Successful sports officiating

208 Pages·2011·18.701 MB·English

by  American Sport Education Program

SucceSSful
SPORTS OffIcIATING
Second edition
American Sport education Program
Human Kinetics
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Successful sports officiating / American Sport Education Program. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-9829-8 (soft cover)
ISBN-10: 0-7360-9829-1 (soft cover)
1. American Sport Education Program. 2. Sports officials.
GV735.S94 2011
796--dc23
2011022660
ISBN-10: 0-7360-9829-1 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-9829-8 (print)
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SucceSSful
SPORTS OffIcIATING
Second edition
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Part I Building .Your .Sports .Officiating .Career . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1 . Officiating: .Past .and .Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
. . –Jerry Grunska
Chapter 2 . Officiating .as .a .Lifetime .Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
. . –Jerry Grunska
P . art II Developing .Your .Officiating .Skills . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 3 . Officiating .Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
. . –Jerry Grunska
Chapter 4 . Goal .Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
. . –Robert Weinberg
Chapter 5 . Communication .Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
. . –Kay Rooff-Steffen
Chapter 6 . Decision-Making .Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
. . –Jerry Grunska
Chapter 7 . Mental .Training .Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
. . –Robert Weinberg
Chapter 8 . Conflict .Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
. . –Jon Bible
iv
P . art III Getting .Fit .to .Officiate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Chapter 9 . Fitness .Principles .for .Officials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
. –Jon Poole and Kathleen Poole
Chapter 10 . Officiating .Personal .Fitness .Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
. –Jon Poole and Kathleen Poole
P . art IV Managing .Professional .Responsibilities . . . . 149
Chapter 11 . Legal .Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
. –Paul Anderson
Chapter 12 . Legal .Rights .and .Business .Responsibilities . . . . .161
. –Paul Anderson
Chapter 13 . Time .Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
. –Jerry Grunska
Appendix A . Sports .Officials .Code .of .Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Appendix B . State .High .School .Associations .and .California .
Interscholastic .Federation .(CIF) .Sections . . . . . . .181
Appendix C . Other .Governing .Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Appendix D . Answers .to .Problems .and .Review .Questions . . . .187
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
v
Foreword
The first edition of Successful Sports Officiating Technology now plays an integral role in offici-
was published in 1998. In the ensuing years ating. Sometimes, as in the professional level,
the landscape of officiating has changed. Today technology is used in recasting plays. In other
fresh skills and techniques are needed. This levels, technology is used in holding officials
second edition provides those for you. accountable for their performances. Suffice it
In the foreword for the first edition, I wrote to say that officials have joined the ranks of
about the demands that come with being a public persons, absorbing all the burdens that
sports official, and I wrote about the psychic come with such status.
income each of us receives every time we offi- To be an effective and well-accepted official
ciate a contest. Those words hold even more today, you need to understand the totality of
meaning today. the sport experience, to understand that sport
Sports officiating is rewarding. It is also is life with the volume turned up. That under-
challenging. The most common image people standing provides the basis for the develop-
have of officials involves a player, coach, or fan ment of your personal philosophy of officiating.
yelling at an official. Yes, that can and does You also need to study, absorb, and turn into
happen, but overall, the experiences you will action the training materials that give you a
have as an official will be exhilarating and proper base of knowledge.
positive. The skills you develop will serve you What does a sports official need to know?
well throughout your life. The easy answer is this: the rules and proper
To be a good official, you need a blend of positioning—the mechanics. Without doubt,
certain qualities: courage, self-confidence, those two bodies of knowledge are critical to
determination, and decisiveness, to name any official. Today, though, you need to know
just a few. In each game you work, you will more. For example, you need to have a basic
be faced with many situations. Collectively understanding of your legal rights and respon-
through these situations you will be asked to sibilities, proper nutrition and conditioning,
demonstrate the fairness of a judge, the skill time management, the techniques of game
of a diplomat, the authority of a police officer, management, and defining and maximizing
and the understanding of a parent. All in all, your personal officiating style.
much will be asked of you. Successful Sports Officiating is compre-
So, then, if you will have people yelling at hensive, authoritative, and practical in its
you and you will have to make quick decisions approach to officiating. It presents a blend of
and get sweaty doing it, why would you offici- techniques that speak to the commonality of
ate? That’s easy. You officiate to give back to the all officiating. I know within its pages you will
game and because you believe sport is a valu- find answers to the questions you most often
able component of the educational process. ask yourself about becoming and succeeding
You officiate because you want the challenge of as an official. The book is written and edited by
keeping order and fairness when chaos lurks at a team of experts who are practitioners of the
every turn of events. You officiate because you art and science of officiating. Their experiences
relish the opportunity to undertake a tough and knowledge will serve you well in your quest
assignment and win at it. When the game is to understand what’s involved in successful
over and you know you have done a proper officiating. You will be able to take from this
job, a fair job, you will have a special feeling book the principles, practices, and policies and
of accomplishment, even though there might apply them in each game you work. You will be
still be boos ringing in your ears. By the way, a better official, and a more successful official,
learning to love those boos is just one more through the knowledge presented in this book.
ingredient of becoming a good official!
Learning to be a good official has never been Barry Mano
easy. Today those who play, coach, and watch Founder and publisher of Referee magazine
the games have vastly different perspectives President of the National Association of
and expectations than they did five years ago. Sports Officials
vi
Part I
Building
Your Sports
Officiating Career
1
This page intentionally left blank.
1
Chapter
Officiating:
Past and Present
Jerry Grunska
The perfect game hasn’t been worked yet.
But that’s no reason to give up trying.
Jerry Markbreit, former NFL referee
genuinely American sport that Native Ameri-
cans played before colonists arrived, took place
This chapter addresses the following:
without officials monitoring the rules. This
• A brief history of home-grown chapter provides a look into the development of
American sports and how officials’ sports officiating and its progress through the
roles have changed over time American-born sports of basketball, football,
and baseball.
• The root of gender issues in sports
and officiating, and legislation
BaskeTBall
designed to eliminate discrimination
• Officiating shortages and methods
Basketball is a game that was invented on
of acquiring sufficient officials
demand. The way it started is both amusing
and the source of rich lore.
In a sense, it is possible to attribute the
impetus for basketball’s birth to physical train-
The evoluTion ing clubs in Germany called turnvereins. These
widely prevalent clubs relied on invigorating
of officiaTing apparatus work and tumbling for bodybuild-
ing: tossing Indian clubs and medicine balls;
The progress of sports and their develop- swinging from rings; swiveling on the pummels
ment into today’s recognized games are easily of the bulky, leather-encased horse; squir-
traced. Although the evolution of officiating is reling through parallel bars—what would be
sketchy, it is known that from the beginning, called gymnastics today. Exercises included
competitions required rules monitoring. Sev- military drills and marching. The purpose of
eral uniquely American team sports started this training was to prepare youth for combat.
with a prominence in the East. As a result of In 1891, the six-year-old School for Chris-
modifications and adjustments that occurred tian Workers in Springfield, Massachusetts,
over the years, some of them look much differ- had essentially adopted the German system,
ent now than they did at the start. Lacrosse, a extending it to promote an ideal of strong
3
4  Successful Sports Officiating
minds in strong bodies with a nonsectarian goal for the faculty. Naismith, doubtless the
ethic of wholesomeness. This was the birth of referee, thought Stagg’s style was too rough.
the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). The first female basketball game took place
When students at the Springfield institution, the same week. Stenographers and secretaries
later called a college, were forced indoors in took on the faculty wives. Because the ladies
November after a balmy autumn in 1891, they wore bloomers, no male spectators were admit-
balked at the shift to the old-school routine. ted. Inventor Naismith must have refereed the
Dr. Luther Gulick, dean of physical training, match, but history has not recorded the score.
dismissed one instructor who couldn’t cope One of the stenos was a lass named Maud E.
with the malcontents. He then tried to take Sherman, and she became Naismith’s wife.
over the program himself but gave up when he Thanks to a conscientious chronicler named
couldn’t get the students to cooperate either. Edward S. Steitz, we know that two officials
In exasperation, he called on a second-year oversaw the action from the start of the sport
graduate student to solve the problem. Gulick because the respective duties were defined
ordered the young man, James Naismith, to along with the original rules. The referee was
try something completely different. responsible for the ball going in the goal, for the
Naismith, a graduate of McGill University ball going out of bounds, and for player conduct
in Montreal, had coached football for six years in relation to the ball. The referee also timed
and had just finished work at a Presbyterian the game, although we don’t know the length
Theological Seminary. According to historian of quarters or halves. The umpire, evidently a
Edward Steitz (1976), Naismith “felt that teach- subordinate figure, was solely in charge of call-
ing young men through sport was a better way ing fouls. He probably was not allowed to have
than preaching—especially if one could work a whistle. Authorities were reluctant at the
through their love for athletics.” start—as they were in other sports as well—to
Naismith asked building superintendent give too much or even equal responsibility to
Alfred “Pops” Stebbins to locate a pair of boxes all judges on the floor or field. (In all sports,
and hang them from the gallery in the gym. historically, authorities feared giving so-called
Stebbins couldn’t find boxes, so he nailed “extra” officials too much authority. Therefore,
two half-bushel peach baskets 10 feet from a head referee was designated, and the likeli-
the floor. The revolutionary thing about the hood is that another official used hand signals
baskets was that they provided a horizontal to indicate decisions—not a whistle.)
overhead target. As a result, players had to Because referees were physical educators,
develop completely new skills for moving the they probably sported white duck trousers, the
ball on the floor (passing and dribbling), and prevailing uniform at the time. The umpire
they had to shoot at the baskets. The challenge doubtless wore the same, as well as a shirt
became an instant sensation. Because the and tie, perhaps even a black bow tie. (Early
class had 18 members, there were 9 players football referees sported white shirts and black
on a side at first. bow ties, plus a drab gray tam on their heads.)
The players ran into a problem almost at Like the players, they wore knickers.
once: People watching from the balcony could In 1904-1905, expectations for making all
bat away shots or guide errant tosses into the calls were divided equally between the two
basket. Also, at first, a helper had to lift the ball basketball officials, and scorekeepers and
out of the basket after a score. That problem timers on the side of the court became adjuncts
was solved when a cloth sleeve was attached to to games. We don’t know how floor markings
the baskets after holes had been sliced in the came about or when free throws were intro-
bottoms. Officials pulled a cord to help the ball duced, but we do know some things about
slip through (metal hoops replaced the baskets player freedoms and restrictions because they
in 1893). A year later, backboards were used were spelled out from the onset.
to thwart unruly onlookers. In some respects, basketball was derivative,
The first official basketball game began at adopting aspects of other sports. The original
5:15 p.m. on March 11, 1892, in the Springfield outline described how a player could move
gymnasium. It pitted the secretaries against by bouncing the ball (the term dribble was
the faculty, and the secretaries won, five bas- carried over from soccer). It was a goal game,
kets to one. Amos Alonzo Stagg, the future with goals at either end of a flat indoor surface.
Grand Old Man of football, put in the lone field Players who fouled were sent to the sideline,