Quote:
Originally Posted by Berkut
As a more general observation:
It is really quite amazing - the game really does "slow down" the more you do it.
You are going to come out next year, and you will *immediately* notice that the stuff you had to think about last year comes much more naturally, and hence your brain will be freed up to think about stuff you didn't think about at all the year before. Stuff like point of attack before it happens, tendencies, things like that. When you first start, it seems like it takes all your concentration just to remember where to line up, how to control your chains, adminsitrative things like that.
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Just remember next year, though - you don't know as much as you think you do.
My first day of rookie class, the head of training pointed to the second year guys and said "those guys right there are the most dangerour men we can put on a football field. They THINK they know what they're doing!" Officiating is something that you'll still be learning things about until the day that you retire. The moment you think you know it all and don't need to learn anything else is the day you may as well retire.
Once piece of advice I give to new officials in my association is to take one thing away from each game. It may be learning something that you need to be doing. It may be learning something that you SHOULDN'T be doing. It may be something you see someone else do, or something that you stumble upon on your own. But every game you do presents at least one opportunity to improve your work. Look for those opportunities and take advantage of them.
Don't be afraid to ask your crewmates for feedback on the job that you did. That veteran WH may have a valuable piece of advice for you that will make the light bulb go off. At halftime of every game and at the end of every game, even now, I still ask my crew "do any of you guys see anything for me? Is there something I;m doing that I shouldn't, or something i'm not doing that I should?"
You also need to know who you're asking, of course - asking a fellow rookie for feedback probably won't be as valuable as asking one of the grizzled vets.
Most of all, enjoy the ride. I had never been on a football field in my life (except a for pickup games in college) when I stepped on the field for my first scrimmage. I do softball in the spring, and if my wife told me I could only do one sport for the rest of my life, it would be football.