CanDo Referees Camp 2013
InternasjonaltOpprettet av J@nK 08 juli, 2013 14:03Sigurd Virik har vært i Bulgaria i sommer og har sendt oss denne teksten fra årets dommercamp med Alan Richardson:
My name is Sigud Virik (pictured to the right in the picture below) and this year I have had the great pleasure of attending the Can Do Basketball Referee Camp, which was hosted by legendary basketball referee Alan Richardson. As the Norwegian federation is becoming increasingly international, I have chosen to write this summary of the camp in English and I hope you will enjoy reading about my stay.

The camp was scheduled to last from the 9th of june until the 15th. I arrived by plane mid-day on the 9th and was greeted at the airport by a member of the Bulgarian federation and several other referees from all over the world. A few minutes into my trip I was surprised by the degree of different nationalities attending the camp. At the airport alone I meet people from nine different countries, including a FIBA referee from India.

From Monday to Friday our days were fairly much the similar. Monday was a little more introductory then the rest but it basically consisted of lectures from 09:00 to about 12:00. The first part of the lectures were summaries from all of the different instructors of the previous days matches, ending with a few video clips of either "good" or "not so good" calls or positions.
If you have not attended the camp, believe me when I say that the lectures were great. We had some amazing instructors from all over the world yet we all had the same idea of how to become a great referee. That is not to say that there were not some cultural differences, for example when one of the instructors gave us an example of how he had avoided a major argument by kissing an elderly coach on the forehead and gave him a hug. As you might imagine this was very different from what I was told when I took the national level training in Norway, but we all got the point of the story, which was to respect the coaches and players, even though the Germans looked a bit puzzled.

After the lectures we ate lunch around 12:00, and then people were either assigned games in the official U16 National Bulgarian Championship or met in a smaller gym to practice mechanics. If assigned to an official game, we only got to referee two quarters of the game, as there were some many participants in the camp this year. To only officiate either the first or second half of a game was quite an adjustment, but it really gave me some great experience as we always had an instructor who watched only your half. After the game the 3 referees in the team sat down with the instructor and were given very detailed feedback of our performance. I was naturally pretty excited and was a little nervous for my first game. It did not help that in the first few minutes a Bulgarian player lost the ball in a fast break and ran into me trying to get it back. And that is why you should not always follow the advice to penetrate into the court.


The week consisted mostly of lectures in the morning and games in the evening. On Friday evening we were all given diplomas and the awards for most improved and best referee were also handed out. Then Mr. Richardson introduced the karaoke. And it was a great success. Every country, and almost everyone in the camp, participated either by singing local songs or by dancing wildly. It was a great way to end the camp and really created a strong and friendly bond between the referees.
Participating in the Can Do Referees Camp has made me a better referee. Not only have I gotten better technically and improved my mechanics, but I have also gained a much better understanding of what it means to be a referee. I had a great time in Bulgaria, I met tons of other fantastic referees and I have increased my knowledge of the game of basketball and how to make it even better by high level officiating.
I think the Can Do basketball Camp is a great opportunity for any referee and I can strongly recommend it for anybody how has the chance to go there. I am very grateful to Mr. Myhre and the NBBF Officiating Committee for allowing me to participate this year.
Kind regards
Sigurd Virik
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