Best Practices

Best Practices

4 Habits of Successful Officials

If you took a poll of coaches and players and asked them to name the skills and habits that are important for a game...

30 Basics of Officiating

If you've officiated for any length of time, you’ve probably heard most of these basics of our avocation before, but they bear repeating and...

6 Common Errors and How to Avoid Them

It seems no matter how long a person has been officiating, and regardless of the sports he or she works, any official can fall...

What’s Acceptable Contact Between Officials & Participants?

The issue of the propriety of any two human beings touching one another runs the gamut of the human condition; from liberal to conservative, man to woman, western to eastern....

Does Appearance Still Matter If You Get the Calls Right?

Beards and tattoos have become much more prevalent and accepted in today’s society than in years past. You see them on everyone from CEOs...

4 Elements of Decisiveness

In the business world, money can be made or lost based, in large measure, on the decisiveness of the executives. In battle, the decisiveness of the...

Sell the Tough Call

What do a ninth-inning call at home plate, a crucial roughing penalty late in the fourth quarter or a block/charge call all have in...

Right Way to Turn Back a Game

In most aspects of life, there is a right way and a wrong way. Such is the case when you turn back a game. Knowing the difference...

Eight Ways To Avoid Negative Attention

The pages of Referee often feature the do’s for landing the next big game and breaking into the next level. But equally important to...

Don’t Go Looking for Fouls

The trouble with learning to officiate is that almost the entire focus is on recognizing fouls and calling them. Therefore, beginners not only concentrate...

What the Best Instructors Do Right

Whether we've been officiating for some time, figure ourselves to be seasoned vets or we simply have three more games under our belts than...

Your Officiating Style Should Embrace Personal Growth

It's been one of those games. Every stop in play, someone from each team is complaining, and that doesn’t even include the coaches, who...

How To Get A Postseason Assignment and Make The Most Of It

How do you get a postseason assignment? What skills are important when doing those big games? How do you stay at the top when...

5 Post-game Discussion Strategies

It’s been a long day. There was the travel to the event, the pregame meeting, a long grueling contest, some testy coaches, an opinionated...

Ultimate Guide to Networking at Camps & Clinics

When a sports official goes to camp, it’s about whistles and rule books rather than swimming and s’mores. Referees and umpires choose to invest the time and money in camp...

Attitude Adjustments That Improve Performance

There are a lot of things I know now that I wish I had known when I started officiating. One area that I needed attitude adjustments...

Tips For Working In Cold Weather

Much has changed since Dec. 31, 1967. When the crew scheduled to work the NFL championship game awoke in Green Bay, Wis., that morning,...

Officials Who Coach

We start with my story. I was officiating with a rookie partner (who had great potential) on a middle school championship basketball game. Perfect pairing...

Integrity: What We Do vs. What We Say

Officials are the keepers of the game. That’s a very high stature. And with that stature comes lofty expectations of integrity. Impartiality. Fairness. Morals. Those...

Sometimes There Is No Right or Wrong Call

If you put 30 sports officials in a room, regardless of the sport, and watch a tight play on video, what happens during the...

Employ Active Recruitment To Get New Officials

How would you feel if you were thinking of getting into officiating and these were the recruitment slogans thrown at you?: “Tired of the...

A Veteran’s Advice for Newcomers

By Jerry Grunska Newer officials don’t always know what they’re getting themselves into. There’s a lot to learn, and it goes beyond rules and procedures....

It’s Not Your Timeout

A timeout provides officials with an opportunity to galvanize, regroup, clarify or simply maintain focus on the game at hand. What can a person do in 60 seconds? An Olympic-level...

9 Ways to Reach Your Dream Assignment

There’s a common human urge to improve. It runs through our work lives, the activities we undertake for enjoyment and our officiating endeavors. That urge manifests itself in sports...

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