What should I work at next season?

[Hartsy]

Going into my third year officiating, I hope to keep improving at the same pace as I have the last two seasons. Surely I still have a lot to work on.

Year one I concentrated on getting comfortable on the court; being in the right position, looking in the right places, making the obvious calls, etc.

Year two my focus was on game awareness/management; being aware of how the game was flowing, anticipating calls for time out, preventing rough play, and that sort of thing.

Additionally, each season I worked hard to be decisive and make strong calls and signals.

All in all, I think I have had a great start.

What I hope to hear from the group are ideas on what may be a good focus for me this coming season, and how to approach it. Many of you are quality veterans who may work with us newbies, and I'd like to know what things you often see as weak spots in the inexperienced along with ways to improve.

Advice from other newbies encouraged, too. Let me know what things you have found difficult and what advice you have received to overcome that.

Thanks in advance.

[JRutledge]

In 3 years there is nothing you are going to master at this stage of your career. Of course there are something might need more work than other things, but if I were you I would be very careful not to just focus on one aspect of your game. I can also tell you that if there are levels you have not worked, you will be faced with another challenge in the coming years. You might have a good understanding of how a Freshman game is to be called, but that will change when you move to the Sophomore level and then the varsity level. I have worked varsity ball many more years than college basketball. When I work a college game, I know I am not nearly as good a college official as I am at the HS level. I have to work a lot harder to be consistent and deal with my partners, players and coaches at the college level than I do at the HS level. Do not limit your growth to one or two aspects of the game. As you become more experienced you will notice that many things will get easier. Part of having experience is the fact that you will go through things over and over again to where it becomes old hat after some time.

Peace

[rainmaker]

If you have any tapes of yourself from last season, or from camp this summer, watch them, and it won't be difficult at all to figure out what's next.

[M&M Guy]

Let me add, for whatever it's worth - don't be afraid to ask people for advice. Well, ok, you're doing that now, but I mean asking people that have seen you work, or have worked with you. They might have a better understanding of what you need to work on immediately to improve. This also goes along with what rainmaker said - seeing a tape of yourself might also reveal some things that you didn't even know you were doing (or not doing).

But, don't ask everyone in sight. And don't ask them in the middle of a game. Find a couple of people you can trust, that you could consider "mentors", and ask them ahead of time if there's a chance they could watch you work. Or, perhaps, if you have a game tape, you could offer to bring over a few brownpops and watch the tape together on a day off. Use some of those opportunities to learn and pick up some pointers.

And last, but certainly not least, keep checking back here for more tips and information as the season progresses.

[zebraman]

I would suggest that this year you start expanding your vision to outside of the court as well. Become a good clock manager and bench manager. At each whistle, take a quick look at the clock to see the time remaining (and make sure it isn't incorrectly running). Also take a quick look at the bench areas to make sure that bench decorum is being followed etc. I know a lot of experienced officials that can still only ref inside the boundary lines.

Z

[blindzebra]

I suggest start helping in the mentoring of rookie officials.

Focusing on helping others can really improve your game. Questions that come up and advice you give will reinforce what you know and what you need to work on.

Obviously, after just a few years you won't be able to do all the teaching a more experienced official can, but you are better able to relate to their newness and can easily pass on good advice that worked for you.

[Hartsy]

EVERYTHING!! Yes, JRut, I hear ya on that. I can't point to one facet of this I feel I have mastered. It's just hard for me to go into a game without having one or two particular "points of emphasis".

Once again the idea of watching game tape has come up. I'll try to find someone to work with this year who can watch me in person or on tape. Can I argue with myself when the video looks different than it did live?

[M&M Guy]

Originally posted by Hartsy
Can I argue with myself when the video looks different than it did live?

Absolutley. I argue with myself all the time. I hate it when I lose, though.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Hartsy
EVERYTHING!! Yes, JRut, I hear ya on that. I can't point to one facet of this I feel I have mastered. It's just hard for me to go into a game without having one or two particular "points of emphasis".

Once again the idea of watching game tape has come up. I'll try to find someone to work with this year who can watch me in person or on tape. Can I argue with myself when the video looks different than it did live?

Find someone with lots of experience to critique the call you make. You yourself can see if you're reporting looks good, if you're int he best position relative to the play and the ball, whether you're picking your ear during time-outs, things like that.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Hartsy
EVERYTHING!! Yes, JRut, I hear ya on that. I can't point to one facet of this I feel I have mastered. It's just hard for me to go into a game without having one or two particular "points of emphasis".

Once again the idea of watching game tape has come up. I'll try to find someone to work with this year who can watch me in person or on tape. Can I argue with myself when the video looks different than it did live?

I understand what you are saying. I think what Juulie said and I believe another person commented that finding a mentor or someone to watch you will help you focus. It is really hard in this kind of forum to tell you something without seeing you actually work. You should go into every game trying to get better at something. Sometimes that might be a couple of things, another time that might be just one thing. I just want to illustrate that if you just focus on one or two things for the entire year you might not get that much better. There are things you will get better at in the first 5 minutes of a game and you will need to move on to another issue depending on what you are focused on for that moment.

Peace

[Texas Aggie]

My third year was my most productive, improvement wise, in officiating. By the end of the year, I was amazed at how much progress I had made prior to the end of the previous season. I no longer had any apprehension about any games (well, most any) and my mechanics were sharper than ever.

There are lots of little things you can work on, but I'd work hard on dealing with players and coaches. You've already proven by working 2 years you can handle criticism, even stupid criticism, so now work on actually appreciating it. Yes, by that I mean look forward to it. I LOVED working games where the crowd was big and really into it. I couldn't have cared less whether they were yelling at me or whether they were right (they never were). It used to give me a rush. But I had to make an attitude change to get there, and it started off as a concious effort. I'd recommend any young official adopt that attitude.

Get your mechanics in ship shape. Speaking of shape, make sure you are in ship shape. If you are in position, hustling, with good mechanics, and good rules knowledge (resulting with good calls on the court), you are now in good position for post season work and higher level work.

[ditttoo]

How many games do you conduct a thorough and proper "pre-game"? What about "post game" discussion?

Conducting a good "pre/post game" routine EVERYTIME should help you focus on what you need to work on.

You might find that you need to work on getting your partners to have a good "pre game".

Don't forget to work on having fun!

[Hartsy]

Originally posted by ditttoo


You might find that you need to work on getting your partners to have a good "pre game".

I'll try just that. I have preferred partners who don't mind doing some instructing. Maybe if I'm persistent with questions, and letting them know I'm trying to get better, more people will be willing to help.

But as someone mentioned, I will listen to some more than others.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by Hartsy

Once again the idea of watching game tape has come up. I'll try to find someone to work with this year who can watch me in person or on tape. Can I argue with myself when the video looks different than it did live?

Yes.

In some cases, there's nothing that can be done - from the floor things look one way; up top they look another way.

However, most of the time, what the video is telling you is "get in a better position so you can see what really happened." This is where, as Juulie and Rutledge have pointed out, having someone else (preferably more experienced than you) evaluate your film can be a big help. Hopefully, in addition to knowing that you're out of position, they know how you can correct it.

[Back In The Saddle]

There have been many good observations and suggestions. I have found keeping a game journal to be a useful tool to help me improve. After every game I do a self evaluation. I look back at what I did well, what didn't go so well and any unusual things than happened. I also keep a to-do list of things to work on.

Then before each game I review the previous one and pick a couple of things from my to-do list to work on this game. I find that I progress faster when I do this than when I don't. Combine journaling with these other suggestions and I think you've got a good plan for the coming season.