Art and Science

It has been a long while since posting anything and I apologize for that.

Winter is not my favorite time of the year and did not really get to do much in terms of reffing or keeping in shape. It was kind of depressing actually.

But spring is around the corner and this last week we had a big tournament in the DC area with many of the top teams around the nation checking in. It was a great 4 matches I had this weekend with a lot of things to give to you. I won't write them all out now but I will share this.

On Friday, prior to the start of the matches, all those referees participating in the referee academy got together to discuss some of the finer things in reffing. One of the speakers, Alfred, went on to say something that really hit home for me. Basically, he stated that in the center, you are an artist. Trying to manage many things going on around you. Players, coaches, spectators, and anyone else within your sphere of influence. You are like a classical music conductor. You have to make sure that even if something is not going well, you generally move the music in the right direction.

As a AR, it is all about science. Was the ball in or not, was that offside. All that is a yes/no conundrum. There is little art, and more absolutes. You either have it right or wrong but there is rarely a gray area while in the middle, it is all shades of gray and rarely an absolute.

Just was interesting to hear the way he went about explaining it. It was a refreshing look at the way referees are seen. I really enjoyed his talk and was happy to see that the following day, he was the one who assessed my match. But more on that later.