I watch some senseless TV and movies and one show that I got hooked on had a series of rules that one should follow in order to ensure things went well. One of the rules of the show was to never open the package, another was to never mention any names and so on.
This got me to thinking of some of the unwritten rules for referees. The first one should be "Always have your gear". As I come up with more of these universal referee truths, I will add them to my list, but always have your gear is pretty much up there.
I was going to start the post talking more about the School of Excellence and some of the exercises we had to run, I will probably do that tomorrow since I feel that what I am going to write about is more timely and a better story.
The story I want to share with you today was about the behavior of a parent in a game where I was not originally supposed to ref. I arrived early at the field where my daughter was supposed to play and on the adjacent field, I see a referee I knew and admired. So when I greeted him, he asked if I was available as the AR2 was nowhere to be found. So, following one of those referee rules (always have your gear), I went ahead and worked the game with him (in jeans as there was nowhere to change and no time to change anyway). I am sure I was quite a sight.
The center was the referee I admired and this was a fun and entertaining small sided game. Halfway through the second half, a parent disagreed with a call, quite vehemently. The center told him to calm down. Things escalated rather quickly and then the parent gets tossed. I won't go into details about the tossing because I try to keep things somewhat anonymous and would rather not have this incident easily identifiable.
What I do want to put on display here though is the fact that the parent appeared to do something that I don't think was very smart. I was the AR on the side of the parents and after the man got tossed, there was another person that showed up on the sidelines that looked very similar but with a different shirt and a different hat. Not sure if it was truly him or not as he was far away from me but it kind of looked like him. When the play took me to midfield (which of course was as far as I would normally go) I turned to one of the other parents of that team and asked if the parent was back. This team had traveled over 3 hours to play this one match and they were on the verge of losing the game (which they were winning handily) because a parent came back to the field after being tossed.
I watched while the parent I spoke with went to the alleged tossed parent and spoke to him and then escorted him to the parking lot. I don't know if what I did was wrong or if I should have informed the center at that moment, because I wasn't sure. At the same time, it seemed that the team dealt with the issue without having to inform the center. Not sure here if we should have stopped the game, inspected the situation to ensure if it was the parent or not initially (obviously, after the fact, it was the parent, otherwise they wouldn't have walked him to the parking lot) and then possibly abandoned the match. That has not happened yet and hope that is one first I never have to cross off my list.
Next time, more on the School of Excellence.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
End of the skirt
Another thing that came out of this School of Excellence was that we are no longer supposed to do a skirt to signal a foul that the AR saw that leads to a PK for the attacking team. We are now supposed to run to the corner flag, and if we want to sell it, come in on the end line a bit to indicate that.
I have to admit, I must be getting old. I don't really know why we would change the skirt (unless we were the only ones doing it) because this seems to me like something that makes sense until it doesn't. And there is one scenario that comes to mind where I would rather have my AR give me a skirt instead of sprinting down 10-15 yards to the corner flag to tell me that they want a PK. That scenario is when I don't want one. If I as the center, think I have a better view of the play and it is not a PK what my AR is telling me, with the skirt, I can wave them down. If, however, she is sprinting to the corner flag and I want to wave her down, I have to wait until they get there and then tell them to get back into position because play has continued quite possibly since they decided to take off for the corner flag.
I also think it might generate a bit of confusion, because if it is not a clear cut penalty in my book, then it could be that a defender behind me is racing towards the goal line and therefore my AR is just keeping up with the second to last defender. In other words, the procedure by which you come to the conclusion that it is a PK has to be good because if I miss the flag indicating the need for my attention, and I see the AR only running towards the corner flag, I could think that there is a defender or something that requires my AR to be there. However, if I miss the flag trying to get my attention but see the skirt, I still know that the AR wants to call a PK, because the skirt was only used in two occasions, the PK and the encroachment of the keeper on a PK.
Finally, the fact that my AR is so out of position, kind of forces me to comply with their request to call the PK, because otherwise, they may be seriously out of position and cannot help me with an offside or some other call. So yeah, I am not in favor of the new method of signaling for a PK from the AR. I will try and get clarification from those that know more than I do as to why this change in philosophy.
I have to admit, I must be getting old. I don't really know why we would change the skirt (unless we were the only ones doing it) because this seems to me like something that makes sense until it doesn't. And there is one scenario that comes to mind where I would rather have my AR give me a skirt instead of sprinting down 10-15 yards to the corner flag to tell me that they want a PK. That scenario is when I don't want one. If I as the center, think I have a better view of the play and it is not a PK what my AR is telling me, with the skirt, I can wave them down. If, however, she is sprinting to the corner flag and I want to wave her down, I have to wait until they get there and then tell them to get back into position because play has continued quite possibly since they decided to take off for the corner flag.
I also think it might generate a bit of confusion, because if it is not a clear cut penalty in my book, then it could be that a defender behind me is racing towards the goal line and therefore my AR is just keeping up with the second to last defender. In other words, the procedure by which you come to the conclusion that it is a PK has to be good because if I miss the flag indicating the need for my attention, and I see the AR only running towards the corner flag, I could think that there is a defender or something that requires my AR to be there. However, if I miss the flag trying to get my attention but see the skirt, I still know that the AR wants to call a PK, because the skirt was only used in two occasions, the PK and the encroachment of the keeper on a PK.
Finally, the fact that my AR is so out of position, kind of forces me to comply with their request to call the PK, because otherwise, they may be seriously out of position and cannot help me with an offside or some other call. So yeah, I am not in favor of the new method of signaling for a PK from the AR. I will try and get clarification from those that know more than I do as to why this change in philosophy.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Busted (sort of)
Up until now, I had been living sort of a dual life. My online musings had little to no correlation to what happened IRL (my kids taught me than one). I could swing away at topics that may not be politically correct to say or express if your name was attached to it. This weekend, we had our second gathering of the School of Excellence here and it was a great session. I will go into that in more detail in the next day or two, however, I did overhear someone at the class asking someone if they were the author of a blog he followed. Well, the idea is for you not to find out who that person is since it would blur the lines from who I am on the field and who writes this blog.
While I looked back at my postings, I don't think I have said anything too terrible, but at the same time, the idea is for me to be able to say things without my name coming into the mix. I try not to make things personally identifiable so it is more of a teaching aspect than a direct critique on someone. If I am discovered and unveiled, oh well, it won't be a big deal.
As I mentioned above, the school of excellence was great this go around and I am still quite sore from my running yesterday morning. The 35/40 intermittent test (or whatever it is called) is particularly grueling for me. I passed but it really took me to the limit. I will have more about all of this in the next couple of days.
While I looked back at my postings, I don't think I have said anything too terrible, but at the same time, the idea is for me to be able to say things without my name coming into the mix. I try not to make things personally identifiable so it is more of a teaching aspect than a direct critique on someone. If I am discovered and unveiled, oh well, it won't be a big deal.
As I mentioned above, the school of excellence was great this go around and I am still quite sore from my running yesterday morning. The 35/40 intermittent test (or whatever it is called) is particularly grueling for me. I passed but it really took me to the limit. I will have more about all of this in the next couple of days.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Another first
This past weekend was the first weekend of State Cup. I had an interesting matchup on a rain soaked field that was full of clumps to begin with. The ball rarely rolled the way it should and aerial play was more the way to go instead of on the ground.
The takeaway was that there were a lot of challenges for balls in the air and it was a foul filled match. The away team immediately started complaining. The coach and the players (but strangely not the parents) were from the first minute complaining about this contact or another. Not 10 minutes into the game, I had to tell the orange team's defender (the away team) that he was "out of conversations" with me as I had already heard enough of him.
The two stories that I thought were interesting to take away from this match were these:
At midway through the second half, score is 1-0 for black and orange gets fouled. Black had committed more fouls but not by much. The foul is close to the orange coach so he asks me "how many fouls before we have a card? They are fouling a lot more than us and we both have a yellow card." He was right in that black had more fouls but it was not nearly what he must have been thinking. I had lost count when the foul count was 6-5 in favor of black. So I reply "Coach, the foul count is 11-8 so both teams are committing a lot of fouls. Not sure we want to card for every foul here on out." So he says half under his breath, "Foul counts? Who counts fouls?" as he turns away. It was kind of a gutsy move on my end, because I was not really sure what the foul count really was but I knew black had a couple more at least. That did quiet him down and left him to think that his team had also fouled.
The second thing was that during the first half, the AR alerts me to an orange player with incorrect equipment. The player had come on as a sub about 5 minutes ago and it turns out he had no shin guards. So I instruct him to step off the field and get his shin guards on. No card given at the time. He steps off, and his coach says to me, "But I don't want to sub him". I reply, "Coach, play with 10 until he is ready to come back in." The orange team takes a throw in and the ball eventually goes out again for another orange throw in. The player finishes putting on his shin guards and runs onto the field again as his teammate is about to throw the ball in. I guess he forgot about the whole being beckoned to come on thing and while I agree that the entering the field without permission is probably a silly yellow card to give in most cases, he earned one with me at that moment. I blew my whistle and said to the orange player "You have to wait until I tell you it is ok to come back onto the field." "Oh, ok, I guess I wasn't thinking." And there we have my first entering the field of play without permission card. Almost 8 years after I started reffing, we still have firsts.
The takeaway was that there were a lot of challenges for balls in the air and it was a foul filled match. The away team immediately started complaining. The coach and the players (but strangely not the parents) were from the first minute complaining about this contact or another. Not 10 minutes into the game, I had to tell the orange team's defender (the away team) that he was "out of conversations" with me as I had already heard enough of him.
The two stories that I thought were interesting to take away from this match were these:
At midway through the second half, score is 1-0 for black and orange gets fouled. Black had committed more fouls but not by much. The foul is close to the orange coach so he asks me "how many fouls before we have a card? They are fouling a lot more than us and we both have a yellow card." He was right in that black had more fouls but it was not nearly what he must have been thinking. I had lost count when the foul count was 6-5 in favor of black. So I reply "Coach, the foul count is 11-8 so both teams are committing a lot of fouls. Not sure we want to card for every foul here on out." So he says half under his breath, "Foul counts? Who counts fouls?" as he turns away. It was kind of a gutsy move on my end, because I was not really sure what the foul count really was but I knew black had a couple more at least. That did quiet him down and left him to think that his team had also fouled.
The second thing was that during the first half, the AR alerts me to an orange player with incorrect equipment. The player had come on as a sub about 5 minutes ago and it turns out he had no shin guards. So I instruct him to step off the field and get his shin guards on. No card given at the time. He steps off, and his coach says to me, "But I don't want to sub him". I reply, "Coach, play with 10 until he is ready to come back in." The orange team takes a throw in and the ball eventually goes out again for another orange throw in. The player finishes putting on his shin guards and runs onto the field again as his teammate is about to throw the ball in. I guess he forgot about the whole being beckoned to come on thing and while I agree that the entering the field without permission is probably a silly yellow card to give in most cases, he earned one with me at that moment. I blew my whistle and said to the orange player "You have to wait until I tell you it is ok to come back onto the field." "Oh, ok, I guess I wasn't thinking." And there we have my first entering the field of play without permission card. Almost 8 years after I started reffing, we still have firsts.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Pregame
There are pregames and there are real pregames. Many of our pregames normally consist of call what you see, offside is the most important thing and don't make me look bad. I know that I have had to do something as minimal as that because there was no time or someone was running late, etc. But if you want to have a pregame that consists of every possible scenario, take a look at this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4sb
This is Gil Weber's version of all the topics one can cover in their pregame. Needless to say is that it is a whopper but it covers most of everything that you can think of. I have used it when I am working high level games and wanted to make sure I covered some of the less utilized concepts presented there.
Anyway, I urge you to take a look, and grab some of the ideas for yourself so you have something to take with you that you had not thought of. Hopefully it makes your pregame that much better.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4sb
This is Gil Weber's version of all the topics one can cover in their pregame. Needless to say is that it is a whopper but it covers most of everything that you can think of. I have used it when I am working high level games and wanted to make sure I covered some of the less utilized concepts presented there.
Anyway, I urge you to take a look, and grab some of the ideas for yourself so you have something to take with you that you had not thought of. Hopefully it makes your pregame that much better.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
My youngest referee memories
I didn't grow up thinking I would be a soccer referee, I became one because it looked to be a good way to get some exercise and because my son issued me a challenge so many years ago (I believe I have written about the story so check the previous posts to get more details).
Today I was thinking of my earliest referee moments. The first one I remember was a game where I couldn't have been more than 8 years old and we were playing another team. The game was tied as far as I can recall and our keeper went to punt the ball. Somehow, he punted and it hit the back of one of our defenders and rolled into our goal. I recall asking the referee if that counted. Imagine at 8 already questioning a future peer!
The second memory was one where I was also playing rec and my father was the coach. I know the league held the games in a manner that counted (most rec leagues under the age of 12 now seem to discard results altogether, at least in my area). We were playing the top ranked team and I recall snippets of the game. It was a tough game, and the other team was quite aggressive from what I recall (I was probably 10 at the time). I recall my father arguing with the ref that there were too many fouls that were going underpunished. At one of our kick offs, we were down 5-2 and I received the ball. The most aggressive defender came up to me and I remember I juked him well and got the ball through his legs and proceeded upfield. All I recall after that was a very sharp pain in my lower backside. My father later told me that the defender essentially did some sort of karate flying kick into my back. I recall spending a good 5 minutes on the ground crying because I really couldn't move. The last thing from that incident was that my father pulled the team from the field and said that he was not going to play anymore that game under those conditions. I guess he had seen enough and he demanded that the kid receive a red card or the game would not continue. Don't recall any fallout from the incident.
The last memory I will share with you was during my time on travel. I used to play for a local club in the Northern VA area (BRYC) and we were playing another club, Reston. I recall that it was one of those really hot days and humid too. It was energy sapping weather. The winner would go on to Division 1 and the loser would stay in D2. If I remember correctly, with the tie, we had the tiebreaker. Towards the end of the match, game is tied 0-0 and a player from Reston takes a shot from distance. The ball is sailing well over the crossbar when it hits the upright of the multiuse field. Probably hit it 10 feet above it. Ball bounces back into play and an attacker who puts it in the net. Center awards a goal. Our coach appealed to the center and then to the other coach. No change of action was taken and we ended up losing 1-0.
These memories from around 8 to 11 were the three that I could recall off the top of my head that dealt with referees. Not that it adds light to anything you are doing, but it does show that mistakes and interesting things happen all the time.
Today I was thinking of my earliest referee moments. The first one I remember was a game where I couldn't have been more than 8 years old and we were playing another team. The game was tied as far as I can recall and our keeper went to punt the ball. Somehow, he punted and it hit the back of one of our defenders and rolled into our goal. I recall asking the referee if that counted. Imagine at 8 already questioning a future peer!
The second memory was one where I was also playing rec and my father was the coach. I know the league held the games in a manner that counted (most rec leagues under the age of 12 now seem to discard results altogether, at least in my area). We were playing the top ranked team and I recall snippets of the game. It was a tough game, and the other team was quite aggressive from what I recall (I was probably 10 at the time). I recall my father arguing with the ref that there were too many fouls that were going underpunished. At one of our kick offs, we were down 5-2 and I received the ball. The most aggressive defender came up to me and I remember I juked him well and got the ball through his legs and proceeded upfield. All I recall after that was a very sharp pain in my lower backside. My father later told me that the defender essentially did some sort of karate flying kick into my back. I recall spending a good 5 minutes on the ground crying because I really couldn't move. The last thing from that incident was that my father pulled the team from the field and said that he was not going to play anymore that game under those conditions. I guess he had seen enough and he demanded that the kid receive a red card or the game would not continue. Don't recall any fallout from the incident.
The last memory I will share with you was during my time on travel. I used to play for a local club in the Northern VA area (BRYC) and we were playing another club, Reston. I recall that it was one of those really hot days and humid too. It was energy sapping weather. The winner would go on to Division 1 and the loser would stay in D2. If I remember correctly, with the tie, we had the tiebreaker. Towards the end of the match, game is tied 0-0 and a player from Reston takes a shot from distance. The ball is sailing well over the crossbar when it hits the upright of the multiuse field. Probably hit it 10 feet above it. Ball bounces back into play and an attacker who puts it in the net. Center awards a goal. Our coach appealed to the center and then to the other coach. No change of action was taken and we ended up losing 1-0.
These memories from around 8 to 11 were the three that I could recall off the top of my head that dealt with referees. Not that it adds light to anything you are doing, but it does show that mistakes and interesting things happen all the time.
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