📅 July 10 19.00 GMT
➡️ YouTube
See you there!
🚨 Sign up now and nail those big calls with Mission Critical Positioning!
⏱ Chapter Markers:
00:04:30 Chair Dancing
00:04:46 1. The O35s Overhead: WTN v NHR O35 Final, Vantage Hockey New Zealand National Masters Championship
00:42:40 2. Skll Session: “Noting” Your Mindset
01:02:07 3. Work Abroad Program
Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.
🟢🟡🔴 🏑
Transcript
🎶
WUW Ep. 162
Keely: What up Wednesday? Hi, Keely Dunn, FHumpires, third team. Hi. It's going to be a quick one today. And absolutely not. I had no idea that there was something happening in an hour. I honestly, I had no idea. I thought, I thought England was out because I have socials and a lot of you talk about the sports ball on the socials, and I thought you were out.
And in fact, all the Dutch people. And I think this might be me doing my job too well. That y'all are like, Oh no, Keely doesn't want to hear about it. So we're not going to talk about it on the server. You guys are great. Thank you so much. But as it turns out, I am still going to do a quick show because, you know, it's just been one of those slow weeks and, you know, we can all use just a little bit of a break in the summer, just a little bit.
So. Let's see how it goes. Yeah. Uh, under, under the pressure, as it were to finish in the hour, come on England and Netherlands in the soccer. You said soccer. That's, see, that wasn't me. That was not me. And you don't have to do that just to make me feel more comfortable because it's all sports ball to me.
That's what I'm saying. Good to see you, uh, Samantha. Yes, it's, it's a good one. And Kyle, oh my god, good to see you. Wait, hold on, hold on. Uh, there it is. Gonna happen there. Oh, Rich, thank you very much. You weren't supposed to come, and now I'm gonna start getting emotional already. Okay. Topics. Let's go.
Topics! This is the only clip, the over 35s overhead, which I don't like saying overhead. We're going to do a skill session about, uh, noting your mindset and news. Okay. Yeah, this, this is what's happening. So have a look, have a look at this little play
and in slow motion. I'm just gonna hold my silence. This is me, being silent.
You see all the people? This is your ASMR. Arial. ASMR over Arial.
Okay. It's gonna go to the replay in a second. So, Arial. Boy, that really is long. That is really, really long. And of course, I did this. Now, while I'm reassembling this scene, just have a little think here. What is happening with all of my things? I've lost my mouse. I've lost my mind. Select an image, a movie file.
I don't want to let, there we go. Okay.
So let me give you a little context about this particular play. And I think this is going to actually help my cause because this popped up on Hockey Performance Academy, or I believe her name is Lauren Perry. Lauren Perry's Instagram page. Uh, I have a lot of time for Lauren Perry. She's, uh, appears to be from all her Instagramming, an excellent coach.
Um, really, um, really hard working on social media. And frankly, I am here for every single hockey entrepreneur who is trying to make a living in this sport because it me. And if we don't stick up for each other and look out for each other who is, plus I'm here for a woman, especially entrepreneur making her way professionally in the hockey world.
So I love that. But it doesn't mean I have to agree with everything she does. Like, putting up a vertical clip of this on the Hockey Performance Academy Instagram page. Y'all know how I feel about vertical clips, so let's just make sure, just in case, we'll review it. They're shit. You don't get to see all of the context, and especially, like, I'm still waiting for that vertical clip where I go, Oh yeah, that's a better view than having the landscape of the entire situation.
I really appreciate being able to hone in on just this 9×16. Like, this is, this is dope. This is really helping me focus. That is, it's, it's just not happened and it's not happening in this clip either. So much so that when I saw this clip, I did recognize, Oh, it's not looping. It says loop. Okay. Let's see if it works now.
So much so that when I saw it on the Instagram, I immediately, I see all the bullboards and I saw the field surrounds in passing in the flash and I was like, Oh, I think that's Wellington. Okay, that's good. And then I started reading the comments, which I know, I know you should never read the comments, but I did.
And one of the commenters mentioned, well, this is Wellington against North Harbor. And I'm like, Oh, okay, good. I know what the two teams are. I'm going to go to my community. I'm going to ask them. If they can help me track down this game. This game just happens to be the over 35s final of the Hockey New Zealand Vantage, Vantage Hockey New Zealand National Masters, Masters Nationals Championships.
And I was there. I was there watching the game. I was, technically speaking, UMing this game with a fine UM team. watching Mike McDowell of our community and David Oakley umpiring this game. Was it the last game of the tournament? Yes, it was. Does that mean I may have had one, perhaps two gin and tonics at this point?
Perhaps. That's true. But what I do know about my vantage point, pun intended, of this entire match is that I was on the center line, down, Pitch side. Which means I was kind of where the camera was, except lower, so even worse. And of course, this was a play that had a thing about it. There was a consultation between, uh, David Oakley, who is the controlling umpire here, and Mike McDowell.
They came together, they had a chat, they called it. I asked a couple questions after the game, like, hey, what about that thing? And they're like, yeah, well, he touched it, it was a goal. And I'm like, oh, cool. Cool. Cool. Not just because I'd had two gin and tonics, but because when you don't have a good view and the umpires make a decision, what should be your default?
Come on internet. Come on. Let's hear it. Correct. You go with the umpire's decision. You think, they must have seen something that I didn't because I have a shit view. Right? Right? So, Now that I'm not embarrassed anymore about the fact that I didn't recognize that that is seven foot tall Mike McDowell and that is David Oakley and this is a match that I was actually watching, I'm not embarrassed at all.
That is how bad vertical video is. You don't even notice the, the people who you have been working with. You don't even recognize them. That's how bad it is. Um, am I pretty quiet? Okay. Um, let's see. I tape in the hot seat. I decided that perhaps if I start talking about what an idiot I am, that maybe I'm in the hot seat and everybody can just sort of lay off.
So, let's talk about this. Um, and I, I just, like, let's just reiterate. It's okay to have discussions on social media. It's okay to, to have these, uh, put these scenarios up there because it's worthwhile to have discussion, but if you are a hockey account who Is asking a question and you don't know the answer, or perhaps you don't have the full expertise, or you'd like to recruit the expertise, go get the expertise.
So Callum, a couple weeks ago, put up the reel, said stick block or not, and he tagged me. I'm not saying that you have to tag me, but you really should. Because, just putting up a clip, And asking an open ended question and then letting your comments fill up might be satisfying for the algorithm in the short term.
People aren't going to come back to your account and come for the value that you offer because you're not offering any value in that. You are literally baiting the click. So we have to be better than that. If we're going to be better as a hockey community at understanding really, really difficult rules like the aerial and looking at really, really difficult scenarios like this, stop baiting the click.
We have to be able to couch all of this in a meaningful context and have a discussion where we can lay out the principles, we can decide on the facts, and if we can't decide on the facts, we at least apply it. A uniform set of principles and we come up with one or two alternatives that depend on what the facts were.
End of story. All this open ended bullshit helps nobody. Okay? Thank you. I won't say it, Rich. I'm not gonna say it. Nobody's come to any talk of any kind. Okay. Now, um, is it, isn't that huggy? Um, clearly not because I don't hug people. What are you talking about? Ew. People. Gross. Okay. I would also like to point out that while I was looking at this clip, and I was clipping it, and I was slow motioning it, and doing all this, I kind of panicked.
Because it, for me, is a scenario that I have not had to parse, at least at a high level, at any of the clips that I've done. And I had a conversation with Mike about this last night. And I really want to thank Mike for being patient with me and letting, and like us going through this conversation, going back and forth, me asking this, him asking this, us exchanging these ideas and doing it in the spirit of trying to figure out.
Where the holes in the arguments are, does this make sense? What's the rationale? What are we actually seeing? And if, if, but not for his help, I would not have tried to tackle this today. So Mike, thank you so much. Okay. I don't know if you're, you're probably not watching live. Maybe you're going to watch on replay.
Um, so cheers for that. It means a lot. And this is, that was sort of a microcosm of what I do with you all. So this is exploratory look. But I want you to be very clear that these are my people, and I'm not going to tolerate anything that drags these people. If you go to FHumpires. com forward slash about, there is a no dragging policy.
There is also a radical candor value there, and they come into conflict quite regularly, it seems. But I will be a fierce mama bear in this case, because these are my people, okay? Okay. Now, let's talk about the ideas. Did I, did I start or did I, did I ever finish? I don't know, I'm just gonna start another one.
Right. So what are we seeing, folks? First of all, kudos to this player for a bomb. Like, I'm sorry, over 35s? Nationals? Bombed that. Like a full, from 123 to like the five meter dash of the other 23. Like that's ridiculous. The other circle, that is an amazing, amazing piece of skill. Right. But what we have here, um, I think I'm going to go to this scene.
How about we do this? Okay. So that we can really break it down. Okay. Bomb. Right. Let's go to the ultra slow mode because it's nice and easy. So we have what is arguably our first initial receiver. Dude. Okay. Defender. And even though he's not in the landing zone, this is why I don't like the word landing.
He is in an area where he's able to receive this ball. So I like receiving zone. He's in a receiving zone, receiving area, whatever you want to call it, but receptions are possible. However, much to everyone's dismay, I'm sure, he does miss this ball, and it bounces. Now, the first question we ask ourselves is, is this still an aerial?
Do we still need to apply aerial rules? Okay, that's the first step in this process. And I think the clear answer to that is yes, we do. Because the ball is going to bounce at a significant height. It's around head, shoulder, maybe overhead height. And therefore, we still want to, at this level of skill, at every level of skill, I think, going to want to protect the players with considering five meter restrictions.
Okay. First step, done, good. Now, once this initial receiver has missed it, who is the next initial receiver? And this is where things get a little dicey, and people ask me all the time, well what if the first person misses it, is there another initial receiver after that? And in this case, I believe there is.
Not because I know everything about everything, but because In this scenario, we have the ball moving towards this attacker, who is, uh, you can argue highest, but closest to the goal, and in behind. And this player is in the space, clearly, when the ball is about 20 meters away, after it's been missed. So, if the ball is here at this point, we have second initial receiver potentially there once this gentleman misses it.
And we have a second defender who is closing into that space. Okay. What makes this play, this would be easy. This would be easy except for number whatever it is. I can't see it. 12, 13, 8.
Okay. It's grainy. It's dark. What can I say? He makes this really hard. And this is what's so unique about the situations. We have a third person, a third player running in and making things muddy. And he's not a defender. He's an attacker. So a lot of the discussion I had with Mike last night revolved around what Consequence does this player running in Within five meters of everybody have on all of the play because if he didn't exist This ball it would be very easy initial receiver.
This guy's infringing It's at least a penalty corner, and I would argue this is a penalty stroke. It's quite intentional, he knows where the ball's going, he knows where the player is, he's not backing into the space, he's running across it, he can see everything. Penalty stroke would be the, the, the remedy here.
Okay, but what makes this difficult is that we have this next player running in, and What he does is reaches up his stick into this area and although it's not clear on the video, you talk to Mike and Mike put this out on Instagram. Kudos to him for actually, you know, putting that out there and saying, you know, I was there.
I was a supporting umpire. This is what we saw and this is why we called it, you know, really, really good to make himself vulnerable is that he sees a touch here from uh, this White attacker who's also run into this space. Now, do we have a five meter infringement of a five meter infringement? Because this player could be considered attempting to intercept, but he's within playing distance.
He's, he's definitely within the five meters. He's within playing distance. It's probably dangerous to the attacker behind him. So that's simply an infringement that needs to be penalized. But can he, can this attacker now infringe on what this defender is doing? And the argument that Mike made, which I eventually, um, embraced.
Seeded, figured, yeah, this is, this is the most, this is the thing that makes the most sense is he's not supposed to be there. He's not supposed to be in that space because he's infringing. This guy can't infringe on this guy's space because they're teammates. There's no, it's, fouls are only committed against opponents.
Just like the whole danger thing that a lot of people don't understand. Uh, you know, the, the, the first attacker can't, can't foul the second. Can't cause him danger, can't infringe on his five meters, all that kind of stuff. So if he's not there, then there's nothing wrong with what happens here. from a danger perspective, from a five meter perspective, from playing distance, for anything, anything like that.
So if he's not supposed to be here, then this attacker is not infringing on an infringer's five meters. Does that make sense to you? I really want you to engage with this intellectually as much as you can. I'm going to come to the comments in a sec so we can start going through and figure out if there's a problem.
Now, What you have is you've got a swipe there, and then you see the white, the second white attacker ducking out of the way, does not want to get hit by the ball, because, see his number keeps changing for me. I could check the TMS, but I, I can't be bothered. 11. Are we going to say 11? Because 11 has touched the ball, and his teammate wants to make sure that he knows Let's give him credit.
He knows that it's not going to be dangerous to him, but if it hits him on the body, then he's stopping what could be a goal. And for some reason, the goalkeeper decides that he's not going to play that ball and he just lets it go in. So that's what we've got. Let's go to some comments and see what you have to say.
This is, this should be hard. So if you're feeling confused, if you're feeling a little uncertain, good. You should. You should be asking yourself and me and all of your friends questions at this moment. So Godders, uh, looking at it seems to you that white is a receiver, although angles are not perfect.
White seems to move less than black towards the ball. Agreed. As it lands, it looks 50 50 in terms of space, but not at 20 meters. Okay. And then do you follow that up? No, that's what you said. Okay. Taco. Without the second attacker, why would you give a PC for the defender? Would you, wouldn't you have given the defender the interception?
No, because he's, because he's in playing distance and, and, and like it's, it's too close. It's too close to the attacker. That's why.
Um, Stephen, it's an excellent way to breaking it down. Thank you. Confirms to you what you felt on the day. Yeah. And, and that, um, hey, I'm, I'm trying everything in order to, to work through what really is, um, challenging. Yeah. H11. Isn't black causing danger to number 11? Um, yeah. So Ethan, if we consider the black defender, either He's infringing or he's causing danger to, um, either of the white attackers.
If white gets a touch on the ball and it goes in the goal, what do we want to award? We want to give the best result. We're playing advantage. So the best result for the white attacking team is goal.
Um, thank you. And I like how everybody there remembered it so well that you all have firm thoughts on it, and I'm the one who's going, I have a vague recollection. Look, it was a very long tournament. I was tired. And Okay, I'm gonna stop making excuses for myself. Uh, let's see. Bring it back. Bring that back!
Okay, uh, defender was running into the five meters intercept. Yep, you were there as well. Yep, okay. Um, the second initial receiver is white. Okay. So
with, with the view that we have It is, it's difficult for us, what we, what I want you to, to recognize when you look at this, because this is going to come in real handy for all the social media posts that you're going to see in the future, is that the camera angle here compresses the space. and it's difficult for us to really determine where players are.
We can see the space between the defender who's going to come in and run into the five meters, but seeing the distance between the ball and all of the players, we don't have a good sense of it. It's really difficult because the camera's almost in a straight line of it. So that's when you go, not sure, really not sure We also can't see very clearly what the ball does.
So whether you're convinced it got touched or as some people in the Instagram comments felt not sure it got touched, that's okay to be unsure, but that's when you say, I don't know. You don't say definitely didn't get touched. That umpire was wrong. That is not the correct way to handle this. And if you're an umpire and you're commenting on Instagram like that, stop it.
I am going to come for you and we are going to have a talk. Shane was in the clubroom. Was I in the clubroom at that point or was I down on the pitch? I don't remember. Stain, you don't even have to say devil's advocate. We are having a fulsome conversation and trying to tease out all the arguments here.
Could one also argue that white 12 is interfering with black defender's effort to play the ball outside of the other white attacker's playing zone? That is, that's something that I was thinking about, but the black defender isn't playing outside of the second white attacker's playing distance. So, had he been further away, had he been outside that playing distance, and he had been attempting a legal interception instead of just breaking that play down, then we have a different equation.
So, but, but the, the, the, um, the attacker, number 11, who scores the goal, his effort doesn't change what that defender does. That defender's line, where he's running, where he's reaching, there's nothing that's being impacted or nothing to be changed by what the other attacker does, right? So that can't be interference.
Does that make sense? It's a good, good thing to tease out, for sure. Lou, isn't the briefing direction not to play advantage on aerials but rather to blow it early? You think it's an infringement on black penalty stroke. Um, the briefing direction is not to not play advantage on aerials. No, I, I don't know which, which briefing you might be referring to, but on every call at what the umpires have to determine 20 meters away from a receiving area or 20 meters away from the initial receiver is figuring out whether there is an infringement, not whether you have to blow it or not.
Okay. Thank you. And Lou, if in your area, at your level of play, that it is very unlikely that you're going to be able to play advantage in these situations because it's more likely to be dangerous, then that's exactly what you do. But that's not what you do at over 35s Nationals, Masters, Championships, where guys are bombing 65 meter aerials.
They clearly have skill. So, we, we, we are there to facilitate skill, not to get in their way. That's why. Um, Mike had a perfect line, he did. I don't know how far away he was. But he had a perfect line. If he'd been on the sideline, he wouldn't have. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh my god, you guys are the best. It's true.
I mean, there are so many reasons why I advocate this positioning and it doesn't mean that it's going to be right for all, like a hundred percent of the time you're going to have a better angle. It worked out really well in this situation. I think you more frequently will come to the right decision in this kind of situation because of that positioning, because you're going to be at the opposite angle of your colleague.
So Where, where David's coming in, he's more side on and look, he did not get caught too far out of this. And I want to give him credit for that because, you know, David's one of the umpires who I spoke with a little bit about MCP and encouraged him to look at moving inside and things like that. And he did try it out a little bit.
It's hard to make a big change at a big tournament. So, you know, no problem there, but he was in fairly good position when this bomb came and was closer to it than I think. 90 percent of umpires would have been, especially if they don't use MCP, because if they were out on that sideline, they would have been F'd.
They would have been left behind completely. So kudos there. So he's got a different angle. So he's going to see something about ball and spacing. One set of information, he's going to see best. And then another set of information, Mike's going to see best because of the angle he's at. And that's really good teamwork.
Really. understanding what your colleague can see and what you can see, and then you come together and you confirm it. Awesome. And what Mike confirmed is that when they came together and consulted and eventually gave the goal, there was no question about whether they needed to call five meters on this.
The only question was, was there a touch by the white attacker? So that's what the information was. And oh my God, McDowell. I told him last night that he's, he's gonna start, um, he's, he's, he's a softball coach and he's starting his content creation journey on all of the socials today, he said. So if you don't follow him, m44coaching on the Instagrams, go follow him.
If you like softball, I actually said another sports name out loud, the sports ball softball, the softball sports ball. Anyway. Bye. Go follow him. And I was like, everybody's going to follow you to learn about softball coaching now, because you're going to do that better than, than I do umpire coaching. And I'm, I'm threatened.
I'm threatened. Anyway, fabulous. Fabulous stuff. Any other questions on this? I want to make sure that I've sort of covered all of that. Oh. I did miss, Stephen, your comment here. Great acknowledgement to Dave to play on through this. Often seem blown before it lands in lower grade games for leading to danger.
And it's, look, there's a tension and just like I said in reply to Lou's question, you, you may have to intervene earlier where players can't be trusted. They haven't developed the hockey sense to understand what is my responsibility to my opponents. And my teammates to, you know, to not hurt them either on the pitch.
How do I conduct myself in these times? What is a fair exercise of skill? And what is absolutely reckless and what could hurt somebody? And when you're at those levels, it's, it's often harder to find that balance because they don't have the experience and you might not have the experience. Having seen many, many, many of these aerials and going, yeah, I know what these guys are going to do here.
So. You know, we'll, we'll have grace about that and understand that, you know, if you, if you don't see moms like this very often, it's hard. You also don't see times where a third player comes running in like this and honestly, he shouldn't have done anything. He should have stayed out of it and let his dude behind him get the touch on the ball or just let the penalty stroke get called.
Instead, he made it really complicated and poached the goal from his teammate, and I hope he bought all the beers afterwards, because he, he should have. Okay, anybody else? I'll just sip my mate. I'm not stalling. I'm not stalling because I don't want to get to the last topic. That's definitely not what's happening here.
Let's go to the poll. Oh, great. Samantha, what do you got? Um, would this be a situation where if White didn't score, that one should be brave and blow the penalty stroke for the Black player running in?
If, so if you're saying if White missed it, or wasn't able to execute on the skill, would you go back to the penalty stroke if that's what you're asking? I'm not a fan of going back once the bite has, the cherry has been bitten the first time. Right? So if you can assess in that moment that the white players had a good stab at this, and I still, I don't understand why the goalkeeper didn't do the safe thing and play the ball, because he's in position and he literally just like, if you please, carry on past me into the goal, and that's just, you know, classic goalkeeper, you know, he could have just Played it off to the, you know, kick the rebound out to the sideline.
Everybody's safe. Nothing happens. Right? And that to me, so if, if the goalkeeper makes the save because the attacker makes the attempt and you, you allow him to exercise his skill in getting the best result for the team, but that best result doesn't accrue, you still played out the advantage. Does that make sense?
I hope that helps. Okay. And that's what you're talking about. Good. Okay. Now the poll. What did y'all say? Um, nobody wants a no, no clear receiver people. I mean, at least half, I would say 65, 70 percent of the people on Instagram thought it was a no clear receiver situation. And that would be the, the safe bet.
That would be the, um, like when you, when you call an aerial down because it looks messy and you close the sliding door, so nobody knows what could have happened if you had played on. Like. If you do it early enough, nobody's gonna be mad, because they don't know what you took away. But exceptional umpiring is making bolder decisions than that, and letting the players do what they do best.
Which is do amazing things.
Okay, you understand, it's a split second decision reading the game well. Yeah, it's, it's, it's tough. It's really tough because that, the The attempt at goal and what happens afterwards would have happened very close. So I mean, somebody might've been able to go to the penalty, back to the penalty stroke and gotten away with it because it's almost contemporaneous, but I don't love it.
I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of it. And that makes sense to you. Okay. So let's see, what did everybody vote? Five of you, a hundred percent of you said goal advantage on defender infringement. Okay. This was, this was supposed to take the whole hour. Really? I thought it was going to, because it was hard and complicated and all that stuff.
My back's getting sore because I, I'm twisted, but I don't feel like I'm twisted. Am I twisted? I don't know. Okay. It's a good thing I don't suffer from any forms of anxiety whatsoever. That's the good part. Um, can I promo some stuff?
We have a third team of whom many of these fine folks like Viv, Shane. Shit. I just remembered. Viv, I will make a promise to you next week. Viv just joined green, okay? And I don't have the picture, the graphic, everything that I was gonna celebrate, so
Viv, thank you for joining. Finally! I'm so glad you're around, and I'm so glad that You have been, you know, just quietly biding your time, waiting for that right time to join green. And let me tell you, friends, the right time to join is now. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't be like, join yellow when you're in your off season.
I mean, if you're in New Zealand and Australia, absolutely join yellow right now. But if you're in the off season, this is a great time to join green because you get access to the clip library and watch parties. Now. We haven't had a watch party for the last week, because they're, the Junior Pan Am Cup matches have not been of the standard visually, where I can actually provide any value whatsoever to you.
And I'm not here to waste your time. So, when the European Under 21s start next week, I Have a sneaking suspicion that the A division is going to definitely be broadcast at the right kind of quality, that we're going to be able to have good Folsom watch parties. And then there's the little thing called the Olympics coming up.
And we are going to have all the watch parties. I'm going to be getting up at 1 45 AM every day so that we can hang out and we can discuss the games together. So now is a great time to get on board with. The third team green membership. And, um, Hey, Hey, no, no awkward stuff. I don't, Steven, keep your hands to yourself.
Um,
uh, yes. So, If you have any questions whatsoever about what green entails, go to the website, QR code, come into the Discord server and ask me questions. DM me on Instagram if you have to. I really hate Instagram DMs, but I'm going to do it for you. I'm doing it for you because it's important to, to feel safe and secure.
And of course you can cancel at any time. And if you join and your first month is terrible and you're like, this isn't for me, I'll give you your money back. I'm not a monster. Okay. I'm here to provide value, and I think it's a really valuable experience. So. Um, there's that. If you had been considering, by the way, the season trading program, it is not too late to get on board this as well.
So if you're starting your season, you're in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, uh, England, any of those places that are starting their season in late September, mid September, then there is still time for you to get on board the season training plan. And I just think that. You should do it for science. Because if, if we get enough data and we get enough people showing what results you can achieve in your season and how healthy you can feel and strong and confident going into a season, then who can argue against it?
And this is what I want for everybody is to have that feeling and know that that's something that we can help you with instead of it just being a pipe dream. Okay. So have a consideration of, of that. And again, if you have questions, just come ask me and I'd love to, I'd love to chat about it. Good.
Excellent. I feel really weird when I don't have the music going anymore. I like, I like having my little background tinkling, you know, moozak. It just helps soothe me when I'm feeling a little anxious. So let's get onto the next topic. Noting your mindset.
Right. No graphics. Oh, I'm going to hide this for a second. Cause we can talk about that in a bit. There are no clips for this. There are no, no fancy things that I can put on the screen, but what I can do is tell you the story and why I feel really excited about this idea. And I've, I've been mentioning it a couple of times in little meetings and debriefs and things like that with people, but here's how it goes.
So. I'm a big fan of Ali Abdaal, the YouTuber, medical student. Now he's like a big YouTuber. He does productivity and now he's moving into this big business sphere advice thing, but anyway, he recommends this app called
Headspace. Sorry, I'm like looking at my phone. What's the app called? The app's called Headspace. And I decided to, to try it out because Sometimes, when I go to sleep at night, or try to go to sleep at night, I'm affected by racing thoughts, and I thought, okay, this Headspace thing, they have these sleep casts that you just start playing, and it'll take you through, they'll basically paint a picture, a story, of a very peaceful scenario, and sometimes it's like, There's this one that is one of my favorites.
It's a Scottish lock story. And the man has this gorgeous Scottish Baroque and it's so great. And I just, I don't want to fall asleep because I'm just enjoying the voice so much. But anyway, so they tell these stories and all this stuff, but at the beginning, they say, but before we do, before we go on our tour of the Scottish lock, I think it's nice to start with a little wind down exercise.
And sometimes the wind down exercise is called noting. And I usually enjoy the breathing stuff more, but this is how the noting goes, is that you start breathing and you're counting your breaths and it's in, one, out, two, three, four, five, and you count up to 10 and then you start again. If you notice that you're getting distracted by thoughts, what, or feelings, if you're one of those people that has feelings.
This, this is what happens. That comes in and you notice it. What you do is you note it. You say, Oh, I am having a thought about what I want to do for what up Wednesday tomorrow. And it's a nice thought, but I'm going to let that go. And I'm going to start counting my breathing again. If you have a feeling like you feel a little anxious because you feel under prepared and you're going to tell this big story about noting and mindset on your.
What up Wednesday live stream? You say, Oh, I'm feeling anxious. That is a feeling that I'm experiencing. All right, I'm going to start breathing again. And I'm going to start counting my breathing. And the idea of noting is that it creates a distance. So instead of your thoughts being you and your entire experience, all of a sudden you take a step back and you're able to just To, to mute them, in essence.
You just kind of turn down the volume, the intensity of it with that separation. And I mean, I'm not going to say that at the time when I'm doing these exercises, that it definitely works, because I think just hearing the stories about the Scottish locks really work, but I try them because science, you got to try things for science.
But here's where it comes in umpiring. Okay. Long story. I. I was umpiring a few weeks ago, B League, here in Calgary, and as I'm wont to do, I'm managing a game and I've given a couple cards already. And we're in the second half, we only play halves here, and there's an attacker who's running away from me and she's being chased by a defender, who then takes one, two, third nibble from behind, breaking down the play.
So, I call the free hit very loudly, I stop the time, and I bring out the card and I show it. And the two players are standing next to each other, and the defender looks at me, and she's an 18, 19 year old young woman, and she says, who's it for? And I'm like, well it's definitely not the person who's carrying the ball.
I'm thinking in my head, I don't actually say that. I say, it's for you, the one who committed the foul. I have a little bit of sass. And then she says, but what for? And I said, we can talk about that later, but your job is to get off the pitch right now. So off she goes. And as she's running off, I start getting angry.
I am just like, who the, does she think she is? Does she not know who I am? And I'm getting all like, oh, the, the, the fury at being questioned like that. What was such a clear card breakdown, just speak. And so I'm, I can feel like the red mist is descending and the play is going on. And I said to myself in my head, it's like, oh, I'm feeling really angry right now.
Isn't that interesting? And then I started taking another step. Is being angry at this player going to help me? manage this game well? Am I going to be able to anticipate the next play? Am I going to make this game more safe and more enjoyable for everybody else who's out on the pitch because I sent her off in order to do so, but am I going to distract myself from that?
Does this serve me in this moment? Am I going to enjoy umpiring the rest of this game when I'm feeling all these angry thoughts towards this? player who doesn't care about me, who doesn't care about my feelings. Nobody on this pitch cares who I am. Nobody cares about my feelings. Why am I doing this? And just by being able to separate that myself, that one step back from that initial anger, within 10 seconds, I was able just to say, That's not, that feeling isn't going to help me.
I have another job to do right now. I think I'm going to try to do that. And off I went. And by the time the game was over, I didn't even remember which card, which player I'd carded. You know. So what I'm trying to lay out with this very long winded story is the idea that when we are in our heads, As umpires, because we're out there feeling very much alone.
We're in our spaces. There's nobody who's talking with us and talking us through things. Even if we're on a radio with a colleague, that's not what we should be doing as we're processing. We, we have the responsibility and the task of figuring out how we are going to move past thoughts and feelings that keep us in unproductive places.
that distract us from the next thing. So I was debriefing Shane last weekend and there was a moment in the game where something happened on the far side, far away from him. Colleague made a decision and he was understandably confused about the call and then the very next thing that happened. that he needed to, that Shane needed to make a decision on was a breakdown and he didn't respond the way that I know that he would normally respond.
He was distracted. He was thinking about how he felt and thinking through that thing, can we use this kind of technique to step back from that thought and go, Oh, I'm still thinking about that call. That's not going to help me. I'm going to do this next thing. And that might be a key to breaking Those thought and feeling tornadoes that are happening inside us to be able to move on more quickly.
I'm a big fan of trying to find tactical, tangible things instead of just saying, stop thinking about that. Don't think about your mistakes. Okay. Have you ever tried not thinking about the elephant in the room? It doesn't work. You need a better elephant. You need a cuter, more fun, smarter elephant that pushes the other elephant out of the room.
There always are elephants in the room, we are umpires, we are obsessed, and we have elephants in our rooms. Am I taking that too far? Probably. So, I would be really interested in hearing if this is something that you want to try, and if you have the opportunity, you're doing summer league, you are in your active leagues right now because you're in the areas of the world where you're still playing, and give this a shot, and let me know.
And if you need to practice it. Let's find some resources that don't involve, um, oops, oops, as I whip my earpiece out of my ear. If we can find some resources on how to practice noting, because I don't think I would have done it had I not kind of had the practice of doing it with these sleep casts every night.
I do this every night, okay? It's the only way I can fall asleep. So If, if you, if you go into your next game and you're thinking to yourself, I'm going to try this. And then it, you, you just don't, you're like, Oh shoot, I was going to do that noting thing. And I didn't note. Then let's find a way to, to help you practice it.
But I'd love to hear some feedback on this. Was this just a one off? I am a very obsessive, angry person on the pitch most of the time. And this was quite a breakthrough. I felt. For me to be able to, to just shut off that anger that way and do something good. I was really happy about that. And so this, this, um, this comment that came up on, uh, the Twitterverse, uh, this is Murph, who is, I mean, I've been tweeting back and forth with him for, for years, and he's a, he's a goalkeeper, but he's.
He knows he's a good umpire and he should be doing more umpiring. So he's having an exchange with another umpire and he says, you know, they're talking about the zen and the calm of umpiring and what it takes to enjoy a game. I don't think we enjoy games because we go out there and it's a barrel of monkeys because the act of blowing a whistle is like so much fun.
It's as fun as hitting a ball. It's like, no, it's not. Umpiring isn't fun, but it can be very enjoyable, and it's enjoyable when you do things that provide fun for the players, and you get to just vicariously observe and facilitate and spectate from this incredible viewpoint because you're a part of it, you're helping generate it.
You are part of the artistry of the game that's being created. Because you're making it happen. And you're doing so in a secondary quiet way, but you're giving the players their chances, all of their opportunities to do that stuff. And when you are doing that and you're focusing on the best thing that you can do to help them instead of how you feel, how you're reacting, what it means to you, that you're embarrassed, you're humiliated, you're losing patience, you're having an ego trip, whatever it is.
That's not enjoyable anymore.
Thoughts. Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna look at your, um, at your comments now that I've finished all that stuff. Yeah, I know, in five minutes it starts. Alex. Not now, but in five minutes. Um, let's see. Skill session. Did I, did I spell that wrong? I don't know what's happening. Um, did I spell, I probably spelled that wrong.
I don't know what you hear a lot from players, but if it's about your resting bitch face, it's okay. I have one too. Uh, Shane, dwelling on a thought can compound the error, yep, with your next event. It is, it's a vicious cycle of pulling yourself downward. So, will noting help us step out of that? Uh, Pyle, you think that the players think yelling at you will change the game, but it only irritates you.
Absolutely. Okay, thank you. I'm, I'm really looking forward to getting your feedback on this, because that is often one of our biggest emotional triggers, is we're getting dissent. and maybe even abuse from players. First of all, deal with it, but deal with it not from the you're being mean to me and I'm mad so I'm going to exert my authority back on you.
It's like no player this is not helping the game so I'm going to remove you so that the rest of this game can be enjoyable for everybody else and I'm going to continue to do my job. So that emotional distancing of that process, and then you have to also deal with How am I feeling about this? Oh, I am feeling irritated.
I'm feeling angry. What's the most productive thing I can do? You know, how, how can I feel? Can I make a different choice about what I'm going to think about and what I'm going to plan? And oh, that left forward is going and blah, blah, blah. And now you're starting to get back into the game again, right? Oh, you find yourself doing that?
Do you mean you find yourself getting into thought cycles or feeling cycles and that sort of thing? Okay, I wanna, I wanna hear if that works for you, Viv. That'll be interesting. Thank you, Rachel. Rachel's gonna try it out. Uh, you can't believe I'm aggressive as an umpire? I'm such a care Oh, girl. You're so cute!
I am, um, yeah. I, okay. No, I just, I look a, a certain way on the pitch. Thanks for watching! And I also feel a certain way inside. And so you just combine those two things and I'm aggressive, I guess. And I can't say it's just that I'm bitchy. I, I can be quite, if you get my emotions going and that's why I really have to work on containing them.
Uh, you needed this at your university games after day one of them shouting, you started the talks with the captain with a warning, with a card, is that to happen? It's sad that it has to go to that. Yeah. Um, I, I would start that on day one, game one, first game. And it's so difficult because when it comes to the abuse and the shouting, you think that you're making it all about you and your feelings, but it truly is.
Nobody enjoys watching that bullshit. Nobody. I was umpiring, again, in B League, uh, even a few other, like, and it was about six weeks ago, and a player turned to my colleague down at the other end and she said something about a call that she thought was And one of the players on the opposite team turned and yelled at her and said, That's the kind of thing that got me to quit umpiring.
You're the reason I quit umpiring and started yelling at her. And I'm like, Oh, whoa, we got a problem here. So, you know, I dealt with both players, um, at halftime because it was down in my, uh, my colleague's end and said, look. Haha. We are going to control this. You can't speak that way to your opposition, even if you're right.
And with the player who was yelling at my colleague, that stops right now. And I don't know what's happening with you. I know you're upset, but this isn't appropriate. And everybody was sitting there looking at each other, because these were two, two players who, who've been playing with and against each other for decades.
And they're yelling at each other on the pitch. And everybody feels uncomfortable. Nobody's having fun. So when you deal with a player who's doing that, you're not doing it for you and your feelings. You're doing it for the game, because nobody plays better. When they're that way. Some players think that, oh, if you get me a little mad, you get, you know, get those digs in and I'm gonna come alive.
If that's what it takes, you're not, you're not doing it right. Basically. Oh shoot, it's that time. Um, let's see. Yeah, right, next five decisions. Absolutely. And, and, um, I think you were there, Stephen, when I was debuffing Shane and it was like finding a very specific thing. So next five decisions is okay, but can you also get yourself reading ahead instead of just, I'm going to react to the next five things that happen, but am I going to read where the ball is going to go next?
Where is that central, center forward going? who always manages to wreak havoc in the circle. You know, if I can pin my attention on them and read what's happening, all of a sudden I'm now looking into the future. And I think that's even more productive. Um, it, was Hamish an angry person too on the pitch? I should give him a shout and ask him.
You have league games, you're going to try it. Fantastic. The only time you've seen a display of emotion from Keely when I was forced to become a ball person.
That was a masters and I was not impressed.
There you go. Okay. And since there is a match coming, what?
Okay, hang on. Let me fix it since that title just didn't work.
There.
Very quickly. I'm gonna go abroad. After the Olympics, I have, uh, listed my condo for rent and I'm going to go away for a year and do hockey things. Thank you very much. Goodbye. Um, I, it's been in the works. I mean, I've been thinking about this, thinking about how I might be able to, to manage this for years.
There was that COVID thing. There were other personal things and it just wasn't right. And now it has to be, I'm, I'm going to do it. So in September, I'm going to head to the UK for three months. And then I'm going to do some other things for December with friends and also still working, but staying with friends in the Pacific, North America's Honolulu and Santa Barbara to be specific.
And then in January, not sure, but I might be doing some things in Europe. I'm probably going to go to Croatia for the Indoor World Cup just because it's around my birthday and I've never gone to an indoor international event of that magnitude and I'd like to experience it. New Zealand at the end of February for National Masters, uh, and then three months there.
And then I'm going to go to Australia for the rest of my work abroad year. And it might end up being more years than that, but I'm going to try it for a year and see how it goes. That's my announcement. Uh, so if any of those time periods overlap with where you live and you'd like to chat about things I might be able to do in your area for your association.
Your program, but my goal is to be able to spend time with people in my community and helping them on the ground, getting to know them better, supporting their umpiring more, and finding more people that I can support in the community. Work abroad program. And if you are thinking that acronym is hilarious, you're correct.
It's a joke. Okay. But the actual going abroad for a year is very serious. Uh, okay. That was it.
And there were a few people that may have had some spoilers before I was ready to share it with all. So for those of you who kept secrets, thank you. Not saying there's anybody in particular that might be. Why is that? Why is that comment so small? I don't understand. I don't understand. Go watch Sportsball.
I know y'all have it on the other screen anyway. Let's see how many people are still watching. 19. Yep. Y'all are going, y'all are going to watch that. So enjoy. Let me know. I'm sure I can find the score on Twitter if I, if I want to care, or I'll follow the Guardian live tweeting of it. Thank you for joining in for this quickie.
What up, Wednesday Light? Uh, next week, I think we're gonna do some Under 21 stuff, but I'm not sure. We'll find out. If you have I have two clips that got sent to me today that I am going to probably talk about next week. And try to do more reels, but keep sending things my way so I can keep my pulse on all of the things, and yes.
Thanks, Rich. I said it out loud. I said it out loud to my community and you're still here. Thanks. Thanks, Godders. And I'll be there. So, you know, there you go. And thank you for coming back. It's nice to see you. And I know people, their lives change and they have other things, but it's always nice to see familiar faces.
And thank you for, for coming on back. And Alistair, you're very welcome. And you're going to get some reading in. Okay. And if I'm going to go to Melbourne, that's probably where I'm going to fly into. Not so sure, but I will let you know. Thanks, Paul. And thank you. We'll see you next week on What up Wednesday.
Bye.
#hockeyumpiringvideos #fieldhockeyumpiringvideos #hockeyedumpiring #hockeyumpiringrules
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.