Best Practices
Rehearse Fundamental Judgments
Officials can develop healthy habits that have nothing to do with streamlining their diet or counting calories. Many sports have repeated practices or habits...
Lightning Protocol Advances with Technology
In the not-so-distant past, the protocol for handling lightning was straightforward for officials working outdoor sporting events at the amateur levels. If lightning was...
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...
Turn The Cast Away?
One of the hazards of being a sports official is that you quickly become an expert consultant to your friends when they have a question about a rule...
Welcome to the Show
All officials have their first game at one time or another. We have heard stories of the officiating greats and how they got their...
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...
Always Time for Teachable Moments
Whether it is during the prematch conference or a postmatch debrief, a formal evaluation or a self-evaluation, or in a classroom clinic setting, we...
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...
Does the Stop Signal Work Anymore?
Check out this portion of a discussion thread from a basketball referee online chat circa 2007:
“Anybody ever notice how a lot of the talk...
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...
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...
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...
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....
What Supervisors Teach can be What Gets Called
In the local football chapter where I started officiating years ago, it has been the practice to have separate weekly training sessions for first-year officials. The feeling is...
Eliminate Your Own Distractions
There are many things that might disrupt an official’s concentration during a game. They might be internal or external and could happen during play...
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...
Elements that Determine a Successful Crew
In the sports world, a team’s success is determined by wins and losses and, to a major extent, by the number of championships it...
The Right Way to Share and Accept Criticism
W
hich of the following is defined as “the art, skill or profession of making discriminating judgments”?
a. Sports officiating.
b. Studying texts for the purpose of...
4 Reasons We Fail to Get Help
I stumbled upon a couple of clips of MLB games and got a chuckle out of how the announcers reacted to two situations. It’s...
Study The Game To Improve As An Official
One of the greatest things you can do to help improve your officiating is to gain a better understanding of the game itself, whatever...
Traveling Etiquette 101
There are practices that should always be followed when traveling with officiating partners to make sure everyone gets to the game on-time, and gets along with...
Try Angles
There is one thing I find more important than all others in getting my calls on the field and on the court correct: the...
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...
Expect Little and You Won’t Be Disappointed
The spectrum of accommodation made for officials is vast. If you've been continually disappointed perhaps, unfortunately, your expectations were a bit high. What do...
