[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

Bob, that's a good point. I am sometimes too quick to note deficiencies in other officials. I will try to learn from the good things I see and not focus on idiosyncracies.

It is both appropriate and useful to note other officials' deficiencies when watching them work. It's what you do with those "notes" that is important.

Using those notes to trash a fellow official, is obviously bad. Using those notes as evidence in your own mind that you are better than that official, will usually prove harmful to you.

Using those notes as examples of what not to do in your game, is good. Using those notes to form your own conclusion about how good an official is, and by extension how useful incorporating parts of his or her game into yours, is also good.

So don't ignore negative observations about fellow officials, just keep them in their proper place.

One other bit of wisdom from the trenches (that you're free to consider or discard, obviously). You will sometimes see vets with terrible mechanics and horrible habits working big games. And perhaps you will wonder why. Reasons they get those games include: They have become masters of managing a game, they have been around a long time and are widely trusted, they are there to keep an eye on their younger partners and help bring them along.

Just because a "vet" lacks some of the mechanical polish you and I are working to acquire doesn't mean he or she isn't a great official. However, if you and I can become equally masterful at managing a game and as widely trusted, and we also develop great mechanics, I think eventually we'll find there is room at the top for us too.