Communication Help
 

Last night I was the L in 3 man mechanics.

Team A has the ball in their frontcourt. There is an interior pass to the post that gets deflected toward half court by Team A.

I notice the T has a tipped ball signal up, meaning he thought Team B had hit it back.

At the break, we came together and both the C and me had the ball being hit by Team A only.

How could we have communicated this information during live ball play? Is blowing our whistle the only way? Would you blow your whistle from the L to help out the T in this case?

I felt pretty useless at this moment, luckily the ball never went into the backcourt.

Some plays like this just aren't going to be gotten. If the T passes on the BC call, I just assume he saw something different. There's nothing else you can do from L, and unless you see the entire play from C and know with 100% certainty that B never touched the ball, I would leave it alone from C, too.

If you do have definite knowledge, do you blow the whistle then? Is there any "unapproved" mechanic that anyone uses to let the T know that it was Team A who hit it backcourt?

If you're C, and this throw originates from your area, you could go ahead and call the violation. From L? I think you're stuck.

That's the exact feeling I had because I wasn't going to blow my whistle. I felt stuck and was just going to let it happen.

Some may disagree, but I don't see this as a crew saving type of call that you need to get right at all costs. L getting this call is too expensive, IMO.

If I'm T, and I don't know what happened, I might blow it dead and check.

That's what I say. It's the T's call. For all you know there's something he saw after the initial deflection which the C & L didn't. If he has a confused look on his face when he blows his whistle for the violation or if he looks for help then head in. If not, sometimes we have to let our partner(s) live/die with a call.

From the L, I think it is a 1 in a 100 or maybe a 1000 situation....and far more likely in 2-man....

If the ball absolutely came from your primary and was thrown directly into the backcourt without any possibility of it having been tipped by someone on the way there and the offensive team is clearly the first to get to the ball, I think the lead has to be willing to help if the trail (or center) doesn't get it. It is quite likely, if they were letting the lead cover their primary that they were not even looking at the ball (particularly 2-man, less so in 3-man).

That said, the trail should NEVER be indicating that it was tipped. They should call the play as it happens. The only time the tip signal should be used is after the play to communicate, perhaps to the coach, why the call was or was not made.

I don't know what happened by the division line, but when he immediately signaled the "tip" with his hands (unapproved mechanic) to show that the defender knocked it backwards, I knew he didn't see that it was the offensive player who hit it back.

But I agree with the sentiment. I wasn't going to blow my whistle even if the ball had gone into the backcourt. I was going to let us live with it.

Typically, the tipped ball signal refers to a tip by the defense. I have never heard of the tip used on the offense... it sound like your partner may be confused.

Why not do it ahead of time, so there wont be any need to communicate after the play? Preventative officiating, right? Putting out the fuse before the bomb ignites, right?

I think of the tip signal more like a communication tool as opposed to a mechanic/signal.
That whistle is on a lanyard for a reason. Whats wrong with using our voice to communicate with our partners? I've called out a name before, returned the tip signal while saying "offense-offense."

Value of voice.

And did this work for you?

With partners that display great court awareness, yes.

Using ones voice in addition to crisp signals can never hurt... well, unless you're wrong :-)

Humblebrag

I might try it and if it doesn't I can always say "my partner didn't have great court awareness" :D

Some guys dont look at you. Locked in on that bouncing ball...

I tend to lock in on the gaggle chasing the bouncing ball.

Because you both look bad if someone else calls something contrary to what the signal implies.

It is no different than one official visually indicating that the player got ball while another is blowing their whistle for a foul. Call infractions, not legal plays,....if you partner looks to you for information, signal it, but not unsolicited.

You are also telling each team information that may affect how they chose to play the ball...which is unfair.


What you describe has nothing to do with preventative officiating.

Makes sense, I'll try it that way.

I'll also add that I will use those signals after the play in response to a question by a coach about why I did or did not make a call a certain way.

I'm across the court, coach says "Wasn't that over-and-back"...I'll respond with the tip signal at that point if I feel that the point that caused the question.