Purpose:   To help maintain and continue to improve the quality of our officials.  To provide guidance and instruction which will enable new officials to handle on and off court situations with knowledge and confidence. 

Objective:   To provide court experience and training resulting in more effective and consistent officiating.

Description:  New officials upon completing their certification will be placed with an experienced CTUA official to work in a real match situation.  Documents  [mentoring packets] for both the mentor and the new official will be placed on the CTUA website, or provided at the USTA  annual certification school.

This program has three components:

1. Roving Umpire standards and techniques are reviewed at the certification schools.
2. First Mentoring Assignment.  New officials will shadow their mentor at  a tournament – minimum 4 hours – which includes a brief review at the beginning of the assignment. New officials are responsible for reviewing material (New Officials Mentoring Packet) as provided on the CTUA website including:  Roving Checklist, Duties of Roving Official, Provisional Umpire Checklist and USTA Officials Work Record Procedures.
3. Second Mentoring Assignment.  This will consist of a full day of mentoring.  The first four hours will be shadowing their experienced official after which they may work independently while under the observation of their assigned official.

At the end of this process, the mentor will review performance and make a recommendation to whether additional training is required or the new official is ready to solo. Additional training may consist of training similar to either the First or Second Mentoring assignments, or both.