One large complex of fields near where I ref dictates that every fourth game should be run as a reverse in order to keep the lines from getting run down too much. Not sure that many folks abide by that.
Try doing on your maintenance assessment. When you hadn't planned on doing it but your AR's lined themselves up for it. And the players just want to get started. Ninety seconds in, AR2 gives me the "I screwed up, didn't I?" look.
Not on an assessment, but I would be lying if I said we haven't sprung a surprise reverse on a referee once or twice.
I would run a reverse diagonal from time to time, even when not needed, if it was looking to be an "easy" game. I think the practice was a good experience for when I needed to use it. Granted, it's was only needed once or twice a year. But better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and not be prepared. There were two things I noticed. First, looking the wrong way for the AR. "I could have sworn it was offside - where's the flag? Where's the AR? Oh, over my other shoulder." And the other was that I would tend to drift back into the regular diagonal pattern - I'd choose the wrong way to move out of the way of play - and end up right next to my AR. As an AR, there's not much different except I would tend to signal goal kicks with the wrong hand.
I'm reminded of the ref around here years ago who frequently switched diagonals at half time. Kept him and us ARs sharp.
We do primarily two-man crews for sophomore games in my current town, but when I first officiated I always did rights/reverses for my sophomore centers and for a number of my small-school girls and younger kids centers. I always wanted to be ready for the time I would have to run a right in a U19 or high school playoff game (which I have had to do before).
I've only suggested running a reverse twice, each for those very same reasons... sun on a Dual, mud on DSC. Got a similar response. On the dual, the stadium structure blocked the sun except in my primary quad. I was looking straight into it during any action at my end... OS was a bear to track... wore billed hat + sunglassess and still got a shoulder cramp from having to hold my arm/hand up the whole 1st half to block it's glare . Defenders missed a cross coming in more than once...
Nor have I. A mystery. Only thing I've been able to come up with is it gives us an equal opportunity to suffer the verbal slings and arrows of the coaches.
I'll take it one step further. My brother and I have done this on lower level high school games when we were bored. We would rotate positions in a dual system during the game. The best time to do this would be on a goal kick or a corner kick. We would try to rotate once around the field each half. This probably isn't for everybody, but it was fun for us. It kept things interesting in a otherwise dull game.
By "thing", do you mean it's no big deal to reverse, or asking why some do it regularly? My reading comp isn't always 100%... Trying to remember back when studying for NFHS... it might have actually been a recommended procedure when running a dual. Locally, we don't do it, but I wouldn't mind if we did.
I believe it is a NFHS recommendation. I remember being surprised by that since none of the senior guys ever mentioned it when I started out. I've never seen it done.
We don't switch on duals, period. R1 is assigned to that position by the assignor for a reason, at least the way our assignors work. As far as the bench side referee 'suffering the slings and arrows' of the coaches, I've got something yellow in my pocket that will solve that problem. And I'm definitely not going to just listen to it for even a half, much less the whole game.
Same here, but in my rookie HS season I was given the R1 option several times by the senior ref just before kickoff... thought it was cool the SR's were giving me the opportunity... then finally realized it was only happening on early evening games when R1 had to face westward...
And sometimes it's because the senior ref has worked with that coach enough to know he'd rather be on the far side of the field.
Did two adult games on Sunday morning. My center was division 8 of 8 in open play. Only two interesting things happened; 1) An attacker takes a shot that just barely deflects off a defender before going out for a corner. The attacker starts yelling, "He touched it! He touched it!" before turning around, seeing me inside the PA, less than 3 yards away, and finishing with, "Oh, you're right there." 2) A wing mid who was probably the youngest person on the field went in for a 'slide tackle' by jumping, leaving both his feet, and thrusting forward with the bottom of one foot. It was very orange and if he'd done more than just graze the opponent, he would have been off. I think this is a theme for him because for the rest of the game, any time he went in for a tackle, his teammates would yell at him to be careful.
Here we have always switched duals at half time. The stated reason was so that you would only have to listen to the coach or fans for half the game. At one point, we were encouraged to switch duals at a dead ball about halfway through each half! That didn't last too long as a practice.
Maybe the next step is to adopt the basketball mode, which (more or less) has a switch at each stoppage! Just think of the cardio benefits!
I know that was tongue in cheek. If I can't get my trailing dual partner to come all of the way to the penalty area on a corner kick, what chance is there that he'll come all of the way to the goal line so I can then go to the halfway line?
Justice is done. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...opponent-and-punched-referee-jailed-1.3795368 Oh, and PSNI stands for Police Service of Northern Ireland, which means that this guy had, in that previous game, punched an opponent who was playing for a team of policemen. Duh!
We cross the field at halftime. I have zero idea why. If I am running to my right on the bench side, the second half I will run to my left on the opposite side.
There actually is something to be said for not having to listen to the same guff in the second half that you weathered in the first.