Though few will admit it, everyone, in some way, shape or form has room to improve themselves--either personally or vocationally.
No matter what a person does in life, improvements-large or minute-can be made.
The same can be said about football officials, who improve their ability to officiate by educating themselves and others on a continual basis.
"No matter what level you work, you can always learn something new," said director of USA Football officiating Tony Michalek.
"It's one of those avocations that there's always a way to get better. Whether you do it through film study, go to clinics or association meetings, you can learn from the experience of others and apply it so that you don't make the same mistakes in your game that others have made," said Michalek, who currently works as an NFL umpire and has 25 years of experience as an official.
Preparing for pressure at all levels
The need for constant education among officials is often demanded by the rigorous and pressure-filled situations that they face during games.
Michalek, who called a multitude of big-time games during his five-year stint as an official in the Big Ten Conference, was recently a member of the crew that worked the 2006 AFC Championship game that saw the Indianapolis Colts earn a stunning come-from-behind victory over the New England Patriots.
As the pressure mounted for Colts quarterback Peyton Manning to make a comeback in the second half, Michalek's background in another career helped him perform with a cool demeanor in such a tense environment in front of a nationally-televised audience.
"For me, I never feel any pressure as far as working a ball game because of my background in trade. That kind of takes away any kind of the pressure if you've done that," said Michalek, who has also had experience as a high school official.
Unlike Michalek, most officials don't have experience as a trader or have to work in the national spotlight with a Super Bowl trip on the line.
In order to run a clean game, pros like Michalek expose themselves to countless hours of education.
Whether you officiate in a game that decides who goes to the Super Bowl or the state championship, officials at all levels agree that continuing their education in the art of officiating helps them prepare for pressure-packed situations and perform successfully when duty calls.
"The thing you want to do is give them an honest game so that the better that you're prepared and the better you're trained you can give them a better quality product," said Fairfax County Football Officials Association commissioner Don Stitt.
Whether they participate in an officiating clinic or read articles available on the Internet, the more education an official receives, gauges how well they will operate under strenuous circumstances.
"Understanding the rules and knowing what they say is one thing, applying them in a game situation is a different story," said Northern Virginia Football Officials Association member John Kosarin. Kosarin has been a member of the NVFOA since 1981.
Clinics improve attendees and presenters
Officiating clinics have become such a valuable resource for educating officials that those who attend look forward to hearing lectures and receiving classroom instructions on how to improve their interactions between themselves and game-day scenarios, the rules, coaches, players and other officials.
"Basically, it's a great thing to sharpen up on mechanics and also for a lot of quality control that I can pass down to my people when I come back to Virginia," said Stitt, who is entering his 8th year as the commissioner of the FCFOA.
Stitt, who has participated in a number of clinics run by USA Football feels his participation in the clinics has been nothing but beneficial to his understanding of officiating.
"I learn a lot, especially the one USA Football had in Minnesota. All the times we weren't officiating games on the field we were in the classroom going over the film and looking at things like position and game-type situations," said Stitt, who is entering his 15th season as a youth-league official.
From his experience as an official and a clinician, Michalek feels that the knowledge you can pick up at a clinic is endless.
"What you want to do is you always want to be the best you can be when you go into these clinics," said Michalek, who serves as an instructor at clinics associated with the NFL and USA Football.
"You always learn something, even as a presenter. I listen to other people and you pick up other things," Michalek said.
Online Education
Another tactic that officials are using to educate themselves is the Internet, as more and more content about officiating is being added to the Web by USA Football, officiating.com, refstripes.com and other proprietors.
"More and more people are taking a lot of time out of their day to surf around, and you can always pick up on a tip to become a better official," Michalek said.
Part of the process of educating officials is to familiarize them--rookies and veterans--with new rules and calls.
"Continuing education for us is absolutely vital because the rules are constantly changing or being tweaked. It's necessary for us to keep an eye on what the changes are, how they affect different aspects of the game and to see what the affect will be over the years," said Kosarin, who has worked as an official in the youth and high school ranks since 1975.
Reviewing the rules makes a different during cruchtime
In addition to that, officials involved with the education process also believe it is imperative to review old rules and game-day situations in order to refresh their memories because of the long offseason that lies in between the regular season and the playoffs.
"The key to us learning this stuff every year is to not only learn the new stuff, but also going over the rule book cover-to-cover every year and going over each rule individually to see how it works--especially after you've been laid off for about 7-8 months and haven't worked in football," Kosarin said.
"The rules are always changing, equipments change and points of emphasis change every year so I think its good--no matter how long you've been out there--that everybody takes a refresher course," Stitt said.
Also, officials review and teach the more discrete rules-rules that deal with game time and equipment that coaches, players and the audience often take for granted.
"A lot of people think what we do relates to a lot of the play stuff like passing plays, running plays and kicking plays which are vital, but also rules that very few people understand like timing rules," Kosarin said.
"Late in the game, it makes a big difference to a coach when the clock starts and when it doesn't. As I said, late in the game when a team is low on timeouts or has none, rules like that make all the difference in the world," Kosarin said.
With all that is available for officials to learn from and the rate that they are being educated, there is no reason for anyone to think the performance of officials should go anywhere but up in the near-and distant-future.