Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22
A passion for teaching runs in my family. Apart from being a referee and coach, my father Bill Stewart Jr. was a teacher for many years at the English High School in Boston. My dad used to say that he taught to coach and coached to teach; something that I came to draw upon as a source of guidance and inspiration in my adult life.
There is nothing I love doing more than coaching to teach, especially where young hockey officials are concerned. This past weekend, overlapping with a USA Hockey clinic, I worked with 40 aspiring officials in Princeton, NJ. I brought my son along with me. We both had a great time. The campus at the Princeton School is first-rate and the historic Hobey Baker Rink at Princeton remains a hallowed grounds for hockey. It was also neat to see the trophy cases the northwest corner of the lobby honoring Hobey Baker and Patty Kazmaier.
Collectively, the young officials with whom I worked at the camp were in very good physical condition and eager to learn. I taught these officials the same way did the young officials with whom I worked Russia, using the Accordians, Bananas, and Telescopes terminology as descriptors of specific skating techniques. Some of the young men laughed at the terms but they are sure to remember them, and that's the whole idea.
During my lifetime, I also did some school teaching. I taught for awhile in between the end of my playing days and the start of officiating career. Working in an inner-city school with a melting pot of students of various minority groups, I used to make up little educational games to engage the students. Our favorite game was to collectively pick a work out of the dictionary and challenge me to correctly define what it means in plain English.
Sometimes they stumped me but I was usually able to figure it out what the word means by breaking it down into different parts. I specifically remember one time the word they located was sphagnometer.
"Well, a meter is something that measures," I said. "So now we need to figure out what a sphagnometer measures. Let's look at first part of the first. I don't think we are measuring spaghetti here, right?"
Several students laughed.
"OK, so the other word here comes from sphygmos, which means pulse. So this meter is probably a device that measures your blood pressure or pulse."
From there, I explained that when something looks too complicated to understand, the best thing to do is to simplify it by breaking it down into small parts and starting with the segments that you do know to figure out what you don't know. We'd then move on to other examples.
In principle, the way that I instruct officials is not all that different from teaching in the classroom or doing public speaking. Break complicated topics down into simple, easily remembered terminology and concepts. Use a lot repetition of these simple ideas and then summarize at the end how you put these pieces together to solve a larger puzzle.
I felt good at the end of the session in Princeton. I think the attendees were glad they came and their energy and enthusiasm was great to see. I believe my dad would have been proud.
************************************************************************
Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.
Today, Stewart is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC.
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.