by umpy who? » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:41 pm
How many games of football have you played in your life?
played about 40 games in Under 14's and Under 16's for a couple of seasons - never went any higher and was not good enough to get any higher, i knew that, and most people around me knew that, i could run, but i couldn't do much else, so i thought i would try my hand at umpiring
Is it true that only umpires that train during the week with the group are able to umpire A grade fixtures, even though there may be an umpire of a better standard available?
not neccesarily - they certainly look at people more who come out to training regularly - it is easier to give them feedback, it is easier to see their fitness and the work they are doing on the track and how they are "improving" as such, as an umpire.
Having said that, there is no pre-requisite as such for coming to training every single session, and if you are a good umpire they will pick you, there is no pre-requisite for getting an A grade game or B grade or Under 18's or whatever. You could be the worst umpire in the world, turn up to training every week - it doesn't mean you will get an A grade game and an umpire of a better standard will probably get promoted ahead of you.
But similar to playing, you still have to show the ability to do it on the field on a Saturday and that will show up whether you train regularly or not.
What do umpires do at training to simulate match conditions?
i'm assuming you're talking about field umpires -
it is a bit hard at times to simulate match conditions when there are no players around to help out in that regard, but we do get a bit going. We work on angles in and around packs, we work on positioning (for example: ball being kicked into the forward line and trying to get into position to see a push in the back and things like that), we practice ball-ups (yes, i am serious) and backing out of packs.
For things like Holding the balls and high tackles it is hard to practice because all we can do is call it as we see it, positioning helps with that, which is what we train for, but decision making is not something we can actually practice. I find that good practice for decision making is watching AFL football, we can sit and watch it and make our decisions and see what they do at AFL level, but it is very hard to practice that sort of thing at training, because we don't have the time, the facilities, the technology or the personnel to do it properly.
We also do a lot of fitness work at training - which does actually help with the decision making, better fitness is crucial to a good umpire - a lot of running is involved, some of it is unnecessary, but it has to be done.
hope that answers your questions for now.
