My "Observation"

I know that I promised you all an exciting part 2 for my piece on the club tryout and season experience. That is still in the works; however, I have more immediate things to share with you all.

This weekend, I took part in an official USAU (USA Ultimate) observer clinic, and assuming all the paperwork goes through as expected, I became a certified observer. The process wasn’t dauntingly impossible, but it also wasn’t one of the easiest things I’ve ever had to do.

I signed up for the clinic in late January when I received a mass email communication from USAU informing me that an observer clinic would be happening in Naperville in conjunction with the Chicago Invite (High School Edition). Since the clinic was happening in my own backyard, I figured I didn’t have a good excuse not to go. Plus, I knew it wouldn’t hurt to brush up on the rules before the club season started, not to mention have a little more credibility when making calls as a player.

About two weeks before the clinic, the instructor sent us a link to an online rules quiz that we had to pass in order to be eligible for the clinic. The clinic itself is designed more to teach how to make rulings rather than what rulings to make. As such, preparing for and passing a rules quiz proves you at least looked at the rules pertaining to the questions on the quiz.

The clinic began at 8:30am in a small hotel conference room which gave off a classroom setting (complete with a whiteboard on the wall). True to ultimate fashion, the first hour of the program is designed as a “meet and greet” to allow other people up to an hour if they’re late.

The entire clinic is designed to follow the Observer Manual produced by USAU, which can also be found on the USAU website. So if you’re interested in a much more detailed account of what observers are supposed to know and do, then you may want to check that out. The first part of the clinic began with a discussion on the Spirit of the Game. USAU tends to preach this a little harder than they should, in my opinion, but it is one of the founding tenants of the game. Without that mutual respect between opponents, captains, coaches and observers, the entire system breaks down (even in sports with referees).

The rest of the classroom session functioned as a discussion between the 12 participants with the instructor leading the way and making sure we knew the basic responsibilities of being an observer: active in and out of bounds calls, active in and out of the end zone calls, keeping track of time limits between points and for timeouts, as well as the active call on a force-out-foul (though players should be thinking of making these calls if an observer was out of position to make such a ruling). After a lunch break, we also went over many common situations involving correct positioning and proper stall count after a foul or violation is resolved.

One thing all players should be aware of: observers do not make active up or down calls on the disc. So if someone makes a questionable catch in the end zone, the observer will signal that the player is in the end zone, but there is a delay between when we make that call and when we signal a goal. So as a player, it your responsibility to contest the catch and then go to an observer for a ruling if the discussion can’t be resolved. Also, when going to an observer with a call, be as specific as possible, especially on travel calls. State why you think the player traveled, e.g. pivot moved or s/he failed to make a proper ground check or s/he failed to place his pivot in the correct spot.

After all the basics were covered, we went over the misconduct system, TMFs and PMFs. From my experience with observers, most of them would warn teams that a TMF or PMF would be issued for the next offense. The observer program is now discouraging that practice and advocating for giving a TMF or PMF right from the start, especially since TMF penalties don’t kick in until the third one is issued.

Before we headed out to the tournament to get some in-the-field practice, we quickly went over the hand signals and how to work a game with one, two or four observers (two is the most common). At the field, all twelve of us and the instructor worked a single game. Each of us got about two or three points of experience. Having played in multiple games with observers, I was quite comfortable in finding the right positioning and making the proper calls when I needed to. Though I must say, the high school kids handle disputes quite well. I’m not sure if any of us actually made a ruling on a foul call. I chalk that up to good coaching.

After our on-field practice, we went back to the classroom to go over any questions we had as well as receive general feedback from the instructor on how we did in the field. After that, we took another quiz that was a bit more difficult than the pre-clinic quiz. The questions were tricky and there was also a short answer portion for how to conduct yourself given certain heated and complex situations. I think it served as good mental preparation for our on-field evaluations the next day.

On Sunday, the twelve of us would each work a full game in pairs while being evaluated by one of the instructors. Our certification would be determined as a combination of our final quiz score and on-field evaluation. I was fortunate enough to work the first round of the day. At the start, it looked like a challenging game. There were strong winds and rain with lightening expected at any moment. Further, the field we were at had specifically requested observers. We didn’t find out until afterwards that the request was simply to experience a game with observers, not because of any ill will between the teams.

The game went smoothly, very few calls were made, and of those calls, even fewer needed an observer to make a final resolution. I was pretty impressed with how these kids handled themselves. There was even an instance where a travel was called on a throw for a score. After a five second discussion (with no yelling I might add), the kid who made the call realized he was incorrect and acknowledged that a goal had been scored. The kids did have a little trouble with off sides, with one team actually getting a penalty, but the timing between points and time outs was never an issue.

Overall, the program was a very positive experience, and I highly recommend getting involved as an observer if you’re interested in such things. Also, if you’re reading this blog and have more questions or you’re thinking that you’d like to have your team get some practice with an observer, then contact me and although I’m pretty much only available in the Chicago area, I’ll do my best to help you out.