After passing the exam, I had on my calendar to attend the class for this year. Since I was a returning 7, all that was required was to sit through the class and see what the focus was this year. As you may recall, last year's clinic had a lot about social media and why a referee shouldn't be on it. This year, my takeaway focus was about fitness. A lot of videos on stretching and getting ready for the game, and for staying fit. It is like they were reading my mind. But other than that there wasn't much in terms of new things.
Also, a lot on head coverings and what colors were allowed (black and the predominant team color for field players). The coverings must match (that is all players who wear them must use the same color). They cannot be attached to the shirt worn by the players.
But other than that, there wasn't much that I can recall. No big rule changes for this go around other than the clarification (yet again) on offside. And to FIFA now, or at least the instructors at my class, offside player involvement means actually touching the ball not just going for it, so more and more, they want us to keep our flags down as an AR, at least that is what I took from that discussion.
How have your recert classes been going and has anyone noticed a trend since we have not really had a ton of rule changes in the past couple of years?
3 comments:
Funny, I'm in Eastern NY district (also a Grade 7) and we had nothing like you describe. One of our intstructors used to focus on fitness and he retired to Florida so no more of that other than general statements about fitness.
This year's recertification was different though. We were allowed to take an online test with a minimum score of 80, with 3 tries to get that done for those that fell short. I hate the written tests and because it was online they chose a more difficult test. I have taken many written tests in my life and I find these recert tests to be horribly written almost as if they are written by people that are not very literate. They are not straight forward. Yes we have been warned about social media but mostly about backofthenet.com and mostly about not relying on the ask the ref section since their answers are not official USSF answers.
This was my first 7 class, and I was sorely disappointed (primarily for the head coverings as you already mentioned). My hopes were for more since the lower grades always seemed to be in a different category. Oh well. Hopefully the 7 gets me into more competitive games where refs seem to take it more seriously, in particular with fitness. I enjoy your blog although this is my first comment. Happy New Year!
Interesting that each location is taking a total different approach. For certification, here the minimum is 75, with one retake opportunity instead of 2 chances. However, the confusing questions are still evident all over the place. Oh well.
As for Anonymous's post, the last two recerts really didn't add much but they do open things up for you in terms of giving you slightly better games. If you are a 7, it kind of means you want to better yourself or are trying to do so. With the new scale, not sure if being a 7 means that much anymore though and the minimum for a "serious" referee might be a 6 now.
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