Reflections on a well-spent weekend

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Rufus

Things went much better this year in camp than my previous experience (both from a quality of camp/clinicians and, more to the point, my maturity level and willingness to keep my mouth shut and listen). Many thanks to the posters here for providing camp tips and how to get the most out of the time.

With some time spent reflecting, here are some quick takeaways from the camp:

• Listen more than you talk - once committed to this sit back and watch how few of the other attendees adopt this approach.
  ...
• Don't get hung up on conflicts in feedback - my first game the clinician said I need to use Fed mechanics on violations/out of bounds. Tried to incorporate it but was inconsistent. Had the same clinician for game 5 where I didn't use the mechanics again and he didn't mention it (he had repeated it several times to other officials so it's not that he forgot). Last game the clinician specifically said not to use Fed mechanics. The "old" me would have gotten hacked off and wondered why they couldn't get on the same page. The "new" me accepted their feedback, tried it out, and ultimately got to the place I knew my association wanted me to be.
  ...

Thanks again and hope that all who have camps scheduled get what they're looking for out of them.

Yep, camp is definitely not the place to be caught up in being "right". If you get some conflicting feedback that you just can't get past then just find a moment to sidebar one-on-one with an observor and try to get some additional clarification and advice.