Anyone get worse after the first few years?

[dsqrddgd909]

Tomegun, No he was talking about possibly missing the call, but to his credit he said he didn't have the best look, it was in my primary and I needed to call what I saw.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

Tomegun, No he was talking about possibly missing the call, but to his credit he said he didn't have the best look, it was in my primary and I needed to call what I saw.

Then he had no business saying it that way, IMO. He had nothing constructive to add, from the sound of it. If he had a good look and had something different, that would be different.

[maven]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

Tomegun, No he was talking about possibly missing the call, but to his credit he said he didn't have the best look, it was in my primary and I needed to call what I saw.

So here's a veteran official encouraging a younger guy to second guess himself, with no constructive advice about how to officiate the play better.

Bleh. And the vets in your association are probably wondering why their newer officials lack confidence.

[Sharpshooternes]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

I'll try to keep this brief.

4th year, mostly assigned JV B/G doubleheaders, some freshmen and Middle school sprinkled in.

I have tried to improve. I'm in better shape, I'm in the rules and case books. I attend our association's training, I go to clinics, I've got a mentor. I go to watch more experienced officials.

I just don't feel I'm getting better. I think my judgement is getting worse.

Friday night, freshman boy's doubleheader in tournament. Aggressive D by both teams, poor shooting, so lots of changes of possession and rebounding. Late in Q2, I have what I think is a 50/50 charge/block call on a fast break. I go with charge (trying to remember what my mentor told me that if it's 50/50 go with the charge and it will help clean up play). A's coach vehemently disagrees. I try to explain that the player doesn't have to be a statue and that just makes him angrier. "You're (and it was either freaking, frickin, or F&*(ing) terrible." I T him up. Didn't even handle that right. Didn't inform my partner, just kind of wandered around. At half, partner says Coach may have had a point.

Next morning, Saturday tournament Middle school. Guess at 3 or 4 calls, pass or miss a couple of obvious travels and call some phantom contact.

My question is has anybody else experienced this? I hope I'm not one of those guys that has a rookie year over and over again.

I have this occasionaly when I make a questionable or bad call and I know it, the players and coaches know it and the fans know it. The issue for me is that I lose my focus which then can cause me to spiral down from there. The good thing is, is that I know I do this, so I just have to take a breath, tell my self to let that one go and learn from it and then GET REFOCUSED. If I do that, usually the game improves and I don't continue to spiral down the toilet.

[SCalScoreKeeper]

One of my favorite officiating rules is "See it,process it,call it." Really works in a sport like volleyball when you're a linesman and everybody wants a call right away.

[Tio]

It sounds to me like the only thing getting worse is your self-confidence. According to your post, you are doing the right things with conditioning, rules study. You did not mention it, but I hope you are attending a good teaching camp or two in the offseason.

You did mention a couple of things that alarm me in your post.

1. You should NEVER GUESS on a play. If you cannot see the play and determine a call with 100% knowledge, do not blow your whistle. If you do not have an open look, your partner probably will and can help. If you are constantly in bad angles, you need to watch yourself on tape or have another official observe you and see what you are doing to maintain open looks (ie moving to get an angle). It sounds like you are not in proper position, but even so, never guess.

2. Coaches will never be "won over" with a description of why you called a play. 95% of the time, they disagree with you and nothing you say will change their mind. Keep the dialog short and say, I saw a charge coach. The defender had legal guarding position. Then walk away.

3. Most concerning is that you are doubting yourself...we all miss plays, but move on and make sure you get the next one right. The coach has now gotten into your head. It would not surprise me to watch the play and find that you got it right. Trust your skillset, trust your judgement!

[Kelvin green]

If you are familiar with competency stages and the situational leadershio model developed by ken blanchard and Paul Hersey, part of their model is that theer is a learning stage where as you progress that you become insecure...

The stage you are going through is a natural stageof learning and development. The difficulty is that when we get to thisbtype of stage we need a leader that is highly encouraging and we as officials are normally on our own so it is harder to get through this stage... You will get through it just kep working at it

[BballRookie]

- I hope this isn't out of place in this thread:

I know that camps have been brought up previously, but as a newer official, I go out of my way to promote camps with my peers(I just attended one), because sometimes they can be presented in the wrong way. I have encouraged friends to find an instructional camp where they will get a lot of feedback and have the opportunity to sit in sessions covering important topics. For instance "If you totally blow a call how do you respond to an irate coach" or "at what point does an emotional coach shift to a disrespectful coach" etc etc. For a new official, this may be a completely demoralizing situation to think about and those situations can ruin your game. Not all clinicians are the best, but there going to be things that you'll learn in a very intense 3 day period that you won't during the season, primarily because you have paid to have a talented official watch and give you feedback.

My mentor told me that a camp is worth 3 seasons. I found that to be accurate in my experience. Even though I felt lost at camp, I felt very confident when I got back home. It was almost like a steroid for my confidence level.

The only camp I went to was instructional, although assigners were acting as clinicians. Many of the guys had attended other camps where the feedback was less frequent, and they didn't learn as much. We had very candid conversations, so there was no reason for them to sugar coat their opinions.

Bottom line: not all camps are created equally, but some are very helpful. Ask a number of people their opinion, since bias exists with the recommendations you'll receive.

[BillyMac]

I don't know if this applies to basketball officiating, or, anything else for that matter, but according to journalist Malcom Gladwell, mastery of anything, whether it's the Beatles in music, or Bill Gates in the computer world, takes 10,000 hours of practice.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I don't know if this applies to basketball officiating, or, anything else for that matter, but according to journalist Malcom Gladwell, mastery of anything, whether it's the Beatles in music, or Bill Gates in the computer world, takes 10,000 hours of practice.

I was once told it takes a minimum of 7 seasons before one is ready "to work any game" in local our jurisdiction. The top 2 games would be Game 3 of the BV city final and the regional BV final.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

I'll try to keep this brief.

4th year, mostly assigned JV B/G doubleheaders, some freshmen and Middle school sprinkled in.

I have tried to improve. I'm in better shape, I'm in the rules and case books. I attend our association's training, I go to clinics, I've got a mentor. I go to watch more experienced officials.

I just don't feel I'm getting better. I think my judgement is getting worse.

...

My question is has anybody else experienced this? I hope I'm not one of those guys that has a rookie year over and over again.

What you may not realize is that you ARE getting better. You appear to be starting to understand things that probably went right over your head before. One of the steps to improving is being able to recognize your errors (or just possible errors) and being able to deconstruct them and decide if what you had was right or maybe not...and then decide what you want to change, if anything, to improve.

Sometimes, you can do the right thing the wrong way and the improvement that is needed is in how you do something as opposed to what to do.

Take, for example, your discussion with the coach. Maybe you said too much. Maybe you said it in a way that was confrontational and escalated the tension. Maybe the coach was just going to be a jerk no matter what you said and how you said it. See if you can think of a better way to communicate to that coach so that they trust what you said....or at least respect what you said. But, again, it may have also been the coach but that still doesn't mean you can't review how that exchange went.

[stir22]

Great thread, thank you for posting it. Lots of great feedback. I'm in my fifth year, and totally understand the OP's thoughts and emotions. I feel this way sometimes; when I do, i take a step back, and take fewer games in parochial leagues, jr. high, the leagues that aren't high school. This helps. As one poster said, the quality of ball in the much lower levels is so brutal sometimes that it can make anyone question their abilities as an official.

I talk to a lot of the guys/gals in my pool about it...not just my mentor. Their opinions are candid and honest.

One thing that helped me is this- I put together an informal "study club" of guys/gals...most have about my level of experience or less, but anyone is welcome. We get together once/twice a week, usually at a coffee place, drink coffee and talk. We talk rules, nuances, and water-bucket issues. This helps a lot. We have our regular study club, but our informal one is totally different.

The truth is, we are seldom as good as we think we are on our best nights...and not as horrid as we knew we were on our worst nights.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by stir22

... We get together once/twice a week, usually at a coffee place, drink coffee and talk. We talk rules, nuances, and water-bucket issues. This helps a lot. We have our regular study club, but our informal one is totally different.
....

I don't hang with officials who frequent "coffee places".

[stir22]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

I don't hang with officials who frequent "coffee places".

heh. Our "coffee place" is a 24 hour restaurant/diner whose clientele is truckers, workin' joes, and the occasional stripper (not kidding) stopping in for dinner after a hard night on the pole.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by stir22

heh. Our "coffee place" is a 24 hour restaurant/diner whose clientele is truckers, workin' joes, and the occasional stripper (not kidding) stopping in for dinner after a hard night on the pole.

In North Carolina along I-95, there are a few truck stops that are actually strip clubs....but I digress.

What were we talking about?