One of the most feared, dreaded, and necessary events in the life of an official is EVALUATION TIME. This is the time in which a seasoned and trained official observes a newer official to evaluate and give advice for his/her improvement. Its not all bad and is a requirement if you ever want to advance in pro tennis or go to the US Open.
Evaluations are not a requirement to do grass roots tennis or ITA tennis but evaluations do take a more subtle form at these levels. All officials are evaluated by their referees and correctly so. At this level, if you fail your evaluations you probably won't be working any longer.
I did notice that Bruce Avery and Joe Buys were busy evaluating officials at the NCAA tournament. Bruce and Joe are two of the finest evaluators we have so I'm sure the officials got some great input.
Now, we would like to hear your evaluations of the NCAA officials. I know that many of you were there so I think it would be good to see how we would evaluate those from around the country.
Here are some things I noted at the NCAA tournament:
1. The chair officials looked very sharp and were very astute in their chair basics.
2. The chair officials seemed to be very quick with their overrules.
3. The chair officials were extremely slow in posting the scores on the electronic scoreboards. Nearly without exception, they would mark their cards, say the score, and then finally update the electronic scoreboard.
4. The NCAA officials seemed to spend an inordinate time worrying about crowd behavior and standing and staring menacingly into the crowds. I thought this was interesting when I observed nary an incident in the crowds while I was at the tournament.
5. The NCAA officials seemed to walk out to the chairs too often and seemingly to ask if they needed a drink of water or for a social visit. I saw no chair official encounter any problem that would necessitate a visit from the referee.
6. The NCAA officials seemed to delight in walking pompously through the crowds and whispering to other officials as if they held some state secret. This kind of behavior surely doesn't foster trust among the crowd people.
These are just a few observations I had. We would love to hear your evaluations...
4 comments:
I had the privilege of being trained at "chair school" by Bruce Avery. To this day, when I am in the chair, I still remember specific instructions Bruce gave me. Anyone who is trained by him or who receives an evaluation from him is getting it from the best.
Are you talking from the south end of a horse traveling north. My god, I'm surprised you didn't sign your name so we could all see who's kissing who's (blank).
Now there's a wonderful example of a totally unprofessional response. Why do some people assume that a positive comment means the writer is trying to kiss up? Not every tennis umpire is trying to do that and I'm sorry that you have that view of your fellow umpires.
For the record, I have not been around or even seen Bruce Avery since that school. I doubt that I ever will. I do not aspire to work upper level USTA or pro events so I have never received an 'evaluation'. I am very happy chairing the 50+ matches I do every year. And I continue to appreciate what I learned from Bruce.
I would say that Bruce Avery and Joe Buys are the best evaluators I have seen. Too bad they couldn't or didn't evaluate those in authority at the NCAA's because there were sure some glaring weaknesses there.
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