Looking forward to Camp (s)
 

If there is something I've noticed with guys buried on the wrong side of the officiating totem pole, it's that they act like attending camps is for suck ups, or they just can't make it for whatever reason(some legit, like work, which is understandable).

A lot of successful people in our association have described camps as vital, and a way to dramatically improve in a short period of time.

That being said, I'm looking forward to attending a few camps this summer and hope to really learn a lot from the clinicians. One thing I've taken from this forum (reading old posts on camps from years back) is that I need to keep my mouth shut and listen, even if there is a disagreement. Also, don't take things too personally.

Any additional advice you have is welcome. I understand many of the camp topics have been beaten to death in prior forum discussions.

This has been the most negative aspect of officiating I have encountered here where I work. We have a dearth of promising young officials in this area that I attribute to this.

This has also been said in other threads, but I would suggest that you pick a camp(s) that meets your goals for this summer. If it's your first season of officiating, you (probably) don't want to attend a try-out camp for a D1 conference. It would likely be a waste of your money. Little feedback and even less chance to get hired.

Instead, go to a camp that is instructional in nature. If you are in a state that works with 2-whistle crews, don't go to a 3-whistle camp. It's not going to be as helpful to you when you get to the regular season. If there is a camp that is instructional, but the instructors are assignors for various leagues in your area, all the better!

Depending on where you live, you might not have a lot of choices. But my advice would be to choose a camp that best fits your needs.

We are in a camp system environment in today's game period. That is not going to change for all kinds of reasons. The problem with officiating as a whole is officials are not very realistic with their abilities or lack thereof.

Peace

If you surveyed 100 random officials about their abilities relative to their peers, you'd probably get 80-90% that would rate themselves above average. Such a tilt in the perception of one's abilties is not uncommon in most competitive environments.

Reasons...
 

Reasons Around Here for Not Going to Camp:
(as far as I've been able to discern)
1. Fear of constructive critique (same guys who don't accept intra-crew feedback well)
2. Conflicting officiating schedule (lots of basketball guys here also do baseball and softball in summer months)
3. Don't want to shell out the bucks (same guys who complain when the game checks are late; settle for shoddy uniforms)
4. Haven't done it before (no first-hand knowledge of the beneficial aspects of camp)
5. Bad vibes from some who go to camp (who come back as "better than others know it alls")
6. Some officials are happy at the sublevel they're at and don't desire to move up (J.Seinfeld: "not that there's anything wrong with that")
7. Just don't have enough local officials promoting it
8. Procrastination when it comes to registration
9. Work conflicts (cf. parenthetical remark on #6)

I'll own up to #3 and #4 in the past. I signed up for my first camp this summer, and I thank those here for pushing them. If anything, we don't get enough constructive critique during the regular season.