Starting the clock mechanic

[Rich]

Originally Posted by zm1283

Yeah, so they're given leeway or freedom on how "By the book" their signals/mechanics are in return for being more highly scrutinized on their play calling and judgment. I think we're talking about the same thing.

Others here have said that "why can't you have both" proper mechanics and good play calling?

I've seen evaluations (I've lived in states where there was a central assignor and there are evaluators) and they spent so little time on play calling and judgment and so much time on stuff like mentioned in this thread that it was disgusting. It didn't matter if an official was wrong as long as they looked like the pictogram robots in the book when doing it.

Let's face it -- these mechanics are mostly unimportant from a practical standpoint. The stop clock is rarely looked at -- clock operators stop the clock on the whistle. The chop is unimportant, really -- I've watched clock operators and they aren't even looking at me when I administer a throw-in.

Around here I hear how important it is to use high school mechanics and then I turn on the TV and watch college officials use college mechanics when working the state high school tournament....more important to get people in those games that primarily work college games than it is to get people in those games that call plays well *and* use the proper mechanics. Those kinds of things are noticed by officials, trust me.