You call yourself a Referee, but You never played varsity hoop?

[w_sohl]

and I never played HS ball. I also call myself a head linesman/line judge and I never played football (except for with my buds in the back yard). Ane I call myself an umpire and I never played t-ball or any form of organized baseball, unless you count slow pitch softball.

And I know the rules better and how to apply them better than any player or coach in all of those sports.

Was there a sharper learning curve? ABSOLUTELY, but I study and learned to work in the grey area and not the black and white.

(And I'm thinking about calling myself a volleyball referee and I've only played intramurals and and in the pool.)