Communication Help

[Toren]

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.

[Adam]

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.

[Toren]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

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?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Toren

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.

[Toren]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

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.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Toren

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.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

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.

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.

[Tio]

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.