NEW OFFICIALS’ ORIENTATION: Essential Information for the New Basketball Official
STATE ASSOCIATION: Michigan High School Athletic Association - www.mhsaa.com
Mandatory membership, online resources, insurance, rulebooks, open book mechanics exam, online rules test in October, state tournament at end of season
LOCAL ASSOCIATION: Fruit Belt Officials Association - www.fruitbeltofficials.org
Required membership, role, general meetings, rules meetings, officers, basketball trainers: Bruce Arter, Freddy Krieger, contact info, other associations: SMOA, Van-Kal, KOA
NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
NASO: further insurance coverage, annual Summit, VIP card, discounted Referee magazine, www.naso.org, NFHS: rules authority, publications to buy – www.nfhs.com, learning resources – www.nfhs.org
ASSIGNORS (see also www.fruitbeltofficials.org>Resources>Getting Assignments)
AAA: Athletic Assigners Association, relationship, fees, checking your email, your aim, things to never do
Local Assigner: Dave Buck, (Local BCS Conference teams), Others: Chuck Rawsthorne, – SAC sublevel. Various AD’s assign their own sublevel. John Martin, – SMAC varsity, SAC varsity.
THE ARBITER
www.arbitersports.com, creating an account upon email from assigner, blocks, schedule, features, mobile access
IMPORTANT REFERENCE SOURCES
NFHS Rules Book, NFHS Case Book, NFHS Officials Manual, MHSAA Officials Guidebook
REFEREE MAGAZINE - www.referee.com
UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT
APPEARANCE - - - Resources: Google “officiating supplies”; www.honigs.com, www.ump-attire.com, www.purchaseofficials.com, www.theofficialschoice.com, recommendations: beltless pants, Fox 40 whistle with black lanyard, no white on shoes, state patch, etc.; proper dress upon arrival to games
MENTOR AND MENTORING
“Seek and Assist” – seek out a mentor and assist your peers to progress; caveat re. veterans
OFFICIAL AS OBSERVER, SUPPORTER, FA N
Neutrality, conflicts of interest, supporter of the avocation, reacting to fans, things to avoid
OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE
Watching games, rules meetings, NCAA/NBA caveats, scrimmages, self-assessment, video, camps, web resources
FOR YOUR “FAVORITES” LIST -- WEB RESOURCES
http://forum.officiating.com/basketball/ (discussion forum, basketball)
http://www.myvirtualofficialsassociation.com (various articles on officiating topics)
http://www.fiba.com (go to “Experts” tab, then “Officials’ corner for good video segments)
VIDEO NON-MHSAA CONTESTS, TOURNAMENTS GOAL SETTING SUMMER CAMPS
Next Steps: 1) Register with MHSAA 2) Join the FBOA
3) Positioning/Mechanics Session, Rules Meetings – see FBOA website for schedule
OFFICIATING MIND BUBBLES
In which bubble does your mind spend most of its time during a game?
Is it in the “Rules Bubble”, where it is constantly asking, “Was that travelling???” Or, “Should I have called that a backcourt violation???” Or, “Is that a delayed violation or not???” Or, “Wait a second, does the offensive team get a new 10 second count now???” Or, “I hope I just called that violation correctly.” Constantly fixated on the rules—what they are, or aren’t. That’s game-life in the “Rules Bubble”.
Or does your mind spend a great amount of time in the “Mechanics Bubble” where questions repeatedly arise like: “Am I in the right place right now?” Or, “I wonder if I should be rotating soon?” Or, “Where’s my partner? Do we have two trails?” Or, “What’s the protocol for reporting this call to the table?” Or, “What’s the signal to use at the table for an illegal screen again?” Those are the kinds of game-thoughts that run through the mind inhabiting the “Mechanics Bubble”.
Or is your mind parked in both of the above, the never-never land of a mind preoccupied both with rules questions and mechanics indecisiveness?
Not much mental room for executing sound judgment when the mind is stuck in any of those places, is there? So much attention on rules and mechanics that the all-important sound judgment required to do a good game suffers.
Wouldn’t it be great to have your mind settle into the “Judgment Bubble” and have it stay right there the entire game? The “Judgment Bubble”, where your efforts are expended on when to make a call, not on what call to make. Where your analysis of the play before you comes without having to worry about what the rule is and which signal to use. Where the elementary things are not ignored but automatic, the task of thinking about them filtered out and readiness to execute at the forefront. Where the judgment needed to make the call or leave it a no-call is all that needs consideration.
Make it so that your mind’s time resides firmly in the “Judgment Bubble”.
Too extreme to be entirely possible? Perhaps. But the concept does introduce two vivid, loyal aims which ought to become passions for you, which will move you into the right bubble for the whole game.
RULES KNOWLEDGE: Make that an integral part of your officiating avocation. By dedicated study – on your own, with your crew, in small group settings, at association meetings -- come to know the rules and casebook situations so thoroughly that the call that has to be made or the no call that keeps you from the upraised arm becomes automatic for you. Without the slavish burden of needing to think through this rule and that when a situation arises, the application of the rule that has to be executed can become second nature, with a minimal amount of forethought necessary. Dedicated, passionate attention to the rules outside of game time moves your mind to spend more and more time in the “Judgment Bubble”, where it can do the most good during the contest.
APPROVED SIGNALS AND PROPER MECHANICS: Commit yourself to them. Learn them from your officials’ manual, verify them with your trainer, review them on your own, practice them in front of a mirror and at scrimmages, critique yourself on video, receive reinforcement at summer camps. Get so comfortable with your place on the floor that rotations become second nature, dead ball switches become automatic, ideal positioning is what you do. Work on your signals and mechanics so that where to be and how to signal comes without thought. Make it natural to be in the right position to see and make the right call from the right place. Begin to wonder less and less about whether the play is now in your primary. Get good at signals and mechanics, which will allow your mind to spend more time in the bubble in which it really belongs, the “Judgment Bubble.”
Some may say that the best place for a well-rounded official is right in the middle of the diagram above, in the overlapping area where all three meet—rules, mechanics, and judgment. And it is true that a good referee certainly has an adequate amount of each of those three thoroughly entrenched in his/her mind. But the question is this: what is it that will occupy your decision-making processes a majority of the time during the game? Rules and mechanics are things to work on passionately outside your actual time on the court during the games that count. Judgment then comes through experience on the court . . . with rules, mechanics, and signals already an innate part of the equation.
With rules knowledge and correct mechanics/signals in the bag, all that needs to occupy your mind during the game is then the ultimate focus: judgment.
They’re not paying you for your rules knowledge or your mechanics and signals. At least as much as they’re paying you for your judgment. And now you have a strategy to make their investment in you pay off richly, by striving to get your game-mind solely in the “Judgment Bubble”!