Help/Advice on working solo

[FMadera]

Originally Posted by BlitzkriegBob

By the way, I follow on the NFHS board also, and I've kinda gotten the impression that USAV uses only one official. Am I wrong in my assumption? Is that good experience?

Well, it's not really like that, it just seems that way.

Most of the time, you have a team that supplies the work crew, which includes a 2nd referee, line judges, scorekeeper, scoreboard operator, and libero tracker. More often than not, your 2nd ref is asleep at the wheel, and it feels like you're working by yourself. They will almost never catch illegal alignments, so you'll have to get used to catching those by recognizing them, not from using your wheel, which is NOT allowed in USAV.

Of course, sometimes you'll have a player who will surprise you. I had a player from Team Z 16-2 who caught an illegal libero replacement as the 2nd referee! She was incredible. But that's the exception.

The nice thing is, you can work about 3-5x as many club matches as you do high school matches, if not more. I will probably work about 80 HS matches, 30 college matches, and 300 club matches this year. Great for seeing ball handling, learning alignments, etc.

[MCBear]

Bob, I agree wholeheartedly with the advice that you have been given. The easiest thing to do is to begin to wean yourself away from depending on the wheel to check rotations. As Felix indicated, in USAV we are not allowed to use line-up tracking aids (although as an R2, I can lay both team's line-up sheets on the water barrel in front of me so that I can take a quick glance if I really need to check and see where someone is supposed to be or if I forget which serving rotation we are in).

Look at the things you learned by having to work solo and, then, see where any of it may be beneficial for working with a partner.

How did the coaches react throughout the varsity match and afterwards? Did you get any feedback from them concerning your solo effort? To me, it sounds as though you did a great job for being placed in a very tough situation.

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Let me preface this by saying I just started as a VB official last year, and in our area, you work approximately HALF of your matches on the 7th/8th grade level (here in NY, the call all 7th/8th grade sports 'modified') alone! In fact, my very first game as R1 was by myself!

After a couple of matches alone (including a double match at one school- what a game fee!), I finally worked out where for subs and time outs, I had the coaches hit the scoreboard buzzer to get my attention. I also tried to do the lineup check before going up on the stand for the first game, then had the captains bring it up to me before the last two games. I also let the coaches know that during the games that the lineups were basically on their honor - nobody is going to try to cheat on that level!

My last match of the season was also my hardest - the two teams were playing at a nice JV level, and there was actual real net play! I tried to do my best there..but...you ARE going to miss things...

And just a final thought as a recommendation Bob: Try and see before next season if your association sponsors/works any multi scrimmages schools in your area might hold. I worked at the end of August a scrimmage where there were 13 teams rotating and playing 15 minute games. I ended up working the equivelent of 6 varisty level matches in a seven hour period - what an amazing experience! I found that by the end of that day the confidence where I KNOW I will go and try and qualify as a JV/Varsity official in the future, when my experince allows me to!

Good luck in the future Bob!


Lou

[BlitzkriegBob]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Andy, I especially liked the idea about moving the stand over to the opposite side of the court. I'll keep that in mind. Jan and Felix, I sure wish I had guys like you around here to pester with questions. I'll try to start weaning myself from my reliance on line-up tracking aids!

Jan, before the match even started I explained to the coaches that I would do the best job that I could but that it was highly possible that I might miss calls having only one set of eyes watching the play. The home team coach was very laid back and I had no problems with him before, during, or after the match. The visiting team coach was upset by a couple of calls/non-calls, but didn't cause any problems. I didn't get any feedback from anyone other than the AD, who said I did a great job (but I took that with a grain of salt since he's a basketball coach who doesn't know anything about volleyball).

Have a 6th grade match in a few hours. Those are always a lot of fun!