Taping During Injury Time

[red viking]

I'm officiating at regionals. Injury time for red. The trainer gets out to the mat and I start injury time. He does a somewhat lengthy evaluation of the elbow and then decides to tape it up with 30 seconds left. He wants to put at least a couple layers on including the pre-wrap. Injury time expires and he is about 2/3 done with the tape job. I let him finish the tape job because the wrestler was able to continue but it was good to prevent further injury and it isn't good to wrestle with a "partially taped" arm. I know I could have told the trainer (I was telling the coaches) directly how much time he had left to get the arm taped up but I didn't. Regardless of how I got there, I was just stuck with an arm still in the process of getting taped up as injury time expires. Wondering what other officials would do. The green coach gave me a little grief for it but not much and we moved on without any controversy.

[New2TheGameNYRef]

I'm no guru, but I would equate to same as "clean-up" time after stopping blood time. Not really the same, but the concept is almost the same. Safety needs to be the number 1 priority. I think you made the right call.

[red viking]

I'm no guru, but I would equate to same as "clean-up" time after stopping blood time. Not really the same, but the concept is almost the same. Safety needs to be the number 1 priority. I think you made the right call.

That's what the other officials said. It made sense, but I didn't see any case for it in the rule book. Thanks for the input.

[ctc]

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[New2TheGameNYRef]

Technically, they need to be ready to wrestle in 90 seconds. Using your best judgment, I would let it slip a few seconds. I would rationalize like this....If the best trainer was working with this wrestler, how fast would he/she be able to wrap it....A wrestler's fate should not lie in the hands of how fast a trainer can tape in my honest opinion. If it requires an extensive wrap, well over 90 seconds....have to default.

[matref0]

The problem here is he wasn't ready to wrestle.  He was still being treated.  Taping is treating the injury.  .  I may give a few seconds leeway for the wrestler to put his headgear on and get back to the center of the mat but that is about it.  The issue becomes is where then do you draw the line?  15 seconds, 20 seconds?  It is unfortunate that the wrestler got hurt and potentially ended his season, but when it comes to timings, they are specified and should not have much latitude.  Consistency gets foggy, the opposing coach has a valid issue and the event slows.  I'm a spirit of rules type of official but I believe we need to hold the line on timings. My opinion.

[New2TheGameNYRef]

That's what I thought. Thanks for responding!

[red viking]

The problem here is he wasn't ready to wrestle.  He was still being treated.  Taping is treating the injury.  .  I may give a few seconds leeway for the wrestler to put his headgear on and get back to the center of the mat but that is about it.  The issue becomes is where then do you draw the line?  15 seconds, 20 seconds?  It is unfortunate that the wrestler got hurt and potentially ended his season, but when it comes to timings, they are specified and should not have much latitude.  Consistency gets foggy, the opposing coach has a valid issue and the event slows.  I'm a spirit of rules type of official but I believe we need to hold the line on timings. My opinion.

I agree but I should have informed the trainer how much time he had to get everything done. If I would have done that I would have had no problem ending it after 90 seconds but I didn't want to penalize the wrestler or let him get hurt because I didn't communicate properly with the trainer (which becomes a liability issue too). I just never had that situation come up before. He was going to wrestle either way but was in the middle of the tape job. The refs I spoke to thought the same thing.