UDP Group 10 own Alexandra Mathieu (BEL) sent us a report from the group’s latest practical weekend, this time in Rotterdam, 12th – 13th November.
Last Exchange of 2016 – Rotterdam!
Saturday morning, the group began with a tour of Rotterdam by mentor and local dweller Michiel Bruning. The group then headed to Michiel’s home for some refreshments. The briefing for the weekend followed. Fellow mentor Carol Metchette was there as well and the group received a presentation about some umpiring concepts and how to apply them to the Dutch league. The general outline of the briefing was: there are two or three different rules in the Dutch league but far more importantly, umpires need to keep in mind that when we umpire a game outside of our own country, hockey stays the same. And hence, we should use common sense to all decision-making and discuss the basics with our colleague beforehand.
Game 1 U18s and Sharing Knowledge
After the briefing we drove to our assigned games. Ines El Hajem (FRA) and Ilaria Amorosini (ITA) went to a girls U18 game, Rotterdam vs Pelikaan, with Carol as mentor. Tim Meissner (GER) went with Thomas Duijnstee to a boys U18 game, Rotterdam vs Amsterdam, and was mentored by Philip Schellekens. Shane O’Donnell (IRL) and myself had a boys U18 game, Berkel en Rodenrijs vs Que Vive, with Michiel as mentor. To top it all we also had Eric Denis who came to watch the games in Rotterdam and later share some of his own stories during diner and drinks. For diner we were joined by three UDP group 8 members, Paul van den Assum, Sébastien Michielsen, and Andy Mair. The food was excellent and we had a blast. Thank you again for everyone who was present.
Game 2 and Debrief
On Sunday, we met again at breakfast, UDP group 8 and 10. From there we all walked to Michiel’s place and sat down for a general debrief of our previous games during which we could further share our personal feelings of our games. As soon as our Dutch umpiring colleagues arrived we departed for our second game. We were all excited to umpire a top class senior game. We were paired off accordingly: Ilaria and Lizelotte Walter went to the women’s game, Rotterdam vs Leonidas, with Carol as mentor. Ines and Jannick Breunis went to the women’s game, Victoria vs Crayenhout, with Edna Rutten as mentor. Lusiana Jansens and I went to the women’s game, HGC vs Huizen, with Michiel as mentor. Shane and Tim umpired a men’s game, Victoria vs Breda, under the watch of Carol and Michiel.
The games were high quality, and we learned a lot. Many thanks to Carol, Michiel, Philip Schellekens, Eric Denis, and Edna Rutten for their guidance and counsel.
Thanks to Alexandra for the roundup of the exchange weekend and we cannot wait to see what UDP has in store for 2017!