Effective decision-making or affective? Affective learning design in sport officials’ training

Officials in sport face a challenging role encompassing cognitive, physical and emotional demands. This is within a unique and challenging environment, where officials are often subjected to abuse, while they are expected to make rapid accurate decisions and communicate in a clear manner. The aim of this commentary paper is to apply affective learning design to the development of sport officials. Firstly, a brief snapshot of some existing psychological preparation strategies in the officiating literature is provided, then an overview of affective learning design and the relationship between emotions and decision-making. The role of technology in relation to affective learning design and considerations for different levels of sport officials are presented. Future research recommendations are also discussed on the topics of assessing and training decision-making in officiating, with a grounding in understanding in-game performance. It is anticipated that this commentary will act as a call-to-action for further work in this area, leading to not only performance improvements of officials, but also to enhanced health, especially mental health, of officials.