OBSERVATIONS
My observations come from 44 years of training teachers in the religious field as well as 9 years experience as a USTA intructor and coordinator of Texas officials schools.
* The instructors were all excited about the meeting and conveyed their excitement to the audience.
* The material was presented visually as well as orally but was sometimes repetitive. Chad Loup and Nancy Perkins both had informative and concise presentations.
* Two of the instructors were unfamiliar with tennis rules regarding the time taken between the completion of the second set and a third set tiebreak.
* None of the materials covered were new to a USTA certified referee. In fact, our referee's schools cover the same material but in much more detail.
* The workshop comes at a very high financial cost to all who attended. It is redundant to require a referee to repeat what he has already been taught.
* The workshop is taught only on a Sunday session and then one other make up session a few days later. This is very difficult for people to attend if they live outside the Austin area.
SUGGESTIONS
* In the future, USTA certified referees should not be required to attend the workshop since they are already certified in the same materials. The referee schools that are taught in Texas include a special section on Texas rules and regulations so we are duplicating effort at a very high cost.
* A positive step would be to require all Tournament Directors to be certified before they can host a sanctioned tournament. In reality this is already being done but it should be a specific requirement. This can be done by conducting workshops in coordination with the officials schools and let them be taught by certified USTA instructors. There will be officials schools in every major section of Texas so this will cut down on the cost for both the section and for the tournament directors.
* There was an announcement made that next year there will be a workshop in Austin (sponsored by the Texas Section) and an additional workshop in Dallas (paid for by the Dallas Tennis Association.) There is no need for this expense for the DTA and the reasons are given in the point above. There is also no need for the Texas Section to spend money on a workshop when they already have USTA certified instructors conducting schools throughout Texas.
* It would be beneficial to all if every Tournament Director was required to be a certified tennis official. They could attend the officials school and get their officials certification and then attend the TD workshop and get that certification. All people in charge at a tournament need to be well versed in the rules and regulations and this would meet that criteria.
These are just a few of my thoughts and observations of the workshop. I had a great time meeting fellow officials and tournament directors as well as the staff at the Texas Section and my suggestions are intended to strengthen the workshop and not to deter the fine work our Section staff is doing.
6 comments:
Why doesn't our Sectional Chairman do something about this inequity?
What this basically means that if you and the tournament director did not attend the workshop (for whatever reasons), then he will not be able to hire you to referee his tournament.
And that is not a satisfactory reason when you are a certified USTA referee with training in Texas Section rules and regulations.
Our Sectional Chairman doesn't do anything about anything. He's too busy with secret committee meetings to be bothered with something like this.
Why don't you all that are complaining about the Sectional Chairman, step up and take his place? You are good at bad mouthing all umpires, and that seems to be all you have to offer. Look in the mirror. (oh, you do!)
There are plenty of officials out there who could do a better job as Sectional Chairman but they're not sure how you get the job?
Any suggestions?
FYI...
The Sectional Chairman is appointed by the President of the Texas Section (in this case, Bob Rubel of Dallas). The Sectional Chairman also serves at the pleasure of the President which means he can be replaced at any time the President so desires.
Post a Comment