Over the past four years, a group of NISOA National Clinicians has prepared a focused, annual instructional program based on the NCAA’s points of emphasis and the specific aspects of intercollegiate soccer for each NISOA chapter’s use. The materials were distributed to the chapter contacts on an individual USB drive.  Those USB drives are then sent to the local chapters for use in preparing their members for the upcoming college soccer season.  A great deal of preparation goes into each training module that includes rules updates, Power Point presentations, test questions and related soccer officiating concepts and ideas.

The NISOA Instructional Program, lead by Todd Abraham, decided to develop a survey aimed at the evaluation of that training material.  In October, a brief nine question survey was distributed to the chapter presidents and local chapter contacts.  The focus of the survey was on the training material. Two questions asked respondents about when their chapter conducted its pre-season update and physical fitness test and one question focused on who presented the update.

Seventy-nine responses were received during the two months the survey was open.

The survey indicated:

• Most chapters schedule their training sessions in August however some chapters provide their annual update across several chapter meetings, some beginning before June 1.
• The physical fitness test is conducted as part of the pre-season update meeting for most chapters. Many chapters conduct that fitness test through a separate meeting.
• Fifty-nine percent of the respondents indicated that the material provided on the USB drive was used as part of the annual update.
• According to seventy-three percent of the respondents the training material was rated as either excellent or good.
• 55% of the respondents only used NISOA training material for their pre-season update. 39% indicated that training material from more than one source was used for the annual update.
• 71% indicated that local chapter clinicians provided the annual update to chapter membership.
• 18% indicated that the training material was very good and no improvement was necessary.
• 44% explained that the use of high quality collegiate video was very important to the quality of the training material.

Summary

Ross Meloan
NISOA National Clincian

The development of training materials for NISOA is well used and of high quality.  More than one suggestion asked that this material be provided electronically for access by all members.  Still another suggestion asked for the training material to be sent to the chapters earlier than June 1.

While 71% of the respondents indicated that local chapter clinicians provided the annual update training it is important to realize that NISOA is prepared to assign a National Clinician to local chapters to assist in the chapter update.  Many chapters were unaware that this training option existed.

The results of this survey were very encouraging.  Additional attention to the inclusion of high definition college soccer video and Power Point content are necessary for the 2018 annual update. Special thanks to Ross Meloan for coordinating this survey and analyzing the results.