SEC and Sunbelt officials...and me before a Kentucky scrimmage

Some of you may know in addition to my love for football officiating, I have recently become a high school basketball official. I’m in my rookie season as a JV official with the Kentuckiana Basketball Officials Association. I’m having a lot of fun and this experience reminds me of my rookie football season 7 years ago.

So I’ve been thinking about how to apply what I’ve learned from football to basketball, and there are definitely parallels. Let’s take mentoring for example. I want to move up to varsity in the quickest amount of time. There are some officials that are working JV for the 7 and 8th year.  While that may  be okay for some, its not how I’m built. I want to improve and advance. Just my nature.

  The word is out. Monday, August 24th at 9 am EST I will host a LIVE teleseminar where I will interview SEC Commissioner of Football Officiating and NCAA Rules Editor/Secretary; Rogers Redding.

I hosted a small contest to see who could guess what I was up to. Several good answers but only one correct response.

AND THE WINNER IS: RON DIVINEY

Ron will receive a consolation prize from ProFootballReferee.com (I just need some time to come up with something impressive!)

If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so easily at www.profootballreferee.com/teleseminar/rogersredding

Can’t make that time? No worries! A replay of the interview will be available but you must register to get on the notification list. I’ll also be hosting the call on the upcoming podcast next month. Stay tuned for more details on that!

Heartland Conference

So let’s quickly revisit Larry Synder’s list of “What It Take To Be A Great Football Official.”

Study Rules of the Game

• Rule Book
• Tests & Quizzes
• Ask Other Officials
• Quiz a Buddy
• Never Stop Learning

Study Mechanics of Game

• CCA Mechanics Manual
• Camps & Clinics
• Philosophy
• Attend area meetings/rules study groups (Do any of you do this now?)
• Surround yourself with better officials
• Its hard to soar with the eagles, when you are surrounded by turkeys.

Part Two

• Watch film – the single biggest factor to rapidly improving your learning and accelerating your advancement. Countless seasoned NCAA and NFL veterans have pointed out to me during their interviews that film review tremendously improved their abilities. In some ways you can consider watching film as a close substitute for snaps. Granted, nothing will take the place of live play, but watching film can definitely add a different perspective while adding to your experience level. Some have suggested that it can advance your learning by a factor of four! What this means is that you can shave three years off your experience level if you are trying to get promoted to a higher level. An aspiring motivated official with 4 years of experience (1 of which was heavy on film review) is similar to an official with 7 years experience (no film review). How do you think guys get into the NFL at age 34? You can bet they spent time in front of a TV reviewing film.

• Experience – How much is enough? Larry is very clear here. Get as much experience on the field as possible. This means youth league, spring and fall scrimmages, junior varsity games, varsity games at the high school level and then basically the same process at the college level. When making the transition to college, you will find conference supervisors are looking for those individuals that are willing to take the scrimmage and JV games. They want a prospect to have a few games under their belt before putting them on the field. There truly is no substitute for experience. I have personally stood on teh sidelines behind seasoned Division I officials just to ask questions, watch from that angle and get a feel for the speed and quickness of the game at the higher levels. Without a doubt, this helped me in my first scrimmage giving me a small comfort level (that is, until the whistle blew!).

• What You Have Control Over – This was the cornerstone of Larry’s list. I hear often, officials at all levels, complain that they can’t get the good games, they can’t get the supervisor’s attention, can’t get noticed and so on… You can probably name a few in your local associaiton or area too. So let’s look at that statement. What can we control? Well for one, I can control my ability to study and know the rules and mechanics of the game. I can use the rule book, study groups, practice or scrimmage activity to really and fully know the rules. I can stay in good physical conditioning. This will allow me to get into position, be quick and react in a timely manner. It will help me look athletic in my uniform. Let me be clear – The Division I conferences have a ZERO tolerance for officials out of shape or overweight. Coaches and players prepare year around for the season. The zebras are no exception. Just take a look at the NFL staff. The athleticism and physical fitness is at its highest level. Its that important.  Attend every learning opportunity you can. Clinics, camps, rules study groups, association meetings, scrimmages, film sessions. While not necessarily consistent across the board, learning opportunities still abound in various forms in every city, state or region. Whether you take advantage of them or not is another topic.

So that’s all for my comments on Larry’s philosophy. I personally know several officials that have been mentored by Larry and they are all performing at the highest levels today. They will all admit that the process wasn’t easy and often times the requirements were not what they wanted to hear. Yet the followed the path and Larry led them in the right direction.

This post is getting long so I’m going to save my next story for tomorrow. It’s about how I applied Larry’s philosophy to gain entrance into the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Be the Best on the Field!

Todd

Practice, Practice, Practice

Why does it seem a bit goofy for an official to stand in front of a mirror and practice signals, but it’s normal for a player to spend hours working on a post-up move to the basket? Why would it seem strange to witness a basketball referee in his backyard tossing a jump ball to imaginary players, but there’s no problem with a baseball player hitting off a tee in his garage, practicing his swing?

Truth is, many officials don’t practice at all. Think about it: Is it really fair to the players and coaches who have put hours, weeks and years into their games for officials to show up without a second of practice? To that end, officials need to act more like players and coaches. We must practice what we do.

For his first two years in the NFL, referee Ed Hochuli was a back judge on former referee Howard Roe’s crew. Hochuli says that before every game, Roe stood before a mirror, practicing signals. One day, Hochuli jokingly asked Roe if he’d finally gotten them down pat. Roe turned to Hochuli and answered seriously, “It’s important to get it just right.” Hochuli agrees that attitude helps officials improve. “You’re never too qualified to improve,” said Hochuli. “Being picky pays off.”

Techniques. There are lots of things officials can practice — some mental, others physical. This brief list shows just some of the things you could practice that will help you in your games.

• Practice tossing the ball underhand to your crewmate. Too often poor tosses among crewmates bounce aimlessly or sail overhead. It looks bad and slows things down. Work on it.
• Count the offense/defense. You can easily practice this while watching any game, live or on TV.
• Know your keys. Line of Scrimmage or Deep Officials – As the offense lines up, call out your key.
• Also, do your best Howard Roe imitation and practice your signals, even if you’re not the referee. Make sure your signals are strong and crisp. While practicing them, think about the proper yardage and penalty administration.

Now I can’t take credit for this story. I heard it first from J.T. Orr, an NBA and NCAA basketball referee; but I do like the story and the message it delivers.

Do you remember as a kid (or parent) that game called Barrel of Monkeys?

There was a plastic barrel which contained 10 or 15 plastic monkeys. Each of the monkeys had a hand that stretched out above their head and one that stretched below them. The hands were formed like hooks. Remember that?

Well the object of the game was to see how many monkeys you could pick up out of the barrel basically creating a chain of monkeys hooked at their hands. You were only allowed to touch one monkey. As one monkey came out of the barrel, he reached back down to grab another monkey and pull him up.

If you want to read the rest of the story, sign up for our Free Email Course on Getting Noticed, Moving Up and Improving Your Football Officiating Skills. Its provides some highlights of our research on the topic. Best of all…its FREE.