In the school sports thread, there are quite a few people who were as useless as myself at team sports. But I could have made a positive contribution by being an umpire or linesman or whatever. I did, eventually. Yet I never saw anyone being taught these skills.
Now, I know that team sports are less about actual exercise and more about learning to be a team member, but isn’t being an umpire or linesman or whatever part of that team and very useful as a management skill?
I guess the demand is very low for umps/refs, that is one reason.
I know there is a school for baseball umps , not sure about the other sports. Most guys start at the high school level and move up to college and pros if they are good enough. There is a college basketball ref who played major league baseball, can’t recall his name. He played for the Braves. It might be Bruce Benedict.
Because in a class of 25, there can only be 1-2 referees. No sense training a whole class for something only very few people have the aptitude for. And last time I checked, referreeing was not a strong team position because, well, you’re not actually in any team…
There is a school for baseball umps and it is just as difficult to become a major league umpire as it is a player. Probably even more so because there are fewer. And the process is nearly the same. You start at some low level, work your way through the minor leagues, show some real promise, and hope to get called up. I have known some minor league umps and the road to MLB is rough.
Another thing about umpiring or refereeing is you have to know a crazy amount of rules. Learning the entire rulebook is probably not very helpful to your management skills outside the actual sport.
A student referee in gym class is akin to a student hall monitor. Can you imagine the flack and grief that would accrue to the poor soul who made a call that some of his classmates disliked? It’s bad enough being at the margins due to lack of physical prowess, being made into a pariah would be worse.
As a kid I knew another kid who said he wanted to be an ump for a job. I moved away so I never knew if he did it.
College BB refs sometimes ref 4+ games a week, much more than the kids play. I am not sure that’s a good idea because they have to get worn out , they run a good bit during games, and the travel can also wear them out. I don’t think the NBA or NHL allow their refs to work that much. MLB baseball umps don’t get as tired since they don’t move around much.
Such classes were offered when I was in training to be a PE teacher. I took one to become a certified volleyball referee. More rigorous than you might think.
And I think that’s the proper venue for such classes. No point in having someone do that in lieu of physical activity as part of a normal PE curriculum.
I have thought for years that in a effort to make major sports more accessible to women that all referees should be of the opposite sex. There have been a token referee here and there but teaching it in school should help.
I realize that they start off quite a bit ahead of the line, but I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been watching American Football and seen some wide receiver make a spectacular catch at full speed, streaking for the goal line, with nobody near him…
Hockey refs also skate a great deal, but that’s not the point of basic PE. It’s to have kids participate in all kinds of activities. I wouldn’t at all be opposed to exposing kids to officiating - I think that could be great if done properly. Just not as a substitute for actual participation in an activity.
But this belies the point that good PE programs do not focus exclusively on team sports anyway. This has been discussed in other threads though, and I won’t hijack this one.
Guy I was at school with had to give up playing Rugby after injury, so turned to refereeing instead. By the season after I left he was reffing on the club circuit, and it was onwards and upwards from then on - culminating in officiating in the final stages of the World Cup.
I think this is it. Only after you learn the sport can you learn how to referee it. Assuming that the OP is referring to primary or secondary schools, this is the time when you learn how to play the sport.
In PE GCSE (optional, age 14-16, for non UK people; students who aren’t taking the GCSE have to do some PE but aren’t aiming for a qualification - cite.) and other sport qualifications, they do have the kids take turns to be referee, etc.
I suspect this is the major reason why it’s not common for people who aren’t aiming for a sports qualification. Being the kid who can’t do the sport is bad enough.
The demand is low at the professional level, but high at the local level for youth leagues, intramurals, and park district rec leagues. Last winter I ran at a gym filled with more than a hundred guys training to be local baseball umpires.
Still, it doesn’t strike me as something practical to teach in school, at least below college level.