The EHF Education Committee – Umpiring Working group held its U4E weekend seminar in Breda this past weekend, with tremendous success. The EHF would like to thank all the conductors for their hard work and preparation for this seminar. Two of the U4E umpires, Singh Rathore (NOR) and Ines El Hajem (FRA), have sent us a report on their experience this weekend, check it out below!
U4E: A special journey
Entering the 2nd day of our U4E weekend in Breda, we were tested not only with a good standard of play by the U16 and U18 boys’ and girls’ teams but also by the weather as heavy rain led to several match cancellations within the tournament. In spite of wet kit weighing us down and last minute changes, we continued to brave the conditions and focus on the games in front of us.
Having got to know all the other umpires the day before, it was a lot easier to work as a team on and off the pitch. Though this was the last day of this seminar, the connections that we made are likely to last much longer this weekend. With one-to-one coaching, we had the opportunity to continue to learn from some of the best umpire managers in Europe. Through these personalised discussions, we were able to get feedback on previous performances and objectives to work on in the proceeding games.
Coaching points ranged from positioning and body language to team work and managing the game effectively, reinforcing old advice while providing us with some new advice to help our development. In addition to this, the remaining umpires were filmed with the mentors always there to support and provide another opinion to all those on U4E. It is safe to say that there have been lots of things which we have picked up over the weekend in Breda.
From all the different cultures and countries we were introduced, to different kinds of umpiring and new skills from our peers as well as from our mentors. We would like to thank the EHF for organising this weekend, Push Hockey Club for the great facilities and of course our mentors.
Source and photographs: EHF/Singh Rathore and Ines El Hajem