Taking Time for Yourself

I started officiating youth basketball in 1993. At the time, I was a volunteer coach but was asked to officiate on the side. Since I was young and officiating paid, I decided to give it a shot. In 2002, I made a jump in high school officiating. It was a good move for I thought I had gotten a bit stale just doing my youth basketball for so long.

As the 2011-2012 high basketball season approaches, I think I have hit another crossroad. I went a tough period from April onward with various situations. As I have worked to get past the situations, I have realized that my enthusiasm for basketball officiating had diminished.

At first, it was alarming to feel that way. But as a friend pointed out, I had been doing this constantly for nearly 20 years and my body was telling me it was a time for a change. For years I had told myself that it was great to get paid to exercise and officiate. Alas, I have realised the tradeoff is you give up a lot of personal time. I think I have come to the point where my personal time is more important. I could always do other exercise and make money doing something else.

While nothing is set in stone, I have some ideas to refresh myself. One of them has been youth volleyball. I haven't officiated a ton of games but I have been enjoying myself out there. The other is to explore writing sports stories and blogging more.  I've been doing a lot of photography and plan to do that more as well.

The main point is that we all need to take time for ourselves and if you are feeling a little weary, there is nothing wrong trying something new

(Edited on 10/22/11):  After thinking about things for a little bit, I decided to a leave of absence from officiating high school basketball for the 2011-2012 season.   I had thought about this a little bit during the summer but with a lot going on, it wasn't a priority for me to think about it.   However, as the various meetings kick off for officiating, I realized I didn't want officiating to eat into my personal time.   I am not stopping officiating completely as I could still do some youth basketball.  But for this season, I will be on the sidelines watching high school games rather than being a part of it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Taking Time Off Mentally

I love to officiate basketball.  Despite not officiating much recently, I have to admit there's a great rush when you officiate a great basketball game.

On the other hand, there's a reason why I take time off.   I don't know if it's my personality, but I find it a mental strain to work so many games constantly.  I don't think I have thin skin but perhaps I am more emotional than other officials.

There are some fellow officials I know who can easily officiate 4 to 5 days a week for almost the entire year.  There is enough basketball games between youth, AAU, high school and adult leagues/tournaments if want it.

For me, my busiest time is between November and May.  I work high school game constantly during that time as well youth and adult leagues/tournaments.  However, once May ends and the season ends, I go into hibernation a bit.  I still officiate every now and then but don't take as many games.  I really enjoy the downtime away from officiating.  

I compare the downtime to taking a vacation from your regular job.  Many people work years without taking a vacation.  However, as a few of my friends told me,  when you take a vacation from work, you realize how much stress you go through on a day to day basis.   Vacation allows you to get away and forget about work (at least for a short while).

So while I did work a bit the last few days, I have enjoyed my time away from officiating.  In about a month or so, youth volleyball is going to start up and I'll probably be involved.  Then before you know it, high school basketball is coming around the corner.