So...when trying to enter some
junior players into an upcoming junior silver squash-tournament from
our club, we were thwarted with the message that they needed to take
their age-appropriate referee exam...before being allowed to enter!
We think this is a great idea!!!!!...in theory.
However...the team's players...(all capable of playing a decent level
of squash)...failed their age-appropriate exam, even after multiple
tries! Every single one of them failed! Even the club's squash-coach
failed!
We don't want to tout our own horn, but we have played and refereed all
levels of squash...up to the top players in the world for 40 years and
still failed the under 15 exam...three times in a row!!!
The main issue seems to be with the U.S. Squash refereeing exam
video's. We think we got six of the last seven decisions..."wrong!"
Something is really out of whack here..."even" when we're watching
those clips and either thinking "We need more information", "Was there
contact there?", "Where's the ball?", "Wow...that's a tough one!". The
video's are either unclear, ambiguous, open to interpretation...or we
just disagree with whatever the "right" decision is!
Are we alone in this?!!!!!!!!!! Anyone? The sad end to this story is
that we probably won't be able to enter ten of our players into the
upcoming silver tournament. We can't see them passing the exam!
And...apparently there's no point in "cheating," us taking the referee
exam for them...
US Squash....who set-up these exams? Any feedback!?
