Experience with Technology
As a group, we now have experience
working with new technology and
we have figured out dos and don’ts
of using 2 way radios in game environments. The technology itself has
proved very beneficial, and its impact
was clearly seen in the development of
the officials at the camp.
New Technique
The technology allowed us to experiment with new techniques in delivering training. One technique, in
particular, proved very effective. In
mentoring, there is an old technique of
doing a “position shadow” in order to
teach a new referee positioning on the
ice. Basically, the two of you are exactly
opposite each other on the ice so that
they can react and follow you more
easily for positioning. They can also react more easily if the mentor’s arm goes
up for a penalty. The downside to this
technique was that it left no opportunity for instruction or conversation. By
integrating the 2 way radio headsets
we were able to compensate for this
shortfall and gain the benefit of both
techniques in mentoring. As an added
bonus, the mentor has a better opportunity to observe what the referee is
looking at, and we can quickly teach a
new referee to manage their ring focus
and identify penalties.
The helmet camera is an excellent
tool, but it requires an hour after the
game to complete a full game review.
RECEPTION
Some participants had valuable comments on this process;
“As a first-time mentor, I learned a
lot during this camp, mostly because
of the concentration of resources at
everyone’s disposal. (experienced referees, mentors & coaches) Opportunities
for networking and discussion of specific game situations were plentiful.”
“Supporting new officials, especially during their first few games is
important as it is difficult to process
all of the information learned in the
course and apply it in a real situation. I
suspect they felt supported doing their
first games with so much support and
seeing their peers doing it at the same
time.”
“I found it an awesome experience
and did indeed also see improvement
by some refs over the weekend. The
dividends this will reap are huge. The
new refs (and even the more experienced ones) will be able to come out
at the start of the season with greater
confidence in their calls and abilities.
Which in turn will translate to better
reffed games.”
“As a third year referee, I found that
the opportunity to have my games
observed and commented on by the
mentors who were mentoring my partners, was beneficial to me.” “The camp
was well run, organized, and pleasant.
It was a pleasure to be part of it.” “I
think that this development camp is a
fantastic idea and from my perspective
worked really great!”
“Honestly, I wish we had a camp like
that when I started reffing. It was really
awesome!”
Carol Mydlo, President of the Manitoba Ringette Association states; “I
am truly impressed with the forward
thinking and commitment Paul (Shipman) has made to improve, educate
and develop the officials in our sport.
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