Video, video, video. It’s something you can’t escape. And as an association leader, you shouldn’t want to escape it. In fact, you should embrace it.
It will make your officials — and your association — better.
So how can you take advantage of video? Here are four ways to do it in your association:
1. Individually
While that might be the easiest for the “association,” it might be the least effective for your group. Individual members can gather video of their games — either by having someone record them or getting copies from the competing schools — and watch themselves.
While self-critique is always good, the only person who will benefit is the individual official. Yes, it’s good to have each official getting better, but there’s not a lot of benefit to your association if everyone isn’t getting better.
2. By crew or in a group
While football officials generally work together as a crew throughout a season (and even from season to season), it’s less common in other sports to always have the same partners.
But when that is the case, getting together for midweek video review will definitely improve the crew. That’s especially true if everyone on the crew is on board with trying to get better and not just defending every call or action that shows up on video.
Done correctly, the crew can shore up deficiencies in coverage and do what it takes to get better week in, week out.
Again, the whole association does not benefit when a crew gets together. But when other crews hear about the improvement and start seeing the video review paying off with better assignments and higher ratings, every crew is likely to get on board.
3. Video library
If someone in your association has the time and the means, creating a video library is one way to benefit all of the members.
Creating a YouTube channel or other secure area on the web would allow video to be shared among every member of the association.
And depending on how far the association wants to go, someone could provide commentary for the video clips, highlighting things that are done well and pointing out how things need to improve.
Over time, a full video library will be available for members to review. Not only will it include each official in the group, but it can also include the teams your association services, so officials could learn tendencies and be better prepared for each game.
The downside is that no matter how much work someone puts into creating a video library, it’s still up to the individuals to make the effort to view the video and take the advice to heart.
4. Meetings
For the benefit of the membership, incorporating video into educational meetings is probably the best way to review video. Whether you are highlighting a certain type of play (i.e. pass interference, block/charge, plays at first base) or are just going over a variety of game situations, getting the entire membership to review plays and come to a consensus of how they should be officiated will be the most beneficial to your group.
When showing videos at meetings, the person leading the session should never focus on just one official and should never be all negative — point out the positives and make sure multiple members are featured.
And don’t make it a lecture. Get the officials involved in the plays to describe what happened, what they did right and what they would do differently if they had the chance to officiate that play again.
Video is a great tool for officials at all levels. Incorporate it into your association — at the individual, crew or full group level — and you’ll see the benefits.
Loading ...
