Survival 2019 Campers Feedback
Survival camp 2019 was by far one of the best referee camps I have attended. A couple of elements distinguish survival camp from other camps.
First, the thorough feedback given by the instructors and their availability. There is a clear link between the lectures, daily morning practice sessions and the feedback during the games, which all prove that the camp is well planned and thought through. Throughout the whole camp from 8am to (at times) past midnight, the instructors were available to give you valuable, direct and honest feedback. It was clear they were dedicated and had a genuine interest of helping. The small number of camp participants also allowed for even more feedback compared to other camps.
Second, the live feedback given by the instructors during the game. The communication device allows for instant feedback and quicker adjustment leading to improvement of ones officiating. In addition, the camera glasses give an opportunity to see all referees’ angles, and thus analyzing what each referee sees and how he/she can improve positioning.
Third, as part of the camp we had basketball coaches and physical trainers at our disposal showing us how we can improve our own physical strength, running technique etc.
Finally, it is a great pleasure to be able to share an interest with fellow referees from all over the world. There was a great camp spirit. In conclusion, I believe the camp was very well planned with great pedagogical benefits, which gives motivation for further improvement.
Among missing items I would appreciate having some stationery such as a notebook or a magnetic board with areas of responsibility for each referee. In addition, could a preliminary schedule have been sent slightly earlier?
Finn Szczesny
Norway
First of all, I would like to thank you for organizing such great camp
From positive side few number of referees which give each referee a chance to concentrate more on games, lectures and others the location of the camp is good, where is no a lot of distractions the instructors of the camp are very experience 4 the camp is more concentrating on the Physical preparation (more training session, practicing mechanics of referees), so its good for those who want get better practically
from negative side
the location of the camp is far away from major cities, which makes your travel harder to the camp
I hope to see the program of the camp one month in advance before the camp so that I can feel this camp is meeting my needs to decide to come or not
In general, this camp is very good and I recommend every referee to participate in this camp
Ghassan Halawani
Saudi Arabia
I can say that all parts of the camp were amazing. It had everything you need in a preseason to get better, from physical condition to understanding the game better. Food was amazing, conditions also, maybe even better without so much phone signal or internet. The idea of having presentations in groups is great. Gives the opportunity to understand better a subject, but also teaches you how to stand in front of people and talk about something. The fact that we had sessions in the gym also, lifting weights and doing other exercises, I think it’s good, as we trained all aspects of being a referee. Using glasses and microphones gave us a huge advantage, as we understood better how a good position on the court can help a lot. Also nice: being able to talk to others through the microphone in the game, but also receiving feedback on the spot, so you can improve and understand better what is the problem. There’s not much that can be improved, honestly, I think sleeping in classrooms is not a problem, just maybe the beds to be better J Had some trouble with my back for the first nights. The rest, I think it’s a great camp where you can improve so much in just 5 days. Learned so much and I believe it will help me a lot in my officiating.
Probably one of the best and most complete camps I’ve been to until now. 5 days of hard work, no time to do anything else, just improve everything regarding officiating. From physical condition, officiating techniques, movement on the court, to cutting clips, analyzing them presenting them to the rest of the group. Using glasses that film what you see during games gives a huge advantage, as you can better understand how a good position can make everything so much easier. But also, the fact that we received feedback in real time through the microphones helped a lot in improving my officiating. Loved every part of it: the warm up with the players before the games, sessions in the gym, presentations, going for walks, the availability of the instructors anytime or running outside; it has everything you need to improve the level of officiating.
Ioana Cojocaru
Netherlands
I attended this camp to practice and improve my officiating and after five days of hard work I believe we all did. It is especially the feedback and analysis of the games which I am very satisfied with.
First of all, the feedback from instructors. Apart from the detailed and constructive feedback covering all aspects of basketball refereeing, the campers and instructors are part of one group working together. Working as one team contributed to a very good learning atmosphere and ensured availability to the instructors. I really appreciated that the instructors had time for any questions at any time and shared their knowledge with us during the camp.
Secondly, I found the technical devices to support the analysis of the game very useful. The camera glasses together with a main camera from top ensured we could evaluate the game from four angles and the movement and positioning of the referees in any situation. The headset with microphones provided instant feedback from the instructors and made as aware of any mistakes “live”, in other words an excellent opportunity to correct bad habits straight away. Also, I appreciated that USB sticks, SD adapters, and all sorts of “transitional” devices from USB to SD or other were available to borrow. Small details like that guaranteed compatibility to all devices and their corresponding advantages described above and, in my opinion, just proves how well this camp is planned.
Thirdly, with all this feedback and recordings I think it was good that we had time to prepare clips and that the program had a timeslot dedicated for analysis altogether and discussion of clips every day. Through these sessions it became very evident what criteria should be applied and I think we all got better in analyzing situations both in terms of mechanics and decision making. This will for sure be helpful in future games.
For future camps, I wish to have the same high level of feedback and analysis. On one of the past Referee.pl camps I remember receiving notebooks with watermark designed as a basketball court. Such notebook is very helpful when making notes of situations on the court and this is something I missed on this camp. Although this might be old fashioned, I think that leaving the computer or the phone for a while and making notes on paper has great advantages during presentations and discussions. Overall, the survival camp was a great learning experience. Thank you Kuba, Semen and Marcin.
Filip Szczesny
Norway
Thank you very much for the camp!
Camp was even better than I expected. All the time except a bit for the rest we were hardworking and that is the receipt for success as a pre season preparation. Camp made all the goals like individual ref technique, gym workouts and mechanics’ improvement. Agenda is done great. Meals were balanced optimally for hard physical practices. Coaches players and tutors were open to talk and it gave me an opportunity to improve my skills which will help to work effectively during the season. Also one of the best things about the camp is that it gives the best direction for further skills improvements.
Andrey Lugovoy
Russia
I only have good things to say about it. It was awesome !
The structure is great and the balance between physical exercices and theory is good. I like the fact that you are pushing us but not at the point where we risk injuries.
The 3 mentors are passionate referees and I can feel it by the way you guys always answered our questions without any judgment and with the true intention to make us understand the answer. You did not get rid of our questions because you did not think it was a good one or because you had not the time. It was very enjoyable.
I also like the fact that we can learn without being in competition with the other referees for once. There is no “we have to perform so we can have the best games, etc.” which actually helped us bond with one another. There was a great atmosphere between referees.
I have learnt the mechanics of 3PO and actually find a way to referee a game today in the Summer league of Geneva in 3PO ! It went well with few rotations errors ^^ I need to work on useful cross steps.
I feel I have learn a lot in mechanics, areas, cross step, etc. and still need to work on it since I only had time to learn the basics.
In terms of criteria, we go deep into the understanding of UF, rebounds, LGP, etc. which is very useful and make me realize that I do not get deep enough sometimes to judge a situation. At the beginning it is disturbing because it is new knowledge. But it is necessary to learn this way.
And you helped me with few bodylanguage tips. I particularly liked the 2 videos about game management/game control that you showed us on Friday. I found it very useful.
The food was good. The day out in Ustka was enjoyable, it a good little break in the middle of the week.
I wish we could have officiated a bit more, but it is not a critic, I know that it is the Radom camp where there is more practice on the court. I just love 3PO and feel like we do not have enough opportunities to do any in Switzerland. And the glasses and microphones are just excellent tools to progress quickly !
Lucas Richard
Switzerland
Thank you very much for the perfectly organized camp for judges.
I was very pleased to be part of this event. Every day we received a lot of very necessary and important information.
In my opinion the advantages of this camp
1) balanced load
2) balanced nutrition
3) organization of leisure (walks by the sea with the whole team, sauna, yoga)
4) a lot of useful and necessary information.
5) equipment
6) refereeing with glasses and with communication
Of the minuses
1) The number of days in the camp (on the last day you understand how quickly everything went, and you would like to learn a lot and improve it)
2) It is a pity that we judged only 3 quarters a day (I wanted more)
Thank you. I have never regretted going to this camp. I hope to come again next year.
Sergey Timoshkov
Russia
The camp was at a very good level. Modern technologies were used which allowed to reveal their shortcomings in refereeing and work on them. There were also useful workouts aimed at physical training. We worked with professional trainers. It was cool. Another huge plus is nutrition. It was organized at the highest level. It was always delicious. In general, I liked everything very much. I recommend to everyone.
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С уважением,
Шипигузов Денис
Russia
First of all I wanted to thank You for giving the opportunity to see Poland nature from different point of view. I will certainly be back in this beautiful country for more.
The most important thing is that i learned a lot during the week. As from the communication side, You, Marcin and Semen showed a lot of patience, what i really look up to and this made me think of few things in myself, than You all for this.
From the refereeing side of view, the week made me realize my week spots. I have very good notes of every day, that i will use. I am really motivated to get into the season as fast as possible and i have at least 5 big issues that i am going to work hard on the next season
These are:
– VOICE
– MINOR CONTACT (DON’T CALL)
– NO CALLS (NOT LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO NOT CALL THE FOUL)
– TRAVELING CALLS
– NO GUESSING
If i have to say something i did not like, it was a small thing – players should all have one colour shirts, i and a few colleagues messed the sides up at the start of the game a few times. But this is the only thing i could think of.. :)))
Be sure that i will advise the Survival Camp to other referees in Latvia, because it really helped me to improve and will still help.
I hope that we will meet soon 🙂
Montis Rozenfelds
Latvia
Finally, i am really appreciate all the work done on the camp, i found that i have improved a lot when I officiating the final Game 2 in the Hong Kong Basketball League after i back home. I feel I can move more actively in the game and feel more easy since my physical condition was improved a lot. Besides, I think I really applied the positioning and the cross steps learnt from the camp to find better open angle on the play, it make me have a more clear picture on the each contact between players. I think the camps help me a lot and I am gotten better after the camp. Thanks for all the effort on it.
Ho Yuen Toby
Hong Kong