Best Practices

Best Practices

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...

7 Ways to Avoid Attacks

Unfortunately, in today’s culture, many officials have been followed out to their car by unfriendly people after a game. Others have been threatened during or after a...

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...

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...

Postgame Discussions The Right Way

It was a tough game and not much went as planned. Now it’s time to break down where it all went wrong. It‘s a stressful situation and...

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...

Arrive and Shine With Good First Impressions

How you enter the arena, stadium, field or other facility says a lot about you. Do you casually stroll in? Are you laughing, confident,...

Battle Through a Tough Start

Anyone who has officiated any sport at any level has had games in which things didn’t go as planned. What if the unexpected trip-up...

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...

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...

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...
16 tips to be a better official or referee

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...

How and When Do You Interact With Players?

Questions officials face in contests include: How and when do you interact with players? Do you nip brewing bad behavior in the bud? Do...

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...

Working Youth Games Is Good For Everyone

Youth leagues are where many officials get their start, particularly those who begin officiating at a young age. Those games provide a good place...

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...

Climb Your Mountain

A mountain is such a commonly used metaphor because it provides beautiful imagery to our goals and the challenges we face to reach them. Every...

Are You Choosing Your Partner Wisely?

Some sports officials do not have the luxury of choosing their game partner. Many organizations have a commissioner or game assigner that schedules each...

Be Prepared When You Travel to Assignments

Whether this is your first year or 10th year as an official, there is great anticipation while you await your schedule. You can’t wait...

6 To Do’s Before Play Resumes After a Stoppage

At a time when scrutiny of officials is greater than ever before, the need to get plays right is Job One. Most evaluators won’t...

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...

Big Game, Big Stage

Most of us lead a simple life. We’ll never have to go through the drudgery of another game at Soldier Field or Madison Square...

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...

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