Posture
 

NFHS 2 person

Is bending over to get a better look at a play considered ok? Or should officials stay upright all the time only moving thier feet to get a better look?

If you need to move your head, then move your feet. JMHO.

For the most part yes. Always exceptions to this, but you do not bend over in my opinion unless you have players on the floor. But that is not a common thing.

Peace

Must not be doing girls games:)

Thank God nope!!!

Peace

Don't bend over to look at a play. Move your feet: "move to improve." Bending looks lazy.

Bending?
 

There's no bending in officiating.

You've obviously never carried some of my partners.
:D

So, Ben Dover might be the name of a good proctologist, but not of a good basketball official? :D

(sorry...waited all day for BillyMac to fire that one off, but he must be busier than usual at work today)

By all means, do what u need to in order to see the play and make the best possible call. Officiating is all about getting the call right; you have to see the play to get it right; and to see the play - u need to have the best angles. Hopefully you've "moved to improve" your look...but if bending is needed, go ahead.

Put another way...if Jim Burr does it to help him make a call, then it's good enough for me.

Wow, so much bad advice in one post!

1. Officiating is not all about getting the call right. That's near the top of the list; but we're also responsible for managing the game, and part of that is managing our own appearance. Bending looks lazy.

2. Even if the only priority were getting it right, proper mechanics give you the best chance of doing that. Bending is not proper.

3. Standard instruction for officiating all sports: ignore how the big dogs do it. They're usually amazing officials in spite of their poor mechanics. Learn and practice the correct mechanics.

Don't be a baseball umpire. There is another forum for that. :)

Move the feet and the eyes will follow.

To complement what others have said, you might think bending, twisting, etc. to see better is the best way to go. But how would you feel about a shorter official, stretching on tiptoes or jumping up and down to get better looks into the post or at taller players? Move to improve, indeed.

I agree. I work as game day staff for a D-League team and was working in an area by the floor a couple of days ago and so I watched the officials to see what I could pick up and use in my game.

I got insight on eye contact, communication, some positioning, transitions and a few other things but then I saw other stuff that wouldn't be right for me to use.

Reporting fouls at the spot and yelling it to the table. Communicating from under the basket to the table and a few other things that seemed fine with crew but not for my games.

When an official learns the proper mechanics and positioning without the shortcuts it makes that person able to call a game under any circumstances appropriately.

More aptly, Jim Burr can get away with it.

Exactly. Recently worked with a Crew Chief who in our pregame told me and my partner, in front of the observer, that there are things he can get away with that we can't. That we (me and my P) need to do things the right way if we want to advance.

It's just a reality of life.

Learned this the hard way when I first started many moons ago....

The instructor for our rookie class hammered us on proper signals and mechanics for two weeks. About a month later, I observed him working a high level HS V game with some of the sloppiest signals I had ever seen....When I asked him about it after the game, I was told in no uncertain terms that when I had 20+ years and three state championship games under my belt, I could question his mechanics and signals....

Lost a bit of respect for him that day, but learned that do as I say, not as I do is the norm.

I also decided that day that when I got to the point of training other officials, I was going to do it on the court/field the way I taught it...seems to me to give you a bit more credibility....

+1

The difference is that everyone knows the big dogs know what they're doing. The evidence that we know what we're doing starts with whether we use proper mechanics.

Why? He can clearly referee with those achievements and he was trying to make you a better official than he was by having you do the things correctly that he doesn't in additional to all the other stuff he was teaching.

There's a difference between having an attitude of "this is why this works for me but won't work for you," and "don't you dare question me, rookie."

The former I respect. The latter I don't.

Sometimes people need to be put in their place. And if you wanted to know why someone does not do it the exactly the way they teach, you might learn more by watching then always have to confront someone.

Look officiating is not something where we are robots. I know people want to make it that way, but that is not the case. And I have yet to know anyone hired for officiating just because they have perfect mechanics. And I have yet to seen anyone held back for those reasons either.

Peace

Agreed. Sometimes those people are rookies, and sometimes they're veterans.

Yes...he could referee...he was also an arrogant SOB....

It's just that mecahnics and signals were hammered so hard at that time and it was implied that sharp mechanics and signals and rule knowledge were the path to high level officiating, then to learn that the "intangibles" were just as, if not more important in your advancement didn't sit well with me.

I understand now why it is the way it is, but didn't get it at that time.

Part of it is also personal with me...I don't feel comfortable teaching and instructing a certain method and then not using that method when I'm on the court or field. I feel that it undermines my credibility as a mentor and instructor.

Did you have a friendship with the instructor or was he someone you just knew professionally? You said it was a rookie camp. Then a month later you observe him working a game with sloppy mechanics. If you were just some random rookie official he might now have appreciated being "questioned" about what he does on the court.

Interesting response. What place would that be for a fellow, probably junior, official?

HS or College (D1, 2, or 3)? Was this your lone D1 contest so far this season?
Can I assume that it was said as a matter of fact?

It was stated matter of fact and to help us, not out of arrogance or to big-time us.

Check your PM's.