Officials

Page history last edited by ROW 1 wk ago

Officiating – It is fun for you and important to ROW

Participating in officiating activities at swim meets is a fun and rewarding experience. You get to be up close with your children on deck and watch them perform, you meet other parents from our club and from other clubs and you help the club run another great swim meet. As part of the registration process, all families are required to follow through on a certain level of officiating training as noted below.

Up The Ladder

The Up the Ladder process is the movement of our officials through the 5 experience levels of Swim Ontario. This process is very important as one of the basic requirements to be able to host a swim meet is that the host club must have the necessary experienced officials to be able to staff the meet. The required experience levels are dependent on the size of the club. ROW is considered a large club and we are required to have the following experience levels in our family membership:

Option 1 - 5 level II’s, 2 level III’s, 1 level IV or V,

Option 2 – 7 level II’s, 0 level III’s, 2 level IV or V

Experience is gained by taking offered clinics on the various officiating positions and performing those positions at ROW meets as well as at meets hosted by other clubs. On deck experience is something that can’t be taught in a clinic. Working at other clubs’ meets is a great way to meet officials from other clubs and experience situations that you likely won’t run into at ROW meets – each pool has its own individual oddities.

As part of the ROW registration and ROW experience all families are required to take part in some officiating education. At least one parent of swimmers in TOP 1 or higher is required to complete the Level 1 Timers clinic. All families in Bronze or higher are additionally required to have a parent complete both the Level 1 Timers clinic and the Stroke and Turn clinic. These two clinics will provide a sound understanding of swim meets and the technical aspects of their children’s strokes.

Clinics

Clinics are offered in two manners – face to face clinics and online clinics. The advantage of the face to face clinic is that it is interactive and you can question the presenter and relate issues to actual events that the presenter or others have experienced. Immediate feedback is provided for questions. The online clinics are a little more flexible in that you can take them from any computer at a time of your choosing. While the online clinics are convenient, they are not a complete substitution for face to face clinics.

Online clinics are provided by Swim Ontario through their website at www.swimontario.com. Face to face clinics are provided either through the club with a level IV or V official presenting the particular clinic, or through the Western Region Officials Association. The Region usually hosts two one day sessions where multiple clinics are presented. Notice of these clinics will be posted on the ROW website. These regional clinics are a great way to be exposed to lots of experience and to meet lots of officials from other clubs. As ROW presents clinics in Waterloo at the pool, notices will be sent to families via email and postings on the ROW website.

Bottom Line

The club needs its membership to take an active role in moving Up The Ladder so please do what you can to be involved. If you need help with something, or have a special request, please do not hesitate to contact your club officials liaison, Angus Cunningham (acunningham@printeron.com).

Swim Ontario Online Clinics are provided by the Ontario Swim Officials Association OSOA.