And I know a few SRA's who think they have the assignors in their pocket. Ah, don't think so. Follow the money! And SRA's should not be an assignor. Just not right.
No. He's talking about administration. NAs just assign games. Some of them may also pull double duty on an SRC position but those are completely independent of one another. Rick and USSF have done everything they can to strip power from SRCs. Case 1 being taking away Grade 5, SRCs fighting and getting it back, and then USSF saying the assessments have to be done by National Assessors (who they appoint and control) to indirectly take it back.
Did anyone else read the press release of US Soccer's unwanted and unneeded "Learning Center"? The best part has to be this lovely oxymoron of a paragraph: "The Federation’s decision to invest heavily in online support solutions for referees was driven by a four-year member-led investigation into the on-the-ground realities of referees and the best ways to support them. Extensive program reviews, referee focus groups, task forces and committees identified a need for a clearer pathway for referees striving to reach the highest level, standardized requirements and procedures as well as greater support for the 97 percent of referees who officiate matches at the Grassroots level." They changed an entire program to help the 3% of refs who are Grade 6 and above. The "four-year member-led investigation" found that those 3% were unsure of how to move up the ranks. The people who somehow figured out that they had to contact their state associations in order to request assessments so they could upgrade also had issues figuring out how to upgrade. If that last sentence was difficult to read, realize that it's also an accurate summary of US soccer's "four-year member-led investigation". They did this so US Soccer could have an easier time picking who they wanted to invest time and effort into. The majority of the referees, the 97%, are an afterthought. 80 online videos? Dude, why would anyone watch 80 online videos of reffing? You can't learn to play by watching someone else do a move, so why would reffing be any different? Especially someone who is just starting this avocation. But maybe the videos will be decent and I'm just overreacting. I'm sure this is a brand new concept...outside of VA. Because I have to admit, I have no idea how referee training is handled throughout the country, but from what I've read, what they are proposing is what we already do here in the Commonwealth. You go through an online course, and then at the in-person training they go a bit more in-depth as to how to ref. And it doesn't work that well. Whoever thought that reffing can be taught in a classroom, or by watching plays, should be shot. It's just like playing; the tape has to be of yourself and you learn by doing. Their 4-year study was worthless. Damn morons.
You don’t seem to be interpreting that sentence correctly. Their task forces etc etc etc found that greater support was needed for the 97% of grassroots referees. Yes it also found that greater clarity is needed for those aspiring to the highest levels - there is nothing wrong with that. What is your counter proposal? Hire a bunch of camera guys to video tape every referee out there and have detailed film sessions? Does everyone in the 97% want that? Most of the 97% I know are guys out there for some fitness or a paycheck and while I’m sure they want to do the best job they can, I don’t think they really care to analyze their position on set pieces. Or perhaps the problem with grassroots refereeing is that the training is inconsistent. In my state it is given by a bunch of guys who have never reffed a game beyond DA and imo are unqualified to accurately educate new referees. Maybe the federation wants a consistent message out there and not a bunch of local yokels telling stories of games they did. I’m sure some states are great but consistency is certainly a problem.
I've thought for years it would be great to have a video of games i refereed reviewed by "experts" and then receive criticism that I could watch and learn from. I would love to see calls I missed or got right and other situations and be critiqued by someone where we both can see the actual occurrences on the field and not just some assessors view at the time and his/her opinion. Kinda of a VAR of the referee's job. It just takes so much time and effort I guess it will never happen except at the highest levels.
Or perhaps you can find a friend to video tape you. Every HS in the country is taping their games now. Sure you won’t get the quality that they have in the MLS but they don’t get that in USL it NWSL either. Find a friend...tape your game...I’m sure their are resources in your area that would be happy to watch the video with you.
I actually found myself taking to Rick about this a couple years ago. There are certainly some places that have way more accessible competitive soccer. That obviously makes it way easier for people to learn and progress. But with technology, there’s no reason why referees in Alaska should get any different instruction than Washington. There’s no reason why Montana should get any different instruction than Cal South.
My issue with the paragraph is that their justification for overhauling an entire system was to benefit 3% of 140,000 members (number found on US Soccer Referee Program Overview web page). That's a whopping 4,200 refs. Yeah man, changing everything to help 4,200 isn't what I'd call a smart idea. Do I agree that current Grade 8 training is awful? Absolutely. But saying "Look guys, we have videos for everyone to watch online" is lazy at best and willingly indifferent at worst. Especially if that was the best solution they could come up with as "greater support". I read that and see "**** it, 97% aren't worth dealing with, so we'll throw them to the dogs and help those who we can use on the national level and above". Actually focus on teaching new refs. Why do they struggle? Why is the positioning advice for Grade 8's different than Grade 6's? There is no reason they need to have new refs running a strict diagonal when the State refs and above are taught to "be where they need to be". Is showing a new ref what constitutes as a foul in an international game, or even a professional game going to help them? No. Absolutely not. Like I said, I might be jumping the gun, but I'm willing to bet that the videos they show will be of adults playing soccer, and that isn't to help Bobby go ref his U8 game. And if you're saying that you can't get video of yourself reffing, that's just a lazy excuse. Grab your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, kid, whoever, throw them a $20 and use your phone on a tripod you can get at Walmart for $10. This isn't the 90s where getting film was a pain. An instructor can easily get film of a local game he did and show it at his class. Gotta be honest, who the hell cares if they've reffed past DA? That's good enough for an introductory course on Youth Soccer, since DA is the "Elite" level of soccer in most areas. I don't need or want an ex-MLS guy doing an intro course. Save him for the Regional course, where his material will be a lot more applicable to my game. Who should be intro instructors if not guys who've done high level youth? Your local adult league ref? We all know those aren't really games and are more like babysitting than officiating. And most of what they have to share for game management won't be applicable to the youth game. My overall issue with this roll-out is that it is a quick and dirty solution to an actual problem.
As one of the referees invited for one of the photo/video shoots for this, I can tell you they put me in the middle for a shortened U9-U10 with a couple of staged scenarios in it. Kind of funny because I was doing U16-17 ODP games earlier that day and then they were like, “Here’s U10!” but I am 15 so it makes sense. Also ran the line for a coed adult game that they got footage of. Then they did some staged stuff with the adults. I cannot speak for what they did at the other photo/video shoots, but yes they did do stuff for the younger ages.
They have specifically stated that one of the reasons they are doing more videos so that they can spend more time in classes doing practical on field training as well. Sounds like they’ve already taken your concerns into account.
Have they? Because in DC/VA we already do what they describe. You do the videos by the clinic date, and then you go to the actual training. And it doesn’t produce competent officials. It barely puts out passable kids. It’s a paint job on an old car that they want to say is new.
No course can make up for the experience of actually doing games. I’m 15 years in and still learning. The commitment of instructors and support staff at your state level cannot be understated. Thousands of referees pouring thru a system every year, and thousands more abandon ship every year too. I’d rather do the videos and keep reading Big Soccer. Next fall, I can skip the recert session and referee that weekend.
I've actually asked a few times to get game film access, the ADs involved never got back to me. I think game film should be automatically be made available to referees for personal review.
Most everything gets uploaded to YouTube or something else now. Also, back in the olden days before the internet was the internet, if you cared that much as a ref you'd show up to your games with a blank DVD-RW and a pre-addressed and stamped manila envelope. Have dozens of old college games I got video of doing that. Would usually give to assistant coaches since they are the ones that handle the video stuff.
Apparently around here it's uploaded to some commercial website that serves all the local HS, but access is controlled. IMHO referees should have access to all of it, but apparently since we don't pay for it we don't.
You're completely reading this the wrong way. They are overhauling the system to help the 97% not the other way around. How are you interpreting this change to help the 3%?
I have no problem with re-organizing things. However, I do have a problem with this re-grouping. It is mainly to do with the Grassroots level. Grade 7 should not be with 8 and 9. It takes a completely different skill set to do an adult amateur game than it does to do youth games. There really should be a fifth level like sub-regional for referees that do adult amateur games but are not ready for state level games.
Grade 7 hasn't existed for 5 years now ever since they did away with the fitness test and assessment requirement. Has everyone been in a coma? 7 has been dead for years so it's hardly a change. You've been lumped in with the 8s and 9s already for a while. As far as the ego hit, get over yourselves and go ref. Not a single player, coach, or spectator has a clue what your registration grade is. Go out there because you enjoy refereeing, not because of some grade in a registration system. Regardless, every SRC in any decent size state will have some sort of made up grade or academy system for grassroots referees to separate themselves from the pack.
We have a few schools that will give individuals access to their videos on the commercial website used around here, but not every coach we've asked will do it. We looked into getting our own site on that system in the hope that coaches would share videos with us, but it was cost prohibitive. I think schools buy it for pointy ball and can piggyback soccer on the school membership.
I think you are reflecting the view of those working their way up the ladder. There was an effort to make a distinction between those who can do youth games (Grade 8) and those who could do adult games (Grade 7).The point was to create a place to teach about the challenges that adult games presented. So Grade 7 existed, just not in the form you wanted it to be. I thought when they made the change they should have made Grade 9 youth, 8 adult and left 7 the way it was. Now it seems they have decided those are all really the same. You may be right on this. It's what states did with the changes for Grade 7. There were flavors of Grade 7, but each state had their own way of doing it.
Our state never changed grade 7. That's the way the assignors wanted it. The majority of referees are teenage grade 8's. They don't care about being on the path for MLS and beyond. They don't want more instruction because they feel it's a waste of time. They just want the money. And I'm fine with that. The USSF referee department can't figure out why they exist, so they continue to shuffle the deck chairs on the cruise ship. The facts are that very little of anything Chicago does will positively or negatively affect the teenage referee doing U-12 games behind the middle school on Saturday afternoon. They don't know what the upgrade path is? They don't care about upgrading unless it means more money.
Here in Eastern PA we've had grade 7, a fitness test and we could not be assessed on youth matches to maintain it - the assessment requirement was on an adult game. So 7 is strict and all here. I guess YMMV.