tricks o'the trade

We have a sorta-kinda transfer ref in our league - he's living in town for a few months - and last night at officials' practice our HR was showing him the various cues and limb positions we generally use to keep track of things as jam refs:

• Before the whistle - hold your left wrist out in front of you.  Laser into your brain the color and number of your jammer.  Some referees I know pass their wrist in front of their jammer, like a scanner, to affix it. (I sing "I'm [color], I'm [color], I'm really really [color]" under my breath.)  Lanyard whistle in mouth.
• "Five Seconds" - left wrist goes behind back.  Left arm behind the back is your cue that your jammer is on her initial pass.
• If your jammer loses the ability to become lead jammer, spit the whistle out of your mouth. (if your jammer is not lead and she tries to call it off, the length of time it takes to bring your finger whistle up to your mouth is usually enough time to realize SHE SHOULD NOT BE CALLING IT OFF.  Some referees put their right arm behind their back to add additional time.)
• Points are counted on your left hand by your side.

The only time this goes higgledy piggledy is when your jammer goes to the box and your arms are all over the place.  Some refs keep their number of points scored on their fingers while signaling the penalty (I don't, because I automatically default to pointing to the box with two fingers. I should probably start keeping track of that).

It's kinda interesting, because I can look at myself in derby photos now and see "oh, my jammer was still on her initial pass" or stuff like that.