Referees Pre-Certification Clinic
THE Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) yesterday brought the curtains down on their Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC)/Federation International Basketball Association (FIBA) Referees Pre-Certification Clinic, which was run by FIBA Referees Instructor Glyn Clarke at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Clarke highlighted that the clinic was to bring persons up to date with the changes of the rules that governs the sport of Basketball from 2010 to 2014 and to list aspiring officials since FIBA, through the CBC, is aiming to build its pool of referees in the Caribbean making the event very important.

We’ve done a full review of the rules and the point of emphasis focusing on areas like travelling, dribbling, three seconds violation, 24 seconds rule and we have done some practical test which is the court craft and their mechanics signal. So, over the past couple of days it was a comprehensive review of the rules,” Clarke explained.

The clinic started last Thursday and according to the veteran referee/instructor, the participants were very receptive, adding that they were very fruitful discussions and reviews of a few “game situations from the local league of what people perceived as errors and something that they were not certain about, so we discussed them based on the application of the rules and I think those who were here are now better equipped to take forward the rule changes.”

Clarke further went on to differentiate the difference of the game played in yesteryear as compared to what the sport’s governing FIBA is now classing as ‘modern officiating’.

The concept of modern officiating, Clarke explained is to “allowing game flow, advantage and disadvantage, having preventative officiating, having more talks with players rather than calling fouls. So the modern game is to allow the game to flow and afford the referees the opportunity to interrupt the game rather than interfere with the game.”

The Barbados national said that FIBA through the CBC is aiming to bring the interpretation of the game in the Caribbean to a common understanding, as he mentioned that travelling throughout the CBC zones, different areas would have different elucidation of the rules.

“One thing you can point out is travelling, because country to country, there’s a different concept of travelling and what I stressed during this clinic is that the officials understand the rules so that they allow the players to be creative, because if you start to restrict your players when they move on to higher competition they are going to be at a disadvantage,” Clarke noted.

He further went on to state the clinic was also intended to give the participants a level of understanding where their strengths and weaknesses are and what they should develop, and also give him an opportunity to point out to the local officials the areas they need to place emphasis on.

But Clarke also stated his disappointment during his comments made at the conclusion yesterday, sighting that the absenteeism of some of the key officials from the clinic, since “they are the ones now who will be in charge when you have big games for example, they are the ones who will be officiating and then you will have the likelihood that the game would fall back rather than move ahead.”

The CBC is aiming to build their pool of referees being certified by FIBA and Clarke explained that he had conducted a series of the same clinics across the Caribbean with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines being his stop before Guyana.
Yesterday a beep test and a written exam were given to the participants whom he will grade and then send the grades and make his recommendations to the GABF.

When  giving the introduction last week, Clarke stated that, “at the end of the year, FIBA will have a referee’s certification course and the recommended persons from these clinics will be the ones whom we’ll expect to see with a date and venue to be set.”