Thanks for you interest in getting better. Please understand some items that have affected your perceived status with NCOA in the past. As with any "company" there is a bottle neck as you move up the food chain. There "was" and still are some officials ahead of you on the pecking order. They were ahead of you because of their experience (significant number of years) and ability at the time. As with any company it takes time and determination to move up. Determination can over come time - but that is up to you. You HAVE to show other officials you are good. You just can't talk it.

How do you move up in any company - take that any officials association? The same would be true for EBOA, GGOB, NBVOA, REOA and MICKEY MOUSE not just NCOA:

1. Know the rules inside and out. Doesn't mean you ain't gonna mess some up, but when you do you learn from it.
2. Know when and how to apply the rules. Also know when to ignore a rule and why you are ignoring it - for the benefit of THAT game.
3. Go to off season camps. Learn and listen to the top college officials running the camp.
4. Develop a top game philosophy in all aspects of the game. This philosophy should be close to what the leaders of the group are teaching.
5. Support the leaders preachings by insuring younger and other officials use the teachings of those leaders.
6. Master the game. Ruben gave me that advise back in 1995 when I thought I was ready for college basketball and he said I wasn't. So in two years I worked hard to master the game and then got selected to work college basketball during a time when it was difficult to move up.
7. Go out and watch top officials work. See what they do that makes them a top official. Talk to these officials at half time and/or after the game. Ask them questions why they did or handled something that you didn't understand.
8. Continually work on your game, mechanics and positioning including the blow outs and "prune" games. So when you get a "plum" game those items are natural and you don't have to think about them. Thus you only have to think about that game.
9. Be honest with yourself on how you did during each game. Take constructive comments from other top officials and don't fight them.
10. Help train younger officials. One of the best ways of learning is teaching it. By repeating what you've learned to others makes it stick in your grey matter. One of the main reasons I know the rules so well is that I have been writing questions and researching the answers for over 10 years.
11. Breathe. Rinse, lather, repeat.

There are only so many things that Ruben and I can cover during our meetings and do on the court. We point things out, but it is up to the individual to go back and try them, polish them and put in their tool bag. I'm perplexed by the amount of education Ruben and I do and provide yet people are not willing to sip from it. Rather they want to re-invent the wheel on their own.

Written by Gary Frieders, co-Lead Basketball Instructor NCOA