Bright (well actually pitch black) and early I left Glasgow by train and arrived in a genuinely bright and sunny Stafford at about half past eleven. The course was due to start at 2pm so I had a little spare time to wander around the town centre and grab some lunch.
The course was in the sports college, part in the classroom and part on court. During the first half an hour we were introduced to the team of about seven who were going to help teach us the basics of line umpiring. The set up was fairly casual, which I was thankful for as I was unsure of what to expect and more importantly what was expected of me, and we discussed the key aspects of working in umpiring. It was highlighted that we should not get into tennis officiating just to get close to the players, so yeah…busted! But seriously, there was important information about how we would be expected to be professional, impartial, work well in a team and, very importantly, to be LOUD. The being loud part would turn out to be the biggest challenge of the day for me. I should point out that there was a fairly small group of ‘students’ around twenty and we were a wide range of ages and of varying levels of interest and involvement with tennis, some players, some fans, etc.
So after half an hour of going over the basics it was to the court for some hands on practice. We were split in to groups of four and were taught to move like a linesperson! This includes the ‘at ease’ stance, hands behind your back waiting for play to commence, and the ‘ready’ position, used when watching lines during play. Embarrassingly my leg muscles felt the effects of the the ‘ready’ position the following day (side note: start working out again). The did not, however hurt as much as my throat did that evening. Shouting ‘FAULT’ at least a hundred times in once afternoon does not a happy throat make, it was completely back to normal by the following morning though.
Following the group practice of the positions and shouting we individually practised called the long lines during a serve for the remainder of the afternoon, whilst being coached and getting tips for the course tutors. I was a bit self concious at first but the more I practised the more determined I was to get everything right and to shout loudly enough, I was so frustrated when the told us the afternoon was over and we were out of time – I wanted to get it totally nailed!
It was so much though and the fact that I was annoyed at myself for making mistakes means I must really want to get good at it. Throughout our training we were being assessed and will be told in the next few days if we are being selected to take part in the full training day, two weeks after the recruitment day.
Fingers crossed!
(I am posting this retrospectively so I know what the outcome of their assessments were, I just want to drag it out in a reality TV show fashion!)
This course is run by the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) and ABTO (Association of British Tennis Officials)
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Tags: line judge, linesperson, tennis, umpire
