WFTDA to Host 2012 Officiating Clinics

Nine Clinics, Five Countries, on Three Continents!

The WFTDA Officiating Clinics are back!

The WFTDA is honored to announce the third annual WFTDA Officiating Clinic cycle. This year’s clinics will introduce a wealth of new information, complementing the now institutionalized educational materials that were presented at clinics in 2010 and 2011. The WFTDA remains committed to consistency and standardization, as well as providing the tools and resources so that all roller derby officials may succeed in providing the highest level of officiating to promote the ideal of “Real, Strong, Athletic, and Revolutionary” roller derby.

What's different for 2012?

WFTDA Officiating Clinics will be multi-track and all inclusive. Each of the nine clinics will feature both Interleague and Tournament Officiating tracks, as well as expanded NSO curriculum. Officiating Clinics will offer expansions to all previous content and curriculum, as well as extensive new content. The WFTDA is excited to work through development with the 2011 returning instructors and great new talent joining the crew for the 2012 program.

New Clinic Levels

Clinics are open to all roller derby officials, regardless of member league affiliation or certification.

• The WFTDA Interleague Officiating track will offer attendees a working knowledge of tools and resources needed to join the WFTDA development path and follow it to Referee Certification, as well as a good understanding of what it takes to succeed. The Interleague Officiating track is targeted at officials who have six months to about two years of experience, with knowledge about the WFTDA rules and solid skating skills.

• The WFTDA Tournament Officiating track is strongly recommended for all WFTDA affiliated or certified officials who hope to participate in the WFTDA Big 5 tournament season. Specifically, the Tournament Officiating track will fortify participants’ knowledge of skating skills and positioning, theory, and tournament consistency, as well as providing the tools to assist in the pursuit of Referee Certification.

NSO Track:

• Interleague NSO sessions will be geared toward NSOs with one year experience or less as well as NSOs without experience in all positions. In this clinic, we will review each NSO position, the duties of each position, how to utilize the paperwork for that position, and how to work with other officials, including referees. We will also review hand signals and whistles including activities surrounding both, as well as penalty box scenarios and other scenarios.

• Tournament NSO sessions will be geared toward NSOs with more than one year experience, a full understanding of all NSO positions including paperwork, and those working toward officiating the Big 5 Tournaments. In this clinic there will be a brief review of content from the Interleague NSO sessions. There will be a discussion around the NSO perspective including a review of best practices for elevating your officiating. We will review NSO tournament standards. We will also discuss the positions of Head NSO (league), Crew Head NSO and Tournament Head NSO and what these positions require. The clinic will also contain a bout review done based on paperwork from a real bout and a scrimmage in which you will be able to practice NSO positions concluding with a debrief of the scrimmage.

What is the cost?

The cost of the registration for the North American clinics is $100 USD, and outside of North America the cost will be $150 USD.

Don't take our word for it, read what some attendees said about the 2011 Clinics...

I just want to say thanks to WFTDA for recognising the need for these clinics internationally and providing them for us. Consistency is something we struggle with a lot outside of North America as it's difficult to get good direction...having WFTDA clinics in our part of the world and being exposed to a variety of referees will help greatly with giving us a more even idea of how things are done in WFTDA leagues.

A really enjoyable experience. Many thanks to you for organizing. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who was thinking of attending one.

...Having attended the WFTDA trainings for the last 2 years, I have grown as an official in ways that would not have otherwise been possible given my rural location. I'd like to see more opportunities to have refs participate in WFDTA trainings. I really appreciate all WFTDA is doing to try further the sport. Thanks for all your hard work!

Great training, the classwork really helped solidify a lot of the concept work (impact and initiator were particularly important from my point of view!), and the WFTDA tests were a great lesson in what we look for as ref's and what standard the WFTDA holds! I had a great time, learned heaps, and I'm already looking forward to the next clinic!