Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Age Old Adage of an Egg Sucking Dog

There is an age old adage that once a dog sucks eggs, he will always suck eggs. There is no known method of changing his behavior once he has gotten into this habit.

There is nothing that strikes fear into the heart of a referee more than an OVERLY OFFICIOUS OFFICIAL! They can get you in more trouble than a bunch of rowdy boys and seem to be as unchangeable as an egg sucking dog...

So--what do we do about OVERLY OFFICIOUS OFFICIALS??? That seems to be a question that has come down through the ages and we all search for the solution.

Here are a few observations and suggestions about an OOO (Overly Offiicious Official):

* They are usually, but not always, a new or inexperienced official. That should tell us that one of the "cures" would be more training and teaching.

* They tend to think they already "know everything" and "have arrived" as an official. If that is true, we have our work cut out for us!

* They often have children that have played tennis tournaments all their lives so they think they are experts on officiating.

* They have selective hearing in that they hear what they want to hear.

* Often difficult to train.

* Usually very legalistic in their interpretation of tennis rules.

* Have to make sure players, parents, and other officials know they are "in charge."

* Sometimes have been abused by an official in their past and are trying to "right the wrongs" that were done to them.

* Do not fall into one personality type. They can be dominant or passive, Type A or Type B, outspoken or quiet spoken, male or female--but they all jump into situations without warning or provocation.

* Tend to embarrass themselves, the referee, the players, and the parents by their officious behavior.

* Don't seem to have a clue that they are overly officious.

* Recommended cures (if there is such a thing):

1. Spend time counseling them about their on court skills.
2. Specifically discuss any problems areas they might have in officiating.
3. Make sure they are properly trained and if so, be sure they get some remedial training.
4. Make absolutely sure that they get some on court training with an experienced official.
5. Pray that someone else hires them so you don't have to work with them again.
6. Be sure to have a referee's network so you can be aware of their tendencies.
7. If they keep sucking eggs, then quit hiring them. Maybe they will eventually get the message!

These are just a few observations and suggestions--we would like to hear your's...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a simple suggestion but, horribly difficult for many folks to comprehend, let alone implement: Address the situation head on! If the official is being overly officious the refereee should address her/his observations with the OOO immediately. Don't wait for the next referee or someone else to manage the probelm for you, take the miscreant aside and explain the issue to them. Such explanation should also include instruction/coaching on how to resolve the problem. Keep an eye on that individual and continue coaching, if necessary. If the issue doesn't get resolved, inform the OOO that the coaching seems to have no effect on them and that you, as a referee, will take that into consideration when assigning your next tournament. On the other hand, referees can always choose to ignore the behavior hoping it will magically resolve itself over time. Or better yet, they can just find some tennis blog on which they can bitch about the situation without really having to do anything about it.

Anonymous said...

Like your observation. One other is when you try and explain something to officials there reply will be "I KNOW IT." If they know it, then why do they keep doing the same errors over and over. You right about not using them, except when the coaches keep insisting that you keep bringing them back to do matches because it saves them money in travel cost.

RM said...

I think I find myself in the group that hopes it will magically resolve itself over time. That way we avoid conflict but I'm not sure we should always do that...

But then as we grow older, we discover that hindsight is always better than foresight.

We should all make a new resolution to do what is stated in the first comment...

Wally said...

If someone won't take any constructive criticism, when it's only going to help them, then they are quickly removed from my availability list. Problem solved!!

Anonymous said...

Or could just be that the National Evaluators are so diverse in how things should be done there is never clear direction and the confusion created by that lack of consistent evaluation and review creates. Each Section does their own thing and there is such a push to push the white male out of the system due to a bad lawsuit, no wonder why there is anger, issues and OOO.

Taco Boy said...

What about referees that are over-officious? We have a couple of those in the Texas Section. Does anyone have the desire to name a few.

Anonymous said...

Start the dance Taco Boy! Name some names......

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Hello, as you may already noticed I'm new here.
I will be glad to receive any help at the beginning.
Thanks in advance and good luck! :)

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