NZGOA Forum

Following several incidents this season I thought it appropiate to go over how to toss a coin.

One of our Southern Officials had his first Senior game as Referee. At the commencement of the coin toss he promptly tossed the coin which went straight up with no rotation or spinning & came down the same way so the coin actually just stayed parallel to the ground. This of course created great mirth along the watching officials & captains leading to some ribbing of the official & his ability to toss or be a tosser or toss off.
Two weeks later this same official had his second senior game as Referee & mention was made of his tossing ability. This time however his tossing was fine (indeed he tossed well) however the coin landed not heads or tails but edge up in the grass. This caused much mirth & laughter so so he decided to toss again, but however once again the toss was good (nearly perfect - hence the term perfect tosser) but the coin landed edge. Some raucous laughter ensured & a very red faced official got it right on the third attempt against a backdrop of comments about his tossing ability, being a tosser, having problems tossing etc.
Although I normally prefer not to identify people on here, I'm sorry MATT SMITH, but too good of an opportunity to pass up but I've included instructions below on how to toss a coin (thanks wikipedia)
HOW TO TOSS A COIN
During coin flipping the coin is "flipped into the air", i.e., caused to both rise and rotate about an axis parallel to its flat surfaces. Typically, agreement is reached that one person will explicitly assign the action that will ensue from one positioning of the coin, and another, presumed to have the opposite interest or to be impartial, performs the following steps:
resting the coin mostly on nail of the thumb of the dominant hand with a small amount of the coin resting on the index finger,
pressing the tip of the bent thumb of the same hand against the palm-side of the index finger, so that friction there holds the thumb back from extending further,
tensing the muscles that extend the thumb, thereby storing energy in the form of tension in those muscles,
further extending the thumb, and sometimes slightly uncurling the index finger, thereby overcoming the finger's frictional grip against the thumb-tip so it slips, and freely and rapidly extends, with it or its nail
hitting the bottom face of the coin, centered within the half of the coin that is less in contact with the bend index finger, and thus
simultaneously pushing it more or less upward and setting it rotating around an axis parallel to the circular faces of the coin;
optionally, suddenly raising and quickly stopping the hand involved, in coordination with the releasing of the thumb, thus imparting extra vertical momentum (but little additional rotary momentum) to the coin. (Depending on the skill of the coin-tosser, and any resulting horizontal motion, the optional upward jerk of the tossing hand may be needed to ensure the coin stays aloft long enough to get the catching hand into position, or for the tosser and observers to move out of its path.);
saying "Call it", to alert the party so designated to say either "Heads" or "Tails", designating the outcome that will correspond to the previously agreed upon outcome;
once it falls back to a convenient height, either
catching the coin in an open palm, or
bringing one hand down over it, to prevent its bouncing away, as it lands on the other hand or arm, and quickly removing the upper hand from it, or
avoiding interfering with it as it falls onto a sufficiently smooth and uncluttered point on the ground;
if the coin falls to the ground, despite an attempt by the person flipping the coin to catch it, the process is usually not repeated, and if the winner wishes he may pass the win on the person receiving the loss, but the loser can not make any choices otherwise, meaning he must accept the winner's denial.
all those involved jointly observing whether it has landed "showing heads" — with the side bearing the portrait or profile uppermost — or "showing tails".

GET THIS RIGHT AND YOU CAN BE PROUD WHEN SOMEONE SAYS "THE REF IS A TOSSER"

Thanks Richard...

I would like to point out, that despite my first toss not actually rotating, I went with the call made by the visiting team from what the coin landed on.

Also, I'd love to see someone else do a toss twice and get it to land on its side.