AFL UMPIRE MENTOR PROGRAM MANUAL - AFL Community

You can make up the stories, but it is preferable to draw them from yourown experience, especially as a new umpire. This manual will be a greatresource for you in the types of anecdotes to share with a developingumpire. There are anecdotes from a range of umpires at a range of levels,but perhaps the most important and useful ones will be those from yourown experience. The ones you have recounted earlier in this manual willbe useful in the right circumstances!Act on the promises that you make the beginning or learning umpire.Children and teenagers are usually more hurt than adults by broken promises. Ironically,many people treat their promises to children and teenagers as less important than theirpromises to adults. Remember, as a mentor, you need to follow up with the umpire you arementoring. If this means you can’t promise time, then don’t. In your own umpiring network,you may well have other people you can refer the beginning or learning umpire to for extrasupport.Master the art of Socratic questioning. This means that instead ofexpressing facts or lecturing, you ask a question to stimulate the youngperson’s own reasoning process. Socratic questioning opens up a placein a person’s mind for the answer to be remembered. For example, youcould ask, “How do you think you could have managed that set kick infront of goal a bit better?” instead of telling the umpire what to do.Professor Albert Mehrabian has pioneered the understanding of communications sincethe 1960s. He received his Ph.D. from Clark University in the US and in l964 startedan extended career of teaching and research at the University of California, Los Angeles.He devotes his time to research, writing and consulting as Professor Emeritus ofPsychology, UCLA.Aside from his many and various other fascinating works, Mehrabian established this classicstatistic for the effectiveness of spoken communications:7 per cent of meaning is in the words that are spoken.38 per cent of meaning is paralinguistic (the way that the words are said).55 per cent of meaning is in facial expression.34UMPIRE MENTOR PROGRAM MANUAL