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Refereeing/Fitness over the summer

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george.g

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Level 5 Referee
So, season is now over, and that's my first one down, started reffing in March, and 21 games down since then. Currently Level 8/Y, so restricted to youth, however moving up to do men's next season, as I'll achieve Level 7 mid-June.

Got no games set over the summer, (except county U12 tournament), and as this is my first season, I'm not sure what sort of things I might have to look to do over the summer.

Is there specific fitness or things I should do this summer, as I look to take the jump to mens football, and aim for promotion up to Level 6 next season?

I'm currently quite fit, and can keep up easily with amateur football, however haven't done 90mins yet. I've done 80 on an EFL stadium pitch, so fairly confident.

Just looking for any ideas over the summer.

(Came off with an average mark of 89.64, so fairly happy with my performance too)
 
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Strength training and HIIT is your friend. Long, slow runs will do you some good, but not very efficient or helpful.
 
There have been some other threads similar to this in various sub forums, so some searching may help. I’d look at Dutch Referee Blog. Jan has some good programs that his guests and his research have provided. I also have posted a document in the past. I’ll try to find it, but it has 100 different programs of all types.
 
I'll disagree with @RyantheRef , not saying he is wrong, just difference of opinions. Long slow runs will help build a base which is great for this time of year where you have the time to rest and recover. It helps develop the muscles (developing capillaries, mithochondrial etc.) that will deliver long term benefits. Doing these runs in conjunction with speed work (and strength if you so desire), will be hugely beneficial.
Whatever you do, just make sure you enjoy it.

Personally, I am training for a marathon later this year and run 30 miles/week in addition to 2 matches in a calendar season league, but looking to increase to 40+ miles before the season restarts in August. I've found that I am covering significantly more ground (from about 4.5 miles a game to about 6 miles) over the past few months without particularly trying.
 
I'll disagree with @RyantheRef , not saying he is wrong, just difference of opinions. Long slow runs will help build a base which is great for this time of year where you have the time to rest and recover. It helps develop the muscles (developing capillaries, mithochondrial etc.) that will deliver long term benefits. Doing these runs in conjunction with speed work (and strength if you so desire), will be hugely beneficial.
Whatever you do, just make sure you enjoy it.

Personally, I am training for a marathon later this year and run 30 miles/week in addition to 2 matches in a calendar season league, but looking to increase to 40+ miles before the season restarts in August. I've found that I am covering significantly more ground (from about 4.5 miles a game to about 6 miles) over the past few months without particularly trying.
My understanding is...
Generally speaking, the best forms of exercise in terms of longevity, are low intensity. So walking is probably right up there, along with swimming (because it's a full body exercise with no impact)
Marathon training overall, will have 'arguably' have a positive net effect on your health, but running a marathon 'arguably' causes more harm than good. There's also a wealth of evidence that people who participate in 'High Intensity' exercise, will live a shorter life than those who frequently exercise sensibly.
The most important part of any 'mesocycle', (a planned exercise regime over a longer period, such as a year), is intended/planned rest
It's quite absurd to expect Professional Footballers to be competition fit for 11+ months a year, but FIFA and the Confederations and FA's only care about the bottom-line, leaving the Physios to pick up the pieces whilst devaluing the competitions that ought to matter

Anyway, the best way to get fit for Refereeing in my experience/opinion, is to rest and then gradually build-up (the more varied, the better) to higher intensity exercise that exceeds what is expected during a game
 
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Agreed - when talking to those seeking promotion, and to those content with their current level, I always recommend aiming to be at the fitness level one above the level at which they hope to officiate.
Being fit physically helps to be fit mentally.
Of course, a spectator will sit there and accurately lament, 'how could the Ref miss that' (for example), but what the spectator quite reasonably doesn't account for, is that they themselves are NOT in the process of running circa 10KM with 20+ sprints
Of course also, physical/mental fatigue are not the only challenges a Referee is faced with, but it is a major contributory factor WRT errors of judgement
Therefore, whatever baseline fitness is required to Referee a football match, we actually need to exceed that level by quite some margin so as to mitigate the number of mistakes caused by 'blowing out of our arses', not to mention being out of position and so on
So we're in agreement on this subject :)
 
I think this article from Dutch Referee Blog is useful.


In my offseason, I try to run five times a week and do 2-3 days of strength work depending on my schedule. I mix up specific runs, but I try to do something like this.

One longer, slower run
One match replication session
Two high intensity runs (one with longer intervals like 1-3 minutes, one with more frequent and shorter intervals)
One speed and agility workout.

I do try to take one day with nothing more than a recovery activity (walk, leisurely bike ride, etc.) so I am at least lightly active all 7 days of the week.
 
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There's no right and wrong answer, it is all down to individual bodies. Even when I was at L3, I had serious knee problems and spending the summer road running would just see me out injured. So my approach was HIIT but with zero impact exercising like cross trainer and exercise bikes. 30 seconds hell for leather followed by a minute rest, repeated over 30+ minutes will likely see you right up in your higher heart rate zones and really improve your fitness.
 
I'll disagree with @RyantheRef , not saying he is wrong, just difference of opinions. Long slow runs will help build a base which is great for this time of year where you have the time to rest and recover. It helps develop the muscles (developing capillaries, mithochondrial etc.) that will deliver long term benefits. Doing these runs in conjunction with speed work (and strength if you so desire), will be hugely beneficial.
Whatever you do, just make sure you enjoy it.

Personally, I am training for a marathon later this year and run 30 miles/week in addition to 2 matches in a calendar season league, but looking to increase to 40+ miles before the season restarts in August. I've found that I am covering significantly more ground (from about 4.5 miles a game to about 6 miles) over the past few months without particularly trying.

I don't disagree with you in general, Macca; my point was only that HIIT and strength training are going to be more impactful relative to time spent doing them for the particular activity of refereeing than long, slow runs will be. This sort of is in response to @Big Cat as well. We are not presently talking about general health and wellness, we are talking about training for the specific purpose of improving our refereeing performances. As a result, I tend to agree with UEFA fitness trainer Werner Leuthard who says that HIIT for 30 minutes is absolutely the best way for professional and amateur referees to improve their fitness for refereeing in a way which requires less time commitment, which is important for those of us who have wives, kids, and work diverting our attention away from football.
 
Fitness activities over the summer
  • Go to the beach
  • Play your favourite sport
  • Ride a bike
  • Climb a rock
  • Walking
  • Cycling
These might be helpful for your summer plan. Plan your activities with the right planning. These activities can be both enjoyable and effective for fitness.
 
@george.g Thanks for posting! I'm similarly finishing up my first season and have a big focus on fitness moving forward.

I've had ACL reconstructions in both my knees after a competitive soccer career and have had my share of lower back problems. So I'm coming at fitness from the POV of:
  • slow and steady improvement
  • stay as injury-free as possible
  • focus on keeping knees and back happy
  • keep the majority of lower-back and knee impact to match days
Of course we all have different histories so we'll all approach fitness differently.

But given my history, here's what I plan to do...
  • [2-3 days/week] Cardio: spin bike (interval training) + lap swimming (half lap easy, half lap hard, repeat)
  • [1-2 days/week] Strengthening: body (and light-to-medium) weight exercises focused mostly on hip, lower body and abdominal strengthening
  • [1-2 days/week] Yoga: great for flexibility and strengthening all the little stabilizer muscles you didn't know you had
  • [1-2 days/week] Walking/running: haven't totally decided on this schedule yet but will mostly be rucking with a weighted vest and doing long walks. Might try to get in 1x sprint workout every week just to keep my legs used to some running impact while keeping them recovering from a season of impact at the same time. Will do all my running on grass to reduce the impact.
  • [7 days/week] Diet: keep a bit focus on diet and remain under 200lbs. I'm 6'2 and used to be a heavy weight lifter (was 230lbs ~1 year ago but now down to 198lbs after stopping with the heavy weights).
Some other opinions that folks may agree or disagree with:
  • I'm not sure how effective steady-state cardio is (running x miles, biking x miles, etc) for practical referee training. Getting your heart rate up and down is how you'll improve referee performance. That's why I'll do spin and my swims will be one half lap easy, one half lap hard, repeat. You're never really running steadily while refereeing so why train like that.
  • Strength training is definitely important and muscle mass will help you stay healthy as you get older. But I don't think any kindof heavy weight training will be helpful for refereeing. The more muscle you put on, the higher your mass and the more weight you have to move around the pitch for 90 minutes. IMO, much better to focus on body weight and light-weighted exercises to train your muscles to work hard but not gain much mass.
  • I agree with others that HIIT workouts are great in general but I don't do much of them because most of them involve movements that are just not ideal for my knees and back. No burpees for me haha. If your body reacts well to this stuff and you're maintaining good form/posture with it, go for it.
  • Diet really is an underrated weapon for fitness. Haven't seen it mentioned in any other comment and I'm surprised. A good diet leads to lower body fat and makes it easier to move around the pitch. Everybody does this differently but what worked well for me personally was 1. CICO (Calories In Calories Out), 2. Using the Lose It app + scale to track & weigh food, and 3. This book. Been live changing.
Also here's the FIFA fitness test. It's what we'll have to pass at some point if we continue to move up so good to keep in mind it's what you'll eventually need to be training for!

Hope this helps :)
 
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