Knowledge Is The Key!
As a young official, you are just learning
the rules of hockey. Some fans may not recognize this, but it is a fact of
life. The more experience you get from doing more games will give you that
ever increasing body of knowledge of the game of hockey, but you must do
more than just referee on the ice.
You Need To Learn The Rules!
There is nothing worse than having a coach
know the rules better than you do. Coaches can recognize a referee who
knows his rules from a referee who does not. Coaches will feed off of this
and they will use it to their advantage by trying to talk to you and
trying to convince you of the right call…..which is to their favor.
You all have a Referee rule book and an
Officials Procedure Manual. These were given to you for a reason, not to
collect dust on a shelf at home, but to be read from time to time. Here is
a good suggestion that we use from time to time. When you are officiating
a game and a tricky situation that you have never seen before arises, do
your best at that moment, but when you get back into the Referee’s
dressing room or back at home, look up that situation to find the correct
answer. If what you did on the ice was wrong, don’t sweat it, you
will learn more from your mistakes than you will from getting everything
right all the time.
The next time that you are at home and you
are tired of doing your school work (school work comes first!), pick up
the Rule Book and look through it. There are some very interesting and
tricky situations that may arise throughout your officiating career.
Remember, these situations in the rule book are in there because they have
happened to someone, they may happen to you. Know your rules.
