How to quickly train officials

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by Back In The Saddle
This Saturday I have been asked to help train a group of officials for a local church league. Some will be new officials (they have been actively recruiting women to work girls games), and some will have been "doing church ball" for many years. The planned format is an hour "classroom" time followed by a tournament of sorts where they will get some floor time. The level of play will be boys and girls, rec league quality or lower. What suggestions do you have?

I have my own opinions on some of this, but I want to know what actual smart people think

* What are the most important things to teach a new official
* One approach that has occurred to me is to allow 30 mins for mechanics and 30 for rules, starting with the "myth busters"
* I've been to camps where the evaluators talk to the officials at time outs and between periods. I've been to camps where the evaluators will sometimes run the floor with you. The latter seems most helpful and by far the most distracting. Which do you prefer?
* If you were planning this, what would you do? I know many of you have trained officials, care to help a guy out?

If possible get the rec coaches to join as well, at least for the rules part. And spend a few minutes reminding them there's nothing to be gained from doing their Bob Knight impersonations.

As for camps, I think the best way is to videotape the game & then go over the tape afterwards. If you can't do that then probably best to keep the observers away from the refs while the game is going on, let them get together between periods or during timeouts.