2025
HOW TO PASS ON YOUR WISDOM
Referee.com
Whether you’ve been officiating for some time or you simply have three more games under your belt than another official, you’re in a position to pass on your wisdom, teach, mentor and make other officials better.
Our egos (substantial they may be) often don’t match up with our innate abilities to convey information, although we enjoy the opportunity to do so. Many of us practically force our stories and instructions on our fellow officials, knowing in our hearts they need our hard‑earned knowledge lest they fall off the officiating radar forever.
Ever been to an officiating camp? Watch the campers. Despite the fact each of them paid great amounts of money to be exposed to select instructors and famed assigners, they will spend hours in the corner instructing each other. Don’t kid yourself — everyone fancies himself or herself an able teacher. The sheer amount of misinformation spilled into waiting brain cells daily throughout the year is amazing.
Make certain the soil is fertile and ready to germinate the seeds of information. It doesn’t matter how awful the official is, or how badly he or she needs to learn. If the official has a closed mind, nothing you say will sway him or her.
Start by asking, “So, what level do you want to end up as an official?” If the official wishes to move up, you will next say, “I can help you get there. Here are a couple of tips that helped me.”
Information must come from a level of power. Represent the information or yourself as having some credibility that makes it important to the other person. If you’re the assigner or paid to evaluate, well, there you go. Otherwise, saying, “I just learned this at camp” adds cache to your tidbit, enough to make the listener more impressed and more than yearning to listen.
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