Training and evaluation ideas?

[LaxRef]

I'm just curious what people out there are doing for training of officials beyond the standard x hours in the classroom plus a possible scrimmage or two.

What do you do for new officials versus returning officials?

Do you use any techniques (or have ideas for any techniques) that you think would help train officials more effectively?

Do you have an objective set of criteria (e.g., passes written test, participates in scrimmage, is up to date on associating and US Lacrosse dues) you use to determine if someone is elgibile to officiate, say, high school varsity?

Do you have a physical component to your testing (e.g., must be able to run 1 mile in x minutes and 100 m in y seconds)?

Are your written tests open book or closed book? If they are open book, do you think that is the best way to make sure we have officials who are knowledgeable in the rules?

Do you have multiple levels of certification in your association? That is, for officials who are working, say, high school, do you have some officials who somehow test out at a higher level, or is it all done subjectively?

Do you have any on-field evaluations for high school games by an evaluator who is not working on the game? Do the members of the crew rate each other?

Any ideas you have about training are welcome. I'll be attending a training committee meeting in two weeks and I want to have ideas to share. Well, more ideas; I already have quite a few myself!

[CTLaxer]

Perhaps you should kick off the thread by sharing your ideas first. I'd love to get this thread going and send it over to our head official out here in AZ.

[BlueJaysLaxFan]

I think the most effective tool is to be videotaped by an evaluator and then have him review the tape with you after 10-15 (or more if possible) minutes on the field. You really notice a lot about yourself. Almost as scary as reviewing a videotape of yourself giving a speech!

[BeaverFondu]

I think the most effective tool is to be videotaped by an evaluator and then have him review the tape with you after 10-15 (or more if possible) minutes on the field. You really notice a lot about yourself. Almost as scary as reviewing a videotape of yourself giving a speech!

I completely agree with this. Although referee's have other jobs and lives they should take it all seriously. I'm a lifegaurd and we go thru training and written testing and practical exams, just as refs do. We also can be audited during the day whenever at random times. It should be the same for refs. If the commitee sends people out to video tape a ref during a game, and then reviews the tape. It should help and possibly 'weed' out some of the bad refs.

[Woodenstick]

In my NY section, we have a mentor who works games with the younger officials. In addition, other more senior officials will work occasionally with newer refs.

Normally you don't do varsity until at least your third year, and then there is some sort of selection process, which involves number of games worked and possibly some subjective evaluation. So there is a multiple grade system.

No physical testing. No formal evaluations, at least for newer refs . The exam is open book and therefore is not weeding out anyone for not knowing the rules. They do fingerprinting and such to make sure you aren't a child molester.

[laxfan25]

What do you do for new officials versus returning officials?
New officials go through a six-hour classroom training class using the US Lacrosse training manual. Field practice is spotty, since a lot depends on the time of year. I also use the 3rd Team on The Field video.
Returning officials are supposed to go through 3 hours of continuing training, and most actually do it (usually 2 1.5 hour sessions.).

Do you use any techniques (or have ideas for any techniques) that you think would help train officials more effectively?
I agree that training could be more effective, especially if there was a way to get on-field experience. Usually though that doesn't happen until the HS's start practicing, and we've ususally had our training classes well before that.
One thing I may add on is to ask the local coaches for game tapes/DVD's that I can show during class - that would help with positioning, mechanics, calls vs passed calls, etc. Our games would likely have more fouls to demonstrate than the D1 tape!


Do you have an objective set of criteria (e.g., passes written test, participates in scrimmage, is up to date on associating and US Lacrosse dues) you use to determine if someone is elgibile to officiate, say, high school varsity?
Yes, MichLOA has criteria (a written, open-book, multiple choice test; attendance at continuing ed training), but now with MHSAA sanctioning, they also have their criteria, which is less than MichLOA's. A new ref has to go through the six-hour training and MHSAA will give them certification. This year the MHSAA put out their own test, right after we sent out the MichLOA one. They used the NFHS test - 100 T/F questions. MHSAA is trying to build the base of officials, but with these minimal requirements the potential is there to put unqualified people on the field. MichLOA is really trying to keep a high standard, but the MHSAA is resentful of our group. Part of it is that we are a statewide lax officials organization, and the MHSAA does not want to deal with statewide orgs - they prefer to divide and conquer. This will be raising its head again this off-season most likely.

Do you have a physical component to your testing (e.g., must be able to run 1 mile in x minutes and 100 m in y seconds)?
No, just be able to show up at the field!

Are your written tests open book or closed book? If they are open book, do you think that is the best way to make sure we have officials who are knowledgeable in the rules?
Open book. After all, we don't have the book memorized like you do LaxRef!
I usually go through the test closed-book to answer as many as I can, and then open the book to get the questionable ones (like what are the dimensions of the coach's box). There are often several questions that I just don't know off the top of my head.

Do you have multiple levels of certification in your association? That is, for officials who are working, say, high school, do you have some officials who somehow test out at a higher level, or is it all done subjectively?
There are no levels of certification except for those that have COC certs to do college games. The newbies are usually assigned to MS and JV games - the assigners have a good handle on the experience and skill levels of their roster of officials.

Do you have any on-field evaluations for high school games by an evaluator who is not working on the game? Do the members of the crew rate each other?
Not at this time, although with more staffing it would be a great idea. On the college games we rate each other using Arbiter. I've never been observed, and have only been an observer very informally. I wouldn't mind doing it in the future - I think it would be a big help.
I liked the suggestion to have the evaluator tape part of the game and then play it back with the official later on.
This is certainly an area ripe for improvement - but limited resources have an impact on the ability to have observers - we're all doing games!

I'm curious - I did about 65 games this spring - from MS through college. What work load did you guys have? We had one guy who did 96 games this spring.

[MElaxRef]

In Maine, we operate pretty much as LaxFan25 indicates they do in Michigan, although there isn't as much class time. We use a mix of classroom instruction, scrimmage based clinics, mentoring, and on-field observation.

Youth officials receive a half-day clinic using the USL Level One materials from the USL training manual.

New HS officials must attend two 2-hour blocks of classroom instruction. One block concentrates on rules; the other on mechanics.

All HS (returning and new) officials must attend a 2-hour clinic. Approximately 45 minutes is devoted to rule changes for the year; during the balance, 3-4 experienced officials cover mechanics. (My experience is that having other officials engaged in the training brings a range of teaching styles and broader perspective. It also forces the teachers to master their particular topics.)

We then use pre-season scrimmages to provide observated practice. New officials are required to participate in the biggest scrimmage in the state. They first shadow an experienced official and then take a turn officiating, with an experienced official right with them.

Then, during the season, one of the association officers (who no longer actively officates) gets to as many games as possible to observe HS officials. He has been able to observe 75-80% each of the past several years. He provides post-game feedback based on his notes.

Finally, officials selected for post-season assignments are required to attend a final 1-hour clinic on 3-man mechanics, which are used in the last 2-3 rounds. Many playoff games are observed, particularly those with a new playoff official.

[ColtsLax]

in NJ, it used to be that you had to have one season of summer/offseason ball under your belt before you can do a HS game. Most new refs train during the summer, so use it.

[eme]

In addition to some of the ideas and practices mentioned above:

Jayvee games often follow varsity games. New official arrives a bit early for his jayvee game and watches the varsity. Then, for the jayvee game, new guy works the game on the far side with one of the varsity refs shadowing him on the field. And now I can't remember how the jayvee game fees are split up....

[BlueJaysLaxFan]

Here's something that I just discovered yesterday are evaluations by varsity high school coaches. LF25 described our relationship with MHSAA in Michigan, and they now have an online system for all coaches to evaluate officials. Every school is required to evaluate 2 officials per season per sport who officiate their home or away varsity games. They rank us overall from 1-5 (excellent to unsatisfactory) and on the following categories:

(A) knowledge of rules
(B) proper positioning
(C) consistent judgment
(D) ability to prescribe proper fouls and penalties
(E) proper mechanics
(F) physical appearance of official / uniform
(G) contest management
(H) professionalism

I can see the summary of all of the submitted ratings, and which schools rated me, but not the individual ratings. There is also an overall rating based on how many times you were rated and if the overall average is less than 3.

This is a good system and is useful because it give coaches a feedback mechanism, but being that lacrosse is growing quickly in Michigan many coaches are probably new enough not to be knowledgable of the details of categories A-E above.

[3rdPersonPlural]

We ought to get a form to fill out that rates the coaches.

Who would know how well the coach knows his rules, manages his team, conducts himself, and interacts with his players and other teams better than the official who is in intimate interface with the coach while he is administering the above qualities?

[BlueJaysLaxFan]

I am reviving this thread since it's been a while that we've discussed how we are evaluated and rated by our associations and assignors. I can tell you that last spring we had games that had not only the referee and umpire assigned (for 2 man), but an evaluator as well for one game later in the season. The assignor uses this to update officials ratings, but as far as I know we don't receive the write-ups.

We also are rated by coaches through the state sports association, but many senior officials tell me that they basically ignore or don't care as much about this (lacrosse has been part of the state HS association for only 4 years).

[Shorelax]

Here are some of the highpoints…

1. NFHS Testing - We have a closed book test. You must test over 90% in order to officiate varsity level games.
2. Meetings - We met weekly for several weeks (8-10). The meetings are broken into two sessions - new officials and veteran officials. We have presentations/instructional discussions given weekly by different members of the organization. These presentations could include, game prep/pregame, mechanics, new rules, rule changes, etc. These are all produced by our membership. The number of absences is limited and will effect your assignments. We have 4 or 5 quizzes during this time in preparation for the test.
3. Evaluations – During the season we have dedicated evaluators. Every official is evaluated at least once by this group. Additionally each official is required to perform two peer evaluations.
4. Mentor Program – This is very cool. Almost every official is assigned a mentor. You may or may not work with this person. You are encouraged to call this person regularly to discuss game situations, rule situations, etc. This worked very well for our organization last year. You may get in your car after a game and think...hmmm what would a more senior person do during this situation. It’s kind of like this message board!!!

Workload – I did 69 games last season…not including summer leagues and tournaments…I have one this weekend!! These games varied from youth to post collegiate club

[PlayOn]

SoCal has progressed a bit since last season. We just had our first meeting a few weeks ago. What I am most excited about is that it seems we've finally worked out some territorial issues for summer league so more officials will have the opportunity to stay fresh during the summer in their area. We're also working on firming up our umbrella group of officials for the region but I am not really sure where we are on that as most of the discussion is taking place at a higher level than I am privy to.

We're going to have a 3 hour clinic next weekend that is required and then I am sure we'll do some scrimmages as we get closer to the season. Also we're more in the loop about fall ball to work with the senior level guys who are doing off season ball now if we can make it to the games.

I'm going to start dragging my friends to the games to video tape me, i think this is a great suggestion.

Our in game evaluation usually takes place when they place newer guys like me with senior guys who report back to the assigner and then we get our feedback. You don't know you're being evaluated until after the game.

[DanHS]

I know that coaches rate officials in some areas and trainees are evaluated by their 'partners' in lacrosse and other sports. I don't want to start a debate about the relative merits of the evaluations but rather 'Does anyone have an on-line evaluation process?' Does anyone use a tool that would let the evaluator go on line and complete an evaluation, tabulate the results and make the results available to the official?