Referee seminar?

[poor_nizzie]

Does anyone know when/if the NE or CT division will be having a referee seminar this year? And, if so, would anyone be so kind as to give me additional information about said seminar?

[melihop]

Tom Ciccarone of candlewood, generally has several seminars a year. If you go to the CT DIV scedule page, and go to note 5 at the bottom. There isn't currently one on the posted scedule, but if you contact Tom, he can give you the information!

An unscheduled referee clinic may be held if 4 or more people are interested. Contact Tom for available dates at (203) 778-0808 or info @candlewoodfencing.com

[poor_nizzie]

Thanks! I'm going to join Candlewood in September, as it turns out, so this will be very convenient for me!
And maybe I can get a few of my fellow teammates to tag along, for that 4-person requirement dealie...

[oiuyt]

He has hosted one in September each of the past couple/several years and has mentioned planning to do so again this season. Watch the Candlewood website for details would be my suggestion. The New England ones (generally run by Dave Blake or Jon Moss, occasionally by Paul Harris) tend to be a bit harder to find out about unless you're connected with the hosting/organizing group/club as the division rarely has them included on the schedule (presumably mostly due to not knowing about them when the schedule is released).

-B :)

[poor_nizzie]

Thanks for the advice, Brad! Much obliged.

[Mauler]

Tom is a great guy to learn refereeing from. In the past season, I went from a noob who couldn't tell a Yellow Card from a Parry Riposte to a "semi-competent referee" (considering the speaker and context, I most certainly took it as a compliment!) I'll have to say a significant portion of my progress as a referee was made possible under his guidance.

On many occasions (i.e. I screwed up so royally, couple of monkeys can't even find their football) when he had every right to be the fencer's coach, he instead made it a point to focus on coaching his fencer... and then after a bout, put on a different hat and approached me as a "referee's coach," completey free of bias and well-deserved wrath. He treated me the same way he would treat any of his developing fencers. His comments and feedbacks to my refereeing ALWAYS had in mind my development as a referee. I have seen him take the same approach to many apprentice referees as well.

So gather around your friends and sign up for a clinic. You will be in good hands.