Latest views and news from Ontario Tennis Association President Scott Fraser
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Meet Bob Brett
Internationally renowned tennis coach Bob Brett takes time to promote the OTA's ProAM Fundraiser. Listen as he describes the key attributes of a world-class tennis player. Also includes a short interview with up-and-coming tennis player David Volfson, Boys U14 Indoor National Champion.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Officiating at the Tevlin Challenge Event
This is a reprint of a blog I posted back in October of 2008 when I first took the Introduction of Officiating Course from Tennis Canada....
What better way to learn the ropes as a LINE UMPIRE than to volunteer at a WTP event like the Tevlin Women's $50K challenge at the Rexall Centre. Having just taken the Officiating course from Tony Cho, I decided to build some practical experience at this event. I attended the first day qualifiers along with eight or so other "newbie" line umpires. Since the matches didn't start until noon, Tony had a quick meeting with all the officials at around 11am, to welcome everyone and explain the format for the day. In officiating terms, we are using the CHAIR+3 format (2 umpires for the long lines near and far, and 1 service line umpire). I was relieved to hear we didn't have to call foot faults using this format. Since I was new at this, Tony paired me with Lisa, another beginner, and Betty, a more experienced umpire who would cover the service line. Of course he put us out on Court 1 (of 4 INDOOR courts) to get our feet wet. I think we were all a bit nervous at the start, but after the first match (best of 3 sets, but only went for 2) and an hour on my feet, I felt pretty good. I found myself concentrating so much to ensure I would make the right calls, I totally forgot about the small contingent of FANS and family sitting at the sidelines cheering the players on.
The last match finished at about 6pm, and by that time, I had been on my feet for probably 5 1/2 hours and my neck was sore. Throughout the day I got about 3, 10-minute breaks. Food was brought in for the team and I must say I was impressed with selection of chicken, beef, rice, veggies and pita bread (I was expecting simple finger sandwiches). I didn't want to overload so I took it easy with the food. Can you imagine burping on the court during a crucial play! Or worse, getting terrible cramps and having to take an injury break because the UMPIRE was sick! That would be a first I'm sure! Anyway, I digress. The trickiest part of the line umpire for me was to watch the side singles lines due to the receiving player's uncanny ability to block your line of sight at the most inopportune time. I guess I just need to keep trying different positions of kneeling, bending and the like to find what works for each situation.
The other thing that messed me up a bit was when to sit (at the start while the 5 min warm-up is going on, between sets players get a 120 sec rest, and at end changes they get a 90 second rest, so that's when we all sit), and remembering to walk swiftly from one end to the other on even number games. Since there are only two long line umpires with the CHAIR+3 format we are using today, they must stay at the receiving end all the time, so that one of them can cover the centre service line during the serve, and quickly run to the side singles line to cover the entire length of that line for the remainder of the point (also called covering "thru the net"). As you can see, these umpires are moving and bending all the time. Of course the other crucial aspect of the role is to make the FAULT or OUT calls with immediacy, confidence and loudness at all times, even if you’re wrong and get overruled by the chair umpire. That can be a bit nerve racking, but you’ve got to learn to let it go and move on to the next point.
There is one other observation I had that really impressed my. First, the friendliness of the officiating team both novice and experienced. When everyone is in their zone and working and concentrating, all is quiet, as it should be, but once you’re on break or meeting at day’s end for a quick “debrief”, the smiles and laughter begin. Second, I was really impressed by the players themselves. Obviously you remain detached and impartial while on the court, but I couldn’t get over how polite some of the ladies were during the match. Once I got hit by a ball during the serve, and the receiving player immediately apologized to me! And I got many “thankyou’s” whenever I had the chance to pass a stray ball back to a player (there are no ball girls and boys for this tournament, except starting on the Friday).
Tuesday was a so-so day for me personally. On court 1, first I called a serve fault, but then immediately corrected the call as good, so that was OK. But then I got stuck in a Tiebreak scenario and didn’t understand how the placement of line officials was working, so I found myself out of place in a few spots. I got a bit nervous and then called a fault on a serve that WAS way out, but then said “correction” in error (the player yelped out a loud “WHAT?”). No harm done but felt embarrassed.
On Wed I had Tony explain the tiebreak scenarios using CHAIR+3 and CHAIR+4 and successfully called lines during a tiebreak on Court 1, which went really smoothly. Also was given the best advice from Alison Dias, an experienced chair umpire. She noticed I was crouching (ala tiger hidden dragon) down a lot during the serves, especially on the outside service line. She told me to stand up straight and square with the service box “T”, and wow, what a difference it made. Much clearer to see a fault and no obstruction from the receiver! The logic is that the higher you are (like the chair umpire), the better your visibility.
Thurs, Fri went smoothly as well. A few calls in error, but nothing major. Both days I was allowed to try out calling service lines in the chair. The key to calling these lines is to focus on the corner of the service box closest to you, just before the serve is made. The concept is that it is easier for your eyes to move up than to move down, so you don’t want to get caught looking too high and then have the serve hit below your field of vision. The other advice I received is to make sure your FAULT calls are nice and LOUD.
During the Friday, a student reporter interviewed all of the rookie officials for an upcoming article posted on the Tennis Canada website. An exerpt from this article follows:
October 20, 2008: After receiving their line umpire training from Tony Cho, Canada’s only Gold Badge referee, a group of people from varying backgrounds and professions came together to take part in an important learning experience in hopes of furthering their qualifications down the road.
“We need more officials because in 2011 the two Rogers Cup events will be virtually combined and we can’t have the same people in two places at one time,” said William Coffey, manager of officiating development for Tennis Canada. “The Tevlin was the perfect place to start training people to get them ready for more events in the future. This is a long-range plan.”
The goal is to get as many of these officials as possible to continue training and to attract even more new and interested parties. The Tevlin turned out to be an ideal event for achieving these goals.
“I noticed a marked improvement with all of the new officials throughout the week,” said Coffey. “I’m very happy.”
Overall I had a great experience at the 2008 Tevlin Challenge, and I thank the whole team, including Tony Cho, Chief of Officials, William as Referee for the tournament and all the many other officials and crew chiefs, especially Paula, Betty Birmingham, Jesse Greene, Alison Dias, Zito Baccarani, Dave and of course the line umpires Mike Larion, Josh Weissman, Lisa Marie Peluso, Jennifer Carmichael, Robert Simonak, Irene Lee, Wail Odeh, Maryam Modaressi. See you at the next tournament!
What better way to learn the ropes as a LINE UMPIRE than to volunteer at a WTP event like the Tevlin Women's $50K challenge at the Rexall Centre. Having just taken the Officiating course from Tony Cho, I decided to build some practical experience at this event. I attended the first day qualifiers along with eight or so other "newbie" line umpires. Since the matches didn't start until noon, Tony had a quick meeting with all the officials at around 11am, to welcome everyone and explain the format for the day. In officiating terms, we are using the CHAIR+3 format (2 umpires for the long lines near and far, and 1 service line umpire). I was relieved to hear we didn't have to call foot faults using this format. Since I was new at this, Tony paired me with Lisa, another beginner, and Betty, a more experienced umpire who would cover the service line. Of course he put us out on Court 1 (of 4 INDOOR courts) to get our feet wet. I think we were all a bit nervous at the start, but after the first match (best of 3 sets, but only went for 2) and an hour on my feet, I felt pretty good. I found myself concentrating so much to ensure I would make the right calls, I totally forgot about the small contingent of FANS and family sitting at the sidelines cheering the players on.
The last match finished at about 6pm, and by that time, I had been on my feet for probably 5 1/2 hours and my neck was sore. Throughout the day I got about 3, 10-minute breaks. Food was brought in for the team and I must say I was impressed with selection of chicken, beef, rice, veggies and pita bread (I was expecting simple finger sandwiches). I didn't want to overload so I took it easy with the food. Can you imagine burping on the court during a crucial play! Or worse, getting terrible cramps and having to take an injury break because the UMPIRE was sick! That would be a first I'm sure! Anyway, I digress. The trickiest part of the line umpire for me was to watch the side singles lines due to the receiving player's uncanny ability to block your line of sight at the most inopportune time. I guess I just need to keep trying different positions of kneeling, bending and the like to find what works for each situation.
The other thing that messed me up a bit was when to sit (at the start while the 5 min warm-up is going on, between sets players get a 120 sec rest, and at end changes they get a 90 second rest, so that's when we all sit), and remembering to walk swiftly from one end to the other on even number games. Since there are only two long line umpires with the CHAIR+3 format we are using today, they must stay at the receiving end all the time, so that one of them can cover the centre service line during the serve, and quickly run to the side singles line to cover the entire length of that line for the remainder of the point (also called covering "thru the net"). As you can see, these umpires are moving and bending all the time. Of course the other crucial aspect of the role is to make the FAULT or OUT calls with immediacy, confidence and loudness at all times, even if you’re wrong and get overruled by the chair umpire. That can be a bit nerve racking, but you’ve got to learn to let it go and move on to the next point.
There is one other observation I had that really impressed my. First, the friendliness of the officiating team both novice and experienced. When everyone is in their zone and working and concentrating, all is quiet, as it should be, but once you’re on break or meeting at day’s end for a quick “debrief”, the smiles and laughter begin. Second, I was really impressed by the players themselves. Obviously you remain detached and impartial while on the court, but I couldn’t get over how polite some of the ladies were during the match. Once I got hit by a ball during the serve, and the receiving player immediately apologized to me! And I got many “thankyou’s” whenever I had the chance to pass a stray ball back to a player (there are no ball girls and boys for this tournament, except starting on the Friday).
Tuesday was a so-so day for me personally. On court 1, first I called a serve fault, but then immediately corrected the call as good, so that was OK. But then I got stuck in a Tiebreak scenario and didn’t understand how the placement of line officials was working, so I found myself out of place in a few spots. I got a bit nervous and then called a fault on a serve that WAS way out, but then said “correction” in error (the player yelped out a loud “WHAT?”). No harm done but felt embarrassed.
On Wed I had Tony explain the tiebreak scenarios using CHAIR+3 and CHAIR+4 and successfully called lines during a tiebreak on Court 1, which went really smoothly. Also was given the best advice from Alison Dias, an experienced chair umpire. She noticed I was crouching (ala tiger hidden dragon) down a lot during the serves, especially on the outside service line. She told me to stand up straight and square with the service box “T”, and wow, what a difference it made. Much clearer to see a fault and no obstruction from the receiver! The logic is that the higher you are (like the chair umpire), the better your visibility.
Thurs, Fri went smoothly as well. A few calls in error, but nothing major. Both days I was allowed to try out calling service lines in the chair. The key to calling these lines is to focus on the corner of the service box closest to you, just before the serve is made. The concept is that it is easier for your eyes to move up than to move down, so you don’t want to get caught looking too high and then have the serve hit below your field of vision. The other advice I received is to make sure your FAULT calls are nice and LOUD.
During the Friday, a student reporter interviewed all of the rookie officials for an upcoming article posted on the Tennis Canada website. An exerpt from this article follows:
October 20, 2008: After receiving their line umpire training from Tony Cho, Canada’s only Gold Badge referee, a group of people from varying backgrounds and professions came together to take part in an important learning experience in hopes of furthering their qualifications down the road.
“We need more officials because in 2011 the two Rogers Cup events will be virtually combined and we can’t have the same people in two places at one time,” said William Coffey, manager of officiating development for Tennis Canada. “The Tevlin was the perfect place to start training people to get them ready for more events in the future. This is a long-range plan.”
The goal is to get as many of these officials as possible to continue training and to attract even more new and interested parties. The Tevlin turned out to be an ideal event for achieving these goals.
“I noticed a marked improvement with all of the new officials throughout the week,” said Coffey. “I’m very happy.”
Overall I had a great experience at the 2008 Tevlin Challenge, and I thank the whole team, including Tony Cho, Chief of Officials, William as Referee for the tournament and all the many other officials and crew chiefs, especially Paula, Betty Birmingham, Jesse Greene, Alison Dias, Zito Baccarani, Dave and of course the line umpires Mike Larion, Josh Weissman, Lisa Marie Peluso, Jennifer Carmichael, Robert Simonak, Irene Lee, Wail Odeh, Maryam Modaressi. See you at the next tournament!
OTA Marketing Video
This OTA Marketing Video was produced pre-2004 so some of the OTA staff have changed since that time (eg: David DeFehr replaced by Kartik Vyas, Katya Zakharova replaced by Flora Karsai), but the overall messages are still very relevant for the important role the OTA plays in promoting tennis in Ontario.
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