Umpire Course

So this year, I have decided to take on two netball teams, Year 3&4 and Year 5&6. However, I have little understanding of the game myself, but want to support my teams to the best of my ability.

The girls in my Year 5&6 team are all in my class, so it is great for team building, relationship building with them. Every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch time, we hit the school courts to warm up, learn new drills and play a game.

Our first game was a disaster as I didn't really know any of the rules, so my umpiring skills we shocking and missed many incidents of contact, obstruction and stepping.

I wanted to improve, so I signed up for the umpire course. We got sent a link to our online theory test, and I failed the first one with only 51% - passing score being 85%.  I went back to the rule book, and tried again a second time, this time passing with 87%.

Today, I went to the umpire course, learnt that many of the others are just as nervous as me, and that some players who have played their whole lives, still didn't know all the rules.  This made me feel so much better about my own skills.

I resat that test at the end of the course, and was very disappointed to get 1 question wrong. I'm keen now to try umpiring at the Year 5&6 level, and eventually moving up the grades.  I'm confident that this knowledge will also help me with my game play on Thursday nights.