Monday, June 08, 2009

Psychological Study of Tennis Officials

For the past two years I have had a good psychologist friend of mine conduct a study of tennis officials. He has observed officials roving, chairing, and in simple personal interaction and here are some of his observations:

Type A Male Officials
* Tend to take leadership roles both on and off the court.
* Strong willed and usually make quick and accurate decisions.
* Do not tolerate a great deal of conflict from coaches, players, and spectators.
* Can be overly aggressive if confronted.
* Do extremely well in men's ITA chaired matches.
* Usually tend to see issues in black and white and leave little room for error and/or discussion.
* Tend to garner respect from players simply by their actions and behavior on the court.
* If experienced, they are well versed in the rules of tennis.
* Tend to gravitate toward other alpha-males in their personal relationships.
Type B Male Officials
* Tend to be very non-confrontational.
* Normally a follower instead of a leader.
* Pays meticulous attention to detail.
* Can be overly officious if faced with verbal conflict or confrontation.
* May also retreat into a shell if confronted personally.
* Tend to do better roving than in chairs.
* Very strong team players.
* Strong loyalty to other officials.
* Has a tendency to worry more about a player's intent than their actions.
* Tends to retreat quickly when confronted by coaches and players.
Type A Female Officials
* Tend to be very verbal, opinionated, and agressive in their personal styles.
* Usually have played tennis at a high level in their personal lives.
* Frequently have issues with those in authority over them.
* Strong personal presence but usually have a weak self image.
* Function well as referees but not as umpires.
* Tend to be overly officious on a regular basis.
* Very selective in their friendships within the officiating ranks.
* Strong presence in the chair but becomes officious and aggressive when confronted or questioned.
* Tends to try to become the alpha male in a group setting. Frequently tries to be in charge of everything. Responds negatively when under the authority of an alpha-male official.
* Loyal to their friends even to a fault.
* Reponds quickly and usually negatively when their authority is questioned.
Type B Female Official
* Weakest of all personality types among officials.
* Tends to be very submissive in personal dealings.
* Very seldom an actual tennis player in their private lives.
* Weak personal skills and extremely weak leadership skills.
* Very seldom make a good chair official.
* Easily offended and dominated by stronger officials.
* Usually a person with high personal integrity.
* If married, normally married to an alpha-male.
* Strong knowledge of rules but weak in application.
* Tends to be very emotional and unstable.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obviously your psychologist friend is a MALE :-)

RM said...

Of course since I tend to think that they make the best psychologists.

However, he is married to an alpha-female.

Anonymous said...

Good grief!! Is this an affirmative action joke??

What are the criteria used to make the assessments in these categories of judgement? What were the situations where the prototypical judgement of level was acertained?

Asked a friend who is a psychologist???!! What kind of psychologist, according to what theory of motivation or behavior?
Where did the person get their degree? What kinds of scientific papers did they publish to be regarded as experts in these assessments??

Or is this a joke, by affirmative action acolytes of the obamaoid who is declared to be so smart but no one releases his grades , his transcripts or his foreign student visa loan details?

Surely your practical tennis assessments can rise to a higher level that the bahamian holder and the kenyan obama affirmative action degrees!!?? Or not??

What tribal scientific methodolgy was employed to make the distinctions?
Or is multicultural idolatry the only criterion??

RM said...

I am indeed impressed by your big words--now I just have to figure what you are actually saying.

I thought the assessments were accurate and quite true; but then I'm only speaking from over 20 years of officiating experience and 44 years of pastoral experience.

Tweenkie said...

Your Doctor Quake doesn't understand the majority of officials who are openly gay. We have been overlooked long enough. It's time to come out of the closet and let the world know who we are so we can take over the USTA.

Anonymous said...

What a great blog spot for tennis officials. I refer every official I meet to check your blog regularly for insight on officiating.

You are doing a great service to allow the airing issues of officiating.

Whatever section or level an official works at,

this site provides a forum friendly to meditations, analyses and rants.

Thank you.

RM said...

Thanks for the compliments. Its always good to hear a good report.

Anonymous said...

I am amazed when reading this that the type A and B profiles for men are explanations of different styles and strengths. Whereas, the profiles for both type A and B are bad and worse.

This article states that type A women are are broken and are unable to be fair officials. That they don't do well with groups and have issues on the court. Type B women are bad altogether because they are submissive.

This is shocking considering it gives no evidence of the scientific method being employed. These results mean nothing when the person giving them is doing so from a point of view of opinion that is old school.

Women officials need to stand up against this type of categorization that so transparently a way to keep women out of this line of work.

I can't believe this person even had the arrogance to post this. I would say this person falls under their catagory type B women they created. Try it on and see how it feels.