MENTAL MECHANICS Get Your Head in Your Game

By Tim Sloan

We spend a lot of time in these pages dealing with the physical element of officiating. How do we prepare in the offseason? What is the best kind of workout? How do we moderate our workload during the season? You know the drill. Maintaining our physical preparation is a given. What some of us think less about is how we maintain our mental preparation. If Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but is afraid of heights, this is a problem.

The fact we put ourselves through the offseason regimen, keep up with our rulebooks and invest in fancy equipment is usually a good indication of our long-term mental aptitude. When we know how fast, loud, rowdy and potentially contentious it’s going to be every winter and put in the effort anyway, we’ve probably got both feet on the ground. What can be harder to deal with is our mental status during the game.

Things happen. A game in which two teams are waltzing through a 35-point lullaby can be just as hard to keep our heads in as a game where they’re at each other’s throats all evening. Depending on the situation, teams can substitute players when they’re tired or don’t fit the current offense or defense. Coaches can take a timeout when it makes sense, giving teammates a chance to regroup and confer. For the officials, it’s often the opposite. They have to stay out there and be consistent regardless of their fatigue, or whether or not they’re having a bad night.

Whether NCAAW official Joseph White, Winterville, N.C., loves this offensive foul ruling or, upon reflection, thinks he missed it, it’s important to leave it in the past and focus on what’s ahead for his mental success for the remainder of the game.

Neither is it a common thing for them to be able to get together and soothe/cajole/elevate one another during the game: Officials are typically in their own fishbowl, able to see everything happening around them but being left very much to their own sensibilities to do anything about it. How do you keep the water in the fishbowl clean?

Pro officials and college officials at the higher levels have the advantage of knowing when they’re going to get their next break to take a breath and regroup due to mandatory media timeouts. This would be the media timeouts taken every four (NCAAM) or five (NCAAW) minutes. In the heat of the game, they can mentally and physically push themselves through to the next break with the expectation of being able to recalibrate once they get there. Then it’s time to consider the last couple of plays and what they might have done differently. It’s a good time for self-talk for whatever reason. For a lot of them who relish their life in the foxhole on the front line, it’s a chance to just stand there for a moment, take it all in and remind themselves why they love it. When an official really understands himself or herself, it’s a golden opportunity to regenerate throughout the game and come out swinging again.

High school officials usually don’t have the same ability to “schedule” their breakdowns. Sometimes, they can go a whole eight minutes with three stoppages and no timeouts. Other nights, they endure parades up and down the court to the free-throw lines dealing with the possibility some of the players might graduate before the final buzzer. In this scenario, keeping your head clear and all your marbles neatly arranged becomes a work-in-progress. You must work toward a different event horizon and maintain a mindset that adapts to the game. Because you don’t always know when you’ll get a (mental) breather, the best approach is to follow a few simple rules to keep yourself continually in the game and ahead of any doubts you might develop. Think about these:

Think of the game as “the 1,000-meter hurdles.” I wasn’t a sprinter in high school; our track coach saw me run once and handed me a discus. What I do know is the secret to winning at the hurdles, beyond an abundance of fasttwitch musculature, is an efficient, reproducible technique. As these abilities develop, you are bound to rub a hurdle and even kick over the odd one. What you can’t do in the middle of the race is think about the one you just rubbed because it distracts you from the next one coming, with bad threatening to become worse.

Always look toward the next event and forget the past one. If your technique is solid enough, you’ll make it to the finish line in one piece. The same goes for officiating: You’re always going to have a call or two you want to reconsider or, at least, analyze further. Don’t do that while you’re running back up the court or you’ll be disconnected from focusing on the next call. Timeouts or intermissions can be a good time to ponder these episodes — and it shouldn’t be, “Did I screw that up?” It should be, “What about that play made me think about it, and is there something I could have done differently?” This leads nicely into … Think, but not too long. I prefer to divide the game neatly into two sub-sections: When the ball is in play and when it isn’t. When the ball isn’t in play, say during timeouts, when substitutes are entering or fouls and violations are being assessed, it’s a great time to analyze the game situation and consider what’s most likely to happen next. That will alert you to what you might do to prepare and how you might work with your crewmates on a coverage strategy; it’s the time to consider what might happen. Then, when the action starts up again, you have to simply stop thinking and act. Deal with what is happening. When you keep your head clear this way, you eliminate any concerns about what could go wrong or what mistakes you might make. It enables your senses to simply react to the mental images you’ve developed of foul/no foul, violation/no violation, and make the correct call.

By The Numbers

The number of combined total points scored in a Feb. 7 boys’ basketball game between Weatherford (Okla.) and Anadarko, which ended in a 4-2 Weatherford victory. The decision by Anadarko to “hold” the ball for the majority of the game renewed calls by some in Oklahoma for the implementation of a shot clock, which was voted down by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association prior to the 2022-23 season.

DID YOU KNOW?

Twice during the 2022-23 NBA season the Portland Trail Blazers have been forced to play home games with just two officials due to circumstances that have prevented a third official from taking the floor.

Due to weather and travel complications during the holidays, official Sean Corbin missed the Dec. 26 game against the Charlotte Hornets, leaving Bill Kennedy and Leon Wood to work the game in the two-official system.

On Feb. 6, official James Capers never made it to the Moda Center for that night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, leaving JB DeRosa and Jonathan Sterling as the two game officials.

They Said It

“Upon completion of the game, the conference office was made aware of the allegation and immediately conducted a comprehensive review. This included discussion with all parties involved, including game officials, game administrators, table crew and both schools. Following the thorough and objective review process, there was no evidence found to support the claim.”

— Statement by the Atlantic Coast Conference after Duke women’s basketball head coach Kara Lawson claimed a men’s ball was used Jan. 29 during the first half of the Blue Devils’ game against Florida State.

Test Yourself

In each of the following, decide which answer or answers are correct for NFHS, NCAA men’s and NCAA women’s rules, which might vary Solutions: p. 85 a. 20 seconds. b. 25 seconds. c. 30 seconds. d. 35 seconds. a. Either a player or coach can request and shall be granted a timeout at any time when they have team control. b. Either a player or coach can request and shall be granted a timeout at any time when a player from that team has player control of the ball. c. Either a player or coach can request and shall be granted a timeout at any time when a player from that team has player control of the ball, unless the request occurs when an airborne player’s momentum is carrying the player out of bounds or into the team’s backcourt. d. A player can request and shall be granted a timeout at any time when a player from that team has player control of the ball, unless the request occurs when an airborne player’s momentum is carrying the player out of bounds or into the team’s backcourt. The head coach can only be granted the timeout in the above scenario when his or her team is making a throw-in or in the last two minutes of the second half or the last two minutes of any overtime period. a. Administrative technical foul. b. Team technical foul. c. Technical foul charged to the player. d. Technical foul charged to the head coach. a. It may involve a player throwing the ball to another player. b. It may involve a player rolling the ball to another player. c. A pass can be made to a player of either team. d. The pass is completed when the ball is released.

1. According to the shot clock guidelines (NFHS) or rules (NCAAM/W), when a try for goal strikes the ring and the shooting team gains possession of the rebound in its frontcourt, to what time shall the shot clock be set?

2. Which of the following is true of who can be granted a timeout?

3. What is the penalty if a player is wearing an illegal jersey number, such as the number 6?

4. All of the following are true of a pass, except which?

Set your filter. When a lot of things are happening at once — like during a basketball game — two different people will have opposite responses. For one, all of it might be more things than he or she can handle, while for the other, things are just getting interesting. One thing I’ve noticed among the thousands of officials I’ve dealt with is the myriad of psyches they bring with them.

Our DNA, upbringing and probably our caffeine tolerance all play a role in what affects us and we have to adjust our mental filter accordingly to handle it. I don’t think you can work a game where you’re totally oblivious to everything any more than you should volunteer to take poison anytime something bad happens. In the middle there, somewhere, is your line in the sand where you’ll consider certain things to guide your performance, while disregarding others.

For me, the behavior of the fans has most to do with the town I’m in: Meh. The coaches, meanwhile, are playing a role that might, or might not, involve unduly trying to influence me. For that reason, I’ll try to ignore their vocabulary and focus on repeated phrases they use. Mostly, I pay attention to the players: They’re the ones who get upset enough to punch someone and frustrated enough to hack someone. As I look around the court, I look for the level of respect they’re giving one another and adjust accordingly.

The bottom line is the best officials come with a skillset unique to them that’s been effective enough to get them this far. As a game evolves and turns for the better or worse, they call upon different elements of that skillset to get them through to the next juncture, just like a pro golfer carries 14 clubs for all eventualities. The funny thing is when the golfer makes a snowman, his automatic thought isn’t that he needs three birdies to make up for it; he just presses on — it’s not supposed to be easy, or everyone could play. The object is to make fewer mistakes than anyone else.

As a basketball official, the same approach is healthy: The game is too complicated for you to be perfect. Do the best you can, learn from your errors and come back stronger the next time, even if that’s just the next play.

Tim Sloan, Davenport, Iowa, is a high school football, basketball and volleyball official, and former college football and soccer official. *