whitehats-penalty enforcement

[johnSandlin]

Question for whitehats...

Do any of you have little secrets-tricks to you use to help remember correct spots, distance, and options for penalty enforcement?

Crew saved me on more then one occasion from mistakes in games. However, this year was my worst year as a whitehat.

[waltjp]

Tip 1 - Commit the 10-yard penalties to memory. If you know them then figuring what's 5 or 15 is easy.

Tip 2 - Pair up with a smart umpire.

[daggo66]

Study the rulebook and commit penalty enforcement to memory.

[MJT]

When I first started being a white hat, I made notecards. Green cards are 5 yard penalties, yellow are 10 yard, and red are 15 yarders. On one side, I have hhve the penalty on one side, and the signal and yardage on the other side. It worked very well, as the colors help with the visual and remembering is easier and better.

I then took permanant colors in green, yellow, and red and put small circles around the numbers on my signal card, which is inside my leather card pouch that has my game card and stuff.

I have rarely used it, but it is nice to know it is there if needed.

[kdf5]

Maybe you just need to slow down. After the play I take a deep breath and relax. Walk to who had the flag and start gathering your thoughts. Get the call from the covering official and then walk somewhere out in the open to give the prelim signal and be thinking of the enforcement while doing that. Develop a mental list while walking to the flag or while waiting for the covering official to come to you. The most important item in my book anyway is do we have a LBP/running play since most fouls are during scrimmage downs. Knowing the LBP/running play definitions leads directly to the ABO. My guess is that you simply need to tune out coaches and fans and slow way down and not get ahead of yourself and just verify everything with the crew before proceeding. Do whatever you need to go slow, slow, slow and if you think you're not slow enough, go much slower still. Slow down, relax, verify, repeat, go slower still, relax, repeat again, slow down and go slow! I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching but I bet you just get in a hurry.

PS: I've written up a cheat sheet and I keep it in my shirt pocket folder and I review it on the sideline while waiting for the game to start. It covers the basics: definitions of LBP/running plays, PSK, special enforcements, like RTP, free kicks OB, the signal chart, etc. If I messed up during a game, I write it on the sheet and review it the following week. Study during the week and cover the basics. And, in big letters at the bottom of the page I've written "GO SLOW".

Print this off and memorize it: http://home.comcast.net/~minnmo/foot...nforcement.DOC

[johnSandlin]

Kdf5,

If possible can you email your cheat sheet to me via the Adobe program at the following email address: [email protected]. My wordpad program on my computer is not working properly for some reason.

Thank you for the help.

[ajmc]

The only thing I l'd add to KDf5's list above, is after gathering all the information from the calling official, verbalize your conclusion to the calling official, and hopefully the Umpire who has joined the discussion, right from the beginning of your thought process, ie., "White 43 was flagged for (fill in the blank), that's a loose ball/running play foul, enforced from (state the basic spot, or ABO), so we'll go X yards from the (state the YL to the YL)", if you believe loss of down, or automatic 1st down, state so.

The calling official and Umpire should either agree with your assessment, or question whatever part of it they're not comfortable with. Obviously if there's any disagreement that has to be settled one way or the other until there is consensus, then when all agree give a preliminary signal and you're all prepared to explain the options to the Captain.

In case you forgot, s l o w d o w n!