National Umpire Course by the ITF-Belgium TUIC

Jambes, May 29th 2022

Report made by Benito Martinez, member of the TUIC

The Bushido dojang in Jambes and it’s Instructor Sabum Patrick Crevecoeur (VI degree) received in their hall the participants of the National Umpire Course (in French) on Sunday 29 May.

Master Eddy Van Damme and Sabum Benito Martinez were in charge of this seminar in two parts: first part for beginners before noon and second part in the afternoon for advanced students.

The beginners course, with 21 participants, started with explanations on the functions of every umpire in the ring, the protocols, how to set a ring council for individual tul, the scoring method and possible mistakes. After this came the practice in which the students turned in different functions like corner referees and jury member or equipment verifier.

The important issues of the umpire integrity, attitude and authority was in the middle of some interventions of the instructors, also the need of constant knowledge, improving and practice.

The second part was dedicated to the students and instructors who had already experience in umpiring. The advanced course (also 19 participants) started with the explanation of the setting of the pools, very important for the good development of the work in the ring, and a fundamental part of the job of the Jury president and assistants.

The job of center referee and Jury president were in the middle of this part of the course. In the part dedicated to sparring, the instructors explained the different warnings and fouls, the hand signals and procedures used by the center referees, the golden point procedure, the use of the protest and medical forms, the disqualifications and different real situations an umpire can face when in the ring.

There was a lot of practice, the participants divided in two groups and many of them could act as corner and central umpires, with some of the students acting as competitor for tul, sparring, team tul and team sparring. Power breaking and special techniques closed the inspiring and motivating day. There was an excellent ambience,a good sense of humor and motivation from all participants. Thanks to Sabum Patrick Crevecoeur and his students for theirs hospitality and contribution during the whole seminar. Thanks also to the other participants for their contribution and interesting questions.