tournament reffing

[timothy.stadler]

I am a relatively new grade 8 my league rotates us every saturday 4 cr and the next saturday 4 AR. I am learning alot, experience, is the best coach. I am thinking about doing some tournaments in another state. I will be there for a month. Are tournaments something that should be waited on or is it an OK way to learn/grow up as a Ref.

[ur_land]

Depending on the level of the tournament it may or may not be good for development. Tournaments are usually more intense, which means more pressure.

If you are going to do some games out of state, however, you should let your SRA (state referee administrator) know as a courtesy.

And 4 centers in one weekend? That seems excessively brutual on the assignors' part--there's no way that y'all can be doing all of the running that you need to in that 4th game (unless you are an ultramarathoner!).

[NJ Ref]

It's a great place to learn...typically you are in a crew of 4 per field where you rotate 1 game as center, 2 as AR and 1 game off...and then repeat until the day is done. One note, you need to get permission to referee in another state. Contact you SRA or SYRA to get the clearance. As a new referee, you will be assigned to the lower level games. Better yet, put together your own crew of four officails and have the tournament give your crew one field to do. Have fun!

[timothy.stadler]

True four games is alot and yes I could do more running by the end of the game but they are 8v8 and they are U13. I can keep up at this level rec, not competitive. Normally one team is alot better than the other so that slows down the running.

[billf]

Don't let anyone abuse you at tournaments. When I was just starting out I made the mistake of taking the 6-9 games I was assigned in a day because most just accepted that. Take care of yourself physically. The good thing about tournaments is that you get a chance to see a lot of soccer and a lot other referees in a compressed time frame. The bad thing is that referees are often treated like field equipment and overworked. So set some limits if you can.

[NHRef]

Problem I have with 4 games in a row isn't so much physical as mental, come that 4th game, its hard to stay focussed.

At a recent tournament here, the only "coach issues" we had were on the U-littles. while watching my son do his first games ever, the field right next to it, I had to ask the coach to come back OFF the field as he was heading towards the 12 year old ref screaming. He thought he had every right to go on the field and question the ref.

What was the issue? He thought the ref gave a throw in to the wrong team.

At the older ages I tend to see more quiet coaches, not screamers.