Freddy
Years ago
Referee Meeting
Last night new Referee Director Neil Poulton, in conjunction with BASA held a referees meeting to discuss the new changes being implemented into the refereeing system. The following were the main points that were discussed:
1. Junior training referees on saturday mornings and friday nights will be wearing a yellow (or alternate colour) shirt to signify that they are a training referee. It was mentioned that this could be a possibly bad decision by 'painting a target' on the referee, but according to study done through other sports this was not the way. Other sports tested were football and soccer were training referees were not as attacked as much. I believe in the basketball environment where coaches, and spectators are alot closer to the action this could cause a problem. What are peoples views on this?
Referees also once they have passed their level one course will have to wear a grey shirt in all games to show that they are at that standard.
2. Referees courses will be run yearly, where all referees have the option to undergo the level course which is above them. Eg a level one referee has the option of attempting the level two course in 2005 and if succesful has the option of completing the level 3 course in 2006. As the courses are difficult in both written and practical this means that a referee will not automatically go up a level each year, but the referee must pass the course to gain that accreditation. Course will run for approx 9 months each with a referee being constantly looked at.
3. Senior games will be ideally only refereed by those who are level 2 or above. As many referees who do the games currently are not level 1 this will not change for the time being, but will be intergrated over the next 6 months.
4. BASA and Neil have recruited an extra 10 referee coaches, or evaluators, so that all referees will be looked at more often.
5. An open speaking policy where referees may ask their evaluators, for what reasons they have not recieved certain appointments of championships. This allows referees to be told in what areas they must improve to be considered for those games.
6. The reporting system has changed. The old system consisted of a A5 report form which only allowed small detail. Now a 2 page report form has been constructed to allow furthur detail into the incident.
These are some of the changes being implemented into the refereeing system either immediatley or over the next season.
Thoughts or opinions welcome.
