Stripes on Ice
Proactive: adj (of a policy or person
or action) controlling a situation by
causing something to happen rather
than waiting to respond to it after it
happens. Ringette in Manitoba has
definitely been proactive when it
comes to referee training.
In March, 2015 the Manitoba Ringette Association (MRA) approved a
motion to implement a development
camp for officials prior to the start of
the 2015-16 Winnipeg Ringette League
(WRL) regular season.
The objectives of the camp were:
1. To have all new on-ice officials
receive 2 of their 3 on-ice training
sessions at a pre-season tournament.
2. To assign all existing referees at
U19B and below to at least one game
where they would be assigned at
a level higher than they have been
assigned before and paired with a
referee-coach who would provide
immediate feedback by 2 way radio,
as well as a game review after each
game.
3. To utilize technology to improve our
delivery of referee training
4. To utilize helmet cameras to do indepth game analysis with referees
who are at the right place in their
development. This was approved in
summer and the first development
camp was established for the weekend of October 21 - 26, 2015 at the
Dakota Ringette Pre-season tournament.
OFFICIATING RESOURCES
Paul Shipman, Director of Game On
Sports Management Solutions, and
along with his partner Oai Truong have
brought a level of not only sophistication but a very user friendly sport management program to ringette, soccer
& volleyball from within our province
and across the country.
Shipman, the current president, past
senior official of the Winnipeg Ringette League and Director of League
for the MRA says “Critically, ringette
has the greatest retention requirement
between year 3 and year 5 for officials.
This is the stage at which most are de-
30 / sportslife
By Al Gowriluk
veloping great confidence and competence, but also the time frame in which
most of our officials quit.
“Research shows that referees are
more likely to quit because they do
not receive enough support from their
sport in terms of development and
feedback and that how they are treated
by fans and coaches rarely ranks as one
of the reasons they quit. This finding
is supported by the data I’ve collected
in surveys this season from referees.