FHumpires.com
Pan Am Indoor Cup - Day One
August 10 2010
The start of any tournament is eagerly anticipated by everyone, and for the umpires I think doubly so. Players like to play but umpires want to make sure they do a great job right out of the gate. There is an added challenge when you are umpiring teams you have never seen before on a surface you are not accustomed to. This was the case for us on day one of the Pan Am Indoor Cup 2010.
First of all, when you go to any big tournaments there are logistical elements that you must be prepared for. Our biggest concerns as the umpiring team are that of food and transport. Our hotel (for both umpires and technical officials) was a good 20-minute drive from the pitch, which meant a great deal of reliance on a reliable transport system. At any given time we were looking at transporting 20-30 people to and from the pitch, and the vans only held a maximum of 15 (as well as all our bags).
The next issue was food. For two nights at the hotel the food was either cold or awful. This adds to stress levels at times when you want your focus to be on your next match. After the first two nights the food did appear to improve and it was amazing the effect that had on the morale of the umpiring crew. Food at the pitch on the first day was a little scary for some, so much so that a large group of us looked at skipping the provided lunch altogether.
The playing surface was not even as well as being of a rubbery material, which caused less-skilled players to bobble the ball considerably. This made it challenging for the umpires to allow as much advantage as possible, however at our post match meeting the end of the first night it was agreed that everybody had done an admirable job handling the less than favourable conditions.
One thing that was also agreed upon was that ‘drilling’ needed to be managed better. Drilling is a term used to describe intentionally playing the ball in close quarters into an opponent with force. The intention is to either back the defender off or cause them to raise the ball and force a free push. It is an extremely dangerous tactic and needs to be stamped out of the game. The problem, of course, is that if you don’t eliminate it players get injured and then they get even. Physical play seeps into the game because the players take it upon themselves to police it, which never is a good idea. After a lengthy discussion with all of the umpires it was agreed that we needed to be more strict as a group in order to eliminate a dangerous behaviour. The first thing we needed to grasp is that it is danger, pure and simple. That means there is no advantage. We also looked at where it is most likely to occur and found an interesting parallel between the men’s game and the women’s game; most drilling in the men’s games happened out of defence, while the women’s teams used it more in attack just outside and inside the circle.
Management of this would be given penalty corners (as well as possibly cards) when defenders drilled, and straight use of cards on the very first instance when on attack. Gus noted that at the Asian Indoor Cup several weeks ago penalty corners were enough to get the message across and the behaviour was all but eliminated; teams are less likely to give up goal scoring opportunities simply to alleviate pressure.
