Officials Clinics, What Makes them Good?

[The Roamin' Umpire]

All the responses so far have said "brevity," but really, if you're in that much of a hurry to get out of there, why did you show up in the first place?

In my experience, many officials don't sit for lectures that well. So what needs to be kept short are the "one guy talking at everyone else" parts of the presentation.

The best way to pull this off is if you're actually on a field. Have some guys act like players, so that everyone can see what this foul looks like, where you should be standing, etc.

Next best after that is video. Frequent video clips can turn an otherwise OK-but-dull lecture into an excellent learning experience.

Anytime you're dealing with specific plays, throw in one or two wacky ones. Guys often like to kick these around - just be careful, or the entire time can be spent debating every last detail. The point is to pique people's interest and get them thinking.

As for who should be position leaders, if you're drawing from within your own organization, you need to recognize that regardless of who you pick, some guys will tune him out.

That said, the first trait you need is someone widely respected, to keep that to a minimum. He needs to be experienced, but it doesn't have to be an elder statesman. You also need someone who is serious about improving his own game, otherwise he won't take his role as teacher seriously, either. Finally, you need someone with good communication skills, both to help keep people's attention and to actually get his points across. If I were organizing the clinic as a whole, I'd sit down with each of the position leaders for a few minutes, just to make sure they have a good idea of what they want to cover - a little preparation goes a long way towards a good presentation.