ouch
A young Preston player bowled over in an attempt on goal but lawfully under the rules of the game. Field Hockey can be dangerous but the risks are kept to a minimum by two umpires .
Of course at local league level, the standard of umpiring can vary quite a bit and as a rule each side provides an umpire . In higer league and national and international games more experienced , better qualified and very carefully vetted umpires control the games.
As with football the most popular team game in the UK ( hockey is the second most popular in terms of numbers who participate actively) the arbitrqators who uphold the rules have a vital but increasingly difficult role to play.
It is of course far easier for fans and spectators and indeed players to criticise and often be abusive to referees and umpires than simply accept the decision and get on with the game. Some of this criticism is fueled by passion and frustration but much of it is "denial."
In field hockey both umpires use a fix set of signals so that each of them knows what decision they have given and so do the players and most umpires i watch also briefly explain / justify their decision to the player / players whom the decision goes against.
I've been watching hockey and shooting it for maybe five years now and still haven't mastered what are a quite complex set of rules. In fact, i know , that , in lower leagues, many of the players do not know the minuteae of the official rules and thus contest genuine , correct and impartial decisions made.
The nightmare for many arbitrators oif team games is when they are unsighted and an infringement occurs. They can only make their best call and players really ough to accept them and get on with the game. In virtually all such scenarios that I have witnessed through the lens , the disdavantage to a penalised team by difficult decisons they find hard to accept is much less than the disadvantage they bring on themselves in terms of losing the plot, losing focus and indeed making their side vulnerable defensively where the opposition quickly get on with it whilst their opponents are bickering about a decision.
Mosy recently, whilst in Bolton after the game, back at the clubhouse , I had the pleasure / priveledge to meet a world class FIH field hockey umpire , a charismatic Canadian called Keeley Dunn. She is in the UK on secondment for six months . Keeley is extremely articulate and passionate about her vocation , for that is what umpiring seemed to be for her and I found her to be most direct and completly honest. From that conversation I learned a great deal about the game from an umpire's perspective and the way top class field hockey umpires get accredited and are monitored to ensure the highest standards and to ensure impartiality.
Hence for example, FIH umpires are elected to cover national and international games but , as I understood it , are merely renumerated for travel , accommodation and get a modest allowance for food. They are not paid. When I retorted that they ought to be , she replied that , in some cases where that had happened , mentioning no countries here of course , this had led to corruption and that of course is detrimental to the game and the integrity of officials , which in my view should never be in question.
I guess you need knowledge, experience, courage and a lot of self confidence to umpire such games. Keeley has a website / blog and is a member of Flickr. One of her most recent entries is an honest and at times moving account of why she sought secondment in the UK and how that has helped her in her goal to be one of the best. My guess is that she has got there and that is just on a chance meeting.
In that account (of what was a crisis of confidence that led her to these shores) she speaks of one of those enlighteningmoments , a few words in the right palxce that triggered a theraputic re-think. It was mainly the simpel advice to be in the right palce at the right time during a game.
this shot from the Preston Bolton match is illustrative of how that advice applies to my trade as well. I am becoming increasingly more ruthless in deleting shots friom all the one's I take at games and I was in two minds about this one but couldn't bring myself to bin it. In many ways covering fast moving team games through the lens it is a bit of a lottery , with players and sometimes umpires moving into the shot and you get shots like this.
still can't look back and live by the 'what if ?' mantra! Can't wait to shoot the game tommorow night. so excited that I haven't gone to bed yet. Andrew just sent a message by gmail that he had finsihed packing and was off to sleep. He has to get a taxi at four a.m. to Manchester airport this morning. I am taking a bus from Eccles to the airport in Liverpool at around 3 in rthe afternoon . It will be a push to get to the stadium at least 30 minutes before the game starts but fingers crossed I'll get there a little bit earlier .
BTW Keely's Flickjr is here
And check out her blog here
Her account on her blog of that crisis ,as mentioned above, is a recommended read it is witty , has irony and full of what self-effacing charm touched with a steely determination to be who she is.
ouch
A young Preston player bowled over in an attempt on goal but lawfully under the rules of the game. Field Hockey can be dangerous but the risks are kept to a minimum by two umpires .
Of course at local league level, the standard of umpiring can vary quite a bit and as a rule each side provides an umpire . In higer league and national and international games more experienced , better qualified and very carefully vetted umpires control the games.
As with football the most popular team game in the UK ( hockey is the second most popular in terms of numbers who participate actively) the arbitrqators who uphold the rules have a vital but increasingly difficult role to play.
It is of course far easier for fans and spectators and indeed players to criticise and often be abusive to referees and umpires than simply accept the decision and get on with the game. Some of this criticism is fueled by passion and frustration but much of it is "denial."
In field hockey both umpires use a fix set of signals so that each of them knows what decision they have given and so do the players and most umpires i watch also briefly explain / justify their decision to the player / players whom the decision goes against.
I've been watching hockey and shooting it for maybe five years now and still haven't mastered what are a quite complex set of rules. In fact, i know , that , in lower leagues, many of the players do not know the minuteae of the official rules and thus contest genuine , correct and impartial decisions made.
The nightmare for many arbitrators oif team games is when they are unsighted and an infringement occurs. They can only make their best call and players really ough to accept them and get on with the game. In virtually all such scenarios that I have witnessed through the lens , the disdavantage to a penalised team by difficult decisons they find hard to accept is much less than the disadvantage they bring on themselves in terms of losing the plot, losing focus and indeed making their side vulnerable defensively where the opposition quickly get on with it whilst their opponents are bickering about a decision.
Mosy recently, whilst in Bolton after the game, back at the clubhouse , I had the pleasure / priveledge to meet a world class FIH field hockey umpire , a charismatic Canadian called Keeley Dunn. She is in the UK on secondment for six months . Keeley is extremely articulate and passionate about her vocation , for that is what umpiring seemed to be for her and I found her to be most direct and completly honest. From that conversation I learned a great deal about the game from an umpire's perspective and the way top class field hockey umpires get accredited and are monitored to ensure the highest standards and to ensure impartiality.
Hence for example, FIH umpires are elected to cover national and international games but , as I understood it , are merely renumerated for travel , accommodation and get a modest allowance for food. They are not paid. When I retorted that they ought to be , she replied that , in some cases where that had happened , mentioning no countries here of course , this had led to corruption and that of course is detrimental to the game and the integrity of officials , which in my view should never be in question.
I guess you need knowledge, experience, courage and a lot of self confidence to umpire such games. Keeley has a website / blog and is a member of Flickr. One of her most recent entries is an honest and at times moving account of why she sought secondment in the UK and how that has helped her in her goal to be one of the best. My guess is that she has got there and that is just on a chance meeting.
In that account (of what was a crisis of confidence that led her to these shores) she speaks of one of those enlighteningmoments , a few words in the right palxce that triggered a theraputic re-think. It was mainly the simpel advice to be in the right palce at the right time during a game.
this shot from the Preston Bolton match is illustrative of how that advice applies to my trade as well. I am becoming increasingly more ruthless in deleting shots friom all the one's I take at games and I was in two minds about this one but couldn't bring myself to bin it. In many ways covering fast moving team games through the lens it is a bit of a lottery , with players and sometimes umpires moving into the shot and you get shots like this.
still can't look back and live by the 'what if ?' mantra! Can't wait to shoot the game tommorow night. so excited that I haven't gone to bed yet. Andrew just sent a message by gmail that he had finsihed packing and was off to sleep. He has to get a taxi at four a.m. to Manchester airport this morning. I am taking a bus from Eccles to the airport in Liverpool at around 3 in rthe afternoon . It will be a push to get to the stadium at least 30 minutes before the game starts but fingers crossed I'll get there a little bit earlier .
BTW Keely's Flickjr is here
And check out her blog here
Her account on her blog of that crisis ,as mentioned above, is a recommended read it is witty , has irony and full of what self-effacing charm touched with a steely determination to be who she is.