Took a break, sort of.

I was missing the social aspects of the weekend tournaments from constantly officiating, so I stepped back a little bit this weekend and let some other people step up to the plate. I helped get some of the mats started, then I took some time to watch some wrestling, and talk to some parents, coaches, and wrestlers. It was a nice change of pace, and I know I will get my fill of officiating at S.E.R. I let Buck take charge of the tournament, as head official, and Mel did some pre-tournament training with all of the officials. I still helped settle some disputed calls, helped train some newer officials, and discussed rules, and interpretations with The M1s. I feel well prepared for S.E.R.
Next week we have the big NHSCA State championships. Hopefully there will be a good turnout. I am in charge of booking the officials for the event, so I may have to officiate myself. I am in the middle of real wrestling season, so I am not happy about calling any Folkstyle matches right now.
We practiced three man mechanics a little. Three man mechanics is something you never see in Folkstyle. You have a Mat Chairman, who sits at the score table and keeps the score on paper, a mat judge who sits across the mat from the chairman, and an official on whistle(on the mat). In simple terms the official on whistle, and the mat judge call all of the action. If they disagree, the mat chairman displays his score for the action, and best two out of three win. Of course it is a little more complicated than that, but that is a good primmer for understanding what you will see at S.E.R. It is an extremely fair system, and it takes some of the second guessing out of making a call. As the official on whistle you are less hesitant to score an action because you know there are two other people to help get it right. It is a far superior system to the assistant referees you see at important folkstyle events. Before anybody else says it, even with three officials sometimes we get it wrong.
I enjoyed today's event, but would be remiss to leave out the worst detail of the day. A couple of wrestlers who workout together as drill partners had a head to head Greco match. They thought it would be funny to do something stupid during the match so they planned on one of the wrestlers stepping up on the cupped hands of the other wrestler, pushing off, and doing a back flip. The bad news is when they went to do it, the wrestler with the cupped hands was off balance and the back flipper did not get a good push off. he landed on the top of his head, and got injured. I do not know the severity of his injury, but they did take him away on a stretcher. I hope it is nothing serious.
Oh well, I got home, cut the grass, and I think I will reread my contract, and decide to sign it anyway.