Development Panel Practical Weekend
Cardiff Met U18 invitational Tournament
The WHUA Development panel were fortunate enough to be invited to umpire Cardiff Met’s U18 invitational tournament, which didn’t disappoint with the standard of hockey. The weekend followed the structure of a tournament weekend with a pre-tournament briefing, game debriefs and play-off appointments, allowing us to gain experience in tournament umpiring. The weekend also provided a fantastic opportunity for the development panel to come together as a team. To start, most of us were quite apprehensive and unsure of what to expect however the barmy weather meant everyone was in good spirits if not a bit sun burnt by the end of the day. Everyone took a great deal away from the first day thanks to some very useful feedback from the Umpire Manager team of Mark Staunton, John Taylor and Kevin Roberts and were ready for whatever Sunday had to throw at us. Sadly what Sunday had to throw at us was a day of wet Welsh weather however the downturn in weather was not reflected in the team’s umpiring with everyone continuing to improve throughout the day producing better and better performances. Again umpire manager feedback was invaluable and allowed us to continue to improve as a team and grow in confidence. The finals day also allowed an opportunity to practice a shoot-out with the team coming together to ensure the shoot-out ran smoothly. This was a minor miracle considering the difficulties the team had performing technical duties throughout the weekend, from scoreboards with cricket scores to struggles timing multiple cards we had a new appreciation of the great job the Technical Officials do during games. The team came away from the weekend buzzing and excited about umpiring the upcoming season and working together throughout the year and continuing to improve as umpires. We had learnt lots as a team from the weekend and will hopefully continue to polish our umpiring presentation a key focus of the weekend. The tournament was an invaluable learning experience and we are all looking forward to the boys tournament in January. A big thank you to all those who made the weekend possible. If you would like to learn more about the development panel including finding out how to become involved in it the click here.
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