Long Switches
 

How do you handle these 2 situations for 2-Man Mechanics in your area?
1) Lead official calls a Offensive foul while in the front court on the endline.
2) Trail official calls a Defensive foul while still in the back court.
After reporting the foul do you make the long switch? Or go back to your previous position?

Book says switch on ALL fouls unless it is a shooting foul, then reporting official becomes the non-administrating (Trail) official.

Even though it doesn't make sense sometimes, it's best to make the switches as the book states. That being said, it can also depend on what your association or assignor wants/expects. Some want the long switches and some don't care either way.

So..... How do You and Your association handle the situations?

For me, I try to avoid long switches in 2-man mechanics. Save the steps!

I prefer to make the switches. The association here recommends doing the long switches but doesn't penalize any crews that don't. Its really up to the individual crews and decided on in pre-game.

By the book, we make those long switches.

No long switches here.

I haven't done any two-person for our Association yet this season. But, when I do, we're expected to make the switch each time.

We don't long switch in 2 man or 3 man for the situations above. Although the IAABO mechanics on some switches are different than NFHS in 3 man as well.

Does IAABO have a stance on long switches?

We don't do long switches. It is one of our local policies and procedures. When one of these fouls is called one official is supposed to be watching the players while the other is reporting. If we are busy switching maybe something will be missed or if we wait to switch then it is very time consuming. Just what we do. Most all our games are 3 person though.

In the 2 man games I've worked in this area, the only long switch that is made regularly is the one described in situation one.

No long switches, period. Switch on all fouls staying in the half court.

No More No Long Switches ...
 

A few years ago, Connecticut experimented with no long switches when a foul was called in the backcourt, and there was no change in possession. Some of our guys either didn't understand "change in possession", didn't understand "backcourt", or were just lazy, so we went back to switching all the time two years ago.

One example of a "confusing" situation for some was the classic player control charge foul in the frontcourt called by the lead. Another was an offensive "over the back" call before the defensive player gained control of a rebound, called by the trail. Yeah. I know. We've got some "dead weight" on our local board. These are the guys who will be working subvarsity games the rest of their career.

No "long switches" here, and that's by the (our) book.

If your book says to do it (and assuming you are expected to follow the book), then switch.

For High School games we switch on all fouls. Youth leagues where games are scheduled every hour and 20 minutes we don't make the long ones.