Norfolk Hockey Umpring Association

Fit Kit for Umpires

This page aims to address the problem of sourcing good clothing for officials, i.e. 'approved' umpires kit that is functional. There is nothing worse than after umpiring a difficult game well, than to be told by the umpire coach/selector. "That was a good performance.....but your trousers are the wrong shade of black." So here are some suggestions, I have no connection with any of the companies listed here, I am just a customer.

So starting from the top....

Hat

It's a proven fact that about 30% of core body heat is lost via an uncapped head. Keeping warm is vital, the benefits of keeping your core body temperature up aren't just to do with personal snugness. As you get cold, your reaction time is slowed and your muscles (and brain) don't work as well as when they're warm. If you are cold and wet and feeling miserable, you are not concentrating on your umpiring. This applies to all of your body. Converseley, in warmer weather you want to feel comfortable, not hot and sweaty.

Obviously a woolly bobble hat is out, although they have been spotted on some of the more distant hockey pitches in Norfolk. A baseball type cap is acceptable, but most be of a sober colour, dark blue or perhaps red. Be careful with any badge, slogan or logo on the hat. Anything out of the ordinary then the players may pick up on it and use it against you. It looks better if both umpires can wear the same colour. Caps are frowned upon by the coaches. They say it can hide the eyes and face and it can be hard to see whether your colleague is looking over at you or at play. This can be compensated for by raising your head more and using the peak as a sort of beak, big nods and head shakes can aid communication.

Sun glasses are useless for umpiring in. I know to my cost. I was umpiring up at Dereham some years ago, ran down the touch line, glasses bounced off. I ran back the other way and crushed them to pieces! Besides, the players start wondering where your guide dog is. Some people find umpiring under floodlights very difficult as they are dazzled by the lights. Try a cap, don't ever look at the lights. You could experiment with those amber tinted driving glasses but they won't work for everyone. Some people have to wear glasses and this can cause problems in wet/damp weather. Choose the most sheltered side of the pitch to umpire from, if you can.

Don't ever wear a hat and sunglasses!

Suitable caps can be obtained from many outlets quite cheaply.

Tops

NHUA recommend that umpires wear yellow (or as an alternative - red) sweat shirts or polo shirts.

The old jumpers are becoming increasingly hard to find in the right colour and they are expensive compared to the alternatives. Jumpers also tend to present an 'old fashioned' image. Modern clothing can be smart and functional. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately on grounds of taste) the cerise (raspberry) colour is not available in sweat shirt or jumper style.

We have just sourced a selection of red & yellow fleeces with reversible lining (black), £35 all in, includes a Norfolk Badge sown on both sides, from the Pro Shop at No.10 Bowl, Bowthorpe. Norwich.

For summer wear or indoor hockey, cerise, yellow and red polo shirts should be used. These can be bought locally from the:- Anglia Pro Shop, Number 10 (note formerly Solar Bowl), 10 Barnard Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9JB. Tel:- 01603 740 730. Polo shirts, with badge are £16 for yellow & red, cerise are £18. Sweat shirts are £18 inc. badge plus packing and post at cost. Anglia Pro Shop sell a whole range of sports wear and for a modest fee will embroider the Norfolk county badge onto any garment. They will take orders over the phone/mail order etc. Anyone having difficulties in using the Pro Shop can liaise with Margaret Jones (01603 747956) as she spends a lot of her time and my money there!

For many years now 'older' umpires have worn what is known as 'the blue stripy'. This is a dark blue rugby style shirt with a broad white band smaller red band around the middle. They were the colours of an old sponsor, they are now obsolete, so please do not use them unless its absolutely necessary and onlky if bothy umpires have them.

The correct position for the Norfolk badge is on the left breast. Anglia Pro Shop do know this!

Gloves

Gloves are generally not necessary. They don't look good and can cause you to fumble the whistle. In exceptionally cold conditions (a normal day at Holt!) a pair of cut-off gloves, fawn coloured could be used. These are available on Norwich market at silly prices (£2.00 per pair).

Trousers

We should all be wearing black now. Track suit bottoms are a 2nd option. If the weather is really bad, and/or you are umpiring all day out in the cold, try a pair of rain/wind proof black over trousers.

Underwear

What you wear under your top clothes is your own business...

But....If you find yourself umpiring up at Gresham's School, Holt, then you should consider wearing a pair of thermal long johns underneath the black trousers, available from camping shops or mail order from such places as Damart.

Socks

Any colour style or type you like as long as they can't be seen. There is nothing worse than cold wet feet. If you are umpiring several games in a day a change of socks is in order. The modern trend for water-based pitches means that your feet will be wet within a few minutes of the game starting.

Footwear

Any colour as long as its black! White footwear always looks dirty no matter how new. Trainers, astro boots, whatever; must have suitable soles for all weather pitches and they must be comfortable. We don't umpire on grass anymore, so football boots are not required. Try to avoid trainers with flashy stripes down the side and logos. Footwear need not be expensive, I bought a pair of US Brass shoes from ASDA. These have a good non-slip sole and they have the benefit of a thicker sole which adds 1½ inches to my height, (£9.99 in the sale, reduced from £14.99). Short umpires are at a disadvantage over their taller colleagues. It's better to look down on a miscreant player than up to one!

To summarise: It is important to look smart and professional. It is very desirable for both umpires to wear the same style and coloured kit, (not always possible). Consider wearing Hi-viz vests when umpiring under floodlights. A pair of matching bibs will look quite smart on the umpires, cheap at about £3 per bib/vest. You should have comfortable and well fitting clothing. It should be warm and keep you dry when conditions dictate. It is better not to wear waterproof tops and overtrousers with sou'westers, apart from looking a prat (albeit a dry one) it hinders your movement. There comes a point where you have to suffer along with the players - they'll appreciate it! By all means wrap up before the game and at half time, but not during the game.

Umpiring Equipment

Whistle

The most important piece of equipment is the whistle, and whilst it is possible to umpire without one, we recommend that you do! Whistles come and go, over the years several types have become popular. The current favourite is the Fox40 'Classic'. This costs around £5.25, see Mike Graham's Whistles web site.

This whistle has superseded the small Acme Thunderer. This nevertheless is a good whistle for learner umpires. They cost around £1 and come in all colours. Umpire candidates are issued with a free one on the Level-1 Umpiring course. Somewhere in between comes the famous 'Italian Policeman's' whistle. This is a splendid chromium plated device with a shrill tone. But my umpire coach never explained how I was to persuade an Italian policeman to part with one! Not often seen these days. Do not wear the whistle round your neck. Make a small wrist band - the straps off mobile phones are ideal for this. Make sure you have spares in your bag. Very ocaisionally you might need a whistle of a different tone if players are being distracted by the whistle from an adjacent pitch.

Watch

Do not wear a stop watch around your neck. You can buy specialist sports watches from the suppliers mentioned here, but it is not necessary. Having a spare watch is not a bad idea, in case the battery of your No. 1 fails, or your colleague has no working watch, make sure you get it back if you lend it out!

Cards

Mike Graham has a good set of bright cards, see Whistles web site, much better than the older, smaller and duller ones that are about.

It's perfectly possible to make your own from card or plastic scraps. Please check that you can remove your cards quickly and effectively without them spilling all over the pitch. Nothing looks worse than when you have called a player over and you spend the next few seconds (it seems like days) on your hands and knees searching for the card you want.

Pencil or biro ?

The debate goes on, Mike Graham supplies a chinagraph wax crayon with his card set! Pencils work in the wet, but you can easily break the point. Biros leak and don't work in the cold & wet.

Score pad

Post-it notes have been used, you stick one on the back of the yellow card, but it can blow away in the wind. You can write on the back of the yellow card directly with a pencil or with Mike Graham's chinagraph, but the writing can smudge. I use a specially made-up score pad, which is the same size as the cards, the whole lot is kept together with an elastic band. You can download a PDF file and print off score sheets to make a pad. Staple the sheets to a piece of card 7.5 x 8.5 cm. Get the sheets here score pad. If you are a minimalist then you write on the back of your hand with a biro. OK if it's not raining and you are careful shaking hands after the game! You do need to note down various bits of information such as:- Captains names & numbers. The time the match starts. Who has first push back. The goals & match time they are scored. Cardings, shirt number & match time, colour. Half time & full time score.

Coin

In principle any coin will do, but smaller ones are easier to misplace and harder to see when on the pitch. I would suggest something like an old 10p piece (2 shillings or florin) or an old half crown. Silver coins are easier to see on the pitch than bronze coins, because of the sand. Don't use valuable coinage, you don't always get them back! If both umpires forget to bring a coin then hide your whistle in your fist and get the visiting captain to guess the hand with the whistle in.

Bag

All all this should be kept in a small carry bag. Most supermarkets sell a whole range of school bags at low prices, it doesn't have to be the size of an army kit bag. If you keep all your kit together in one place you'll never forget something and it's all to hand when you need it. You can hang the bag on a paint tin hook (B&Q) from the fencing, if the venue doesn't have an umpires bench. This will keep your stuff off the ground and dry.

Other equipment

There are all sort of sundry items one tends to collect in the light of previous experiences. But all umpires should have with them:- a current copy of the rules (all paid up NHUA members are sent a new rule book when they change), and the following are desirable but not essential:- a current red card report form & a copy of the HA code of discipline, a ball of string and scissors/knife to repair goal nets (you soon get to know which clubs have dodgy goals). At the end of the day it's your decision as to whether the ball entered the goal legitimately, so time spent fixing the net is worthwhile. The home club should ensure the goals are OK, but seldom do), roll of PVC tape (again useful to repair nets, captain's arm bands etc. etc.), pair of scissors, tape measure, spare white ball, spare fluorescent ball for night games, spare indoor ball, large cable ties (again to fix goals, but also goalkeepers kit). Remember you can't play hockey without a goalie. So when his strap breaks it's in everyone's interest to get it fixed as fast as possible), a bottle of water, Mars bar, sundry plasters, shoe laces, safety pins, stick ring (these aren't cheap about £5. I have one but I have never been asked to test anyone's stick......yet), stick bend measure (you are now only allowed 1" of bend in a stick), spare watch, whistles, cap, socks, pencil, notebook, poolsheet, East League Handbook, etc., etc. and there must be loads of other stuff you could add as well. This past season I have been asked about the weight of the ball - small set of fishermans scales, and a big dispute about the temperature of the playing surface - i.e. is it frozen? so perhaps a small temperature probe. These latter 2 items are rather specialist and good common sense from both umpires will win the argument anyway! All of this goes into a little (or perhaps big) black bag (childs school kit bag costing a few pounds) which you carry round with you.

The advice and information is based on my own experiences and are my own opinions and not necessarily those of the NHUA.

Page created 26th Feb 1999, updated 11th November 2008