The Ref Stop

Advice - Trainee ref

L

LeonBradley

New Member
Hi All,

Refereed my first game (post course) last week, it was a 60 minute vet game and actually felt it went quite well. The pace of the game was naturally slower so I didn't find it difficult keeping up to the game speed. I was happy with most of my decisions but found it extremely difficult to judge offside, this may have been because I was usually in the middle of the pitch with a poor view of the line. Does anyone have any advice on positioning with regards to offside?

Also, my friend has asked me to cover an open age game this Saturday. I'm obviously keen to carry on straight away and gain experience but not sure if an OA game is the best way to proceed? Don't want to try and run before I can walk, shall I wait for the junior leagues to start in order to gain experience?

I'm just conscious that a bad experience in OA will knock my confidence.

All advice is appreciated

Leon
 
The Ref Stop
Offsides are one of the hardest things to get right when refereeing on your own.

I say get right, without an assistant giving them you're never in a decent position to judge them and you'll be guessing the majority.

The best advice is to be as wide as possible in open play to get as big a picture as possible of the defensive line. Once you've given a decision be big and brave so all the players go along with it!
 
es1 said:
Offsides are one of the hardest things to get right when refereeing on your own.

I say get right, without an assistant giving them you're never in a decent position to judge them and you'll be guessing the majority.

The best advice is to be as wide as possible in open play to get as big a picture as possible of the defensive line. Once you've given a decision be big and brave so all the players go along with it!
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I agree. I'd also speak to the managers and captains beforehand and explain it's difficult without AR's and you'll try your best to keep wide and in line (as much as humanly possible), so to expect to see the more obvious ones given rather than the close calls. Hopefully, if it's a friendly, they'll give you a bit of slack and appreciate your honesty. Or even give you some AR's !!! (then again, some club AR's are rubbish and i'd rather do it myself...lol).
 
BCMilan said:
I agree. I'd also speak to the managers and captains beforehand and explain it's difficult without AR's and you'll try your best to keep wide and in line (as much as humanly possible), so to expect to see the more obvious ones given rather than the close calls. Hopefully, if it's a friendly, they'll give you a bit of slack and appreciate your honesty. Or even give you some AR's !!! (then again, some club AR's are rubbish and i'd rather do it myself...lol).
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When I was reffing without assistants I say something along the lines of 'I'm not going to get every offside right today so if I make a contentious decision please get on top of your players before I do'. Generally players know it's a thankless task, but they still won't be happy if you disallow/allow a goal!
 
Tell the captains at the toss that you might be facing the other way when the ball is played and by the time you've turned round the picture has changed, so you won't be making any apologies if they think you've got an offside wrong.
 
Bit early for OA, cut your teeth with the older teens and move up when you need to. Hate for you to have a stinker and lose your mojo for the future. Years to do them and mess them up when you know what you’re doing!
 
Wide
Then get wider

Of course nobody can be in the perfect place at all times, nobody, so dont get too hung up on it

I have heard me say " look they get it wrong in champ league with assistsnts, what chance have i got by myself"

Clearly it wont appease everybody but any player with anything resembling decency should at least partially understand
 
Too close is just that.... you lose other stuff that may happen off the ball, trips & flicks etc.

You can certainly make an argument that 10-20 yards is ideal positioning and not on an attacking players shadow.... us slightly older wiley old codgers can vouch for that, can’t we @Mintyref ?
 
Sheffields Finest said:
Too close is just that.... you lose other stuff that may happen off the ball, trips & flicks etc.

You can certainly make an argument that 10-20 yards is ideal positioning and not on an attacking players shadow.... us slightly older wiley old codgers can vouch for that, can’t we @Mintyref ?
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Certainly can @Sheffields Finest, question is whether it was by design or were we just too knackered to keep up.......
Nearly all my matches were with club assistants so all off sides were my decision, was I guessing, often. Don't fret it, look upon it as an opportunity to manage the whingers into your little black book! 😇
As for open age, just dooooo ittttttt!
Good luck
 
I was fine in games, as age caught up with me it was the day(s) after that we’re the problem. Like a delayed tiredness, happy with my positioning and I never had Lino’s either, they got an honest guess at least! :redcard:
 
I think - and I hope - that when people say "get wide" they are also inferring that you should use the diagonal.

(I have posted this maybe three times but I will again...)

I had an assessor early on (may game 5 or something). She told me to practice the diagonal when there are no ARs and try to get wider for a better view of offsides. A wide and shallow diagonal. You can't be everywhere so with a wide diagonal, trying to get closer to the back line of the defence, you will lose some ability to see ball in/out on the far side (where your AR would be)... but that's the trade off.

Try it. Try to anticipate the play. If play is predictable and controlled often it's quite easy to get into good wide positions. If play is a mess in midfield and/or teams are totally bypassing midfield it can be harder. But try the wider diagonal - and at free kicks etc. It also does wonders for match control when grassroots players see you are actually making an effort to see offsides rather than guess from the centre circle in my experience.
 
Def wide. There really is no other way

Standing blatenly guessing from the centre of the park wont fool anybody

Something that might help sell offsides that you give tho is, if you find yourself not in a great place and are about to blow for offside, delay the whistle a split second, sprint towards a better position as you blow whistle. Idea being when game stops, players see you are in some reasonable position to have called the offside
 
Another tip. The 'wait and see before you put the flag up' equivalent for offside when you don't have ARs is, wait and see before you put the whistle in your mouth. Its common for novice refs to put the whistle in the mouth only to see the PIOP has not interfered and don't blow the whistle. Yes, players should play the whistle but if a goal is scored you have a situation on your hands after misleading the defenders.
 
Regarding the offside think its been covered to get in a wide position, all i l say if its tight and you're really not sure then give it offside, it will cause a lot less grief giving it rather then letting play go on and it results in a goal.

I always said when i was coaching i have no issue with a ref getting 50/50 or 60/40 decisions wrong, its when you're getting the 70/30 ones wrong.

Oh and stick to the junior games for the time being and enjoy, remember like any player you will have good games and bad games, don"t dwell on the bad games just look at ways to improve and limit the bad ones, best of luck.
 
I was discussing a former nightmare player on Saturday and the captain said to me that it was always his intention to be over courteous. His rational was that 50-50 would more likely go his way if he wasn’t a pain or asking for blatantly stupid decisions. He never understood this surrounding the ref stuff because refs 99.999% don’t change their mind and the especially don’t if your bawling in his face! How refreshing to hear that!
 
one said:
What do you do on a 65/35? :p Oh and how do you measure them?
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What i mean is if im level or close to being level (as a coach) and the ref is 40 yards behind play and i can clearly see hes made the wrong decision then and someone is 6/7/8 yards off
 
First time I had to present in front of customer I was a bumbling mess, you learn though over the years what works and what doesn’t. 18 years on I’ve presented in fromt of 30 consultants at a time and many many boards of Directors. It comes with experience, never had smoke blown up my ar4e either, I learned the hard way, trial and error, reffing is the same, you can’t expect to be an expert from day 1, I certainly wasn’t after 500 games plus. What I learned though in those early days was resilience, grit you teeth if something didn’t work and do it better next time.

Doing something wrong once is a mistake, doing the same thing wrong again was a choice! #philosopher 😜
 
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