In the adults games I have refereed recently, I've noticed the amount of calls for free kicks for pushing in the back at every high ball (free kick or thrown in) is excessive. It's got to the point where I'd be giving a free kick every time a free kick was taken if I were to take notice of the calls players are making and the ball would rarely be in play. You'd see a situation where it would be 90 minutes of free kicks and no actual passing.
I countered this by moving my position to be level with where I think the ball will be thrown to so I can see if there are any hands pushing. Because of this I have to almost ignore the thrower at thrown ins because it's difficult to watch both the pushing and the thrown in technique at the same time. After the first few calls I gave one free kick against the defender who made a point of keeping his arms down which worked.
It's hard when there are 2 players going for the same ball and it's hard to see what the actual infringement is when both are competing, unless you see a very obvious push in the back.
Is this an issue for anyone else? Is there anything else I could try? It was almost incessant at the weekend and I really had to think about my positioning to keep on top of it.
I countered this by moving my position to be level with where I think the ball will be thrown to so I can see if there are any hands pushing. Because of this I have to almost ignore the thrower at thrown ins because it's difficult to watch both the pushing and the thrown in technique at the same time. After the first few calls I gave one free kick against the defender who made a point of keeping his arms down which worked.
It's hard when there are 2 players going for the same ball and it's hard to see what the actual infringement is when both are competing, unless you see a very obvious push in the back.
Is this an issue for anyone else? Is there anything else I could try? It was almost incessant at the weekend and I really had to think about my positioning to keep on top of it.