ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the variation of individual characteristics that influence the development and performance of sport officials, and also to highlight some important future direction for the study of sport officials. Stable structural constraints are those that are relatively fixed and unchangeable (or that change slowly with age). Examples include characteristics such as height, limb length, and innate aerobic capacity. In sports where the physical demands of officiating are high, stable structural characteristics, such as aerobic capacity, can play an important role. Malleable structural constraints refer to body structures that adapt to the demands of a task, primarily due to long-term engagement in officiating and/or training. Examples include gains in muscle mass, changes to vasculature, and changes to neural pathways. In contrast to stable and malleable structural constraints, unstable constraints are more unpredictable, and generally not a purposeful goal or desired outcome of training, but that nonetheless involve changes anthropometric and physiological bodily structures.
