Just quoting this post for a reference since I was off the boards for a long time. Do you have a description or a photo to show the current fitness test? Is it more like 75m with 12.5m at each end where you walk around a cone? I’m retired onfield now effective at the end of the spring season, but wouldn’t mind having this in my training library for cardio in the future.
x----25m----x--------50m--------x----25m----x Each x is a cone. Start at one end, run 75 meters, walk the last 25 to the other end, cross the line, turn around, and do it 39 more times. US Soccer and South Texas place a curtesy cone at 50 meters.
Are most associations doing the test on grass now vs track? Our SRC changed up the regional fitness tests to grass and it messed up some of the refs who didn't bring the correct shoes -- especially for the sprints.
US Soccer guidance, AFAIK, is that the test is supposed to be run on grass or turf now. No more tracks.
I told someone to "F--- off, I'm into the wind" after they had tried to be encouraging by saying, "It's downhill!"
Finally have time to read/post on this site after an intense spring of reffing and assigning. My assigning business has grown to 15 clubs in central/eastern CT and I assigned about 1700 games, including 2 tournaments. Also reffed 50 games (mostly boys HS lacrosse) and continue to work on my "real" job, although I was able to get my weekly hours reduced to 32 (because I need the time for assigning). One of the 3 new clubs I picked up this spring is 95% REC games. Their previous assignor is the club president and it appears his attitude if he could not get refs was, oh well....I assigned 164 games for them and only 2 were un-centered. Last week of the season, I have a U10B REC game that I just can't find a ref. So I make the 30 minute drive and do the game myself for $40. And I had so much fun. Turns out one of the teams was undefeated and was just really fast - great conditioning for 9 yr old rec players. And the other team was pretty good too, but started out with only 6 players (7v7). I watched them intelligently pass the ball back to the keeper and keep the other team running and made the game competitive in the 1st half until they ran out of gas. I could tell that their usual (kid) refs must call a lot of handling because everytime a ball would hit an arm, they would pause. And I would yell PLAY! and we kept going. The first time it happened, the kid who got hit runs by me and says "refffff, the ball hit my armmmmm". Like he wanted me to call it. I said, "yup, but he kicked it from 3 feet away and you did not move - no foul". This actually happened 2 more times, including once in the box. Did not call ANY of them as they were all very short range blasts into the body. Amazingly, I did not hear any complaints from coaches or parents. I think the old guy who kept yelling PLAY! intimidated them. At halftime, I went to each bench to instruct the kids why i did not call handling and to play the whistle. Could tell this was NOT what the coaches were used to. At the end of the game, one of the kids on the winning team is going through the fist bump line and says "you're my favorite referee". Yeah, sometimes, it's a lot of fun.
So you don’t get to run on a track AND you don’t get the small momentum starter prior to the 75M run anymore? I’d be swearing, too.
I’ll say with some confidence that there are National Emeritus (even former FIFA badges) that could never have passed the current tests. Not in a million years. IMHO they are over prioritizing fitness over foul recognition and decision making.
Really? I see some guys who a packing some weight and wonder how they passed the Regional fitness test in the first place. It's really not that difficult, to be fair although they could probably add 2~ more seconds and it wouldn't make a difference for the majority of games that Regionals do.
Law 5 - The Ref · The UEFA Executive Committee has appointed Stéphanie Frappart as Refereeing Officer she will serve on the UEFA Referees Committee. Stéphanie Frappart has built one of the most distinguished refereeing careers in modern football. An international referee since 2010, she has officiated more than 100 UEFA matches during a career marked by consistency, professionalism, and a series of prestigious appointments, including the 2019 UEFA Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea in Istanbul. On that occasion, she became the first female referee to officiate a men's UEFA final. She was also the first woman to referee a Ligue 1 match, a men's UEFA Champions League match, and a men's FIFA World Cup match, further cementing her place among the most respected referees in the sport. In her new role, Stéphanie Frappart will contribute to the strategic development of refereeing in Europe. She will also support UEFA's work in referee appointments, performance monitoring, technical guidance, and the ongoing development of match officials for UEFA competitions. UEFA would like to thank Dagmar Damková, the former Refereeing Officer for her significant contribution to elite refereeing in recent years. Her dedication, expertise, and work have been widely recognized and greatly appreciated.
I spent most of Sunday on a boat on a lake with my wife and another couple (who are both refs). It got towards 5pm and I told them I had to go ref a summer HS game at 6:45. I was told I was a spoilsport and should have gotten a replacement ref. I told them I look forward to reffing, especially in the summer when I only get about 2 games a week and see ya later. Temperatures were down from 95 most of the weekend to 75, although humidity was high and I was soon drenched. But the game was challenging and I was working hard and enjoying the work. Then I witnessed what might be the best soccer play I have ever seen in person. We are in the dual ref system (as 95% of our HS games are) and I was lead ref and the ball is passed deep into my corner. Attacking wing gets to ball first, but defender does a good job of positioning, leaving him nowhere to go and I figured he would attempt a shot/cross which would probably hit the defender and go out for a corner kick. I'm right in line with them about a yard from the end line. Instead, without any slowing or hesitation, the attacker turns 90 degrees, does a back heel flip up and over both players, right on the end line (definitely not out) and veers around the defender, who is caught flat footed, possesses the ball and crosses it past the goalie to the left wing who one times it in for an awesome goal. Incidentally, their only goal in a 1-1 final. Can't think of a better play I have ever seen. Was so cool.
@soccerref69420 This should be right up your alley [mine too]! Posted by argentine soccer fan.... Brilliant move to have cards. I remember one time in college one of our coaches was Mexican and the ref was Mexican, things started getting ugly and they started arguing in Spanish. The other team’s coach came over and said that they should speak English so he could understand. The ref called all the coaches and said, “from now on I only speak two languages, yellow and red. That defused the situation quickly.
I speak just enough soccer Spanish that some players think that I am fluent. And I remember a couple of now retired referees I've worked with who were very clearly not Hispanic but who spoke fluent Spanish, to the surprise and dismay of some players.
Just a couple keys words in Spanish really helps me on the field Side-note: It's interesting/amusing to me how ¡vamos! is now in the vocabulary of every MLS Next youth team including the clearly not Hispanic ones. I've even started noticing the same at girls ECNL and GA events. Tiktok/Instagram clips are creating a subculture
Strangely no. I mean I like to see dissent cards given when deserved, but I’m much more “card happy” about actual game offenses, namely reckless and SPA, with the occasional lack of respect thrown in. And actually doing something like that, saying you’ll only speak in yellow and red cards, where you paint yourself into a corner, is generally not a smart thing to do
Alabama just had their annual Regional clinic where our speakers were Rick Eddy and Richard Heron and they were fantastic. They really nailed explaining their topics of refereeing interjected with their stories of their heyday and a touch of humor.
Now don't say I'm bragging, because I had nothing to do with this. This week, we had our annual preseason meeting of the high school soccer commissioners (i.e. assignors) in the state. We were given the count of officials in each sport over the last 15 years. Soccer was the only sport with an increase. 15 years ago, we had 494. Last season, we had 522, the most during the whole 15 year period. Cf. basketball went from 1,389 to 1,160. Football went from 826 to 693. Volleyball, wrestling, baseball and softball were also down. We added flag football and track & field last year and cheerleading six years ago. We also added another state championship game for this fall. We have six classifications but the three smallest classifications (1A,2A, 3A) have all been lumped together in the past. This year, there are enough schools with boys' teams in the largest of the three smallest classifications, so we will have five boys state championships and four girls. Before anyone screams sex discrimination, the problem is that very few of the 1A schools have a girls' team. 1A is high schools, 9-12, with 64 students or less. Any girls that want to play in that classification play on the "boys'" team. Always fun to do the 1A coed games. Usually, the entire home student body is at the game. There is always one boy who knows that he's the greatest player on the field, and he plays that way. Until some girl comes in and takes the ball away from him....... I once had a girl playing left back for her 1A team, so right near me on the dual. After a while, I realized why she had to play left back. She had a glass left eye. And there were three boys on the bench who weren't good enough to beat out a one-eyed girl for a starting position. You go, girl!