Live Q&A #WhatUpWednesday Ep. 80

📅 June 15 18.00 GMT
➡️ YouTube

⏱ Chapter Markers:
00:00:00 Chair Dancing
00:02:27 Topics!
00:05:41 Brought to you by: the Communication Skills Workshop!
00:07:42 What We're Doing on Our Summer Vacation: Women's World Cup and Commonwealth Games in the Discord
00:16:15 We Almost Didn't Go Live Today and Tales of Burnout
00:19:29 Why You Mad, Bro? Coaches' and Umpires' Communication
01:14:26 #ROTW Rant of the Week: Response to #Hockey5s

Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.

🟢🟡🔴 🏑

Transcript

I'm a tiger on the prowl / Imma make you go wild / I'm original, and I told you so / I'm a kid in a candy store / Put the leather on the denim / I ain't the cure, I'm the venom / If you want to find me find the tail lights / Somethin's coming in / You're going to want to take a red eye / It's time to go / It's time to go / 

Get ready.

I don’t wait for nobody / Imma sign my name on the dottie / City lights call my name / Drawn to the flame / And I’m feelin’ kinda naughty / I hit the ground running / Step out the door and I’m stunnin’ / Better hold tight cause you know what’s going down / Settin’ the pace ‘cause this is my town /

On

I'm a tiger on the prowl / Imma make you go wow / I'm original, and I told you so / I'm a kid in a candy store / Put the leather on the denim / I ain't the cure, I'm the venom / If you want to find me find the tail lights / Somethin's coming in / You're going to want to take a red eye / it's time to go it's time to go.

Get ready, get ready get ready. Don't blink, don't blink / get ready get ready get ready don't blink, don't blink /

I don’t wait for nobody / Imma sign my name on the dottie / City lights call my name / Drawn to the flame / And I’m feelin’ kinda naughty / I hit the ground running / step out the door and I'm stunning Better hold tight cause you know what’s going down / I'm settin’ the pace ‘cause this is my town /

So get ready get ready get ready Don't blink, don't blink / Get ready /

get ready? Get happy Wednesday.

How is everyone or Thursday? If you're

Shayne Macnee. It is very good to see you all. Um, this is going to be a bit of a different show than what we've been doing for the last few weeks. So I hope you enjoy the topic we are going to get into here. I can, I can just put the topic right up. Let's do this. Coaches. What's up with them, Twitter polls and why you mad, bro?

It's all kind of one thing. And if you're wondering, could I have come up with a better expression of the topic than that? Of course I could have, but I didn't, because sometimes you have to pick your battles. You have to choose where you're gonna put all your energy. And for me it just, it wasn't in that title.

I'm just saying, um, I've seen everybody filing in. I'm very excited for those of you who are going off for summer hockey. Uh, if you are Ali Hosie you're getting ready for masters internationals coming up, which is so great. I absolutely love that journey for you. And for anybody bragging about hot and sun right now, just open a can of zip.

Okay. Because we've had really stormy weather here in Calgary for the last few days, and hockey's been canceled for the most part. Um, my , my Phoenix 1s showed up last night and got half an hour of a game in. We're up three, nothing. And the other team said, we're done. We're just done with this because the wind was extremely heavy and it was raining and it was cold and whatever. I'd already told the girls, Hey, sorry.

But, uh, Neil and Jennie, my twos really don't like the cold now. So I was like, you know, you're gonna be fine. You guys are great. You don't need my coaching. And they didn't for the half hour they played. And won anyway, so there you go. Marco's here, Taco, and Jennie. Jennie, I just wanted to share with you cuz you, you told me that story yesterday about, uh, the young woman that you were speaking with, who told you that she wanted to be an umpire.

Because she'd been seeing umpires on TV and, and she was like, I wanna be on TV too. I wanna be able to do that. And I just wanna tell you that that really gave me a big boost and I've really needed it. Um, I'll tell you why in a second, but let's just do a couple of announcements first as I'm wont to do.

First of all, today's show is brought to you by me and dammit, why aren't you playing and the workshop that I'm trying to bring up on this screen.

You've been isolating Kate. I'm so sorry to hear that. And I can't even find my overlays right now because this is just what life is doing for me. Overlays. There you are. Okay. Let's since the buttons don't work now, even though they did like half an hour ago, when I tested everything,

here it is. Today's show is brought to you by: the Communication Skills Workshop happening tomorrow. Yes. There are some spaces open. I should probably say something like there's only one spot left and you gotta be the first one. No, I'm not like that. There's room. And I'd love to see if you're gonna be there.

Uh, the people who signed up already, um, I mean, they're my favorites. I'm not gonna lie and they're all gonna be there and they're really fun. So maybe you should join in too. Uh it's tomorrow at this time, this same time. So it's kind of like doing a What Up Wednesday, except it's more personal and you get to talk back to me.

So I hope you can make it, if not, totally cool. We'll be doing it again in the future. I would also like to give a big, thank you. Is this gonna work? It is gonna work. 

Look, I have been waiting for this moment. I have been waiting for this moment for years. Okay. Rachel is one of the most steadfast supporters of this whole FHumpires thing. And she just went and decided that now's the time she's gonna upgrade to a yellow membership. And I am beyond myself. I'm so happy. Thank you so much, Rachel.

I've been, I've been just like, when's she gonna do it? When's she gonna do it? And you did it. So thank you. I'm really looking forward to being able to work with you more closely and be able to support you in everything that you're doing. Cause I know you work so hard at your umpiring and hopefully we're gonna be able to take it to another level.

So this is awesome. Um, let's see, what else is happening here? That one's going, by the way, if you didn't know about the Discord, okay, this is it. This is the time that you need to join the Discord, because let me tell you what is coming up this summer. Okay. I've been doing some, some thinking and some plotting and scheming, you know, as I'm wont to do and decided that we're going to do some really cool things during the two big tournaments that are happening this summer. And saying that is almost like saying there's like these two really big tournaments.

And then there's like a thousand other things just right underneath that level. It is so busy this summer. You guys, I can't even, I can't even, it's so busy now. I can't even. So we are going to do during the World Women's World Cup. Okay, because I did something like this during Euros. I did something like this during the Tokyo Olympics, but we're going full bore in the Discord.

I'm gonna have watch parties for all the games. Okay. So all the games that aren't being run at the same time as other games, because in the first few days, there are obviously conflicts, cuz they're running on two pitches in two locations, some is in Spain and some is in the Netherlands. And so I'm not gonna be able to do

I'm not gonna be able to focus on two games at the same time and tell you what's happening in both. We are going to do those watch parties there. So if you are a yellow member, oh my goodness. You're gonna be a, you're gonna be so tired of me, but B you are gonna get so much out of this experience. Okay. After the day of games, as I did with the Tokyo Olympics, I'm gonna be doing a daily, what am I gonna call it?

What did I call it Late Night with Keely. And now it's time for a closer look. We're gonna do Late Night with Keely at 2000 hours GMT. I know that's gonna be late for a lot of you. It's gonna be nine for it's. No, it's even later than that. Okay. I have to sort this out, but anyway, it's half an hour. It's the a, it's the start of the hour after the games end every day.

So if you're up late and you're in Europe, or if you're in Calgary and it's just the middle of the afternoon. Every day, I'm gonna do a wrap up stream, but it's going to only be in the Discord. I will take out excerpts and I will put them up on YouTube, just so YouTube doesn't think I've forgotten and that the algorithm's important, but things are gonna be happening so quickly.

It's really tough to keep up with all of that on YouTube when I am permitted to put up clips 24 hours after the match has been aired. So I need to, you know, keep that in mind that things that go up in public, I need to live up to my end of the agreements and that's what I'm gonna do. So if you're not a yellow member and you wanna get in on this, we are going to be offering, we. I'm gonna be offering an all World Cup pass.

So you can take part in all the watch parties have special privileges during the late night sessions where you can, you know, Over voice on camera, whichever you feel more comfortable with, you can ask me questions and we can have a dialogue and we can talk about stuff. And yeah, let's see. 8:00 PM. GMT is 9:00 PM.

British summertime that see, it doesn't seem right, because I'm pretty sure the games go later than that. So it must be 2200 GMT cuz because I'm pretty sure it's, it's like, I'm like, wow, this is gonna be late night. This is gonna be late night for those folks. Because I'm gonna do it after the games. Okay.

Tell me if something, you know, if you have a better idea for this, I'm listening to your feedback, but this is the idea I have. Okay. So that's what we're gonna be doing. Um, it's gonna be an opportunity as well for us to have more lengthy exchanges about how these things, everything that we're watching in the World Cup can apply to you at home.

And when you're doing your matches at home, what does it mean? You know, let's really get the most out of these amazing opportunities that present themselves of these tournaments. Okay. I'm gonna do the same thing during the, the Commies. The Commonwealth Games. So it's gonna be the same deal. It's the same timing, pretty much, a little bit later, maybe, but, and same thing, if you're Yellow, All these games.

So you, you just get to pick, oh, I'm able to do this game on this day and this game on this day, and I'm just gonna be here. I'm gonna be watching the games anyway. So we might as well talk while we're doing it. That's what a watch party is. Okay. So if you're thinking about getting a Yellow membership, do it now, if you're thinking that you're not ready for the full-time commitment, the tournament pass for a Yellow membership basically is gonna be $37 US.

And yes, that's more expensive than a month of Yellow. I'm not a maths expert. Okay. So you figure out what you think is a good deal. Just saying is my camera focused? Doesn't look focused. Okay. It's fine. There you go. I'm surprised you made it too Peter. Like I know what's been going on, like, this is a shock for everybody.

So what that means during those two big tournaments is that the usual, Monday Huddles for our Northern hemisphere folks will not be happening. So for the entire month of July and almost the entire month of August, there will be no huddles at that time. I'm going to schedule a time for our Southern hemisphere folks because they're in the middle of their season now and they wanna Huddle.

So if you're Yellow and you're like, oh my God, what's happening. That's what's gonna be going on. I'm just trying to figure out the best time and date for that still. And it means that yes, What Up Wednesdays are not gonna be happening, but here's the thing, which is kind of funny, cuz I wore my 92 shirt today.

You see that 92 it's disco. Because now that I'm old, I like disco again. Don't hate me. Don't at me. I get to like what I like. My personal feelings, my, my tie to the number 92 have to do, they're rooted in my, you know, umpire career, uh, internationally in how it stopped on the number 92. So I've decided that in order to fully own and celebrate my experience, that that is my number.

I don't care about a hundred. Why should I care about a hundred? It's just digits. It's just digits. That mean something to some people, but 92 means everything to me. We are on What Up Wednesday 80. Okay. So this is the last time I'm gonna wear this shirt until we get to What Up Wednesday 92. So that's in 12 shows, but at this rate it's gonna be in like October probably, but I just wanted y'all to know. Because if you're prepared, you know, you guys come up with these crazy schemes and GIFs and memes and I'm not mad. So that'll be super fun.

Um, where is the glitterball? I have a glitterball for my other, my, my other brand, the Discord For Creators. I have a, a voice channel called the disco and I have glider balls in my anyway, you don't care about that. There you go. Okay. So that's all the news that is completely unfit to print. Thank you for bearing me with me on that, but I wanted to get through it because if I don't do it, I've learned if I don't do it at the beginning.

I just forget. So thanks, Rachel. Um, much love to you. Um, summer schedule is major, major events happening through women's world cup and, um, Commonwealth games. Yes. In the Discord. So join the Discord now, so you can get habituated and you can get to know everybody. And then you're gonna be a Discord expert when everything starts on July 1st, which is Canada Day, by the way, you're gonna be ready for it.

So get in there. Um, okay. Let's get closer to starting the topic. But I wanted to set this up for you guys a little bit, because I wanted you to understand why we're doing this today and why we're not talking about any of the 10 games in the Pro League that happened this weekend or the Women's Asia Cup Challenge that was happening over the last 10 days or the Central American Games, which are just started yesterday in Panama.

No, we're not talking about any games today. We're not talking about any clips and we almost didn't talk about anything at all. Last night, it was about 7:00 PM. And I was sitting here in my chair. Well, actually I was in my office, but I was in front of this rig. And I was thinking of all the things that I could do to explain why I wasn't gonna go live today.

Um, I, I could have made up an excuse, like said I had a migraine or something, cuz I have a lot of those these days or I don't know. I was, I was gonna find something to say because I'm, I'm fried. I am so burnt out right now. I've been working seven days a week for months. I have not had a full day off.

Even my Saturdays. My Saturdays are my light day and I stop drink. I stop drinking. I stop working at around four because it's my cheat nutrition day and I start to have a couple drinks and then I can't work anymore. So it's the only way I can stop working. I don't think that's healthy. I'm just, I'm gonna throw it out there.

Probably not the healthiest way to deal with things. And I couldn't, I just couldn't push myself to, to get this sort of thing done. And then I hopped on Twitter because I was procrastinating, obviously. And I saw this entire network of threads started by a friend of mine. I'm calling in my friend, even though we've never met in person, but Stephen Williams, uh, who is a coach, he and I have been following each other for a long time.

We've had some amazing chats, some really great dialogue over the last several years on Twitter. And he posted something that really obviously struck a chord in the umpiring world. And so I looked at that and I said, okay, I want to talk about this. I want to be a part of this conversation. I want to engage with this with you so that you can help me understand so we can help everybody understand.

What's up with coaches, and what are we doing here, and how can we make this better? So wait, I can pull up the topic. See, look, I made a title screen. It's the wrong one. Seriously. I pretty much made a title screen saying why you mad, bro.

Oh my goodness. So I linked in the description it's in there, there are, uh, two links to two different parts of Twitter conversations and I thought it would be, you know, I, I just basically opened all the tabs for the major parts of the thread that I thought was interesting. And I've seemed to have scrolled the, to the wrong place, but here we are.

And please I'd love to hear if you have a story that you'd like to tell, if anything I say resonates with you, strikes a chord, you know, please chime in because I want this to be as interactive as possible. Okay. But Stephen Williams, kicked this all off um, two days ago now, three days ago now saying basically talking about umpire standards and how he's really, really passionate about them being raised.

And what he sees is one of the main obstacles to that is that umpires and coaches can't have conversations after the game, as he says, without umpires getting defensive and taking the conversation as a personal attack when this is not the case.

that is, that is a, a fair point. But as we do on Twitter and as we definitely do here on this livestream is that we want to work through all the nuances and really uncover all the points about this. And the first thing that I wanna point out that I think is difficult for coaches to understand, is that

this is a by its very nature, a one way street in terms of what we're talking about. Because we don't have conversations with coaches after a game where an umpire can say, so coach, you are down a goal. And with six minutes left in the game, you still hadn't pulled your goalkeeper and you waited until a minute 15 was left on the clock and then you pulled your goalkeeper.

Why did you do that? And you know, did you think that that was actually gonna help your team win the game? Do you think that a minute 15 is enough for you to construct enough attack in order for you to actually to, to tie that score?

The discussion becomes very much, you made this decision. Why did you make that decision? And was it right or wrong? And I'm, I'm gonna go into a lot of detail about this right or wrong aspect. Okay. But this, this thread in particular was really, really good. And a lot of, of, you know, top umpires who also know Stephen were chiming in, on the thread.

Um, and I mean, this was one, sorry, Sean, I didn't like this before, but he said, it's interesting that your immediate assumption is that umpires are defensive and aren't interested in learning. And you know, Sean chimed in a few times on this. And Gem who I also, uh, know, uh, quite what I'll call her a friend too.

She's my friend. And she talks about the experiences that umpires have and how that dictates how we react to future exchanges and these debriefs. Okay. So by its nature, it's like, you're, you're put on the witness stand and you're being cross-examined. And even if the, the, even if it's not a cross-examination and it's a direct examination by a friendly lawyer who asks you to talk about it, it's you doing all this explaining and doing all this work. 

Okay. Uh, I wanna see what Steffan said here. Why you mad girl, you mad as. As your, why you mad title not play the game. Okay. I don't know what that necessarily meant, but is really cute. And Jennie, you know, you probably don't know, you're talking about how you're interested in that because you were a coach and you decided to become an, a umpire in order to better understand play. Like, good for you.

Because I just finished a, a really, uh, short stint as an assistant coach with the University of Calgary Dinos here. And my head coach, uh, Heather Ramsey is in a really, really good umpire herself, regionally rated. Um, in the past, she hasn't been umpiring very much because she coaches so much, uh, at a high level, and has been a coach with the Dinos program for the last.

She had been for, I think, seven years, five or seven years. Both those numbers stick in my head. Anyway, she and I, as a combination on the bench were, it was just like a one, two punch of extreme rules knowledge, and we knew how to talk to umpires. We knew how to talk to players about the rules. We knew how to encourage our players to behave.

We knew what we would not tolerate from our players, the hard lines that were drawn. And I gotta tell you that it was, I think, like, I'm bragging, but it was awesome. And I think it made for an awesome experience for the players as well. Uh, I remember one of the players, Tiana, she came up to me at one point.

She said, you know, we had so much. It's so much fun. And I don't remember ever being mad, like, were, were we ever mad during the games? And I'm like, no, you weren't, you were playing and you were enjoying yourselves and you were having fun. And sometimes it wasn't great because we lost all our games, but at least you were in your moment doing your job and getting into your flow in your zone.

So that was something we absolutely, absolutely did. Gideon, Gideon thinks the suggestion that umpire standards won't rise unless the coaches help is a very aggressive. Then there is no one else who is available to support umpires and their growth. Yeah. And this is, this is kind of the funny part. And Gideon,

this is a really good point. I'm gonna, I'm gonna star this comment because it's worth, it's gonna be worth coming back to cuz this is an unfolding story. This is, I'm kind of like doing a reaction video to a Twitter conversation. And the conclusion might surprise you. It actually won't surprise you. It won't surprise you at all.

So one of the things that sort of was pointed out during this, this one particular thread was that it was an awfully broad brush to paint umpires with that umpires get too defensive when they're approached by coaches who are evaluating their performance somehow, perhaps without having the qualification to do so.

And he says, I must admit, yes, it was too much of a broad comment. I find it happens more at the lower end of the game. Third, fourth, fifth games when the umpire's a proper old boy who's very traditionalist and won't hear a thing about umpiring. Now. I've dealt with this myself, the comment that older umpires at times, some of them perhaps,

in a narrow group, struggle with staying current with the game because they haven't stayed current with the game. They haven't educated themselves. They don't know that things have changed, but you don't know what you don't know. Okay. And you do know that a lot of people who are constantly telling you how to do your job better are wrong.

Okay. So you've got this tension between knowing that you're not always the most knowledgeable person about what's happening. And then you've got people who you think maybe you're getting it right, but they get it wrong. This happens in the server all the time. I have umpires coming in. Usually those who are maybe these third, fourth, fifth, sixth, you know, region teams.

Who are umpiring, you know, at the beginning of their career, they haven't, you know, they've just started, they haven't moved up levels enough. And they come in and they say, oh, I was instructed to do this by my umpire coach, or this happened in my rules course. And I'm like, wow, that is so completely wrong.

So, yeah. So, but what is interesting is that there's no reflection here of the thought that maybe those umpires there, yeah, they're not the best that are out there in the world. Guess what? Because they're umpiring quality of play that doesn't need the best umpiring in the world. And just maybe just maybe the coaches and players at this level know less about what they're talking about than umpires or sorry, coaches and players who have progressed to higher levels.

Because they have taken the time to apply themselves and gotten more experience and been able to talk to people at even higher levels. And they've learned from them as well. So you're kind of in a mix of a whole bunch of people who don't know what they don't know. And then you have the tension of the authoritative relationship.

I guess. Sport only exists, games, matches, competitions, only exist because the competitors cede, they give up

decision- making powers about the enforcement of rules to a neutral, independent, non- participating entity. They have to give up control. And I've mentioned this a few times as we've come along this journey in the last three years, especially, is that a lot of people are really struggling, really struggling with that notion of giving up control. Because we've had a lot of people in government health authorities, our doctors, all kinds of people who have actually completely gotten things wrong.

They've made decisions that were the best decisions they could make at that time, with the knowledge that they had with the data that was presented, having to make decisions at a particular pace for the betterment, for the, the best thing for the community, but they got them wrong. And how did the public react?

There are many segments of the public who've reacted to that by completely losing trust in those authority figures and they're angry. They're angry that they gave up their privileges to move around and to sit down at restaurants without masks on, and to be able to take public transport and to be able to go to work.

And they had to homeschool their kids for weeks, months on end, they're mad because authorities trying to do their best, got it wrong. And at some point we as human beings, living in a society who have signed a social contract saying that the only way this can work, we can't have everybody making decisions for themselves.

The only way this can work is if we delegate these decision making powers to somebody else,

we have to agree that we're going to give the people making those decisions some grace when they do do their best and they screw it up. And that it's not for us to get our pound of flesh. It's not for us after the decision has been made, after the game, after the election, whatever it is, to go back to them and say, you screwed that up and now I'm gonna toss you out.

You're not good enough. We have to get away from this mentality that right and wrong is the most important thing, in evaluating whether a decision right was right or wrong gets us anywhere because it doesn't. Shit's happened. It's in the past. It's done. Sorry. I'm I'm, I'm on a real world. I'm gonna interrupt myself by going and reading some of the comments that have come in and see if we can continue to, to help getting on this.

Okay. Steffan coming on this forum, hang on. I'm gonna flip back to this just so I can focus for a bit coming outta this form and learning the umpire role better has made you a better coach, but you think people have to want to learn so that they don't feel attacked. Absolutely. And, and yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna address the manner in which these conversations, I mean, I've talked now, I think in the abstract about what these conversations mean, that there are evaluations one way of one person's, you know, conduct.

And we don't even really know sometimes if the person giving us that evaluation as a coach is even right. Okay. David, he raises a good point though. Although comment is biased towards his role as a coach in higher games. I at least try to chat with both coaches, but lower levels colleagues aren't interested in engaging.

And you know, what, as was pointed out in this thread, that's kind of a function of why those umpires get up to higher roles. Those who do listen, who put themselves in uncomfortable situations, who have and continue to develop their communication skills, their interpersonal skills, so that when someone comes to them, who's upset, who's angry and wants to extract that pound of flesh.

How to guide that conversation into a place where it's constructive for both people in the conversation? That takes a lot of skill. It takes experience. It takes maturity that I've seen umpires of 16 years old exhibit, and I've seen umpires at 70 years old, completely lack. So I'm not talking about age here, I'm talking about ability and skill.

And when you do those things, you will rise up the ladder end of story. But what that means is, as I was pointed out, I think it was goaliemurph. Um, I can't remember what his real name is, but we, we interact a lot on Twitter as well. goaliemurph was saying, well, all the great umpires get poached to do high level games.

Yeah. Because they're better. And they should do those higher level games because they're improving, because they're willing to listen and they're willing to talk and they're willing to handle these situations.

So you've gotta understand, and you've gotta be tolerant. Like I've been moving down the playing levels cuz I'm getting old and I have two fake knees and you know, I I'm just nowhere near as good as I used to be. And every time I step on the pitch in my B league. So it's a second division here in Calgary, which you can imagine probably isn't all that awesome.

And every time an umpire steps on the pitch, I go, you know what? I don't deserve better than what I'm gonna get today. In fact, I've equipped that umpire, because of my umpire training and coaching in the region. I've equipped that to be far better, far better than my level of play. I am gonna be damn grateful, damn grateful of what I'm gonna get today because I kind of suck. How many players and coaches have that kind of mentality, have a gratitude mentality when they're out on the pitch or does every seventh game in some county league think that it's their World Cup every game.

And that a mistake is, is a, is a just manifestly, unfair and unjust. And somebody has to pay for that. What is the mindset that we're going into these situations with David, you listen to every coach, including umpire coaches and utilize the drive home to work out which bits you'll address in which you'll set aside and see if it's raised again.

It's fantastic. It's a great approach. Steffan agrees with you. He may be making some statements and how it is perceived by the reader to say how they feel about it. Jennie, you've noticed the passion the coaches tend to come across as critical and they do put you on the stand. However, if engaged first comment on great play and then tone it down, then we discuss.

Right. So Jennie, that's a great example of good interpersonal skills where you're able to frame the conversation and guide it to get it going the right way, where you are able to engage fully with what the coach is saying and take on board what they're communicating to you, but you are also helping the coach get themselves into a condition where they can absorb what you're saying back to them like, Hey, this is actually what the rule is.

And from what I saw and how I applied it, it was the right call. Yeah, grace. I'm I'm, I'm a very, very secular person. Don't don't get me mistaken. There's there's no overtone of that, but it's just having that feeling of gratitude and acceptance that you can express to yourself. You can express to others, you can express just outwardly into the, either through electric magnetic waves that you accept and everything's okay.

And it's to move on in the future. Uh, Taco, that is social media for you, one wrong voids, all rights, except your own wrongs, of course. Okay. And that, you know, Taco, what you're bringing up there is is this perception that when something is talked about on Twitter, it's usually gonna be a negative thing.

People are gonna bring up a negative, a mistake that was made. And I mean, I struggle with this every week. I wanna show you guys plays that were absolutely called correctly, but still have nuanced things that you're, you're gonna learn from that are gonna be not obvious. And that helps elevate your experience.

And I try to balance and try to have as many of those as I can while showing some of the plays where I think maybe it could have gone a different way, but here are the principles that you can learn from cuz you can, it's easier to pick out the principles, you know, in that situation. And I'm trying to get to this, but it is,

so it really is. Don't feel sorry for me. Okay. But it's something that we. We need to be very wary of, and by the nature of social media, this conversation coming out means that we're gonna talk about negative things. People don't remember all of the just good natured, casual conversations they've had with an umpire as a coach.

It's that one time where the umpire was like, really. Are you coming at me with that? What are you talking about? I've had enough, I've had enough get outta my face, blah, blah, blah. And they get upset and angry and defensive. You remember that, that sticks with you, it evokes emotion, which then ties your memory so much more strongly into the right corners of your mind so that you bring it up when you come on Twitter and it comes to your mind more readily.

When we talk about it here on YouTube, right? Uh, Steffan, it can also go over another sport in life, in general, all these skills, I think, yes. It would make things so much better overall. Right? So the principle of, of acceptance and of grace of things that have happened in the past. Yeah. I don't think he's a hundred, a hundred percent wrong either.

Marco. Absolutely. I want, you know, my engagement with the topic was to tease out the nuance for sure. Um, you can I comment this kind of dialogue? Can I comment? Yes, you may. If you allow it to be big enough and to take it and sift it, it is not willingly heard. If it is not willingly heard, then the transaction is flawed, right?

You have to be in the right emotional state, the right mental condition to absorb the information and to also also be able to speak meaningfully. One thing that I don't think players and coaches understand is how difficult it is to say intelligent things on the pitch. When you have a bunch of people in your face, you've been running your butt off your endorphins in your, you know, your, you're extremely activated you've kind of had this fight or flight, you know, activation response.

Highly stimulated and then you get one person snapping and you're kind of like, well, I do. And if you think that, just because I can sit here on a live stream and I can talk fairly eloquently that I've always been like down on the pitch. Hell no, I have really struggled. I struggled so much at the beginning of my career to be able to speak well to players and the more defensive or the more anger that was thrown at me, the worse I did, because,

particularly, just the way that I'm wired up. I get really angry, really fast. I have a very good fight or fight response. I don't flight. I fight all the, all the time and knowing that that's my natural reaction I try to hold that back because that doesn't do anybody any good on the pitch. So I'm trying to stifle that, that emotional reaction and the look that's gonna come on my face, which is a right.

And so how do the words come out? It takes time. It takes practice. There's no magic formula. There's no script that people can write for you. There's only examples that give you ideas that, you know, help fill your brain with more options that are gonna work, and then you try them out and sometimes they still fall flat.

You say the wrong words and I've, I've heard. We've been in situations where we watch games, where umpires are responding to what players are saying, and they'll, they'll give their response and it's worded in a particular way. And then I'll get a fire bomb of people in the server, in direct messages on Twitter saying, well, the umpire said this.

It's like, yeah. Can you just give them some grace? They're doing their best and what they said may not reflect entirely their understanding of the rule and what they meant to convey in that moment, because it's hard. It's really hard. Evaluation should be the evaluatee request says Peter. Oh, we already talked about that one.

It was really good. Sorry. I missed the first sentence though. It was good. Yes. I think coaches often wanna understand the decision Luke Pibworth. The problem can be the way to approach it. EG, help me understand your decision versus you're wrong. Why did you do that? Okay. So here's the thing. Coaches would never treat their players the way that some of them, some of the time, treat umpires.

Would you sit down your player and say, So that penalty corner in the 36th minute of the game, you bobbled the reception at the castle, and then you decided to lay it off left. Why did you do that? Because we didn't score on that penalty corner. And we ended up losing the game 2-1 because of you, because of that.

Can you imagine any coach sitting a player down and talking to them like that? And if they do, they're not a very good coach, and maybe those are the characters who are at the lower levels of the game. Anyway, cuz if they were better, they'd be up near the, they'd be climbing the ladders as well. You'd never do that, but that's exactly the way in which that kind of dialogue is often presented.

So, so you know, why, why do we do that? So. My response. Oh, why does it? I thought it would stay on the tweet that I made, but here we go. I, oops. Oops. So I popped into the, the debate. At this point, I had already missed like the whole thread with Gem and Sean and a couple other people commenting there. And this is one that I, I think I put the link directly into the description for you, but this is what I saw coming out of it.

And the nuances I wanted to pull out were that first, coaches do lack the, the communication skills. They lack the coaching skills to coach somebody who's not their responsibility, but they're absolutely subject to their decisions. They don't know how to make it non-confrontational, they don't know how to explore these issues in a different way.

And they're coming at it in the mindset where they wanna establish whether something is right or something is wrong. Was this the right decision? And this happens to me all the time as well. There are sometimes people who come to me on Twitter and will say, can you look at this play and give me your opinion?

And I'll say, okay, well, here are the principles. This is the way that they, you know, this is the way that I would apply them. I would coach people to apply them. And it didn't happen this situation, but maybe we didn't see all the factors. We didn't see it at the right angle, blah, blah, blah. And I've had people come back and say, good.

Now I can tell that umpire, they were wrong. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. That is, that is not how we're playing this game today, friends. I am trying to help you understand so that in the future, which are the only events that you can influence now, in the future, you can play differently. You can coach your players differently.

You as an umpire can call it differently, but it doesn't matter in any way, shape or form what that call was and whether it was right or wrong. It just doesn't. And that's the point that, that Luke was coming to is that, you know, that's, that's where, that's where the mindset needs to shift as a coach of players,

what you are trying to do is to understand where the limitations might be in your player's decision making process, or maybe in their physical process. And then you give them tools to help improve that. Cuz that's your job. When you're talking to umpires as a coach, it's about understanding the coach's process and why they came to a particular decision.

But it's not, it's not, you know, you're interested in that umpire's performance in as much as it affects your, you know, your community and your team, but it's not about really helping them get better, except for the, what you can contribute from your coaching perspective. Maybe there is something about, um, the, the skill that the player was attempting or something like that.

It's, it's just not your direct responsibility, I guess, is what I'm pointing out there. Ooh, I'm, I've missed a lot of comments. Let's get into these, uh, Amanda, players can't play without umpires. This is often missed by players and coaches, but with good communication engagement as possible, even when they disagree with decisions.

Absolutely, Amanda. David, you love, um, showing humility in that situation might not seem stand it. Right? My procession was ABC, so I gave X, Y. Absolutely. And that's a skill that we learn, right. We learn how not to defend ourselves saying, like a parent does, because I said, so we learn to say, this is what I saw, and this is why I applied it.

If I saw this, that means I have to apply it like this, that's the decision. And I can't call what I don't see. I can't call something else. Um, it's hard to engage quickly without emotion when, and when you can, it may be lost, but it's important skill. Yeah. Yeah. Rachel, I enjoy discussion too. Uh, but coaches often want reactions right after the game before they have calmed down.

Yeah. And, and, and here's another aspect of it. Okay. Is that, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but most of y'all don't get paid to umpire. You might get a share of your expenses paid back. You might get all of your expenses paid back. Even if you're an FIH umpire, you do not get paid to umpire games. You get your expenses, you get your travel, your food and board.

You might get a, a form of a per diem that helps you feed yourself and maybe go on a tour, maybe, depends where you are. The per diem can be amazing. And sometimes the per diem can be not helpful at all. So you've gone out and you've already volunteered your time to travel to this game, to prepare for this game, to umpire that game.

And then you have to travel home, but wait, but wait, you then also need to volunteer the time to be debriefed by a coach who may or may not have the expertise that it takes to engage in a good conversation, and to, and, and to actually give you meaningful feedback, maybe they don't have that expertise at all.

Maybe they don't have a clue what they're talking about that has a lot of labour, a lot of unpaid labor done by umpires. And do you think that maybe sometimes that's a big ask.

I ask the coaches, not obviously ask. We know what's going on. Gideon, and flip the scenario, if, and when you're ready and you want feedback, you ask the coaches for feedback, maybe the next day. You did it twice. This season for various reasons. That's excellent. Taco, in your club. You're seen as a person with probably the best rule knowledge yet.

The application is something else. We all have our strengths. I was also known as the umpire who was very accurate, but I didn't have the people skills. I didn't look the part. That's the way it goes. These sessions, Taco, taught you that the next level of real interpretation dependence on angle and position. You always ask yourself what part of the info did you miss or interpret incorrectly?

That's fantastic. This is great. And you don't need the coach or player for that. And often it's lost on them too, right? It's it. That's something that they can't help you with, cuz they're kind of busy. They're kind of busy playing or they're kind of busy coaching and they don't have that for you. I, I mean, I don't know how many times when I was coaching Dinos, uh, last season that I'd come off the pitch and my friends. These are my friends.

These are umpires that I've been umpiring with and I've been mentoring for years, decades even, come off the pitch and they'd say, Hey, do you have any feedback for me? And they'd be like, I don't know. Like it was fine. It was, you were great. I was happy. Because I'm busy. Because I know what my job is. My job is to coach my players and I had more than enough to do with them.

I had 17, 16 lovely people in that moment and a few still at home that I was very concerned about. I didn't have time to focus on them and knowing that my focus has to be on the players. I think I'm, I'm glad, I'm glad that I wasn't obsessing about the umpiring decisions, cuz that showed me I was coaching better, cause my focus was where it was needed to be.

So, and what I do know, I guess just being who I am at, you know, in this is that I have done the work to understand umpiring. I've done the work to understand rules interpretations. I don't need to sit down with the umpires after the game for them to tell me how to apply the aerial rule. And I'm lucky for that, but I've done my work.

So many coaches who do get paid to do what they do, whether it's good payment or not enough payment or great payment, whatever it is, they haven't done that work.

Okay. They need to explain the reaction as a, uh, to the team as debrief. Umpires are part of the debrief. David, you did lose your rag with a coach who was blaming you for their loss after a 10 minute yellow. And you actually turned it back on him saying they didn't score from nine PCs in the first half.

Right? Like

if we respond in kind, it doesn't feel good. Like you might feel good in the moment because you scored a point. But you know, like we know when we dip to that level, that we're not helping the situation very much, no matter how right we are, because again, it doesn't matter who's right or wrong. It's about the relationship and it's what we learn from it.

So if a coach can learn from an exchange like that, if you can say, well, coach, I understand you've picked out this moment as being a turning point in the match, but what about this turning point? What about this turning point and this turning point, and when that other team did this amazing thing, that was a turning point too.

And. Now we've got like 56 turning points of which my decision was only one. Maybe the game is bigger than just one decision. Who knows. And if you can present that in that way, that can be really helpful. Great to see you. Thank you. Um, yes, obviously, I'm, I'm on a roll. We're gonna be talking. This is the, this is the only topic today, although I do have a rant later, so cuz this hasn't been rant enough.

You're welcome. Um, bye Bentley, I'm glad you're watching. Um, when you mean a lost opportunity, it's a shortage of umpires. They are off to the next game. Yes. Like we would love to be able to talk about umpiring all day. I talk about umpiring all day and I don't even know how much longer I'm gonna be able to do this and survive.

How can the average umpire out there doing their local league and competition, be able to take this much time and do this much work. All of you who come and watch me every week, who go hang out in the server, who watch games, who have conversations and do do this work. How, like, how much are you expected to give?

This has got to change. If we expect this level of engagement, improvement and professionalism, then bloody well pay us like we're professionals. Okay. That might have been a rant of the week. The cost of umpiring and the Masters World Cup this year is racking up players and coaches don't realize the expense that you go through for the love of the game.

Yeah. Like actually paying to go. Actually paying to be a part of these events, your own travel expenses, your own hotels and per diems, and then they come and shit on you. Hi Billi! So where am I? I'm I'm trying to see where, where I am in the whole thing. Okay. So here, just to tie this all up, because this did happen in the, in the Twitter feed that someone did ask me, like, what's the issue with calling decisions as right or wrong.

I I've left the pitch. Stu says, admitting that I made a wrong call. And, and yeah, that is, that is not the point. What I'm looking at is the whys, the hows, the what nows? Okay. Because what happened, it might help make a coach feel better that they've gotten their pound of flesh and somebody is admitted to their mistake.

Ego is served like, okay. But how does that help you in the future? You're gonna be just as mad the next time that that umpire makes a mistake. And you're gonna say, just, don't get it wrong. How many times has that happened? Like when you've actually been that person who said, all right, I've made my mistake.

I've made that mistake, hands up and they turn around and they say you, but you have to get it right. And I'm like, right. Okay. I'm gonna shut up. Now. You don't deserve that from me, Amanda, when so many teams forget to even offer hospitality to umpires after the game, and then at half time don't even speak.

Uh, and then half the time don't even speak to them when they do, no wonder umpires don't wanna communicate when challenged. I think coaches have to, they have to bear much more responsibility in this equation than they do currently. I think umpires do 90% of the work in being the approachable ones, in changing the nature of the conversations, governing their communication.

What are coaches doing to improve the way that their players are behaving on the bench, to help their reacting decisions out on the pitch? As I described before I did that work. I made sure that happened. I did my 50%. So the umpires could do their 50%. Be the coach that meets the umpires halfway, acknowledging that you are getting paid to do your 50%.

And they're not. How's. How about that?

Um,

Yeah. That's, that's interesting that. Stephen here is just saying that he wants, he wants umpires to recognize when coaches and players are honestly just not trying to have a go, but trying to understand what led them to make certain decisions Good. But is that the way it's actually coming across. And, 

what is the history of experience that this umpire has? And Stephen brings up the age of umpires quite often. He's saying, you know, these older umpires really struggle with this. Most umpires have desire to improve themselves are open to this. It's lower down the scale in some of the older generation where the issues lie.

And can you imagine how many times umpires who have decades of experience have been hammered down after games? How many times they've taken abuse on the pitch? Consider that context and give them a little grace, show them something exceptional. Show them something more. Not just the, Hey, you and I should be able to have a conversation about this.

How about a look? It was a tough day. My team. It's my responsibility that, that we lost today. Do you mind, do you have some time to talk to me because I just wanna understand this rule better. Can you help me? Ask, ask and ask like this don't ask like this.

I have learned so much, David, from my interactions with coaches, I've now taken the, uh, FIH Academy level three course. So I've, I've gone up through the level threes and because I'm out there on Twitter all the time, I'm on Instagram and everywhere. And I get WhatsApp messages, its all the time from coaches and these interactions that I have really helped me understand what it looks like from their point of view and what they're trying to, what they think is fair.

What they think is the balance of the rule, where it should lie. And that is invaluable. Absolutely. You can get a lot of things outta these conversations. But I think somebody was talking in the Huddle on Monday about how a player in a master's game went back to the umpire who was retelling the story and saying, well you were in the wrong position to see that.

Well player you were in the wrong position to receive that pass, and you missed it. Is that the umpire's job to tell them that? No.

So after all these conversations, what, after all these conversations, Stephen put up this poll. Hockey question for coaches: in their own 23, a player goes to ground and cleanly wins the ball. However, them being on the ground unintentionally causes the opponent to trip and fall to the ground. What is given and he held this poll for two days,

I think it was. And he asked once the polls ended I'd like to invite FHumpires to announce what should have been given. That's very sweet. Thank you. I'm not the ultimate arbiter of this, but I can give you informed opinion. And as you can see from the poll results, 154 votes is a lot of people. Like that. I I, and obviously Stephen's Twitter feed and, and those respondents will be skewed to his orbit.

So, coaches probably have a similar level to him, similar interests who are similarly passionate about coaching and all that kind of thing. And this was the result. 52.6% chose PC and a yellow for the intentional slide tackle inside the 23. 20%, 21.4% said, clean tackle play on.

17% just wanted a free hit, and some said free hit to the opposition and a card.

Half the coaches who are engaged in hockey. Who are of a performance level, like Stephen is, came on Twitter and were wrong.

I am going to just sort of pick apart the language though, because this is, this is part of the problem. And this is why I speak so frequently about the language that we use to express the rule, to express how we interpret it, to express the spirit of what the rule is trying to get at, how we communicate to players, words matter.

They matter a lot. And what, the way that Stephen, if he did this intentionally, like. Well done because he made it as ambiguous. He kinda laid the rhetorical trap as it were for his colleagues and compatriots in the coaching sphere. By saying, them being on the ground unintentionally, causes the opponent to trip and fall.

Now was, is he trying to say that they were on the ground unintentionally or it was unintentional that it caused the opponent to trip and fall.

So you all have been a part of these streams for a long time. And you know what the definition of intentional is, and it's not that you intended the result. We've broken this down time and time after again. Because nobody intends.

To commit a foul. People intend for things to work out, but they don't, sometimes. You try to make that tackle. Your intention is to make that tackle cleanly and to take the ball. But you're not good enough in this particular moment. You miss. What in, intentional fouls are that are those that a player has control over the decision they're making to do the thing that results in the foul.

And they are reckless as to the result. That it breaks down the play because a foul needs to be awarded. Any player who slides with their body on the ground, unless they have tripped off balance. Well, they didn't intend that action. So we treat that differently. But if they put themselves onto the ground and they're sliding and then by definition are out of, not by definition, but by operation of physics or out of control. They can't stop themselves moving.

They even intentionally put themselves in a position where it's reckless as to the outcome. They probably don't wanna take out their opposition's knees and tear their ACLs, but that could be the result of what happens. They are reckless as to whether there is body contact in making that tackle, bringing the player to ground.

And that my friends is let's see, what am I gonna go to on this one? Let's go to this.

Oh yeah. I was gonna show that's. Okay. Let's let's just do this that,

can you please just work?

I don't even know where my overlays are. I was gonna put up the 10 minute yellow card slide from the umpires briefing. So I will describe that to you as I am reaching for my overlays and demanding for them to appear.

There it is. Oops.

Physical fouls, says the FIH, dangerous tackles that ground or trip players, including sliding tackles by both attackers and defenders. We're gonna wait that I'm not gonna get into the debate about attackers there. It's a 10 minute yellow card offense. It's just, it's just very clear. It's right there. And

only 50, only 50%, only 52.6% of these people know that. And then these are the people who are gonna come and yell at us at the end of the game and say. Half of them are just gonna have it wrong. Are they gonna listen? Are they gonna be in a state of mind where they listen to an umpire who says, actually, here is the briefing.

Here is the rule. Here are some examples of slide tackles where the player didn't intend to miss the ball, but they certainly put themselves on the ground inside their control. They may have taken the ball cleanly, but they brought the player down. Top level, top level players, top five team in the world.

Six, maybe something like that. Very experienced, utterly shocked that he got called for this foul. His body while it was on the ground, as you can see here, comes into contact with the player and brings him down. It's it's just not that hard or this one,

The player didn't slide but he sure as heck put himself down on the ground into a dangerous position, lost control of his body. And that caused the contact. Very clean tackle. And there he is. Martin Madden. Very clear, the, uh, mics there explaining: but he took that chance. He put himself in the position. He was reckless as, as to whether he was gonna lose control of his body and cause that contact and take him down.

You gotta learn for the test week coming up. Okay. No worries. Niels okay. So this is a, I don't know how to wrap this up. I don't know how to wrap this up other than to say, 

to all the coaches out there, we need more from you. Okay. We need you to meet us cuz we are giving and giving and giving and not getting attendant work

in return from coaches. Now I'm willing to do this. I do this all the time. I'm making my living at doing it, trying to make a living, because I think it's that important. But really it's like wearing a hair shirt every day.

If you want more from umpires, if you want them to improve and you want them to do a great job on your games, you need to help us not buy telling us whether we're right or wrong. Cause that's not your job. And 50% of you don't know.

What your job is, is to manage your behavior, to manage your player's behavior, to manage your expectations of what decisions mean when your players are competing on the pitch

and how you are engaging in those conversations, after the game, on Twitter, on Facebook, in WhatsApp chat groups, whatever it is. That's what we need that is what's gonna improve umpiring. Also pay us. 

Stijn. It would help. It would indeed be helpful if coaches are constructive when approaching umpires, as you mentioned before, coaches and umpires, both can get it wrong. Yes. Own up and aim in improving each other.

Okay. I like that. All right. Ooh. We managed to work that out. Thank you for engaging in all that.

And now my friends, if that wasn't enough,

it's your rant to the week. 

A closer look with Keely Dunn. Oh goodness. Following up on our conversation last week, about hockey fives, but umpire, he just slipped. Indeed. This comment showed up on my YouTube comments, uh, Jasjit, Jasjit, or the Don, as I believe they'd like to be described as, was not very happy with the things that I said about hockey fives and came on about six hours after the livestream ended.

It's people like you who hold back hockey from growing. Hockey fives is essential for hockey to grow in schools and colleges, since it costs five times less than regular hockey, but people like you don't care, they would rather let hockey die than to see any change that makes it grow. The very fact I am the only one to even comment on your one and a half hour monologue shows how few fans hockey has and how desperately it needs fresh supporters.

Sincerely the Don, Jasjit.

Okay. First of all, I mean, if a few people managed to point out that, dude, you missed the 180 comments that were left in the live chat during the monologue. Thank you for calling in a monologue. It's a live stream, dude. I'm like it happens.

And commenting on the same day on the replay. I mean, I'm happy when get like five or six comments. That's great. That's great performance for a video. So the fact he was the first one of those five or six that have been made since then. Great. Thanks for helping out. I appreciate your appreciate your contributions. But there are so many mischaracterizations of my position in this that I have to say, sir, or ma'am or they, you wanna come into my comments and you wanna engage with me like this,

you better come, correct? I never, at any point said that hockey five should not be played as a development model for schools, for colleges, for junior level hockey, as a way to play walking hockey at a master's age level, whatever it takes. Hockey has always had that. We have always played small field games

in order to develop skills, to give players more touches on the ball. I said that specifically in the live stream, and you just decided that you weren't gonna watch that part I guess? What hockey fives isn't is a suitable form of the game for elite performance levels and audiences. It cannot be a World Cup.

And if you think for any second, the, these arguments that this is gonna help teams from Vanuatu and Dominica participate in the international game because they can play on the same stage as the top nations in the world. You've lost your mind.

Because if the Dutch put 10 team players out there playing hockey fives against Vanuatu, they're gonna kill 'em. It doesn't change the fact that the best hockey nations in the world have strong club systems. The only exception to that is India. And how do they get around that? Government sponsorship of academies.

And they've been trying to get club hockey going, because they know they know they need it in order to compete.

It does suck. I think what people forget is that sport is essentially a story. It's a hero's tale. It's a villain's tale. We have, we have villains, we have ups and downs and lulls and, and climaxes. And we have slow bits. We have character development. It's a story. And that's why we engage with it. That's why we can see ourselves in the athletes who are performing and competing in these sports.

Because the tales that are told throughout the course of a game are the tales as old as time that we are all pursuing in other areas of our lives. If you take away the ability for a story to be told in a sport, in a game, all you have is a spectacle. All you have is a 30s. TikTok video. And if that, if you think that that is going to be what saves hockey, again, you're on drugs, cuz that is not sustainable.

That is not going to keep people's interests. That is not gonna get people's investment.

Because we invest in stories. We invest when our emotions are galvanized, are captured, are encouraged, or accentuated, by the story that's being told on the pitch. And 20 minutes of nonstop, there's no story. There's no time for it. And that's why Hockey5s can't be an elite expression of our game. Indoor has those lulls just from the restrictions that are put on the game that slow it down

in particular moments. We have time to breathe and reflect and think about the players and hear the commentator, talking about the players and all those sort of things. When the ball is being moved around the back and nothing interesting is really happening. We need those moments. Because that's what brings out the excitement, the, the verve that's why we want to celebrate when something awesome happens.

It's not just because, Ooh, it was a shot on net. It was like, it was a shot on net by Jeroen Hertzberger, who's been struggling for years to keep, you know, to, to, to stay in touch with the, the international game. Like whatever. I just made that up. That's not true. But that's why we get invested in the game. And that's why we celebrate these moments.

Otherwise it's just cool shit. Oh, and this costs five times less to so ridiculous. You still needed the specialty water-based pitch in order to show it off for high levels. In order for these players, to be able to play to the best of their ability, you had to lay it down a water based pitch. You had to have $30,000 boards that are, I dunno, like this high ringing around, you had to have netting.

Five times less, not for elite competition. Play it as a development sport. That's fine. You watched two minutes of it, Amanda. And it was awful. It is not the future of the elite game. Absolutely. Billi, Canada doesn't, like we lack clubs. We have a few, but we don't, we don't compete outside of our own city leagues.

Geography makes it really hard. That's where the investment needs to be. Billy in Pakistan, in Canada, in India, in Vanuatu, everywhere. Clubs are, give us stories. They give us history, they give us culture. They give us collective knowledge of the experience of competing that we invest in emotionally. And then we carry that into those players who then go on to higher levels.

That's what club hockey does. And that's why the best in the world come from nations who have strong club systems.

If only we had a format, a great format of indoor hockey with fewer players. Indoor hockey has its flaws. Don't get me wrong. But if you need an elite format of the game that is cheaper and more manageable to play, you can play sixes anywhere. You don't have to have indoor hockey inside.

And I've been seeing tweet after tweet of facilities that just have some sort of covering, just to make sure that, you know, it doesn't get rained on during the game. And, and you can lay down an artificial sport court surface plastic tiles. You can play on cement. You can play on clay. You can play indoor effectively

on easily removable surfaces that don't need to be watered because that's not what the game's about, it's not about being able to hit,

and needs a smaller amount of space and is much safer for the spectators to be close to the action. Is there not any other alternative to club? Billi, I don't think so. I don't think so. Because we're tribe. Humans love their tribes. That's how we're geared to. We want connection to people who share our geography, our local interests, our pride, our history.

And if we have clubs that then strengthens the base of interest in the sport, and then those people then go on to continue. And they, they pick up the, the, the stick themselves. They're gonna watch their club play. They're gonna go out to the matches. They're gonna watch the live streams. And then a couple of those players go on to play internationally.

And then, oh, and then now I wanna watch my team play because she's one of ours. Look at her representing Calgary out there. Mel Scholz, Junior World Cup Canada captain Mel Scholz is one of us. She grew up in this system and that pride, you feel to somebody who plays, who's from your area. You, uh, you see yourself in that person and you say, I could do that too.

My cousin could do that. My kids, I'm gonna put a stick in their hands because maybe they're gonna be the next Mel Scholz. Okay. Local club hockey is the best way to develop that. If it wasn't, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, England, wouldn't be at the top of the ranks.

Jennie, may we keep these stories alive. You agree, the pause makes the story long live for chukkas and a whole hour or more of skill and play. Chukkas are quarters, right? Okay. So thank you, Jasjit for bringing up your point and giving me the opportunity to flesh out my argument even more. Next time, better luck.

I'm sure it'll work out. Don't forget this. She points everywhere. Communication Skills workshop. Last minute signups. I'm okay with it. Get on board for that. That would be fantastic. Come in to the Discord. That is where I run the workshops. I'm running the watch parties everywhere. Like just, you have to be in it.

I'm sorry that you just don't have a choice anymore. It's like being in clubs, Billi. Club hockey. That's where it is. Thank you.

I'm getting there. Ha ha. You like that. Um, thank you for indulging, for me, what was a stream that allowed me to do something that got me out of my rut? Um, and my feeling of being burned out from just watching hockey over and over and over again. It's been, it's been a grind and the next two months are gonna be really hard as well.

I, I really don't know what I'm gonna do, but I think the thing that really always keeps me going is being around you. And I'm looking forward to the opportunities that we're gonna have in the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games to do that. Taco, you live in a small village in the Netherlands. You have about 20 clubs and a 25 kilometer radius varying from small clubs like yours and international.

That provides opportunities.

Anyone Bueller, Bueller? No, you can't argue against this. Thank you, Ali, I appreciate it. Uh, Chris, hi from New Zealand, how unfortunate you missed it? Well, replay. And then come in the discard and tell me all the things you think. I appreciate you being here, Amanda. It's fantastic to see you. Taco, you're gonna be there.

Yay. I will try. I will. I still love the hockey. That's the thing that will always keep me going. Appreciate it. So if I don't see you tomorrow, um, we will see you for some watch parties this weekend. We'll see you in the Discord and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday or Thursday. For those of you who live in the future.

Congratulations. I hope tomorrow is excellent. Cuz I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna figure out how to take a break, David. I really will. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Enjoy your hockey. Bye everybody.

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