Running Backwards

[Eastshire]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

+1. I think some folks are taking "looking over your shoulders" too literally, as in you're running forward while looking almost 180 degrees behind. That's not what it means. It means to run with your head turned to your inside shoulder to look directly onto the court which then allows your peripheral to catch anything unusual that may happen behind you.

I part of our disagreement here is basically a difference in how quickly we try to get to the endline as new L. With no pressure, I move as quickly as possible to the endline and officiate play as it comes to me. It seems to me that you pace the players to the endline. This means I have to look further over my shoulder than you do to cover players (although certainly not 180 degrees, more like 95 degrees.

Coach, I sidestep also, especially in 2-man crews as the new Lead helping with pressing situations...as you pointed out, like running backwards it's unnatural , but it allows you to see directly on the court.

But you can't do unnatural things and officiate at the same time!