Tips for taking your first "higher" level game

[NHRef]

As most of us who have reffed for any amount of time have been through, you will periodically get a game that is beyond what you have done before and slightly out of your "comfort zone". Be this game your first U-teen game as a "new" Grade 8, your first non-teen as you move up etc.

As a relatively new Grade 7, I get one of these "fun" games this coming weekend at a premier tournament here in NH. I have been assigned two strong ARs which helps. Also at this same tournament is my 14 year (U15 player) old son's first "premier" level CR (U13G), where I will be one of his ARs.

I thought it would be interesting to have some more experienced folks share advice or war stories of games when you where pushing the "over your head" angle on the games. This is how we grow as refs, take more and higher games that push us, but what do you do to deal with it, some things I have in mind that have helped me:

- do not change "your" game. Ref as you normally would.
- Pay attention to player reactions to help guage a foul vs non-foul contact, but start the game out tight to see how things progress.
- CONFIDENCE. Even when you aren't, you need to project it.
- Conditioning and reading play. For me, this will be a U20B premier game, these guys are going to be faster than me and have the ability to play the ball long distances with accuracy, this will stress my conditioning and speed.

Just thought it might be a fun topic, for any level ref to read since we all run into these "challenge" games as we progress.

[Ref Flunkie]

One I have is to trust your ARs at higher level games. Sometimes at lower level games we have to cover our ARs due to their inexperience or pure laziness. Usually at higher level games with ARs that have been around, you can trust them to do their jobs so you can concentrate on your side of things.

[Claymore]

You have to pay greater attention to the "temperature" of the game - do these teams have a history? Who is each teams' "stud"?

Start out tight, but not too tight; the players will let you know early on as to what they're comfortable with. It's easy to start tight and loosen up a bit, but starting out loose and trying to regain control is a recipe for disaster.

If you see a hard foul worthy of a caution early in the game, take the opportunity to either card it or give a good public tongue-lashing to the offender. Send the message early that you're there to protect the players. They might grumble a bit, but it pays dividends later in the game.

Also, be aware of tactics. Keep an eye out for PI committed against the teams' best player.

Above all, relax and have a good time.

[ref47]

in my second year as an 8 i was assigned the top men's league in the area as an ar. talk about shell shock. the speed of play was way faster than what i previously worked. concentrating on the action for offside as players zig and zag every which way to trap and run on took on new meaning. having a paying crowd standing right behind and offering continuous comment to help you call plays was new.
tune out the crowd. concentrate at all times. run, run, run. hope your cr knows what he is doing. did i mention concentrate and run? it takes getting accustomed before comfortable is reached.

[bluedevils]

This one has been touched on already, but I thought I'd reinforce it. To me, it is one of the more important things to do when you are not familiar with officiating at a certain level.

Pay attention to the players' reactions, not only to your decisions but to each other. By watching them, you can get a feel for whether you are calling the game and setting the bar for fouls and misconduct at levels they are comfortable with or are expecting.

Definitely better to start off with a too-tight whistle, not too-loose. But be prepared to change your tune based on how things unfold.

[OhRef]

Pay attention to the "niggling" little fouls that aggravate players and cause the temperature of the match to escalate. Especially the first few of the game, the players may be testing you to see what they can get away with.
Relax and enjoy.
A wise old referee told me once he had 3 keys to better match control. Get 10 yards at free kicks, protect the keeper, and curb dissent early.
Let your whistle talk for you. If you don't like something, use a long HARD whistle, the players will understand.
Pregame,pregame,pregame, make sure everyone is on the same page.
Relax and enjoy

[nsa]

Regarding your son's match, get a (good) replacement for yourself on the line. He will grow more as a referee by working with others. I'm sure he's heard it all before from you. He needs to be able to ref this game thinking, "What do I need to do in this game?", not "What would dad do in this game?".

My son will become a "7" this spring after he passes the fitness test. When he was 13 and moving up in game level we made a point to have him work without me at state tournaments and Mass. premier league matches. He became more aware of varied styles of refs and ref'ing.

[billf]

Be aware of your own body language. When you first start doing more challenging games, you will mess them up regularly and you will catch hell. You'll even know when you're losing it. You have to stay confident though and look sure though. The more sophisticated the players, the easier they pick up on uncertainty. You have to at least look like you deserve to be there.

In other words, fake it if it comes down to it.

[NHRef]

NSA that is good advice, however I've never AR for him, he has for me, but I've never run a line for him, so this will be a first! Its actually a 3 game set me and both my sons running through the cycle!

At least until the snow didn't melt and they are juggling the schedule again, who knows what happens now!

[USSF REF]

Dfu

[Claymore]

Dfu

DFUOMF (On My Field) :D

[NHRef]

Dfu

Always a goal :D

[NHRef]

Figured I'd post a follow up, the snow we got last week, then again over this weekend really messed up the schedule to say the least. The 3 game set I was scheduled to do Sunday with both my boys got juggled around and i wasn't doing any of them with them. Still all three of us it turned out got "challenging" games on paper, my older son got the majority of the "tough" games.

I was nervous on the U20 game I had, so Friday night my younger son and I drove over to watch one of the two teams I had for Sat AM play. Game was VERY tame and looked easy to do, ended up 6-0 and I relaxed a bit. My game turned out to be much harder game, but no issues really came up. Ended in 0-0 tie and I started out calling it tight and as the game progessed (2 30 minute halves due to having to re-schedule 5 fields worth of games onto 4 fields), I started backing off on the tightness to give the players a little more "creative freedom" to attack more. It all went really well until about 15 minutes left when the tempo noticably picked up and the "sneaky" fouls started up again, stuff I had clamped down on early. Players seemed to notice the change in calls and responded by doing more. I gave the "tighten it up" signal to both ARs, and 2 YC in the next few minutes settled it down again. Resulted in a nice game. Got hung out to dry by an junior AR at one point (juggled shceduled resulted in getting 2 ARs I never met, one was in his second year reffing). He responded slow to a through ball, I shot the look over to him, saw no flag and the attacker went in on the keeper with 2 defenders in hot pursuit about 5 feet behind him. Attacker got taken down about 25 yards out, not a hard foul, just things that happen when between two defenders. I was about 20 yds behind and closing and blew the whistle, when I noticed the AR with his flag up for offside. At this point I have a foul for a kick going in, but a slow offside flag for a kick coming out, with both sides yelling they get the ball :eek: :eek: Talked the attacker out of his attitude of being robbed and we came out with a IFK for defense. Turns out the game was assessed for D&G and assessor biggest advice was to crank down the pressure sooner than I did towards the end and don't worry so much about chasing the ball as getting where play is GOING to be.

Younger son's CR went without a hitch, I wasn't suppose to be on his line, but due to Saturday night snow and his Sunday AM game, a few refs didn't bother to show up so I got put back onto his game. Went without a hitch no real issues, he did real well.

Older son, due to his schedule juggle, ended up doing a U14B (he's 16) CR Saturday. He had two very senior ARs who he told he was nervous and worked out "tighten up/loosen up signals" for them to advice him. Feedback was he did "decent" but needs to call things tighter and read game better. typical feedback when jumping up to a new level. On the BIG PLUS side, in a 0-0 game, he called a PK with 40 seconds to go. Both ARs said clear cut call and the 3 man crew for the next game (including a grade-5) all said GREAT call and took guts. Seesm the coach didn't agree though and had to be pushed back after the game

My son said he felt like he was a bit over his head, but definitely at the upper end and a bit beyond his comfort level, but he learned a bunch. Sunday, again due to snow delays and refs not showing, he ended up on a U14B game again. Gave his first YC, feedback was he should have given several others to calm it down, and had his first coach "discussion" that almost resulted in the coach being dismissed. I happened to be on the next field over at halftime when he gave the yellow, I didn't see the play, but we could see him call the guy over and we knew what was coming, but it took forever to get the card shown. I asked him what happened afterwards, he has both his sets of cards inside his book and couldn't get the card out of the slot in the book :D Assessor told him he should have one set in the book and one set in pockets for fast access when needed.

All in all a good weekend, both boys got experience at higher levels of soccer and both did games slightly out of the comfort zone. My younger son ran a line for me on a u17B game and did a GREAT job, as well as his CR.

Even with the challenges and issues, both said they liked reffing the more advnaced/premier level soccer and want to continue to do more of it.

I learned that older teenagers these days are much faster than they use to be, well either that or I am slowing down as I look 40 years old in the rear view mirror, naaahhh, must be that they are faster these days

[bluedevils]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like your older son, in particular, got some good experience under his belt between the late PK call, giving his first caution, etc. Good stuff.

[billf]

With the often confusing instructions new referees are given on offside, you need to be prepared for late flags. In higher level games in particular, you can just look one time. Two or three looks are needed on close plays.

I don't look at this as an AR hanging you out to dry, you're the referee and YOU missed the flag. Almost every referee I worked with as well as myself had a statement in the pre game about prefering a correct late flag over an incorrect early one. Did you include this? To me, nothing looks worse than a referee missing an offside flag. Its embarassing and I'd look at how you can avoid this in the future, taking into account the skill of the ARs you're assigned.

[NHRef]

With the often confusing instructions new referees are given on offside, you need to be prepared for late flags. In higher level games in particular, you can just look one time. Two or three looks are needed on close plays.

I don't look at this as an AR hanging you out to dry, you're the referee and YOU missed the flag. Almost every referee I worked with as well as myself had a statement in the pre game about prefering a correct late flag over an incorrect early one. Did you include this? To me, nothing looks worse than a referee missing an offside flag. Its embarassing and I'd look at how you can avoid this in the future, taking into account the skill of the ARs you're assigned.

Bill, point well taken and understood!! Thanks. I should have shot a second look over, my immediate concern was on what I thought was impending contact about to happen and getting my butt close enough to stamp out any problems. During the run I should have found a way to shoot a second, third... glance over. I had him in my view and didn't see the flag go up and he apologized for taking so long. Told him no big deal as long as we get it right.

One high note for the weekend was showing up Sunday AM at 7:00 for 7:30 games and seeing 50-60 parents on the fields with snow shovels clearing the fields so the kids could play!

[bluedevils]

I should have shot a second look over, my immediate concern was on what I thought was impending contact about to happen and getting my butt close enough to stamp out any problems. During the run I should have found a way to shoot a second, third... glance over. I had him in my view and didn't see the flag go up and he apologized for taking so long. Told him no big deal as long as we get it right.

Tough situation there. You dare not take your eyes off a major attacking situation, possibly involving SFP, DOGSO, etc just to look at your AR for the 4th time, to see if he has popped the flag. Good mechanics, positioning, and habits can reduce the incidence rate of missed flags, but sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.

[pasoccerdave]

I'd centered mostly U-11 and U-12 Girls, as I can come up with them, but done lots of ARs for the older levels. I enjoy being an AR for U-19 Girls, as they tend to be a bit more relaxed as players.

My assignor called me the week before a game to move me from AR to CR for a Premier U-16 Girls game. He reported the coach had been a problem the week before, and he wanted a 2nd opinion. I gulped, said "OK", and spent the rest of the week wondering what I had gotten myself into.

I got there extra early just to make sure things were OK. I expressed great relief to meet 2 experienced, adult ARs for this game. I didn't let on how nervous I was, but mentioned the words from the assignor. Turns out 1 of the ARs had been the CR for the match in question, so he was happy to be an AR here. We put him on the side opposite the bench, and gave him a hat so he could travel incognito as much as possible.

In pregame, it turns out I had met the "problem" coach the previous day when he was attending a younger child's game. We had chatted and joked a bit that day, so I felt I was getting off to a better than expected start.

Once the game started, it was fairly routine. Eventually he piped up that he thought his girls were being roughed up a bit. Between the ARs and my staying on top of the game, we managed to keep it quiet and competitive. I must say, I was able to use my nerves to keep myself focused on the game, and having 2 experienced ARs that I knew I could trust helped out immensely.

[Spaceball]

Bill, point well taken and understood!! Thanks. I should have shot a second look over, my immediate concern was on what I thought was impending contact about to happen and getting my butt close enough to stamp out any problems. During the run I should have found a way to shoot a second, third... glance over. I had him in my view and didn't see the flag go up and he apologized for taking so long. Told him no big deal as long as we get it right.

NHRef it happens to everyone. I know I have missed many flags. However, your situation could have been much worse. At youth regionals a couple years ago, a firend of mine was doing a u16 or 17 boys match and I had some free time so I wandered over to watch. I got there jsut in time to sit down and see a long ball played through, the ref look at his AR just in time to miss him put up a late flag. The attacker was in one on one with the keeper so the ref just booked it as fast as he could in case something happened. Sure enough, attacker beats the GK who then trips the attacker. My buddy is right on top of it, hits the whistle, signals PK, and shows the red. NOBODY argues as it was clear. The GK takes off his gloves and starts walking towards the bench. Then my budy looks over to the AR and he is not there. He then looks up field and there he is with his flag up for offside :eek: :eek:

My buddy did a great job and played it off with a laugh. He was so intent realizing he needed to get there he never looked twice. However, he handled it well and got it right...brought the keeper back as it was not a bad foul at all, more a mistimed lunge for the ball that did not warrant even a caution and restarted with an IFK near midfield.

This is a very good referee who will be a national in a couple years. Point being, you can blow calls, but handling it correctly will gain you a ton of points in everyone's eyes. He had no problems at all in this match and I think part of it was this situation (which happened fairly early).