Camp Clinician/Observer Question

Originally Posted by walt

I was contacted and have been invited to be a clinician/observer at an upcoming 3 day "national" training camp for high school level officials. As a veteran of many camps at the high school and NCAA level myself, I know what type of clinician/observer I like and how I learn. Now that I am about to sit in the chair, be on the film mic, walk the sidelines, I thought I'd ask this group what they appreciate/like/value from a clinician? I've been told there will be approximately 75-100 campers of varying experience levels (brand new to 15 year vets, registered so far). The camp will have two person and three person courts. The only guidance I have received from the camp coordinators is they expect me to be honest, fair, constructive, and willing to observe and submit evals for a lot of basketball officials over the three day period. I am pretty excited about the opportunity. Realizing we all learn differently and respond to feedback differently, I am interested in your views as to what works and doesn't work when interacting with camp clinicians/observers. Thanks!

I've been going to camps for a bit, so I can share some pet peeves I have about clinicians:

When they get easily distracted by other campers sitting with them. This is mostly on the campers but clinicians still have the responsibility to focus on the game at hand.

Only giving advice about mechanics. There is always a play or two to talk about, and playcalling is a big part of what we do.

Good clinicians recognize that there are several correct ways to officiate a play or handle a situation. There's no hard and fast way to do things, and if things work out in the end campers should get credit for what they did.

As a camper I hate when I go to one court and get told one thing and implement that on my next court and get told the opposite. This is especially frustrating when a clinician doesn't know how the boss/assignor who is running the camp wants things done.

At the HS camp level, critiquing signals too much. Critique other mechanics and positioning all you want, but understand that signals are there to communicate to players, coaches, and fans what kind of call we have. If the signals I use do that effectively, then it shouldn't be a big deal if they are not literally out of the rulebook signal sheet.