Ice hockey referee book test and economical training?
My husband is the Youth Ice Hockey Referee Coordinator. We are currently having some issues with the testing of referees. We need ideas or resources that would teach the basics and possibly give lessons to assist the referees on how to understand the Official Rules of Ice Hockey... to understand enough to also pass the test (open & closed book).
It would be wonderful if someone could put a book together that is written well enough that our referees can understand (and learn from it). Possibly, a Referee Guide for Dummies or Been There Done That for Ice Hockey Officiating or to encourage USA Hockey to add a section for "Officiating Essentials" as they have done for "Coaching Essentials".
http://www.usahockey.com
Does anyone know of any economical ways to teach kids (and adults) the rules of officiating ice hockey rather than reading and studying the books that are poorly written?
In my opinion, more of the issue is with the test than with the rulebook. A few years back, I don't remember the year but it was during this administration of USA Hockey, it was decided that the test was a bit too easy and they wanted the officials to work a little harder in order to become a level 3 or 4 official. The problem with that; aside from finding obscure, rarely used rules, how do you make the information being tested more difficult? There are only so many ways to ask certain questions and often there is no way to make them more difficult.
The USA Hockey rulebook is actually one of the better written rule books in the hockey world. I work leagues that use the USA Hockey, NCAA and NHL rulebooks. It may be that I have been learning the USA book for as long as I have but of the three, I find the USA Hockey rulebook the easiest especially since they have begun including the situation manual as part of the rulebook. Often when I am looking something up I skip the rule and head straight to the situation manual. Prior to last season it was a supplement similar to the officiating manuals. There are some situations that are not covered in the situation manual, but you will be very hard pressed to find them. When one rule has an exception caused by another rule in the book, that rule number is referenced. The NCAA rulebook for example is horrible in that regard. You can read a rule and not know that there is an exception in another portion of the book.
The best solution they were able to come up with was by making the tests "trickier", both the open and closed book exams. Some of the questions are vaguely worded, have two answers that could be correct, things of that nature. Now, not only do you need to know the rule, you need to know which correct answer USA Hockey is looking for which I agree is not a fair situation.
The intent of the open book exam is to get the officials to open the book and read. My personal style is to look up every answer, even if I feel I already know the answer. It's a good way to brush up and reinforce the things I already know. Also, it often forces me to read other sections at times in order to find the actual rule I am looking for. This often leads to me coming across things that I didn't know and I end up sidetracked reading and interpreting what I found.
Honestly, I don't know if your goal is really all that attainable. The question is whether a publisher outside of USA Hockey is willing to write a book targeted at 600,000 people. USA Hockey is not likely to change their policy regarding their rulebooks, they have been using the current format for decades and for the most part it has worked for them. If you were to pick up a rulebook from 20 years ago, you would find that many sections have not changed at all today.
I think a more viable option is to get some of the more experienced officials involved with the younger officials in your area. I can credit many mentors when I was coming through the ranks, many of whom worked the NHL, IIHF, AHL and the ECHL. Guys like Jim Doyle (AHL officials who worked the 1980 olympics) and the late Mike Condon (a long time AHL official) were invaluable to the younger guys coming out of the Philly area. I had two experienced AHL officials as linesmen for my first high school game wearing the arm bands. How much more comfortable can a young referee be than to have two of the most experienced linesmen in the AHL as part of his crew for his first "big" game? When I was starting out I had many guys helping me along and while I have yet to reach some of the levels these guys did, I try to help out the young guys coming through the ranks now.
Hockey 101 - The Basic Rules of Hockey
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