The Pleasure of the Measure

A quick story:?

In 2015, during the early chapters of ABC, a group of us were flown out to Los Angeles to officiate a week’s worth of bocce at the Special Olympics World Games. 140 countries from around the world were participating and we underwent a rather extensive training process to prepare ourselves for the stakes of the games. It was there that Mike Ryan,?the bocce whisperer for all things Special Olympics, vehemently demonstrated the proper way to measure a ball.

There were several bocce clubs and organizations volunteering as referees and Mike wanted to make one thing clear, “I don’t care how you measure at your club. This is how you measure at the World Games. There are athletes competing for Federal funding, country pride, and disability awareness here. There are 440,000 Special Olympics athletes who participate in bocce ball, and I can tell you with confidence that this is the proper way to measure.”?

It made sense to us. We adopted the technique and trained up our refs the same way over the years. And then, around late 2019, when the ABC world began to overlap with the rest of the bocce world, we were told we were doing it wrong.?

So I began to oscillate. Three or four times a year I’d run Volunteer and Coaches Training for Special Olympics and train with the same devotion as Mike Ryan. Ditto for ABC refs. But as soon as I stepped on the courts at Highwood, or Elmwood Park, I’d hold the tape as horizontal as possible. If the tournament had sticks, sticks it would be.??

It’s not that sticks don’t work, or that the horizontal approach can’t be extremely effective. So what does it matter? Ultimately, it really doesn’t. But, we are always on a pursuit of ‘better’, and much like the reason ABC exists in the first place, I’m sick of hearing you can’t do it this way, or you have to do it that way. So on this sleepy Monday morning in March, I’ve chosen to defend the Mike Ryan Method!

But first, an even quicker story:?

Last year, at an undisclosed location for an undisclosed tournament, a very prominent member of the bocce community stopped a measurement with the tape, and demanded that the referee use the stick instead. He shouted, “you can’t trust tape measures!” as he interrupted the game. He’s wrong though. You CAN trust tape measures. In fact, hundreds of industries trust tape measures on a daily basis. What he should’ve said is you can’t trust people, because numbers don’t lie, but people do.?

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During the American Bocce Development Class, we teach a roll that is entrenched in eliminating variables. This echoes Mike Ryan’s approach to measuring. You do know what happens when players measure five times in a row and then finally conclude which ball is in, right? A round ball on a hard surface has moved.?

So instead of bumping, and nudging, and shaking, and lying (variables), let the tape measure do the work. In elevated competition, I do like the stick if the tape can’t tell you, but going to the tape first will make the call 9/10 times, and prove more time efficient in the long run.?

Isn’t the incline of the Mike Ryan Method a variable??Yes, it is. And a more tangible variable than a shaky hand, hence the number one argument against it. But remember,?numbers don’t like, people do. The precision of the read will not be affected by the incline. If the incline is always the same (base of the belly to top of pallino) it doesn’t matter if the balls is 2” away (+ 1.25” to account for incline) or 200”(+ 1.25” to account for incline), that math will always be mathin’.?

And lastly, I’d be remiss not to include the tape measure’s number one foil: humming and hawing. It’s like when you take two minutes to explain the 30 second favor you’re asking for. When you’re not certain, a quick and deliberate measurement is a hell of a lot more effective both in time management and accuracy.?

All together now:

?? Sticks and strings can measure things, but the tape is right for me!???

?? Sticks and strings can measure things, but the tape is right for me!???

?? Sticks and strings can measure things, but the tape is right for me!???