FOUR ON THE FLOOR (OR COURT)

You Can Accelerate Your Performance

By Suzanne Dodd

Sports officials need a number of different types of skills in order to be successful. A good understanding of the rules is simply not enough to be an elite official. Physical fitness and conditioning are certainly important, but won’t guarantee success. Mental toughness to thrive in challenging conditions plays a critical role. Communication with coaches and players ensures a smooth-running game.

A skill is defined as a learned (as opposed to genetic) competency.

That is, with practice and experience, skills develop and become more refined and proficient. The very definition of skills suggests weaknesses can be improved with training. To be the best official possible, adopting that growth mindset is critical to performance.

But what types of skills are included in officiating?

Sport scientists note the skills necessary to be successful in sport fall into four different categories. Just like the athletes we’re officiating, officials need to be aware of and develop all the types of skills. While some sports may rely on certain skills more than others, strength in each of the following four types of skills is critical for success.

Think about how each of these applies in an officiating context.

Physical

The players need the foundational motor skills of walking, running, jumping, throwing, hitting, kicking and catching. They also require more advanced sportspecific skills of strength, endurance, flexibility, speed, balance and coordination. And in order to keep up with those athletes, officials need to develop the same skills.

A basketball referee, for example, won’t be very successful without matching the speed and endurance of the players running up and down the court. Ice hockey referees who lack agility and coordination on the ice may find themselves out of position to call a penalty. The plate umpire who lacks strength and flexibility may tire in late innings and become distracted during play.

Good officiating demands the officials can — at a minimum — keep up with the players. Those physical skills cannot be overemphasized. And even when officiating sports with low physical demands, the benefits of looking fit in uniform can often contribute to success.

Technical

Technical skills are the bits of specialized knowledge and expertise required to perform specific tasks. They might often be referred to as “hard skills.” Those skills are practical and specific. Technical skills are also specific procedures to move one’s body to perform a task. The basic moves and concepts needed to play a sport are developed by athletes early in their playing career. Soccer and basketball players develop highly proficient dribbling skills. A swimmer works hard to master a stroke and make it as strong and as efficient as possible. A softball pitcher works on placement of pitches, speed, spin and planes. Those are critical technical skills necessary for success.

In officiating, rules knowledge falls into the category of technical skills. The ability to easily recall rules and apply them in specific situations is an example of a critical technical skill needed for sports officials. Technical skills are also demonstrated when communicating a foul to the scorer, when signaling a strikeout in baseball and when awarding a point in wrestling. There are preferred — and in some cases, required — mechanics. Those constitute technical skills and play an important role in an official’s success.

Basketball referees working a middle school game one night in a crew of two and switching to a varsity game the next night with a three-official crew must adapt. Understanding the nuances of the different systems, being in the correct position and performing duties correctly requires mastery of technical skills.

Tactical Skills that involve decisionmaking and actions to gain an advantage over the opponent constitute tactical skills. Those skills include a measure of psychological consideration combined with physical action. For example, a game tactic might be to call a timeout in an attempt to ice a kicker preparing for a field goal. In volleyball, a tactical skill is when to attack cross-court versus tool it off the block. A baseball coach may put a pinch runner in the game to gain an offensive tactical advantage.

The game officials must also be aware of and develop tactical skills. Officials are involved in decision-making actions that help to ensure or restore order, to ensure the competition proceeds equitably and to re-assert control. How often has a volleyball coach questioned

SURVEY SAYS …

A poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Reuters News indicates the top 10 countries where citizens are most likely to agree that they have “been to children’s sports events and witnessed parents become verbally or physically abusive toward the coaches or officials.”

Country

United States ....

India ..................

Italy ...................

Argentina ..........

Canada .............

Australia ............

Spain ................

Belgium ............

Great Britain .....

Sweden ............

NOTE: SURVEY BASED ON INTERNATIONAL SAMPLE OF 23,351 ADULTS, AGED 18-64, IN 22 COUNTRIES.

By The Numbers

The most and least penalized teams aren’t always at the top or bottom of the standings.

244

Penalties called against San Francisco and Miami in 2022, most among NFL teams.

22-12

Combined record of those teams.

175

Penalties called against the Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta in 2022, least among NFL teams.

12-22

Combined record of those teams.

SOURCE: NFLPENALTIES.COM

They Said It

“I think about it every day. Don Denkinger’s play was (in 1985) and he is still answering questions. When my play happened, Don told me on the phone that he literally got 40 phone calls from the press.” ballhandling consistency? Learning where to establish the standard for ballhandling is a tactical decision based on a number of factors including level of play and athleticism. A soccer referee makes tactical decisions when deciding whether to call a foul or to indicate an advantage has been gained. When to warn a player about potentially offensive trash-talking requires tactical skills.

— Retired MLB umpire Jim Joyce, whose safe call in a 2010 game cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game, on his kinship with retired umpire Don Denkinger, who faced a similar situation. Denkinger died May 12, 2023.

Psychological

The last of the four types of skills are those that involve mental and emotional components. The psychological skills include mental toughness, confidence, focus and attention, and stress management among others. Those skills are critical to overall performance but are often overlooked.

Just as the players need to be able to focus when the game is on the line, so do the officials. When a game enters overtime and the players need confidence to take a gamewinning shot, the officials also need

50-50 Calls: Not Half Bad

By the Referee editors

If you put 30 sports officials in a room, regardless of the sport, and watch a tight play on video, what happens during the dissection of the action afterward? A big argument, right? On average half will see it one way and half will have the opposite view.

We are trained to get our rulings correct. We study the rules, learn complex situations, watch video and get feedback from clinicians at camps. All that work doesn’t ensure confidence they’re making the correct call or no-call. When stress and selfdoubt enter the mind, the ability to remain focused and mentally tough is critical. Recovering quickly from an unpopular call is an important psychological skill. Persevering through difficult weather conditions requires positive self-talk and mental toughness.

Did the ball hit the glove before the foot hit the base? Fifty umpires in a room might see it one way and 50 others see it the other. But that’s the challenge of officiating.

A combination of each of the four types of sport skills is critical to officiating success. None of those can be overlooked. Elite-level officials are aware of the importance of each of those types of skills and do not overlook any of them. Consider the different ways to train and improve in each of the skills.

Many officials devote the majority of their training time to physical fitness and conditioning. In sports that require a great deal of movement, that is a wise use of time. But is physical conditioning any more important than rules knowledge? Is it any more important than learning the nuances of when to assess a foul or when to warn a player?

In sports with less physical demands on the officials — such as tennis, volleyball or swimming — how much emphasis during training is placed upon psychological skills enhancement? Learning how to maintain attention in bad weather, under stressful conditions and in the face of adversity is a critical skill for success that can be developed with proper training.

Consider the four different types of skills and how they fit in to training and performance. Good officiating mandates awareness of the contributions of strong physical, technical, tactical and psychological skills to overall performance. What are your strengths? Do you have a weak area? Train each of the different skill types in order to reach officiating excellence.

Suzanne Dodd, Greenville, S.C., is an adjunct faculty member in the College of Health Professions at Anderson University. She is a PAVO and USAV National referee and a PAVO National line judge. * perfection. Nor does it ensure we’ll always be on the same page as our partners or that reasonable people can’t disagree on a specific play.

At the same time, there is a presumption in almost all sports that there is only one correct ruling for a specific play. You are either right or wrong. That’s not true. Given the complexity of factors and the speed with which players run, balls are thrown and bodies clash, we can’t presume certain movements or contact can always be ruled one way or another. Sometimes the play is a 50-50 call and we should remember that.

Take baseball for example. Umpires know the strike zone. The pitcher has to hit a small area. If he’s off just slightly, it won’t be a strike. But there are edges to the plate. The ball is thrown with great velocity. Balls curve and sink. Every umpire knows and recognizes those factors, yet there is still an expectation of 100 percent accuracy.

What about the ball that ever-soslightly shaves the corner? Or the ball at 98 mph that appears to cut across the corner? Did the umpire see it perfectly? Perhaps the base umpire saw it differently. A camera catching the ball’s movement played back in slow motion may support one or the other or identify it as a 50-50 ruling. We should stop beating ourselves up under the presumption one ruling applies to all plays. There’s no question that many, if not most, of our rulings are clear cut and should only yield one decision.

There are also times where the judgment is fuzzy and you can go either way. Holding by the offensive line in football certainly fits the category. You can study the rules for decades, but when you head onto the field, there’s so much action and the bodies are gigantic, so you can’t see everything at all times. When you do, even with a great angle, you may not see a hand grabbing or a jersey being yanked. What looks like a significant tug to you may be a light pull to one of your crewmates.

There’s judgment involved and you’re expected to decide quickly whether to throw a flag or not. Hindsight from video may clarify that the ruling should have gone one way or the other, but on the field it was 50-50.

Keep in mind when you officiate that you won’t always get 100 percent agreement with your partner(s), nor should you expect to on certain plays. Some are 50-50, and we should leave it at that. *