With two national age-group tournaments underway during Labour Weekend – the Under 15s in Hamilton and the Under 17s in Christchurch – it’s a busy weekend for the team of Basketball New Zealand referee trainers attending the tournaments.
At each tournament, one of the trio of New Zealand referee trainers who have completed the international FIBA Referee Instructor Programme training is working with the trainers – Ken Coulson at the Under 15s with a team of nine trainers, and Peter Rodgers at the Under 17s with six other trainers. BBNZ’s Referee Development Manager, Melony Wealleans, is also in Hamilton.
Before the tournaments, each referee completed a self-evaluation form, rating themselves on various aspects of refereeing and setting out some goals for the tournament. During the tournament, each referee is observed on as many games as possible and then they have a post-game discussion with the trainer about what went well in the game and what they could have done better, with an emphasis on the referees developing the ability to self-evaluate and develop a plan of what they need to work on, with assistance from the feedback from the trainer, which they will write up on their personal post-tournament appraisal form.
This training that the referees get at the national tournaments is an important part of their development as they progress through the age groups towards possible selection for the National Leagues Referee Panel (to referee the Sal’s NBL women’s and men’s leagues) and potentially further on to nomination by BBNZ as a candidate for a FIBA international referee licence.
