Line of Smoke

 

We have all seen the line of smoke a plane leaves behind high in the sky.  Really, though, what is often mistaken as smoke is actually contrails--clouds formed when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles in an aircraft’s exhaust. This is similar to seeing your breath when you breathe warm air on a cold day.

Altitude, temperature, humidity, and engine type determine if a contrail is formed.  Some aspects of contrails are shared:

·         All curtails are made up of the same materials and formed in the exact same manner but exist for different lengths of time. Some are short-lived, some lasts for hours as a straight line, and others last for hours and spread to be several miles wide.

·         Curtails cannot be hidden even though they are high in the sky.

·         Curtails show direction. It’s easy to spot where the plane has been and where it is headed.

How does this relate to officiating?  Let’s examine the aspects of officiating compared to those of contrails:

·         Officials have similar make-up.  Sure, we are different, but we all have common aspects such as uniform, rule books, mechanics.  But we all have different periods of influence in officiating—some short-lived while others have others a long-standing.  At a game site, we may make contact with one person, one time.  At the same time, we can be on a crew with an official for numerous years.

·         Once we put the uniform on, we can’t hide.  Are we confident in our ability to officiate the game in front of us?  Do we positively influence those people we come in contact with?

·         Direction—are we heading in the right direction as an official and/or as a crew?  What things do we continue to do and/or what are the things we need to change to improve?

Think about the trail we leave behind as officials. Even if it is short-lived, is our influence a positive one?  If it is long-standing, how well are we using our influence and resources to improve and positively impact the people and game around us?  In Matthew 28: 16-20, Jesus demanded His Disciples to go and influence the world:

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” - Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

Be a positive influence on those around us, especially our crewmates.  When someone looks at the trail we leave behind, will it be looked at as positive or negative?

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Credit:  https://fcaresources.com/devotional/contrails

Competitive Greatness

John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach, was known for the phrase “competitive greatness”—striving to be the best we can.  Coach Wooden was not looking for the best, but for the best of each individual player.  Coach Wooden defined Competitive Greatness as “real love for hard battle, knowing it offers the opportunity to be at our best when our best is required.”

In his FCA Resources Devotion “Be the Best”, Dan Britton shared three concepts of competitive greatness:

1.       Be Prepared! Many have heard the story that Coach Wooden would spend 30 minutes teaching his players how to put on socks. Why?  Coach Wooden explained “I derived great satisfaction from identifying and perfecting those ‘trivial’ and often troublesome details, because I knew . . . that each one brought UCLA a bit closer to our goal: competitive greatness.”

2.       Be Disciplined! Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. Similar, Competitive Greatness is achieved by working hard when no one is watching.  

3.    Be Focused! Competitive Greatness seeks clear vision without being distracted by all things vying for your attention.

As officials, we should strive to be the best we can.  Sure, we look to other officials for advice and guidance, but we must as individual officials strive for Competitive Greatness.  Are we prepared before the season, during the season, and each game?  Are we disciplined to improve our officiating even if no one knows how or what we are doing to prepare?  Are we able to maintain our focus for the entire season—week-by-week and play-by-play.

"Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength." –Ephesians 6:10

Where does our best come from?  In Ephesians 6:10, Paul calls us to be faithful to Christ, entrusting in His power for all our needs in life.  Our strength comes from the Lord because of His “vast” strength.  As sinful humans, we operate in weakness.  But God demonstrates His power where human strength is lacking.

At the beginning of this football season, our first devotion was “Do What We Do”.  Most “things” officials do to prepare for games are unseen.  The “things” we do to be our best would probably be seen as trivial by those outside officiating. For example, is it really that important to take a weekly quiz, clean my shoes, or watch training videos?

Martin Luther wrote about things that seem trivial….“The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

 ****Having a passion to prepare will help us face the battle without fear.****

Just the Right Amount

One of the biggest fears of coaches is a big win.  Why would any coach fear a big win?  The answer—Overconfidence.  Often, teams that play great one game have a “let down” the next game.  Why?  Players lose their edge--practice and play with less urgency.  A team with confidence is good, but overconfidence invites vulnerability.

Confidence is the feeling of having little doubt about yourself and your abilities, or a feeling of trust in someone or something.  Overconfidence is excessively or unjustifiably confident.

In officiating, confidence is one of the keys to successfully performing our responsibilities before, during and after a game.  Confidence doesn’t come by chance.  How do officials build confidence in ourselves and as crews:

Ø  rules study

Ø  video review

Ø  pregame meetings

Ø  post game review

Ø  analysis of grader comments

Our confidence happens by consistently preparing for each week’s assignment. Just as a team loses it edge when it plays a great game, officials can become overconfident (lose our edge) when we successfully officiate a game--when we avoid the training tape.

In our spiritual lives, God warns us of becoming overconfident. When we appear to be our strongest, we become the most vulnerable and tend to let down our guard, relying on our own strength instead of on Christ.  What are ways to guard against Spiritual letdown:

·         Reading and studying the Bible

·         Talking to God in prayer

·         Admit our need for His grace/forgiveness on a daily basis.

Luke 9: 23:  Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

Jesus wants His followers to get “geared up” consistently. The key word in these verses to help us gain and maintain confidence is “daily”.  If we take a day or two off, if we don’t focus on a play and become overconfident, we become vulnerable to mistakes. Always seek God’s grace and strength to keep from falling, or falling too far, regardless of what has occurred in the past.

Never be afraid to fail. Failure is just a stepping stone to progress. Never be overconfident because it will hinder your progress. – Tony Jaa

Credit:  https://fcaresources.com/devotional/danger-overconfidence

Clearing Hurdles

The 100-meter hurdle race is set up with 13 meters from starting line to first hurdle; each hurdle is set at a distance of 8.5 meters apart for a total of 10 hurdles. The home stretch from the last hurdle to the finish line is 10.5 meters long.

Steve Baron, Referee Big 12, shared with our crew that the football season is like a 100-meter hurdle race, and each week of the season is another hurdle. Officials/crews come out of the blocks and gain speed in the first third of the race or season. We establish a rhythm and hit our stride in the middle third and push hard to finish strong in the final third. In any race, the start is important. But, just as critical is how we handle each hurdle. For officials, our hurdles are a game, a call, our health, or any situation that could harm us from clearing the hurdle and heading to the next one. Most weeks, we clear these hurdles with no issues. But, when we stumble or even fall over a hurdle or two, do we keep moving or just give up?

At this point in the season, we are transitioning to the last third of our 100-meter race. So far, we have cleared several hurdles and are now heading to the last hurdles and the home stretch. This is the time to push hard, to lean in, and to finish strong! We can’t lose focus on the hurdles ahead, being careful to take one hurdle at a time and bringing all our momentum and all that we've learned from the previous weeks and applying it to our next assignment. Worry about next week, next week; the focus is this week’s game, or the imminent hurdle, right in front of us.

With your help I can advance against a troop, with my God I can scale a wall.  (Psalm 18:29)

 

In this verse, the psalmist recognizes that when facing “hurdles,” we need help. The key word in this verse is ‘my’ – it’s with my God. Our personal relationship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus helps to lead and guide our thoughts and decisions.  Extend this concept to our officiating crews.  We can clear hurdles and scale walls with “my crew.”  When crews lean on each other, they gain greater strength together as opposed to just relying on each one’s individual abilities.

“When you are prepared for the threats, challenges, obstacles, you become better equipped to handle the hurdles.”
― Carlos Wallace

Let’s clear our hurdles better than these athletes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXPBRw53CA8

Let’s be smooth like the winner of this race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeKjh9wUzwY

 

Calming Insults

Why do coaches, commentators, and fans spew insults at officials?  For coaches, maybe it’s a way of making them feel better about a situation or even to get an official to do or act in a way that favors their team.  For commentators, it attracts attention to their broadcast and social media which increases ratings.  For fans, well, they are just fanatics and obviously biased to their team!

The Bible’s Old and New Testaments provides direction on how to handle those who discredit or defame you.  Let’s look at some of the verses that speak to how to handle insults:

Psalm 37: 11: The meek will inherit the land.

Proverbs 12:16:  Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.

Matthew 5:5:  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:39:  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.

These verses instruct us on how to handle insults:

Be meek:  be humble, patient, and quiet in nature, especially when provoked by others

Be forgiving: don’t seek revenge or return evil for evil

Be prudent: make wise and sensible decisions

In addition to insults, officiating can also be full of irritations, such as travel issues, players not being properly equipped or dressed, coaches complaining or whining about fouls, fans shouting their displeasure, and even fellow crewmates and officials not being prepared or focused.  If we are foolish, we will respond to these irritations immediately and with regret.  But if we are meek, forgiving, and prudent in our response, the bothersome situations will be better handled leading to a peaceful outcome.

When I look back on my knee-jerk reactions now, I realize I should have just taken a breath.  Fred Durst

Start Again and Again and Again

Life is filled with series of breakthroughs –a sudden or important development or an instance of achieving success.  As officials, our breakthroughs come in the form of getting our first start at the college level, being assigned a certain game or post-season assignment, and or moving up to the next level we are seeking.  But when considering the games we officiate weekly, each play should be viewed as a breakthrough—a process of successfully finishing the play and being ready to start the next one.

What is the result of our breakthroughs in officiating? —wisdom, knowledge, and perspective.  Simply put---we learn.  Sometimes the lessons learned are easy and other times they are hard.  If not careful, we can allow the hard lessons to become obstacles. Examples include incorrect calls, wrong mechanics, and poor communication.  So how do we overcome these obstacles?  Start again! But realize that we can also allow success to become an obstacle that needs a breakthrough.  Obstacles from success include complacency, pride, over-confidence, etc.  How do we move on from success? Start again!

The reality is obstacles do not go away.  We never enter the land of “no obstacles.”  So, keeping ourselves moving forward –starting again – each play, each game is critical to our breakthroughs. 

Exodus 14: 15  And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

The Lord led Moses and the Israelites out of their desperate situation in Egypt. During their escape, they were at the Red Sea and had the enemy coming straight for them.  What was the obstacle they saw in their way?  The wideness and deepness of the Red Sea.  Moses prayed to God who answered, “move forward”.  How did they move forward?  Moses obeyed God by putting his staff in the Red Sea resulting in God parting the water, allowing Moses and the Israelites to cross the sea and enter the land God promised, all while the enemy was swallowed by the sea.

What is often seen as an obstacle in our way is actually our breakthrough.  We must keep moving-starting again, and again, and again.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.   Kahlil Gibran

Steady & Ready

When the crowd is booing, coaches are yelling, and players are complaining, how do we officials respond?  Sometimes, coaches try to intimidate, rattle, and pressure us into making decisions before we are ready in hopes we will think and act for their benefit instead of in the best interest of all parties involved.

So as officials responsible for administrating the game, how do we best handle the challenging situations of stress and surprises? In high pressure situations, we officials need to exhibit two key attributes to smoothly transition through the situations—grace and poise resulting in calm, steady nerves.

Grace and poise are defined as follows:

Grace:  disposition to or an act or instance of kindness and courtesy

Poise: a stable balanced state; gracious tact in coping or handling

When we are able to calm our nerves in stressful situations, we exhibit an attitude of kindness while being level-headed in our decision making and communication. This is a win for all parties involved on the field!

Proverbs 19:11 ESV

Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Solomon, the author of Proverbs and noted in Bible as the wisest king, provides the framework to show discretion—the ability to know the right action for any occasion—having good sense and slow to anger. In a state of calm nerves, we exhibit grace and poise which increases our discretion and reaction.  In situations where we throw our flag, the Referee announces the foul, the crowd starts booing, and coaches start questioning the call from the sideline, our grace and our poise allows us to have a better mindset to address the coach and build rapport and respect while moving onto the next play.

You can’t always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” – Wayne Dyer

Always Our Best

We have all heard the adage, “Do your job and do it well.” In life, you can count on having to do things that you would rather not do; but in becoming your best self, you should strive to do ALL things with excellence.  In officiating, we have unwanted responsibilities that still must be done with excellence--cleaning locker room after a long game, still studying rules halfway through the season, taking quizzes upon quizzes to test our knowledge, cleaning shoes to rid of turf stains, etc. Keeping the attitude of “everything matters” keeps us striving to be the best.  Even if we have achieved a certain level of success in our profession, we must keep taking pride in all that we do and keep pushing ourselves to do even better.

When we live as if everything matters, we take personal responsibility for all we do.  But we should also push others to reach their greatest potential too. However, this is a big commitment!  So, what is one important trait it takes to meet this challenge?  Being unselfish.  A person not centered on just self takes pride in all things, never thinking anything is beneath him or her.  Being unselfish takes all the credit away from yourself and how much you get noticed, meaning you may not get the credit for a smooth-running clock or incorrect calls waived off. Sometimes, another person may even get the credit for your well-done job. But still, our responsibility is to continue to do our best understanding that “just doing our job” is not excellent enough.

Proverbs 13:4
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

If we approach all situations, projects, and tasks attempting to be our best and performing with excellence, we can be confident in our body of work.  There may be setbacks, our weaknesses may be exposed, and others may even get credit for our successes, but it should never be because of the lack of “doing our job and doing it well.”

Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing and wherever we are going, do it well!

Seeing for Real

Do we make better decisions when we base them on objective thoughts or when we base them on our perceptions?  Before answering, let us look at what objective and perceptive decisions include:

Objective

·         Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering fact

·         Seeing events clear of distractions, exaggerations, and misperceptions

·         Taking “me” out of the equation

Perceptive

·         Characterized by sympathetic understanding or insight

·         Adding information to the event that is not needed

·         Applies judgments or opinions

When we observe a situation objectively, we see facts. When we add perception to a situation, we bring other issues into account.  How often do we see what we think instead of what is actual?  The key to remaining objective is to handle our emotions.  When we let our feelings get in the way, our perceptions give us information that is not needed or not necessarily true.  Processing situations this way in real-life situations and even in football often dictates the way we respond. For example, a deer observes bright lights and senses danger.  Whether by instinct or by perception, the deer runs in fear and darts right in front of an oncoming car.  Perception can lead us into a path we do not want to go.  If the deer would think objectively, it would run away from the source of the bright lights instead of into the path of them.

Titus 2:7-8:  Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

In these verses, Paul instructs Titus (and us) to be above reproach in how we act and speak. A key factor of being the “model” Paul refers to is being factual and not negatively influenced in our thoughts and actions.  Thinking objectively takes “me” out of the equation and keeps my opinions and feelings out of the equation.  When we handle difficult situations in an objective manner with our spouse, family, friends, co-workers, crewmates, coaches, and players, they will feel safe around us and therefore learn to trust our words and our actions.  And in the end, “nothing evil can be said about us.”

The perceiving eye is weak, the objective eye is strong. (Miyamoto Musashi)

Credit: “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday

Unexpected Preparation

 “What’s the worst that can happen?”  As a crew, when we practice potential difficult or bad situations ahead of time (hindsight in advance), we are much more prepared when something difficult actually happens.  By practicing and thinking of the bad and then possible solutions, we can actually be better prepared and more optimistic.

In the medical field, the term postmortem is used to examine a dead body to determine the cause of death—especially when the death is unexpected.  The goal is to learn and improve for when a similar situation occurs in the future.  In our officiating world, this process is referred to as post-game review and grading.

Examining premortem means we look at what could or will go wrong before an activity/project/game starts. If something goes unexpected, what is our plan, how do we handle, what are the options? We should practice hindsight in advance.

In a world often focused on the negative, many will question why to focus on potentially bad situations. But, preparing for disruption can be a positive.  Would we rather have a pleasant or unpleasant surprise? When examining premortem, ask “what if, then” questions:

What if………Then, I will….

What if………Instead, I’ll just…..

What if………No problem, we can always….

As a crew of officials, we should strive to create a positive and up-lifting environment because negativity can lead to friction.  We do not want to be pessimistic, but we do want to be prepared for adversity.  The key is to anticipate and prepare.  We examine what, when, and how a situation could happen and our potential responses to it.  Anticipation creates a range of potential outcomes to minimize surprise.

Proverbs 24:27
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

In this verse, Solomon explains that before we build our house, we prepare and then we go to work.  Preparation and getting ready as officials include examining those things that could go wrong and are difficult to handle.  However, it does not end there.  Take the next step to determine our plan to handle and our options to respond.

Prepare for disruption by working disruption into our plans.

 Credit:  “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday