Refereeing Workshop – Self Assessment – 18/19 Jan 2008

[chickenfeet]

As part of the process of becoming a qualified referee I am required to journal a number of activities. I figured I'd post them here too in case anyone was interested.

This was the intro workshop at Northern run by Dan Gana.

It was quite different from my expectation. I expected something more didactic, less philosophical and less hands on. I wasn't prepared on the Friday to be running about. It turned out to be more challenging and more valuable than I expected.

The relatively theoretical parts dealing with the Laws, philosophy of the game, player management etc I found relatively easy. I know this stuff. I probably bleed it. A perfect score on the final evaluation test wasn't a surprise.

The 'ghost' refereeing exercises were much harder. It's not easy to relate what one would really do in real life with a real situation and real players to talking to a bunch of cones in the gym but I did come away with some areas I really need to think about.

1.Positioning and moving between phases. It's not obvious.
2.Body position that ensures that one can see as much as possible.
3.Confident, authoritative body language.
4.Ensuring communication is concise.
5.Making that damn whistle sound right.

I need to think hard about fitness. Dan, rightly, stressed being “fit to ref” rather than “reffing to get fit”. I have to manage my fitness goals within the limitations of what accumulated injuries allow me to do but I probably need to be a bit more ambitious than I thought I was going to be. This is my biggest area of concern.

This is a process. Besides reffing some games I need to complete eleven more refereeing related activities before I get my level 2 certification. I need to start planning for that.

Comments

[topicaltim.livejournal.com]

The positioning thing is probably what impresses me most about the best refs, and that they aren't constantly being bulldozed by some sixteen stone centre running onto a cunningly disguised inside pass. That, and the ability to know when the yellow cards need to come out to provide the best spectacle.

Nigel Owens was very good in today's Munster vs. Wasps game. Dallaglio used his post-match interview to give a critique of his performance, which was not totally appreciative. Could this be in any way connected with him spending ten minutes in the bin himself? I think we should be told.