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

Mentoring could be the most important element to a successful official’s career.

I wanted to take a moment to tell you about the chapter I’m currently writing on Mentoring. I went back through about 10 interviews and listened again to the NFL and NCAA guys speak about mentoring. I was blown away by what they said. I can honestly tell you that each and every person I’ve interviewed has Mentoring listed at the top of their list relative to how they achieved their current heights.
 
Here’s a few quotes I want to share with you:
 
“I think the absolute most important strategy that an official, if they want to advance or even get better at their current level, then they need to find that person who’s working at the top.  Humble yourself and go to that person and say, “Hey, I want to be where you are.  What are some things that you’ve done to make you successful to get there and, knowing my personality traits, my officiating style, what are some things that I can do to improve myself?” 
 
– Ken Rivera, Mountain West Coordinator
 
“Here were guys that would flat out look you in the eye and they’d tell you when you did something positive, and they’d flat out tell you when you needed to change something, you know?  And they did it without being judgmental.  But they could look you in the eye and they could say.”Hey, here’s what I would recommend you to do if that situation happens again.  And that’s what you need from people.  It’s great to have somebody pat you on the back but that’s not, if it needs to change somebody’s got to look you in the eye and tell you.  And then you’ve got to be able to accept that and move on.”
 
– Bill LeMonnier, Big 10 Referee and USA Football Consultant
 
Bill Lovett offered to all the officials, he said that mainly this is for the younger officials or guys that are having a little trouble or whatever and need some assistance.  But they offered their services to all the officials, and anybody who wants weekly calls or to look at film and help them out, they were offering that to anybody. The response that they got back from veterans, from guys that had just worked Super Bowls who were like, “Please take a look at me.” Guys are always trying to get better. They were wanting the training.  And just as a rookie official I looked at that like, that is unbelievable.  There are guys that you looked up to, these guys are the best in the world, and they are striving to get better. They are using tools like this to get better .
 
 – Allen Baynes, NFL Side Judge
 
I hope you see the importance of having a mentor in your officiating career. I know I have mine and they pay huge dividends.  

Please leave me a few comments on how mentoring has affected you and your officiating experience.

Have a great weekend!

Todd

We all know that rules knowledge and rules study are a vital part of every officials toolbox. Rules are so important from penalty enforcement to interpretation and intent. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has remarked at “how” the rulebook is written and possibly even looked for creative methods to study and learn from it.

Gary McCarthy, an Eastern College Athletic Confernece official from Massachusets, gave me this great idea in a recent interview. Actually this was just one of several gems Gary shared with me that have proven beneficial to accelerating his advancement and upward spiral.

Gary reads his rulebook and records it so he can listen to the recording in his car or on his iPod. While this may sound a bit overboard, hold that thought.

As a former educator, I know for a fact people have differnet learning styles. Some are visual, others must read, yet others must put their hands on things in order to learn new concepts. Gary’s technique address the people that like to hear (audio) in order to learn. In fact, the more methods you combine; the more effective your learning can be. So you can read the rulebook or you can listen to a self-made audio recording BUT if you combined both you might greatly enhance your ability to learn the material.

So I tried it. Had to. I was intriqued and had to see it for myself. So I just recorded Rule 2. Simple and relatively easy. I burned the file to a CD Rom so I could play it in my car. I’m please to say it went quite well. I definitely like the ability to rewind sections and repeat the process.

So thanks Gary! What a great tip for the rest of us. We promise to give you all the credit when we ace our annual rules exam each year! Try this out for yourself and let me know what you think. If anyone else had unique rules study techniques please leave your comments on the blog or email me at todd@profootballreferee.com.

Until next time,

Be the Best on the Field.