Block/Charge - Beating a Dead Horse

[VaTerp]

Originally Posted by Rich

I think that we still aren't necessarily (as a collective group, not any individual) refereeing the defense -- I think many officials just take a close block/charge crash and ship it rather than evaluating each play on its own merits.

I agree about not refereeing the defense but not necessarily about the tendency for officials to just ship it.

The guy who really trained me after I had done mostly intramural ball as an undergrad student really stressed refereeing the defense. I think it is a basic principal that is critical to overall call accuracy, especially on the block/charge.

I don't think its taught enough or fully understood by a lot of officials and associations/training bodies in general.

Many officials, especially newer ones, are concentrating on the ball handler/shooter. So when there is a crash with a defender they have no idea if that defender is legal or not because they never picked them up. So the tendency is to call a block on the player that just showed up in your vision.

Take a play in transition for example. I see many of the officials I observe, especially at the sub-varsity level but too many varsity officials as well, focused on the guy with the ball. What I suggest is to literally shift your vision primarily to the defender and pick up where they are at. Getting in the habit of doing this first then you can expand your vision as you get more experience.

When people understand what refereeing the defense means its much easier to call these plays accurately.