Art Of Officiating

Home Art Of Officiating

Covering conflict management, the psychology of officiating, best practices and officiating/life balance.

Put a Bad Game in the Rearview Mirror

Every official has had a bad game he or she would rather forget. Whether it was a kicked call, problems with a partner or...

Consistent Mechanics Make for Consistent Calls

Over the years we've all seen and worked with officials who seem to think that mechanics manuals are like buffet lines — chock full...

Don’t Lose Your Passion

Think about the last 10 officials with whom you’ve worked. How many of them brought passion to their game? What was your initial reaction...

Think Outside the Box

By Jeffrey Stern Officials who work a single sport sometimes have a tendency to be a little myopic. If football is their game, they follow...

Your Calls Linger After You

You may think the impact of your officiating is confinded to the time the clock is running and ends at the buzzer, but your...

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...

Coaches Mentality

Coaches and officials can have an adversarial relationship because of the primary difference between an officials and a coaches mentality: Coaches care who wins and officials...

Effective Relationships With Coaches

I was working a boys’ basketball game a few years back and the home team was getting shelled. They couldn’t shoot, pass, handle the...

Unexpected Challenges in Officiating

As I headed down the long, nondescript, stale-smelling concrete tunnel toward the soccer stadium field from the officials’ locker room, looking forward to being...