Working with a Veteran

[stosh]

I remeber my first three or four games (over ten years ago)...

In one game, I worked with a veteran who only praised me for everything I did and really didn't criticize me at all.

In the next two I worked with a veteran who said next to nothing, other than to tell me how we were going to "work these games" (i.e, no switches, "let them play", etc.)

Finally, I worked with a respected veteran, who I felt at the time, was really harsh in correcting me. (Actually he was correcting a lot of the bad habits I had picked up in games 2 and 3). His criticism was all warranted and, over time, made me a better official. But at the time I HATED IT!

After these four games, I looked to work more with the first official, and less with the other two. As time went on, I realized that I was better off with the third, who I now consider a great friend (I still take his advice) and I have come to realize that neither of the other two officials are very well respected and are still working the level of play they were working ten years ago.