Becoming an Official
Al Myers dutifully watches on as a certified official while Susan Sees performs a Trap Bar Deadlift at the 2016 IAWA Gold Cup in Abilene, KS.
For many years, the USAWA has had a procedure in place where prospective officials would have to take and pass an exam in order to become a certified official to be eligible to sit in the official’s chair and judge lifts in sanctioned meets. Then, to prevent individuals from taking and passing the test with out having any real idea of how a meet in conducted, a procedure was implemented by which a probationary official would have to go through a series of three practical training sessions alongside a fully certified official before being a truly certified official who could judge independently of other officials.
While I believe the three practical training sessions was a grand idea to ensure that we have as competent of officials in our organization as possible, I have come to understand that it is perhaps limiting our capacity to grow the organization into new territories. We have fantastic representation in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Ohio/Pennsylvania areas. Any aspiring official would have no problem completing their practical training sessions in any of these areas; however, and one outside of these 3 areas would have to take a vacation like trip on 3 separate occasions in order to complete there certification.
Here I am officiating Lynda Burns at an OTSM Championship
I took this issue to the executive board, and it was determined that we will start allowing individuals to complete their practical training sessions virtually if need be. As we found out during the pandemic, we can do many things virtually. We hope that this will allow us to get certified officials in other territories so that they can officiate postals, record days, and other meets. It would be the responsibility of the prospective official to contact a certified official to set up a time for those practical training sessions via zoom or some other reliable online platform. This will allow them to discuss procedure, rules of the lifts and what they mean, commands. etc.
So, anyone who has been hesitant to take the official’s exam because they thought they would have to take three cross country trips in order to fulfill their practical training sessions, it is so no more! Take the test, send it back to Joe to receive your passing mark, then get a hold of one of us to guide you through the practical sessions virtually. It is as simple as that.