"Don't point fingers"

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Rob1968

When I asked an official why he uses 2 fingers to indicate direction, he said "Because it looks stronger than 1 finger, why?" (did I ask)
When I replied that the manual shows a full hand - that is, all 4 fingers - which then, must be stronger than 2 fingers, he frowned, and had no further reply.
It's notable, in my area, that most of the higher ranked officials - those who consider themselves to be among the power elite - use 2 fingers. It seems that they do it because they feel that it sets them apart from the common, lower ranked officials, who just do what the manual indicates.

I am a clinician with my state (which means that I am licensed to run camps for my state) and I can tell you I do not care that much about that kind of stuff. I might at best tell someone to use a full hand, but that is because I usually cannot find many things to talk about if that is my comment. Secondly, I have yet to see a single person with any extensive experience to give the signal for "Bonus free throw" which is signal #18. It looks stupid if that is your signal most of the time and most officials I know just hold each arm up with their index finger being used as if they were reporting in the NBA. And I rarely ever see someone give a "block" signal with both hands out and not with their fists. That last one is talked about a lot, but rarely talked about.

The overall point, most people never notice these things unless you have an officiating background and you wish to point it out. Just like no one knows our rotations or a missed rotation unless you have an officiating background. Never had a coach ever say, "You missed that rotation too."

Even signal #19 is relatively new and reflects what we were doing long before the book reflected that look. We used the kicking violation signal for years before it was in the book.

With all this being said, we only care about this stuff as officials and most officials do not are either way. If the people that hire us are more concerned about the idiosyncrasy of a signal, instead of getting plays right or communicating with partners or coaches, then I probably do not want to work for them in the first place.

Peace