basketball-schiedsrichter.de - Schiedsrichter

	Psychologie \| Kommunikation
	Quelle: "It's Official", Ausgabe November 1998, dem monatlichen Newsletter der NASO Autor: Rich Winograd / Übersetzung & Bearbeitung: Axel Beckmann
	Das letzte Detail
	The horn sounds and you immediately begin hearing those dreaded four-letter words. As you acknowledge the final score and head off the court, you hear the words again and again. One of the coaches says them to you. A few players glance your way and mumble them. Several fans shout them out as you pass by. Worse yet, as you approach the tunnel to the locker room and join your partners, one of them looks you straight in the eye and says them. Your partner? Yes, even your partner. You cringe, but refrain from repeating them to your partners or anyone else. You know better. "Good game," they all say. "Good game." "I used to hear that all the time when I started officiating," says George Arredondo, a Pac-10 basketball referee and the high school basketball assignor in the San Gabriel Valley Unit in Whittier, Calif. "I figured I must be a pretty good referee because all I ever heard was 'good game.'" Today, Arredondo calls "good game-itis" a disease that plagues officials in all sports. It's a disease that keeps average officials average. And the cure? The postgame conference. "It's alarming to me how young officials will hear that horn or that gun and they're gone, off to a bar or a pizza place," says Arredondo. "I see many high school JV officials who not only don't have postgames, they don't even stay to visit with the varsity officials, let alone watch the varsity games." In all sports and at all levels, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on the pregame, where officials discuss in detail what they plan on doing. Preparation for a game is paramount. That's obvious. However it's equally important, if not more so, to have a postgame, where officials can discuss what they actually did. Jeff Murray has called high school football, basketball and baseball games in Oklahoma City since the 1980s. He strongly believes that the postgame is as important as the pregame, but admits that the temptation to get in the car and go too often gets the best of officials. "My football crew has been together for more than six years so sometimes that comfort level makes it seem like a postgame is not necessary. Well, I remember an inadvertent whistle on a play that we booted and we didn't take the time to discuss it after the game. Sure enough, a few games later we had the same incident. That won't happen again. Good postgames will make sure of that." At the higher levels, according to Jim Daopoulos, an NFL supervisor of officials, the postgame and subsequent observer assessments and videotape reviews are part of a lengthy, mandatory process. But like Murray, Daopoulos knows that at the lower levels the process is often overlooked. "And by lower levels I don't just mean high school. I don't think college is as critical as it needs to be with the postgame," said Daopoulos, who worked the Ohio Valley and Southeast conferences before an 11-year career on NFL fields. "Except at the professional level, officials are not held as accountable as they need to be. Good game-itis? Absolutely a problem. I see it all the time. I even hear high school and college observers say it." USSF National Instructor Holly Hollingsworth of St. Louis agrees that a good postgame is the cure and feels that a relaxed approach is the best medicine. "At the professional and many of the college level soccer games, an assessor is assigned to evaluate the performance of the officials. In many cases, this results in a formal postgame discussion rather than a give-and-take discussion that may lead to a more productive learning experience for a young official. I like the assessor who functions as a member of the officiating crew, rather than an expert consultant, and can stimulate a give-and-take discussion. Then everyone, including the assessor, learns from the postgame discussion." In his postgame after a college basketball game in Los Angeles, Arredondo started informally by asking his partners, "What two things did we do well tonight and what two things could we have done better?" Monte Murray, who has moved from the high school level to the collegiate level from within the San Gabriel Valley unit, was quick to become introspective. "There was a short span there in the second half when the tempo picked up and I got caught up in it and lost focus," he said in a concerned but still self-assured manner. "When that happens, make a point to slow yourself down," advised Arredondo. "Take a few seconds longer before you administer an inbounds. Give yourself a chance to regain control." The junior referee listened carefully and nodded. "If you don't take the time to review your game with your partners and carefully assess each of your efforts, then you're missing the chance to really improve," says Arrendondo. "In a postgame, we're forced to analyze our performance and be analyzed, right there, right at the moment. The problem is that too many officials get hurt because they take it personally, not professionally. What has made Monte successful is that he doesn't take things personally. He understands that when you open yourself up and are willing to fail, you succeed. That happens in a postgame. Confidence and competence come by postgaming." Hollingsworth likely would praise Arredondo for taking the initiative in his postgame. "Young officials probably would like to be invited to join in a postgame but are uneasy about soliciting an invite. The more experienced officials need to extend the invitation; maybe as part of the pregame or as part of the travel planning." "Any kind of postgame evaluation is necessary to help you improve," Daopoulos affirms. "It's just important to communicate." And once the disease is cured, what do you say to your partners when you leave the court or the field? "Great working with you," suggests Arredondo. "Now let's have a postgame." (Rich Winograd is a freelance writer from Thousand Oaks, Calif. He officiates high school basketball.)