ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the key elements of these three classification schemes including taxonomic and two sport classification schemes, considers other factors not explicitly addressed in the same, and follows with a newly proposed model in an effort to explain the common elements while at the same time capturing the complexity, diversity, and range of officiating tasks. In developing their model of sport officials, Plessner and MacMahon begin by acknowledging that officials are an essential yet complex group of sport participants whose performance requires acknowledging the variety of demands placed on them. They suggest that four key dimensions (i.e., knowledge and rule application, contextual judgment, personality and game management, and physical fitness) explain the majority of variation between differing officiating roles. The Teaching Games for Understanding approach evolved out a movement in the 1960s away from teaching sport skills by means of a drill approach to the use of sport-related games.
