Best Practices
Pregame Meeting Etiquette
Pat the referee arrives at Hometeam High School for a basketball game. With Chris, the inexperienced partner, in tow, Pat approaches Hometeam Head Coach...
How To Handle a Kicked Call
A
s a longtime NCAA Division I college women’s basketball official, Mark Zentz says there’s a surefire way for him to know when he’s blown...
How To Develop The Mental Skills to Thrive as an Official
How to develop the mental skills needed to thrive and advance in officiating.
By Karen Swanner
D
o you have the mental skills to become one of...
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...
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...
Techniques to Speed Up Games
One of the great debates in sports these days is how long it takes to play the games. Television has been a great boon...
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...
Conflict of Interest?
Conflict of interest. Whether it actually exists between an official and coach or administrator or family member or whatever the case, when that phrase...
Enhance Your Skills Fast With Repetition and Practice
Practice is synonymous with athletes, but practice can be as helpful to officials as it is to those playing the games. Whether it’s actually...
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...
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...
16 Sure-Fire Ways to Improve
Tens of thousands of words have been devoted to helping officials improve their performance. No attempt has been made here to identify these as the best tips. But...
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...
Six Points of Simple Wisdom
There's a lot of simple wisdom out there, but sometimes those are the things that ring most true. Here are a few to think...
Seven Kinds of Hustle
Hustle is defined in different ways by different sports officials, but many will point out that the physical — get from here to there as fast as possible...
A.D.’s Who Officiate Give Tips On Working With Game Admin
As officials, it’s desirable to maintain quality working relationships with the athletic directors of the schools where we work. As in any working relationships...
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...
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...
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...
Are You Ready to Be in the Spotlight?
Getting the big game — a state playoff contest, a showdown between traditional rivals or a game to decide a conference championship — is...
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...
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...
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...
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...
