13th July 2018: Teresa Lipsky has written a blog about the UDP Group 12 kick up! What a great Friday Focus for us to enjoy…
“Finally, it was time to launch Group 12 UDP at the Men’s Champions Trophy, Breda, Netherlands 22nd-24th June 2018. Four of the six umpires selected attended: Nikita Yuklyaevskikh (Russia), Alistair Munro (Scotland), Veronika Fechter (Austria)and Teresa Lipsky (Germany) whilst Petr Vetrovsky (Czech Rep) and Germain Boutte (Belgium) had playoff finals and university exams could not attend. It was the first time to meet our two mentors, Louise Knipe(England) and Hamish Jamson(England).
We all got to the hotel in the afternoon for a drink in the lobby and a nice welcome from Hamish. Louise arrived one hour later (she was the UM at the Men’s Champions Trophy (CT)).
We went out for dinner at a restaurant nearby until Veronika joined us. She had to fly out late because of an exam. Exhausted from our travel we all just went to bed.
Next morning, after breakfast we went to Lou’s hotel where we saw a great video of previous UDP umpires and what UDP programme meant to them.
Further presentations were:
- What is UDP
- Details of the 3-year program
- What is expected from us
- What do we expect from the mentors?
- Finally, Louise presented the Umpires’ Briefing for the Champion’s Trophy.
We also met Rob ten Cate (Lead for UDP at EHF) and Craig Gribble (FIH Officials and Appointments manager) who gave us a short talk.
Now it was time for us to get to the stadium. We had a quick lunch before we got to our seats right behind one of the goals.
We talked about different situations throughout the whole game. Everything that came to our mind started a little exchange of ideas or even little discussions.
Our thanks to FIH for providing the tickets.
After three superb matches, we then joined all CT umpires, UMs (Rob and Lou) for dinner. It was a great opportunity to talk to most of them about their careers, experiences and many gave us valued advice for the future.
Sunday, our last day in Breda. Early start for breakfast and then straight to the venue. We got to see the Hawkeye truck for the video umpires with all the monitors and technical equipment inside. They explained how everything works and along with Colin Hutchinson (FIH umpire video coach) Jakub Mejzlik (ex UDP) shared some of their experiences.
As we walked to the pitch Louise introduced us to Josh Burt , Techincal Delegate. He too spoke to us at length regarding his role at international tournaments.
All of us had to watch key areas of the game, flow, was skill protected, presentation and positioning. Much was discussed with each other and with Hamish whose vast experience made us realise/learn what was need to aspire to this level of umpiring.
Veronika and Teresa had to catch early trains but the guys were lucky and got to watch the last two matches.
All in all, it was a great weekend getting to know Lou and Hamish, meeting again after the U4E weekend in 2017, sharing a lot of thoughts and experiences and just enjoying all the impressions throughout the weekend.
We all just want to thank Lou and Hamish for a great start into this wonderful program and for organizing a superb kick off the weekend.
We are looking forward to seeing each other again in London in September and of course to the next three years participating in the EHF UDP program.”
Huge thanks toTeresa for the blog! Loads more on this fin group of umpires to follow…..
If you want to know more about the EHF’s UDP programme click here
Veronika and Teresa had to catch early trains but the guys were lucky and got to watch the last two matches.
All in all it was a great weekend getting to know Lou and Hamish, meeting again after the U4E weekend in 2017, sharing a lot of thoughts and experiences and just enjoying all the impressions throughout the weekend.
We all just want to thank Lou and Hamish for a great start into this wonderful program and for organizing a superb kick off weekend.
We are looking forward to seeing each other again in London in September and of course to the next three years participating in the UDP program.