Mastery Approach for Officials: Off-Season

A mastery approach helps you focus on things that you as an official can control: your effort, your willingness to learn new things and your reaction when you think you might have made a mistake. When you have control, your anxiety goes down and your self-confidence goes up. PCA’s shorthand for mastery is ELM, which stands for Effort, Learning and bouncing back from Mistakes.

You’ve put in your best effort all season, and now the competitions have come to an end. Think again about the “L” in ELM, which stands for Learning. Just as with student-athletes and coaches, the off-season is a time to learn and improve so that you can come back next year stronger both mentally and physically.

Set specific goals for yourself.

• Stay up-to-speed on rules and best-practices
• Take advantage of resources like summer camps through state associations
• Maintain your physical fitness
• Evaluate video from your past competition

Mentor a newer official.

• Get to know a new official and offer advice based on your experience
• Maintain this relationship when the season starts so they have someone to consult
• One of the toughest challenges we face with officials is early drop-out – but by being a mentor, you can help prevent this

Attend off-season practices.

• Offer to help educate players and coaches about rule changes
• Assist with off-season competitions
• Developing a connection with coaches, players, and parents in the offseason can help humanize you when competitions start