Technique for remembering #s

[clearwall]

Ok, I'm not one to shy away from admitting my faults as an official, so one of them I would like to correct is having a hard time remembering the darn player's number who commited a foul. I'm pretty good at SEEING the thing happen, throw the flag, know WHERE the foul occured, but unless it's a dead ball or the play ends right on that spot, I tend to forget who was were when the flag was thrown. Does anyone have a repetoir that they use or something I can practice to keep the number in my head?

[Tom.OH]

When I flag a foul, I will say to myself hold 67 white on the 42 yard line. I can usually repeat the call to myself as I continue to officiate.  With practice it will become the norm for you. If you say it outloud, others close by will confirm that to be an official makes you nuts.

[AIAFA171]

Working often as side deep I call out the my can focus on both WR and covering CB.
On any DPI / OPI or DH call you are very likely to have number already there.
IMHO
ciao

[TampaSteve]

I just sort of say the # to myself.
As far as the spot of the foul, while I think i'm generally pretty-good at tossing it to the proper spot, if I see I erred in my toss, I'll also tell myself "that was crappy" & relocate the flag after the play.

[wingnut]

Ok, I'm not one to shy away from admitting my faults as an official, so one of them I would like to correct is having a hard time remembering the darn player's number who commited a foul. I'm pretty good at SEEING the thing happen, throw the flag, know WHERE the foul occured, but unless it's a dead ball or the play ends right on that spot, I tend to forget who was were when the flag was thrown. Does anyone have a repetoir that they use or something I can practice to keep the number in my head?

I have had the same problem.  It takes a lot of focus, but here's what I've been doing to get better at this:
1.  Say the player numbers of your presnap keys and the player numbers of those opposing your keys outloud during your presnap routine.
2.  Use your football sense to identify and watch the suspects for each situation.  Don't watch the ball carrier, watch the blocking ahead of him.
3.  Know ahead of time who you should be watching and what potential rules violations you might be watching for.
4.  Use Rules Book language to describe to yourself what you saw. 
5.  Applying Rules Boook language, take a snapshot of the foul in your mind.
6.  Report your foul to the referee as follows:  Result of the play, type of foul, offending team (use offense/defense or team name, not "white" or "blue"), enforcement spot, and potential choices for the offended team.
Lots to watch and describe.  Hard problem to solve.  Gotta focus more.

[HLinNC]

Report your foul to the referee as follows:  Result of the play, type of foul, offending team (use offense/defense or team name, not "white" or "blue"), enforcement spot, and potential choices for the offended team.

I'd be careful here.  I have at least one white hat (we don't work set crews) who tells us every pregame "do not give me enforcement" when we discuss reporting fouls.

[James]

6.  Report your foul to the referee as follows:  Result of the play, type of foul, offending team (use offense/defense or team name, not "white" or "blue"), enforcement spot, and potential choices for the offended team.

Why do you say to use offense/defense and not colour? With a change of posession I think the colour is much more definative.

[El Macman]

Why do you say to use offense/defense and not colour? With a change of posession I think the colour is much more definative.

Use whatever works best for the R, but the R shouldn't use 'colors' in his announcement. So, generally speaking, it is best to use what he'll need for his announcement, i.e., offense, defense, kicking team, receiving team, passing team, return team.

E,g.:
"Block in the back, number 27, receiving team, at my flag." (punt or kickoff)
"Illegal formation, more than 4 in the backfield, kicking team." (punt)
"Block below the waist, number 33, return team, at my flag." (during interception or fumble return)
"Facemask, number 57, passing team, at my flag." (during an interception return)
"Pass interference, number 18, defense, at my flag."
"Holding, number 87, offense, at my flag."

Then the R should step through the penalty enforcement, so stay there with him until he has everything he needs, like result of the play, spot of the foul, end of the related run, etc. He may forget the number while he is working through the enforcement, so stick around in front and off to the side of him, ready to feed him the number again during the announcement, if needed. Don't be in a big hurry to whip out your data card to write down the foul - make sure the R has what he needs before you do that. You may think you need to do that immediately, but all you need to record at that moment is the time and player number. You'll remember the rest (period, team, foul, accepted/declined/offset) , and you can fill in that info at the next break in the action.

[Reverend30]

Use whatever works best for the R, but the R shouldn't use 'colors' in his announcement. So, generally speaking, it is best to use what he'll need for his announcement, i.e., offense, defense, kicking team, receiving team, passing team, return team.

E,g.:
"Block in the back, number 27, receiving team, at my flag." (punt or kickoff)
"Illegal formation, more than 4 in the backfield, kicking team." (punt)
"Block below the waist, number 33, return team, at my flag." (during interception or fumble return)
"Facemask, number 57, passing team, at my flag." (during an interception return)
"Pass interference, number 18, defense, at my flag."
"Holding, number 87, offense, at my flag."

Then the R should step through the penalty enforcement, so stay there with him until he has everything he needs, like result of the play, spot of the foul, end of the related run, etc. He may forget the number while he is working through the enforcement, so stick around in front and off to the side of him, ready to feed him the number again during the announcement, if needed. Don't be in a big hurry to whip out your data card to write down the foul - make sure the R has what he needs before you do that. You may think you need to do that immediately, but all you need to record at that moment is the time and player number. You'll remember the rest (period, team, foul, accepted/declined/offset) , and you can fill in that info at the next break in the action.

Agreed - my R always reminds us in pregame, tell ME what you have, tell the COACH what you saw.  We always begin with status of the ball when reporting to him, so, "Incomplete pass, DPI #42 in the end zone" or "Run out of bounds, holding, #65 offense on the B45".  He repeats it back and starts to go over enforcement with the U, who marches it off.

[mishatx]

Does anyone have a repetoir that they use or something I can practice to keep the number in my head?

Start officiating lacrosse, where you must know the number for enforcement, but enforcement can occur many minutes after the foul is committed.  You'll figure it out pretty quick. Adapt or die.

[TampaSteve]

I did work wrestling for many years until FB took up all my time (and that HS wrestling evolved to mostly all saturday tourneys).
Frequently, you talk to yourself in wrestling. i.e. "green has control, green has control... already have 2 nearfall, already have 2 nearfall...."