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Pan Am Indoor Cup - Day 6
August 14 2010
Day 6 was the longest day of the tournament with semi-final and qualification matches on both the men’s and women’s sides. When all was said and done 11 straight hours of hockey was played. Let’s just say I don’t envy the Umpire’s Manager his job, especially when he is on his own.
The Challenges of a Semi-Final
I was appointed to work the semi-final between the United States and Argentina. With only one team qualifying for the 2011 Indoor World Cup the importance of the match was clear. Both teams have very different styles and are tough on the ball, so it was important for Greg (my colleague from Belgium) and I to have a solid game plan.
Pre-Match Chat
As a tournament progresses the umpire’s pre-match chat changes. There is less emphasis on where each other will stand or areas of control and more emphasis on laying out control and management plans, enough to cover different contingencies. Plan A is usually for worst case scenario, where players introduce a physical component early in the game. Plan B was for if the teams decided to play with extreme caution; neither team wanting to make a mistake and content to play for extra time or penalty strokes.
Greg and I had thorough discussions throughout the afternoon while watching other games, using real-time examples of the behaviours we would allow or try to stop and how we would handle it. It was kind of like using video except we were using live games and our other colleagues as examples. When you go to do your own visualization before your match you simply paste your face on that of the umpire and insert how you will call the play, including body language, whistle and decision.
The Feel of Your Performance
Our match followed, for the most part, Plan A. I say for the most part because despite our discussions and preparations Greg and I were not as sharp as we definitely could have been. In our debrief we both felt we umpired to about 95% of our ability. We did a good job, but there was the sense that one or two opportunities were missed early on to put a definitive stop to some behaviours. I have no explanation as to why this happened; our preparation was very thorough. The fact is that no matter how well you think you prepare sometimes you just don’t perform. There are many reasons for this to happen (not enough food during the day, dehydration, external distractions, etc.). The trick is to fall back on your experience and do your best to eliminate these factors as best you can. As I said, we were more disappointed that we weren’t 100%, and it was only a feeling. It didn’t relate to the amount of correct decisions we made; the game ended 2-1 for the US and there were no real protests from either team.
The final day of competition is day 7, and I have been fortunate to earn a spot umpiring the Bronze Medal game with my good friend and roommate Gus Soteriades of the United States (both Canada and the US made it to the final). It should be a lot of fun.
