[LarryS]

What all of you are talking about is teaching style. A good mentor/trainer/teacher will be able to identify the type of "student" receiving the information. Some people can take blunt, dry matter-of-fact verbal evaluations. Some people need to be told something and have it demonstrated/illustrated. Still others have the personal makeup that requires they hear positive reinforcement at sometime during the evaluation. If you are unable to communicate in the way the best helps the other person, you are wasting the time of at least two people.

Telling someone what they are doing well may be a big help in another way. Suppose one of the officials arrived just in time (traffic, held up at work, etc) to change and have a quick pregame. The less experienced partner may have forgot to say "By the way, I have been working on X. I would like some feedback on that after the game if you don't mind". I know that I, more so when I first got started than now, asked the "old guys" to help me prioritize the things gave me to work on...mainly because there were a lot of them.

I personally believe that there is no such thing at "constructive criticism". Criticism, by its nature, is destructive. For someone to improve at anything, they need to hear good and bad feedback. If all they hear is negative, they tend to doubt their ability and future advancement.

Just my two pennies.