Up until this year I have been an official in Ohio my whole career. I was one to complain about the micromanagement when the Gold book came in, but now experiencing where everyone seems to do their own thing and having to deal with each of their own thing when working sub varsity, I miss the uniformity. I also miss some of the mechanic differences that Ohio had, particularly the inside - outside coverage on free kick that Ohio mechanic has on free kicks.

I'm sure, much of my discomfort is from having to change mechanics and signals, but I feel that Ohio has done a good job insuring that both rule enforcement and mechanics are uniform across the state so that a game in Cleveland is treated the same as a game in Cincinnati regardless of the crew officiating (granting the distinction of individual officials abilities).

But don't you agree that that goal can be accomplished without so much "micromanagement"?

Maybe that is an issue if you are working with different people. In my state we work with the same crew the entire year. If we have a sub, they conform to the crew they are working with. And our crew communication has nothing to do with what is done in one part of the state compared to another. Just like you will not have uniformity in judgment or the kind of games a crew will see. I guess it makes it easier for those that have a differnet group to work with every game. But even as a basketball official that works with different guys every game, I still think we need to talk about how we communicate and what might be important to one official, might be routine or not important to another official.

Peace

Yes, it probably could be accomplished without the micromanagement.

On Friday night, the crew is the same week to week, but sub varsity can be with almost anyone.

Officials for the playoffs in ohio are picked by position not by crew therefore there needs to be some uniformity of signals. (always thought that was not a good idea should be by crew)

One advantage the Gold Book mechanics has is when a sub is used the crew does not have to say "this is how/what we do" since everyone does it the same.