Category Archives: Officiating

Referee Training in New South Wales

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NSW Gateball held its first training day for prospective referees in Lithgow in September 2018.

Seven players from Strathfield, Epping and Lithgow attended and topics covered the formalities of refereeing at all levels of competition and the roles of each member of the refereeing team. Basic rules such as hand signals were practised and the discussions moved on to more detailed explanation of fouls and penalties. Players had come prepared with questions and concerns.

An interesting part of the day involved practical refereeing sessions which gave the participants the chance to practise working as a refereeing team.

Glenda and Manuel are keen to organise more referee training sessions and their goals are to improve player knowledge of gateball rules, to have more qualified gateball referees and to maintain a high standard in refereeing.

 

Their long term goal is for all NSW teams which enter a State or National event to be able to supply at least one qualified referee per team.

If other clubs are interested in referee training, please contact nswgateball@gmail.com

 

 

Newcastle Gateball Fun Weekend

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Question: How much fun can you have on a Fun Weekend?

Answer: Lots

 

Newcastle held its annual gateball carnival Friday 29 June to Sunday 1 July. It was a hectic and very enjoyable weekend with many players entering into the spirit of the ‘bring your beanie’ challenge.

 

Day 1 was the inaugural ‘pairs’ comp. Five pairs entered with some very close games played. Undefeated with 4 wins were Judy S (Newcastle) & Helen C (Toronto), closely followed by Alan G & Lynne T (both from Newcastle) with 3 wins.

Day 2 began with a short referee talk on hand/arm signals presented by Judy & Kerrie. This was aimed at those wishing to become referees and also a reminder to already qualified referees.

 

This was followed by the team event when teams played a straight round robin. Seven teams took part from Canberra, Jamberoo, Lithgow, Newcastle Hornets, Newcastle Sabres, Sydney Epstars and Toronto. At the end of the day two teams had 5 wins each. Congratulations to Jamberoo the winners and Newcastle Sabres the runners-up.

The Saturday night social dinner was enjoyed by over 20 people and the beanie theme continued with with a beanie trivia quiz which certainly taxed everyone’s minds.

 

Day 3 was a very relaxed and friendly rotating doubles comp which gave all the players a chance to mix and meet new people. All doubles games were self-refereed with no problems arising throughout the day, thanks to everyone’s cooperation. Each of the 24 participants played 6 games with a different partner for each game.

 

Three players had 5 wins each. First place went to John B (EDSACC) and 2nd to Robyn H (Lithgow). Margaret G (Newcastle) came 3rd. This year the encouragement prize was awarded to Ruth B (Strathfield).

Full results can be seen on the Gateball Scores website

Participating teams were:

Canberra (Judy T, Adrienne F, Tony H, Peter D, Julie T & Nancy S)
Jamberoo (Manuel G, Glenda G, Graham S, Gai B & Evan B)
Lithgow (+ friends) (Maggie W, Wendy C, Robyn H, Leila M, John B & Ross I)
Newcastle Hornets (Alan G, Margaret G, Philippa R, Lynne T & Jan T)
Newcastle Sabres (Kerrie S, John S, Judy S, Brenda W & Peter W)
Sydney Epstars (Greg D, Richard T, Ken P, Ruth B & Sandra T)
Toronto (Helen C, Allan G, Rose G, Robyn I & Ruth M)

 

Manuel with the Best Beanie

Manuel with the Best Beanie

Thank you to all participants and helpers. And extra special thanks from the competitors to all the Newcastle Club members for organising yet another very successful event.

 

Gateball Australia Officiating and Coaching Update – May 2018

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Refereeing

Early this year Gateball Australia’s Referee Committee held a meeting. This is undertaken by email. The meeting is chaired by the National Coordinator and has representatives from each state plus a number of our international referees. Top of the agenda was the consideration of the process to include reference to gateball in the ACA’s refereeing documents. This is important because the ACA processes meet the requirements of the Australian Sports Commission and thereby impact on our inclusion as a National Sporting Organisation.

There are some resulting changes we have needed to work through in Gateball Australia’s processes. The online course , our annual reaccreditation cards, signing the ACA code of conduct and completing a player’s state based working with children check are all examples of additional requirements under this ACA framework.

These and other changes have been included in Gateball Australia’s “Referee Accreditation and Reaccreditation Framework.” A copy of this document can be viewed on www.gateball.com.au under About Gateball, Officiating Rules and Refereeing at https://gateball.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Referee-Accreditation-Framework-GA-2018-April-Final.pdf

Anyone who wishes to become a referee or has a particular interest in this area is asked to read this document.

A document outlining tasks for tournament referees has also been posted under Downloads on the website.

The referee committee meets by email each year and if you have any comments or questions please relay them through your state refereeing coordinator or one of our international referees.

The National Coordinator now has the authority to work with the ACA’s National Referee Coordinators of other codes to produce a document that integrates gateball into the ACA framework. This task will take some time to complete.

Coaching

In late 2015, the Croquet Australia Coaching Committee (CACC) ran a pilot of a new level 1 coaching qualification that met Australian Sports Commission standards. After two and a half years, accredited level 1 coaches have been trained in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. Although many existing players find the materials basic, that is exactly what they are intended to be. Level 1 is for beginners but consistently succeeding with these skills, 100% of the time, would improve any of our games!

Anyone interested in becoming a level 1 coach should contact their state coordinator/director in Victoria or Queensland. In all other states contact the National Coordinator. Further information is to be found on this website under About gateball/Coaching,Tips and Strategy.

A pilot for level 2 will be run at some point in the future. State coordinators have had the opportunity to discuss a draft skill card for Level 2 and a summary draft document has been posted under About gateball/Coaching, Tips and Strategy. Once the core is established, gateball will be ready with its proposed endorsement. Ideas for level 3 have also been drafted and posted on the website too. It is intended to base these around scenarios, some of which were developed for the 2017 AGC.

If you have any comments, please contact your respective state coordinator for gateball so that your views are considered when our next round of discussions occur. Alternatively you could just post your comment below this story

Just to remind you – Level 2 is our beginner level for refereeing (WGU influence) while Level 1 is the beginner level for coaching (ACA/ASC influence)

Queensland Gateball’s Program for 2018

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Queensland’s Gateball’s new directors have set themselves an ambitious program for 2018

In the area of coaching they aim to have:

  • Three people trained as Trainers of Coaches as conducted by the QLD Director of Coaching.
  • Each club that plays Gateball to have a qualified Australian Level 1 Coach for Gateball
  • Each club that plays Gateball to have a minimum of two players who participate in three coaching updates organised in 2018

In the area of refereeing they aim to:

  • Have their two international referees gaining  reaccreditation following the successful reaccreditation of Keith McCleod and Bruce McAlister in 2017
  • Ensure each club that plays Gateball competitively has a minimum of one qualified Australian Referee
  • Have att least three Level 2 Referees in QLD pass the theory and practical examination to become Level 1 Referees
  • Have  at least five players in QLD pass the theory and practical examination to become Level 2 Referees.
  • Each club that plays Gateball has a minimum of three players who participate in Referee updates organised at designated Competition venues in 2018.

The program of activities to support these worthy aims reads as follows:

  • The program of training for gateball coaching and officiating was outlined to players at the McIlwraith Tournament on the 24th March,  The training program was explained including the necessity for completion of Australian Sports Commission on-line course “Introductory Officiating- General Principles” and timetables announced for Level 1 and Level 2 Referee examinations.
  • A coaching program for team captains will be presented on 5th May, at the Rockhampton Challenge
  • From 2-3rd June at the Ipswich Challenge, level 1 and level 2 referee theory examinations will be conducted
  • An information session for recorders and lines persons  will be presented on the 30th June at the Southport Gateball Tournament.
  • On 14th July, at the Redcliffe Teams Event, a session will be conducted on using the Basic Skills Cards for coaching
  • On 4th August , at Eildon,  a referee Q&A session with explanations will be presented.
  • Practical tests for Referee candidates for Level 1 and 2 will be conducted from 17-20 August at the State Teams and Doubles Championship in Rockhampton while a Foundation Coaching Course will follow from the 21st-22nd August in Rockhampton.
  • Finally, from 29 September at Toowoomba, specific details about the assistant referee role and positioning will be presented.

More detailed documents were presented in the area of coaching and refereeing and are available and can be found in the documents below.

Anyone who wishes to be accredited as a referee or coach in Victoria should contact Philip Brown, the Victorian Coordinator of GB. In CNSW contact Manual Guttierez the State Coordinator of Refereeing to become a referee. John Park, National Coordinator is the contact for coaching for CNSW, SA and WA. For refereeing in SA contact Geoff Crook at Woodville.

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Complex or what?

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Australian gateballers may remember John Swabey who played at the 2017 Australian Gateball Championships with the “Internationals” team. John was visiting us from Germany and is one of the movers and shakers in the European Gateball League. John kindly sent us the following article. His rules summary is certainly recommended for new players.

Complex or what?

Across Europe in the Gateball League, we don’t have many players competent as yet to rule even on relatively simple issues such as when a ball is out.

The 2015 WGU rules of Gateball run to 42 pages, plus another 27 pages of “terminology”. In addition, there are 60 pages of “Guide for Referees”, much of which it is also important for the player to be aware of.

On top of all that, the WGU found it important to publish a 207 page Q&A booklet, sub-titled “The rules made clear” (sic). Such a convenient reference document!

What we needed, I decided, is a summary (yet another, you may say?) of practical answers to the frequently occurring situations, in an easily accessible, weather-proof format. Hey presto: my summary in just 18 laminated A5 pages, including diagrams, set in a font size (Arial 12) that even my aged eyes can easily manage to read at a glance.

I started with a German language version for the 4 clubs across Germany, but also distributed the summary in English across the additional 5+ clubs in the rest of the Gateball League (in Belgium, France and Switzerland) and to an Italian club and to the UK national centre in Ripon. The pagination is the same, for ease of discussion when different cultures clash on court.

Reference is also made to the WGU rule in question, to facilitate use of these practical answers for setting our first ever exams for would-be referees in Europe, planned for later this year. Any Australian referees travelling to Europe before October would be welcome to adjudicate exams and of course any player is welcome to sign up for one or more of our tournaments (see below).

John Swabey

http://johnswabey.wixsite.com/gateball-league/2018-tournaments

Download (PDF, Unknown)