I've never been the fastest learner. In thinking about many of my past experiences, it seems to take me some time to absorb lessons and apply them in every thing that I do, including officiating. From thinking about it, there's two reasons I can think of for this.
One reason is that I did not open myself to learn from all of my experiences, whether they were good or bad. I was quite self conscious of mistakes and that prevented me from analyzing stuff as much as I should have.
The second reason is that I did not get counsel from people on things. Even if I knew something was wrong, I would take the approach that I could fix it myself when instead I should have sought assistance. Again, it was probably being a little self conscious to ask people for assistance.
These things got magnified last year when I ran into a tough work situation. The situation forced me to evaluate a lot of things and I think it helped me gain confidence at my regular job but also a great many other things.
As my high school officiating season comes to a close, I noticed a few changes in myself this year. One is that I am analyzing situations before, during and after the game. I have taken a great amount of time talking to my partners throughout games and talked about various things that have occurred. In the past, I was not quite as game aware and spent a lot of time shooting the breeze rather than focusing on the game.
The other thing is I have sought out advice from other referees. It all started in late 2010 when I worked some adult league games with two veterans that I normally don't work with in high school games. Since I was working with them, I just started talking to them and asking questions. This trend has continued to the point where I try to absorb anything useful from any official I work with.
It's funny that I talk about this now. I just remembered why I had started officiating youth volleyball back in 2008. I wanted to be put into new and uncomfortable lessons so I could learn from them as I had felt I had stagnated in basketball. I think I finally got what I wanted.
The funny thing about me? When the light switch turns on, I put a lot of effort into improving. This could apply to my work, hobbies and other things. So while I made some small improvements for myself this year, I see a lot of work ahead. Yet, unlike previous years, I feel I have a road map of what I need to work on and look to come back strong for the 2011-2012 high school season.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment