doing this for a while can be lulled into ball watching from time to time. But I find that focusing on the competitive match ups works well. If there are no real competitive match ups in your PCA then try to get a wider view, see what kind of offense is being run, and what is likely coming to your area.

[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.

[Smitty]

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.

That's a load of BS. All new officials have trouble letting go of watching the ball. It's something that takes time and discipline to overcome. As a new official it has nothing to do with trusting your partner.

[Rufus]

Originally Posted by VaTerp

Yup. Pick up the off ball competitive match ups in your PCA. Be it post play, cutters, screeners, etc.

It definitely takes self discipline and continuous self talk. Even those of us who have been doing this for a while can be lulled into ball watching from time to time. But I find that focusing on the competitive match ups works well. If there are no real competitive match ups in your PCA then try to get a wider view, see what kind of offense is being run, and what is likely coming to your area.

Not much to add here other than maybe to practice at the lower level ball you'll get assigned to start with. It takes a lot of concentration and inner-dialogue (as mentioned by VA and tref mention) but the reward is that as you move up in level of play the dividends are huge. The hardest part is that at lower levels off-ball action is nearly nil as they haven't the slightest clue what to do without the ball so it's like watching cement dry.

[fiasco]

Originally Posted by Smitty

That's a load of BS. All new officials have trouble letting go of watching the ball. It's something that takes time and discipline to overcome. As a new official it has nothing to do with trusting your partner.

It's not a load of BS, but thanks for playing our game.

It's a habit that can be cured by learning how to trust your partner. As the ball transitions from your area to his/her area, learn to think "my partner's got this. I'm going to watch off ball."

[tref]

Originally Posted by fiasco

As the ball transitions from your area to his/her area, learn to think "my partner's got this. I'm going to watch off ball."

I wouldn't recommend this practice!! We should give up the play only after our partner opens up to accept the play. And, if you have a count as the ball leaves your PCA we should continue the count, yes, in their PCA.

No absolutes or always folks & the floor mechanics are just guidelines.

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by fiasco

It's not a load of BS, but thanks for playing our game.

It's a habit that can be cured by learning how to trust your partner. As the ball transitions from your area to his/her area, learn to think "my partner's got this. I'm going to watch off ball."

I agree that "not trusting your partner" isn't the cause of ball-watching for most new officials, and, at least the way it was worded in your post, came across as scolding.

Most people who watch a ballgame watch the ball. It's where the action is for most. When you move from observer to official, the natural tendency is to continue to want to know where the ball is. It's not that the newbie doesn't trust his partner, it's that he simply hasn't trained himself not to watch where the ball is.

Ball watching may be a symptom of not trusting your partner. But it's also a symptom of not knowing what to look for, where an official's primary may be, lack of focus, lack of action away from the ball, boredom, or a host of other causes. It many times has nothing to do with trust.

[fiasco]

Originally Posted by jdw3018

and, at least the way it was worded in your post, came across as scolding.

Oh, my bad. I didn't know scolding was frowned upon here.

That's a load of BS.

[fiasco]

Originally Posted by tref

No absolutes or always folks & the floor mechanics are just guidelines.

Right, which is why I didn't use any absolutes or always in my statement.