Any basketball officials doing volleyball?

[TravelinMan]

I decided to try officiating HS volleyball for the first time and I hope I am not getting in over my head.

I have officiated HS basketball for 8 years and this past year I had a full varsity schedule.

VB is another story. Not having played competitive volleyball, I have a lot to learn. Are there any other officials who are or once were in the same boat? Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

I have my first meeting tomorrow with the local volleyball association in Columbus, GA. The head of the association gave me the rule and case books to study for an open book exam. He said he would work me with some experienced officials before the season starts.

[PaREF]

T-man:

While I do not officiate anything other than volleyball (except one year when I umpired softball), I have helped to train many new volleyball officials and would like to offer some suggestions.

1. Studying the rule book and learning the basic rules are essential. Most coaches will be lenient on new officials with judgement calls but are much more intolerant of them if they don't know the basic rules.

2. Using correct signals will also help with credibility. One year I officiated with a new official and he told me on the way to the match that since he officiated so many sports and he couldn't keep all the signals straight, he would be using football signals tonight! This guy still officiates volleyball (after 10 years) and still doesn't have a clue about the game - and doesn't care.

3. Trainers can tell you how to make ball-handling judgement calls but the only way you will learn is to watch people playing. Watch some games or scrimmages. Get as close to the action as possible and sit or stand beside someone who can point out the subtle differences between legal and illegal contact. Our chapter normally officiates several scrimmages in the preseason where we pair up new and experienced officials as they take turns officiating.

4. A few officials in our chapter have talked to some local coaches that allow them to attend practice to see how the game is taught and played. These officials also officiate some inter-squad games during the practice which gives them some valuable experience in a less stressful environment.

How much time you are willing or able to put into learning the game is the determining factor of how soon you will be comfortable when officiating volleyball (or any other sport for that matter).

[refnrev]

T-Man,
I do Soccer, B'ball, and V'ball. PA ref is right on target with #4. I could do that because the head coach is my next door neighbor -- something we never mention to visiting coaches. One thing to remember, with VB: it is a very simple game, but despite what all of your B'bll friends will imply, it isn't as easy as it looks! Play can happen very very fast! Try to do as many Jr. High games as you can at first, and work as a line judge and watch experienced officials. The biggest adjustment I had at first was after years of soccer and basketball, no one was guarding anyone!

[TravelinMan]

Originally posted by refnrev
T-Man,
I do Soccer, B'ball, and V'ball. PA ref is right on target with #4. I could do that because the head coach is my next door neighbor -- something we never mention to visiting coaches. One thing to remember, with VB: it is a very simple game, but despite what all of your B'bll friends will imply, it isn't as easy as it looks! Play can happen very very fast! Try to do as many Jr. High games as you can at first, and work as a line judge and watch experienced officials. The biggest adjustment I had at first was after years of soccer and basketball, no one was guarding anyone!

PA, refnrev ... thanks for the good advice.

Uh-huh, and the refs don't have to run in VB! Isn't soccer a fall sport in HS? In NC, come to think of it, the boys soccer played in the fall and the girls played in the spring. In NY, boys and girls soccer was fall. Not sure about Georgia. If i would do another sport, it would be soccer. I saw alot of soccer matches over the years when my kids played in NY (Long Island and Albany - both areas were HS state champs in the 90's) and learned the sport at coaches clinics.

[Andy]

Originally posted by TravelinMan
I decided to try officiating HS volleyball for the first time and I hope I am not getting in over my head.

I have officiated HS basketball for 8 years and this past year I had a full varsity schedule.

VB is another story. Not having played competitive volleyball, I have a lot to learn. Are there any other officials who are or once were in the same boat? Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

I have my first meeting tomorrow with the local volleyball association in Columbus, GA. The head of the association gave me the rule and case books to study for an open book exam. He said he would work me with some experienced officials before the season starts.

I was in the same boat when I started to do Volleyball. I had been doing basketball for a few years and decided I wanted to take up another sport.

The advice offered so far is great. As you stated in your other post, the refs don't have to run with the action in VB. However, the game is very mentally taxing. There are some very subtle facets of the game that you must concentrate on as an official in order to be effective. I will say that it took me a good three years to become comfortable as a VB official and, of course, I'm still striving to learn more.

One additional piece of advice that I will offer is to learn to identify what type of offense each team is playing and who the setter(s) are. The game revolves around the setters and identifing them will help you in several areas of officiating the game. It is a little complicated to get into here, but talk to some of the experienced officials in your area to get specifics.

Someone else said "it's not as easy as it looks" and I will definitely agree with that, but once you get it, the game is a pleasure to watch and officiate.

[MCBear]

TravelinMan, like you and Andy, I started out as a basketball official many years ago. After the end of my first season, I decided to umpire high school baseball and fast-pitch softball. The next fall, I was trying to decide whether to officiate football or to officiate volleyball when I remembered what it felt like to be on the football sideline at the end of October/beginning of November in NorthWest Ohio. That made up my mind for me and I decided to go into the gym with the girls and officiate volleyball.

With that being said, I had watched my oldest daughter play junior high volleyball the previous year, so I at least had an idea what the game was about. However, of all the sports that I officiated, I liked volleyball the least because it was the most difficult one for me to do since everything depended on judgment and what was visually seen to occur on every play.

It took me three years to finally recognize my first back-row attack and to be aware of seeing the player come out of the back-row. And, at that time, I had no idea how I done it and how to be able to do it again!!!!

Fortunately, I kept with it and got more comfortable with seeing what was happening during the match plus I had the extra bonus of having excellent officials and outstanding coaches to work with in the District 7 Volleyball Officials Association in Archbold, OH.

As PaRef said, learn the correct signals and make every effort to use them properly - after all, they are the only way that we have of communicating to the coaches, the players and the fans what we are calling. In addition, make every effort to attend some high school and college matches to become familiar with the game and to see how different officials call the sport.

As my fellow official, Felix Madera reminds us - "volleyball is an easy sport to officiate unless you want to do it well!"

Good luck!

[Vb Scrub]

Around here most of the b-ball refs that get into vollebyall do it because they see it as easy money and they have gotten too fat or too old and don't want to run up and down the court anymore. I would suggest you read the rule and case book, watch a season of volleyball, find a good ref and watch them do their thing.

I understand you have to start somewhere but having never officiated v-ball and having never really been exposed to the game it would be very difficult to walk in and start officiating real matches that mean something to the schools, coaches and players.

[FMadera]

No objections to anything anyone has posted, so I'll add a few:

Be willing and prepared to work as many matches as you can, and if you're aware of who the better programs are in your area, I would *not* work there during your first year. You'll probably see some really high level stuff if you do, and your inclination would be to think they're illegal (when they're not), and you'll set yourself up for a ton of trouble if you're not prepared to ref what you see (if that makes any sense).

If you can, try to watch some good officials work high school or pro during the nights you don't have matches, take notes on what you see, and feel free to ask them (probably the high school refs, as collegiate refs are much less accessible to fans than high school refs) about any questions you have. Good officials won't mind your questions if they see you're willing to learn, so use that resource if you can. While you're there, see if you can track the receiving team's lineup, and work on developing a system that you can use to determine all six positions on the court in a matter of maybe 2 seconds max. Master this, and you'll be way ahead of the curve.

Study your rule book and case book. Always have them on hand, and if you encounter a situation that stumps you while you're on the stand, look up the rule and reference and be ready in case it happens again, because it will!

Be prepared and willing to accept if you're wrong, and be willing to change your call if need be. But make sure if you do change your call, it's because you're wrong, not because a coach disagrees with you. If you're confident in your call, and coaches are arguing, be aware of the sanction scale and be prepared to use it wisely. Similar to a policeman with a gun, don't look to use it right away, but if you have to, you have to.

But most importantly, use resources like this forum to ask questions and gain feedback. It's helped me, and even though I'm fortunate that I often get to ref high level play, I am still learning, and I learn things from most topics that are posted here. We are all willing to support each other (well, except for one yahoo on another forum, but that's another story ), and we'll tell you when you do something wrong, but in a way that you'll learn, not feel bad about yourself. So don't hesitate to ask if you're not sure...we may tell you you're absolutely right too!

In short, learn as much as you can, don't stress too much, but do realize that it's not "taking candy from a baby" as many basketball refs like to think about officiating volleyball. As Jan said, yes, it IS an easy sport to do. However, if you actually want to be *good* at it...well...then you're in for some work.

Best of luck!

[TravelinMan]

First of all I would like to say it is a pleasure to meet everybody in the VB forum. I look forward to getting to know all of you.

Thanks for all the useful advice. I will still be doing basketball in the winter. My interest in VB was to add a 2nd sport to officate that I enjoy watching. I also plan to add a spring sport - toss-up between soccer and softball. I may be "showing my age" with my gray hair and a few more wrinkles, but I am in great shape and set high standards. I enjoy the cerebral and game management side of officiating too. As you know there are some very educated, successful people refing today.

I have been studying the rule books and have taken copious notes, including your specific suggestions. I'll be attending a jamboree this Sat where I'll have the opportunity to observe and even work some 2 man with experienced officials in our org. We have some oficials that are "strong" players (former college players) themselves and will act as mentors.

This forum is a great source of information and I do indeed plan on using it to the fullest.

Jack