When are you ready?

[Laggard]

How do I know if I'm in sufficient shape to line or center a match. I'm grade 8.

Thanks

[Alberto]

How do I know if I'm in sufficient shape to line or center a match. I'm grade 8.

Thanks

You've given insufficient information to furnish a response.

Firstly, you need to define the age of the players you are looking to referee.

Secondly, are you in good physical shape. Do you practice a regular conditioning program? Do you run? Are you around your ideal weight? Have you taken a physical and spoken to your doctor regarding they type of physical activity you plan on performing.

Generally speaking if you are in good physical condition you should be able to referee any U10 and under matches.

What is more important is gaining experience refereeing younger kids before graduating to older youth.

[Laggard]

Well, since I'm new, I should limit myself to U10 matches. I'm 6'0, 208lb. I'm close to my ideal weight and in decent shape. I run four times a week.

I realize it's a difficult question to answer. I was looking for some type of benchmark. e.g. if you can hoof it up and down the field 40 times without keeling over, you should be ok.

[Alberto]

Well, since I'm new, I should limit myself to U10 matches. I'm 6'0, 208lb. I'm close to my ideal weight and in decent shape. I run four times a week.

I realize it's a difficult question to answer. I was looking for some type of benchmark. e.g. if you can hoof it up and down the field 40 times without keeling over, you should be ok.

If you can run at a normal jog 40 times up and down a regulation field say 100-120 yards long without stopping for air you are in terrific shape. That's between 4000-4800 yards or almost 3 miles! Remember with as much running as we do, there are many stoppages in play that allow us and the players to recover. Go out pace yourself, remember it's not a race to keep even with the strikers. It's about staying close to the ball and play. Most important it's about keeping the game fair for the players enjoyment. Have fun.

Please write back and tell us of your first match experience we love to read about it.

[Laggard]

Please write back and tell us of your first match experience we love to read about it.

That's assuming I get up the nerve to actually do it.

Thanks

[IASocFan]

I'm about your size and am 60 years old. I'm fit enough to do high school games. It sounds like a bigger issue may be confidence. What levels have you played or coached or even watched? How is your foul recognition. If your soccer experience warrants it, I'd start out with a U12 or U14. My first game was a jr. high game. I was coaching a jr. high team at the time, so I knew what to expect in terms of skills, tactics, etc.

[Laggard]

Never coached or played. I watch a lot of English, German and Dutch football. Since getting my ref license I've paid much more attention to the center official. It's tough to pick out fouls on TV though.

My biggest fear is of losing control of the game. Not really of the game turning into a 11 on 11 fight but more a fear of freezing up and forgetting what the hell to do.

[Ref Flunkie]

Shoot with some of the refs we have in that age range by us...if you can walk you are in good enough shape. What I recommend is to start as low as you want (something that wont bore you to death) and work your way up doing games in older and older age groups. Eventually you will reach an age group you think of as your "limit". I pretty much stick to centering U-14 and below (besides some adult games, but those are a different kettle of fish IMHO), but I will AR anything. You'll eventually find your comfort zone, which I would stick with until you have some desire to upgrade or something. It also depends how much crap you want to put up with and how much time you want to invest, which is the main reason I stick to the age groups that I do.

[nsa]

How do I know if I'm in sufficient shape to line or center a match.Do as many lines as you can to observe the realities of match control at the youth/amateur level. Be honest with the CR about your newness to the job so that she/he will give you extra guidance and coverage.

As far as fitness, just remember that if you blow the whistle then the players will stop running. :)

[Crowdie]

Here is some of the advice I have been given over the years that I have found useful so I hope you find them useful as well:

* To young players on a Saturday morning every game is a World Cup final so referee it as such.

* Fitness is important but it is not the most important thing. If you can't identify what is a foul then it doesn't matter if you are five or fifty metres away from the incident - you will not get it right.

* New referees run too much. It is more important to be at the right angle and fifteen metres away then be at the wrong angle and five metres away.

* You cannot beat the experience of senior referees. Use every chance to train with them and ask them questions.

Hope that gives you some food for thought. At some point you have to go out into the middle and you can't replace experience.

Crowdie

[Ref Flunkie]

Here is some of the advice I have been given over the years that I have found useful so I hope you find them useful as well:

* New referees run too much. It is more important to be at the right angle and fifteen metres away then be at the wrong angle and five metres away.


I still have this problem :)

[NHRef]

You also need to consider the speed of the players. Its much easier to keep up with easy jogging at around u12/13 and under. Once you hit U16 and up, the players get MUCH faster and passes/kicks much longer. At the older ages you will find yourself well behind the ball suddenly needing to catch up to the play. Examples of this are punts. You are right there where you belong, suddenly the keeper punts the ball half way up the field, now you are 50 yards behind the play :eek:

Even on the AR duties speed is a factor, can you keep up with sprinting forwards? Of course experience will help you with both these, but it takes time.

Start at U12 max for center, or even better an 8v8 game. Much less ground to cover and if you find yourself out of position its easier to catch a 10-11 year old than a 18 year old ;)

[refmike]

Trust your referee assigner to not put you in over your head and to move you up when you are ready. They have lots of experience doing this and don't want to push you into things you cannot handle. Also attend any referee meetings you can find, within your club or in the wider area if necessary. You would be supprised how much you can learn from others' mistakes.
Most important, don't give up too easily. We all make mistakes but the good ones think about how they could have been avoided and try not to repeat the errors. That is how we all grow in any endeavor.

Best of luck.

[IASocFan]

Working as an AR is a good way to get started. Tournaments are a good way to meet many other referees and to ask a lot of questions. You get to hear good and bad pre-games, and see the CR from a referee perspective instead of a fan or player.

What does the CR do well or poorly? Ask questions after the game. Also it's good to have an experienced referee be an AR on your first few games. Things like body language, signals, whistle volume, player/coach management, and positioning are hard to learn without doing them.

[NHRef]

Assignors might not know or care, depending on how good they are, some just need to fill slots with bodies, so don't accept something you are not comfortable accepting, be honest with yourself. Did you feel you handled your last couple of U12 games decently? If so, go for a U13, or AR on a u14 to see the speed difference. U13/14 seems to be about where big speed changes and pace of play kick in. It takes awhile to get use to looking for what you should be looking for, definitely start with an AR slot as the first one at a new age.

We have a good local assignor, under U11 is assigned locally, not by the state and we start all our new refs at u10, 6v6 rec level. This is about as simple as it gets. From there they do a more advanced level of u8, still 6v6, but the kids are more talented. After this we jump to 8v8 games for u10-11 and they get their first AR slot with a more experienced, though fairly junior CR. When they get thier first CR slot they will get at least one experienced AR (experienced as in they have done CR). We try never to get 3 refs doing what they are doing for the first time on the same field. We have pulled local state level refs to do the local 8v8 games with two first time ARs. The younger refs seem to take a bit of comfort knowing that someone there has been here before and knows what he/she is doing (well in theory :rolleyes: )

Seems to work, we have sent several younger kids up to state level and they have done well.