Solutions, Part II: Relevant training for everyone . . .

    You can't help but like (and enjoy!) the new weekly observations of MLS coming out of the referee department.  Accurate, sensible, timely, the comments ought to reach as many referees as possible, and I hope someone is recording the hits every week.  Only by gauging the outreach of the message can we decide whether we need to improve the distribution of it.
    In this second part of explaining what I would do to improve the referee program, I must give credit where it belongs--to the ancient Egyptians, for they discovered something fundamental that applies to any educational system: You can't build a pyramid from the top down.  Let me explain...

A frequent complaint among referee administrators across the country is that a great deal of attention and money is devoted to training at the higher levels at the expense of training among the rank and file in youth and amateur soccer.  I don't have any numbers, but I do hear the complaints.  And certainly my own observations of officials in leagues and tournaments tell me that there can't be much training going on, because referees are doing the same things time after time.

    As a result of those observations I have made presentations to workshops for USYSA these last two years describing techniques that referees are not being given as they progress in their career: delays at free kicks, observation skills, positioning skills in the field and on the line.  And when we see referees in MLS with the same deficiencies, we know they have not been taught the essentials before getting in the league.  In other words they don't have a foundation for their refereeing, built over many years.  Hence my praise of the Egyptians; they didn't try to build the massive structures from the top down, as the federation has done in their zeal to find new faces on the professional pitch.

    The saddest case I have come across was in a pre-season game at MLS this year.  The young man in the middle had only a few PDL and A-league games under his belt and lacked the preparation necessary to handle a visiting Brazilian side against an MLS team.  But he was given the job, and at a critical moment, his handling of a free kick was inadequate, a goal was scored, the Brazilians protested, rushed the referee and shoved him to the ground.

    That kind of ugly incident shouldn't have to happen to a young referee in his first professional match, and I fault the assignment.  But nevertheless, if he had been properly educated, trained, mentored, advised and assessed, it would not have happened.  The referee stood high up on the pyramid with little of substance beneath him.

    So what would I do?  I would redesign the training of referees from the ground up.  We have to get relevant information to them about what goes on in a match, so that they never get caught by surprise as they take a new step up the ladder.  But that means training of assessors and instructors to make sure that they know what they are doing also, and are ready to impart it to new referees.

    Yes, this new weekly review is great, is much needed, and should get to as many referees as possible.  Now here's a perfect use of the email network I proposed some time ago.  Why should the newsletter be dug out of a site?  Why shouldn't it be automatically distributed to all referees?  At first it could be at a certain level, but eventually these weekly sheets and clips should be available automatically to every referee beyond two years of experience or so.  The cost is not high in dollars, but the cost to the game from not doing it, is a lot greater.

Comments

[Bruce B]

I couldn't agree more. As an instructor, after a successful entry-level clinic, I ask myself, who teaches the newly certified referees to BE referees. I get them through the Laws of the Game, to pass the exam but that just gets them on the field. It doesn't teach them to referee.

I do what I can individually with referees I assign but USSF doesn't provide the support needed to truly instruct these kids when they are enthusiastic and eager to learn. By the time of their first Refresher Clinic a year later its too late. If they had a bad experience (or several) because they weren't prepared well enough and assignors didn't care enough about their development they won't continue. Or if they are tough enough they muddle through but learn only to survive not excel.

We short change the refereeing community by pushing so hard to get them started and then don't do anything more until the "good ones" pop up years later.

[ref47]

One of the leagues (adult coed)that I ref for in the vadc area has taken steps to develop its refs. The assignor, a g-6 ref, and the league have teamed-up to use the state refs from the league and some visiting nationals to do informal assessments each week. The league requires each team to supply refs from the team's roster. They get certified as g-8s and must work a minimum number of matches. The informal assessments add to their training and development. The league has put funding into this development and positive results have been observed.

[Brenton Hammons]

Great comment! I certified as a USSF - 8 in 2007 and never had anyone take me aside and talk to me about the process. To my knowledge, I have never been observed or assessed, even informally. I have even asked other referees I have worked for (as an assistant) or with (as referee) for comments and rarely get any input. I know I am not perfect - not by a long shot, so how do I improve? I have not had a 'bad' experience, but there were things that I learned the hard way that could have been avoided by some timely advice from a seasoned referee.

The result? This year, I helped arrange rides and assistance for several youth referees to attend the USSF - 8 clinic. I have tried to talk to the ones who pass as much as possible about the 'job' of refereeing - assignments, gear, procedures, etc, so hopefully they will have an easier time of it.

If every certified referee gave back by mentoring one new referee for a season or two, how great would our program be? Hard? Yes. Worth it? You decide.

[Sean M.]

I am sure that you cannot mean it this way, but I watched the linked video and was horrified that you "blame the assignment" for what happened to this referee.

Me? I blame the players. Even if you think he completely botched the handling of the free kick, NO ONE deserves to be treated like that, and no amount of discussion about the referee's handling of the situation can justify it. It's just a game, and a pre-season game at that. The referee didn't just get touched (which is a send off by itself), he got pushed down to the pitch.

If you ask me what went wrong in this game, it's that he did not immediately terminate the game after ejecting the two players responsible.

Admittedly, I am a lowly Grade 8 making this assessment, but -- wow. That was shameful behavior by the Brazilian players and bad handling or not, none of what happened can be pinned on the referee.

[Miguel]

Mr. Evans:
What should the Referee have done? What could he have done to prevent that? What would you have done in that situation?

Thanks.

[Mike O.]

Many times, the "good ones" that pop up are the ones who invest time and effort and seek to improve their own refereeing abilities.

Spending extra time at the fields watching a senior, more experienced referee work an important match; asking that referee questions about why she called (or didn't call) certain things; working games in several different associations to get different perspectives; seeking out a mentor rather than waiting for one to drop out of the sky; soliciting feedback from ARs at halftime and postgame about things that went well, things that didn't go so well, and ways to improve; reviewing games and situations mentally afterward; keeping pages from the ref notebook and writing notes on the back; reading blogs and using online resources; reading wonderful books like FTGOTG. All these will improve a referee but they require more effort than just showing up at the field on a Saturday, working a couple of games, collecting a check, and going home.