What is an experienced ref?

[M&M Guy]

Originally posted by tomegun

I don't agree with a lot of this. Sometimes, unfortunately, evaluators don't know what they are talking about. I think you will always have something you could do better the next game. When I have the perfect game I'm going to quit and I don't think I'm going to be quitting any time soon. I also don't think striving to improve relates to gaining experience. Maybe I'm not understanding what you are trying to say. Can you explain further?

I agree with FrankHtown. I think what he's trying to say (and I always seem to get in trouble when I do this, but here goes anyway), there are people that get to a level and stay there, no matter how many games they do. They don't want to get better; maybe they think they've done their 1,000 games and now they're "experienced". I might be closer to 1,500 games, and I'm still looking for input from other officials, clinicians at camps, supervisors, etc. Part of becoming more experienced is learning what information to use and what to discard. We've all had the situation at camps where one clinician tells you one thing, and you go to the next court the other clinician will tell you the opposite. Experience teaches you to just nod and say "Ok", rather than saying "But, so-and-so told me..."

I don't think the number of games alone determines experience, as much as what you do with the knowledge gained. So, I would think striving to improve, along with applying that knowledge, makes you a more experienced official. That's how someone with 500 games might be a more experienced official than someone with 1,500 games. Also, I think "experienced" and "good", might be two slightly different concepts, but I think they are related.