Avoid missed rotations Trail.

3 Person Mechanics.

Cues as the Trail to help you be in the right position at the right time.

Hello everybody, greg austin with abetterofficial.com. Over the weekend, while doing some three-person training, a couple of officials asked me how they could avoid missing rotations as Trail. That’s what we’ll be covering today: Trail action in three-person mechanics. Today on Five Minutes on Officiating. Stick around. Many officials, especially those who also do 2-person mechanics, find themselves as Trail watching the ball in the Center’s primary and missing rotations as a result.

Fixing the Problem

Let’s look at some of the cues we can give ourselves to prevent this. When the ball goes away from the Trail when the ball goes away into the Center’s primary as trail we need to:
  • look away
  • officiate away
  • move our body away.
We don’t want to see the ball caught in the Center’s primary. We should be officiating away while the ball is in flight. Take a step down and officiate players off-ball in this area. Trail will have an excellent look at what the Lead is going to do when the ball settles in the Center’s primary and can react accordingly when the Lead rotates. The Trail has a clearer view of them because their officiating off ball they see what’s going on. They have a direct look at the Lead because they did not follow the ball into the Center’s primary.

Lead Initiates a Rotation

When this occurs the Lead initiates a rotation the Trail is connected to the Lead the Trail and the Lead are tied together they move together the Center maintains their position and keeps the open look. Look at our position as a crew we have the to Center position Trail Center in transition. The ball is in the Center’s primary. The Center picks up the action. Once this action is picked up Trail looks off ball here.

Open Looks are Key

Picks up the rotation by the Lead here. Is in position as see to officiate this play. Ball gets swung when i have an open look on this play here all right Trail has on ball action is in good position the balls past to the centers primary. Trail looks away moves away when the ball goes into the Center’s primary. Make your first step as the trail a step down towards the end line. Look away officiate away! Rotation is successfully picked up pass to the wing Center is in position for the catch. Sees the defender here here the Trail has dribbler and their primary defender the ball is passed into the Center’s primary. The Center has an open look on the play. Trail official looks away officiates away moves away. As if on a string tied to the Lead this is a great rotation. You Trail has on ball the balls passed into the Center’s primary. We’re expecting the Center to get an open look on this play.

One last thing

We expect the Trail official is going to officiate away move away pick up action here and pick up a possible rotation by the Lead. We have great position as a crew Trail has on-ball defender. The ball is passed to the Center’s primary. We expect the Center to move and receive the play with an open look. We expect the Trail official to not see this ball caught in the Center’s primary but rather officiate away and move away which is exactly what we get. Picks up the rotation get to official play. Thanks for watching five minutes on officiating join the conversation with comments in the comment section below as always share this video with other officials who could benefit from it. Thank you.

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