The ITA completed the 3rd in a series of recent umpire courses run by Mr. Stephen Ryan V Dan, ITA Umpire Chairperson, on Sunday November 7th 2010. The course, hosted by North Mon Taekwon-Do School, was a great success with 37 participants coming from the Southern region clubs of Cork, Kerry and Waterford.

The course followed a similar format the recent courses held in the Midwest and Eastern regions. There was a presentation in the morning, which gave an overview to ITA and ITF Tournaments and the critical aspects to umpiring. Key items emphasized included, umpire attitude, safety of competitors, and the key roles of each ring council member, consistency and fairness in refereeing.

Each of the practical sessions was preceded by a presentation on the criteria for refereeing that event and the role of each person in the ring council. Video analysis of matches from international tournaments form 2010 was used to give participants a clear picture of how a match works at the highest level. For example participants watched a team sparring bout from this years Euros in Sweden, which was centre refereed by Ms. Annick Van Driessche. Participants were clearly able to see how a high-level centre referee controls a match with efficiency and assertiveness, using clear signals and body language. The video analysis set the tone for the practical sessions as participants now had an image in mind to try and emulate. At the end of each bout time was given for feedback and discussion. Participants were able to discuss why they gave certain scores and because there was a good mix of new and experienced umpires they were able to learn from their peers.

By the end of the day participants were very much of the same mindset, thinking along the same key criteria and using the same language to discuss matches. There were a lot of questions from the participants, which were all clarified. To make this event a more valuable learning experience for everyone a number of local competitors were used in the practical sessions, this allowed for a more realistic experience for the referees.

ITA is proud to announce that this brings to 92 the number of Umpires trained over three courses since September 2010. We feel that we have achieved the following key objectives over this series of courses; increase umpires knowledge of current ITF and AETF umpire rules, train umpires to make fair, unbiased decisions, have the integrity to stand behind and justify their decisions at all times, to concentrate and give their full attention to each match, be punctual and respect the schedule and conduct themselves according to the tenets of Taekwon-Do.

We also realized that in order to make our tournaments more efficient and enjoyable for all participants we needed to educate parents. With this in mind we published the “Parents Guide to ITA Tournaments” document. (Click here to download this document, PDF, 1,7 MB).

Photos of the event (http://picasaweb.google.com/IrishTKD/ITAUmpireCourseNov7th2010#).

Course Participants

Stephen Ryan
Secretary General Irish Taekwon-Do Association
www.taekwondo.ie