Friday, October 31, 2008

2 games and 1 coaching last week

The last two weeks were pretty busy, and I couldn't find time to write about my games. Today it is a very slow day at work, nobody is in the office and I have basically nothing to do, so I decided I would let you know how things went last weekend.

On Friday I had a game in 1st division with a referee observer at the game. We got off to a pretty good start, but lost our concentration and a bit of our confidence midway through the second quarter. In the 2nd half we got back to where we started, which made it an "ok" game. I think that this is kind of typical for average games. One of my mistakes was a legal tip where I called a goaltending and counted the basket even though the defensive player tipped the ball only after it had touched the rim (so it was a perfectly legal play). This situation is an example for plays that do not happen very often, and may cause big trouble when we get them wrong. Other examples are backcourt violations (especially now that the rules have been changed). How can we prevent such things? The best solution for such situations, which we cannot practice during games, is visualisation and imagery. Take the new (FIBA) backcourt violation rule. Depending on whether a player is dribbling or holding the ball he is allowed to do different thins between frontcourt and backcourt. I think I haven't had one situation in a regular season game so far where the new rule applied, but I had one in a pre-season game, and I am not sure I would make the correct call under live conditions. So far I have not cared too much. Other stuff has been more important. But now it is time for the fine tuning, so I will try to find such situations on tape, and watch them over and over againg, imagining myself making the correct call.

Back to the games. On Saturday I coached two less experienced referees in a 3rd division game (comparable to junior college or a very good high school game). I was really impressed with the way they handled the game, given the fact that it was their first season on this level. Still there was one point they needed to understand, and this is important for everybody. Sometimes we use "feeling for the game" to explain why we didn't make a call in compliance with the criteria, or "because we didn't want to decide the game". And I do agree that we need a lot of feeling for the game. But often we cover up mistakes using such phrases. In this case there was a clear unsportsmanlike foul on a shot for a field goal. The defensive player just grabbed the shooter's arm and pulled it down from behind. That is clearly not an attempt to play the ball, nor is a normal basketball action. Therefore, an unsportsmanlike foul should have been called. Still, a good performance from those two.

And then, there was still one more game to go on Sunday. Another one in 1st division. Back in the gym where I went for my first game this year, and it was on the same level as the first game. Our crew did an excellent job. I worked with the same crewchief as on Friday but the results were even better. He had changed his pre-game and the way he lead our team a bit, based on our feedback on Friday, and it worked very well. And we kept our concentration throughout the game, no blunders, no missed calls or phantasy calls. Just a very good basketball game. So, altogether I had six games in 1st division as of now. Three of them went exceptionally well, two were ok, and one was below average. I am happy with that, but I'd like to hear what my assignor thinks. I should probably call him.

This weekend on Saturday, I will be going home, leaving this place where I have lived for the last three months, going back to school in my hometown on Monday. But before university comes one more game on Sunday. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
BBallRef

2 Comments:

At 6:35 AM, Blogger BloggingRef said...

Hi, BBallRef...

Looks like you've started and stopped posting again in my absence! I hope your season is continuing to go well, and I wish you only the best!

--BloggingRef

 
At 11:42 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

What new back court rule?

 

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