March Schedule For Water Polo Academy Training

[Moderator]

Classes on Water Polo Academy are getting rave reviews and all classes are heavily discounted for USA Water Polo Members.

REFEREES: Please remember that YOU MUST TAKE A MINIMUM OF ONE REFEREE CLASS PER YEAR to be USAWP certified.

Intro to Water Polo Refereeing
Mar 1-8
Minor Fouls - Intermediate Refereeing
Mar 9-15
Major Fouls - Intermediate Refereeing
Mar 16-22
Advantage - Advanced Refereeing
Mar 23-29
Coaching Courses
Nikola Malezanov: The Serbian System-Coaching successfully to Age Groups Mar 22-31
Dante Dettamanti
Basics of Successful Coaching Part 2-Training and Organization: Dante Dettamati March 2-11
Dr. Jim Solum Fundamentals of the Outside Shot Mar 12-21

Parent-Spectator Courses
Rules Primer for Parents and Spectators
March 1-8
http://www.waterpoloacademy.com/index.php
Note: This is a Free class for USA Water Polo member parents sponsored by Water Polo Planet. It will only be offered free one time so those interested sign up. Class space is limited.

http://www.waterpoloacademy.com/index.php

[why?]

Are you saying that you MUST take the online course to be certified?? I have not be told this by SCAF. I was told that the area clinic would cover certification. What's up??

[LABertocci]

For calendar year 2008, SCAF was "grandfathered" with an in-person presentation I was asked to create. It was offered in February. Its content was adequate to allow a referee to be either a Level I (beginner) or Level II (out of five) referee. If you attended it, you are qualified to be a Level II referee. If not, not.

Going forwards, for a whole host of reasons, it will not happen again. Historically, one of the problems with referee training in the USA was that is was non-standard. Almost ANYONE could get up in front of a room, wave a piece of chalk for 2 hours, and presto bless everyone in the room with having attended a clinic and thus to be "certified" as a referee. The content varied ENORMOUSLY from presentation to presentation, so did the rigor of the attendance. I know. Back in the day, I attended many of them, most of which were a complete waste of time to attend.

If you made this February presentation, good for you. You are either a Level I or a Level II referee.

If not, not. Enjoy your status (2007 clinic attendance counts for 2008) for the rest of the year.

And yes, it costs ($$) more than it used to. For you. And for many members of SCAF, all in the most water polo concentrated part of the USA. On the contrary, for virtually EVERY referee EVERYWHERE ELSE in the USA (the country of your residence), it costs more $$ to take the weekend off, travel long distances, sometimes by air, stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, and attend an in-person clinic, than the $$ it costs to take online training. Go ahead and begin begrudging all of them and all of it, for their inability to be enlightened enough to live in a SCAF part of the USA. I'm sure they all wish they could live there also.

Oh yes. I forgot. Additionally, there are new requirements for ratings - real on-deck graded games, that you must move around to find. YOU must do what you need to do to get in front of one of the Delegate/Evaluators blessed by USAWP and get a valid game grade.

It is different. It is new. It is not what has been done. It is also better. And many will not like it. Most of those who will not like it are those who were comfortable where they were. The ones who will like it a lot are those who have been chomping at the bit to "advance," to show that they were in fact better than those "above" them. This is their chance. It is a nearly perfectly level playing-field. For the first time in my memory.

Oh well.

Time to adjust.

[sidelineview]

Loren,

Why the attitude? Or are the rest of us unaware of a background tiff between you and "why?"?

As if you need any advice; but my suggestion is that a better response would have been just like you were on the pool deck calling game. Make the call, stick to business and move on. No need for anything more than that.

Respectfully...

[LABertocci]

Loren,

Why the attitude? Or are the rest of us unaware of a background tiff between you and "why?"?

As if you need any advice; but my suggestion is that a better response would have been just like you were on the pool deck calling game. Make the call, stick to business and move on. No need for anything more than that.

Respectfully...

I have no idea who "why" is. I also did not mean to cop an attitude. If it came off that way, my public apologies to all who read it that way. It certainly was not intentional.

What was intentional was to make the point that this is what it is going forward. It was a decision made by the powers-that-are within USAWP. The reality is that after these decisions have been made, I have ended up being the one fielding most of the inputs, and have been a bit too much like a one-armed paper-hanger as I have tried to keep up with all this in my "spare" time...



Again, if I came off as having an attitude about this, my public apologies. I probably was in enough of a rush to answer it that I did not re-read or proof-read before hitting submit. Not an excuse, there is no excuse, just a possible reason.

[fishnutt90804]

I signed up,
I hope to learn what this game is all about.

[LABertocci]

I signed up,
I hope to learn what this game is all about.

I hope I don't disappoint ! ! !

[why?]

Why hasnt the scaf board put this info out there?? Also, what is your financial interest in Water Polo Academy???

[Doc]

Why?

Why would any person want to give out financial information to an anonymous poster on a message board?

Doc

[Moderator]

Why,

Although Doc is absolutely right, I will answer the question.

1. I have no idea why SCAF has not announced this. The goal is well trained and consistent officiating at water polo games which does not seem to be a bad goal and I suspect that most water polo people would feel is well worth a $35.00 investment each year.

2. Water Polo Planet has no financial interest in Water Polo Academy. Since our inception (at WPP) , every single thing we have offered is free to the public and the entire site is privately funded with time and money by Doc, Joan and myself. As a matter of fact, we are sponsoring a free parents rules class this week in conjunction with WPA. Anyone who feels that Water Polo Planet is not worth the cost is not doing the math correctly!

Water Polo Academy is operated by Loren Bertocci who is offering the online classes for referees in partnership with the USA Water Polo Technical Committee. The referee classes will be taught by a very few referee educatiors from all over the country with the goal to be consistent training and application of the rules.

There is not much "financial interest" to be had. The e-learning platform is $10.00 per person for a license and the classes are only $35.00 (to USA Water Polo Members) with a net gain of only $25 per person or $300 per class (IF the class is full) of which part goes back to USA Water Polo for the Technical Water Polo Committee to provide on deck evaluations. In most instances, the instructor is paid $150 for the 7 day class which requires about 25 hours of the instructors time. This translates into $6.00 per hour.

USA Water Polo is making a very positive move toward consistency and training in the referee ranks. It would be diasappointing to me (personally) to find that there are referees out there who are reluctant to spend $35.00 per year to help the community toward the solution of one of it's biggest problems.

[Allen Lorentzen]

I'm just doing some catching up on past threads so that's why this response is weeks behind the last posts. I still think a response is appropriate...

I just checked back through my emails and on January 17 SCAF sent an email to all members regarding the (then) upcoming face-to-face clinics. The email included the following:

"Subsequent clinics may only be offered as ONLINE INTERACTIVE CLINICS which will be more time consuming and which will be additional charges for you to pay."

I'd say that's pretty clear notice from SCAF regarding future clinic requirements. I know I've heard about this from SCAF a number of times.

[Crazy D]

"Subsequent clinics may only be offered as ONLINE INTERACTIVE CLINICS which will be more time consuming and which will be additional charges for you to pay."

I don't like the way this is addressed. I would say, rather than, "more time consuming" these classes are "more in depth." Here's the thing. When you go to a conference, there is always a time issue be it a time restraint on the conference itself, or the fact that everyone is in a classroom which, for some, is an immediate check-out (for me anyway). I also think that when you go to these conferences, it's almost like you are putting in body time. When you do on-line interactive learning, it's a whole new level of learning and interaction. And the cost is very reasonable.

I personally believe that NCAA should jump on this as soon as possible and mainstream their rule book with that of FINA and utilize Water Polo Academy for training. It streamlines learning and instruction giving EVERYONE the same information. You eliminate the need for a super-thick rules document and it mainstreams our kids with the rest of the world. It's an easy transition into and out of NCAA/Club play.

I tend to think that the NCAA is trying to segregate themselves in a fashion that almost puts us at a disadvantage. Water polo should be water polo, no matter where in the world you play. That's the way I see it anyway.