Tommy Moore discusses why you need to bring your A game regardless of what level you officiate. As a deep wing official in the Southwest Conference to 12 years in the NFL then on to the replay booth, Tommy Moore has seen it all in football officiating.

There are times as we climb the ladder of football officiating, I think its important to stop, reflect and smell the artificial turf. Each of us love being a football official and I find it invigorating to talk to officials on the front end of their journey.

My friend Chip  Etier,Etierphotography, has recently started a new blog focusing on high school and college football officiating.

If you have a moment, drop by and pay his blog a visit. It’s called ZebraTales (appropriately named!) and you can find it at http://zebratales.blogspot.com/

This podcast will how to choose a Football Officiating Clinic. The Tom Beard Football Officiating Clinic is held at Howard University in Washington, DC. Listen as I discuss with the Clinic leaders how to select a camp, how to prepare for attending a camp and how to get the most out of this unique training experience.

My good friend Ron Diviney (from Texas where football is BIG and officials wear spurs) sent me this PDF which goes into great detail on stretching. Stretching is a fundamental component of my workout regiment as well as my pregame preparation.

I keep a large resistance bandwhich is about 4 inches wide and about 6 feet long in my bag. I use it to assist in stretching my hamstrings and glutes, shoulders and chest. You can find one at Amazon.com and you should definitely have one in your gym bag. If you want to see the one I have…click here

I continue to see officials use stretching techniques without a proper warm-up period which can do more harm than good often leading or contributing to injury.

Check out this article which does a great job explaining the proper way to stretch.

http://www.iahsaa.org/officials/Officials_Warmup_&_Stretching_Handout.pdf

Here is to better health, better fitness and better football officiating!

Be the Best on the Field,

Todd