A&H

Help - Positioning on the pitch

Sharris

Sharris

Still Learning
I have only completed two games as a referee after recently qualifying. I feel I am getting myself into good positions to see and follow play but all of a sudden the team loose the ball and I’m suck right on top of play, sometimes even too close I’m in the way.

What is the best way to extract from that type of situation?
 
The Referee Store
Have you considered or looked at the diagonal?

Following the diagonal serves lots of purposes for us: keeping us a little further from ARs and closer to the un-manned touchlines is one thing... but the diagonal also helps you when possession changes hands - it helps you get "out of the way" - follow the diagonal to get into position as the next team moves the ball.
 
santa sangria said:
Have you considered or looked at the diagonal?

Following the diagonal serves lots of purposes for us: keeping us a little further from ARs and closer to the un-manned touchlines is one thing... but the diagonal also helps you when possession changes hands - it helps you get "out of the way" - follow the diagonal to get into position as the next team moves the ball.
Click to expand...

I have been using the diagonal but majority of the time the play was changing sides in the center of the park or the opposite side to the AR. I just stood still and hopped the play moved away from me instead of trying to get out of the way.
 
RobOda said:
I do find the diagonal goes out of the window when you don't have AR's though.
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I had club assistants in both games. I still tried to use them as best a possible for Ins, outs and offsides but I honestly think it made me over think my positioning because I knew they weren’t qualified.
 
RobOda said:
I do find the diagonal goes out of the window when you don't have AR's though.
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I will say this: no.

This is the Nth time I've posted this. I got ace advice from my first ever assessor. She said: practice the diagonal when you are on your own. Sacrifice a bit of ball in/out accuracy where your ARs would be, get wide to judge offsides better, and learn the diagonal so it comes naturally. She was right. IMHO of course. It really works for me. Caveat is that I have reffed my way to fitness and happily do 10km a game (7-8km for 70 min games with no ARs where I really make an effort to do a wide diagonal to get better offside views).
 
santa sangria said:
I will say this: no.

This is the Nth time I've posted this. I got ace advice from my first ever assessor. She said: practice the diagonal when you are on your own. Sacrifice a bit of ball in/out accuracy where your ARs would be, get wide to judge offsides better, and learn the diagonal so it comes naturally. She was right. IMHO of course. It really works for me. Caveat is that I have reffed my way to fitness and happily do 10km a game (7-8km for 70 min games with no ARs where I really make an effort to do a wide diagonal to get better offside views).
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I like the advice to get wide to get a better view of the offside. I’ll put that into practice a few times on my next game.
 
Sharris said:
I have been using the diagonal but majority of the time the play was changing sides in the center of the park or the opposite side to the AR. I just stood still and hopped the play moved away from me instead of trying to get out of the way.
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Well, crabbing (sideways), and backwards helps... avoiding the centre circle helps. If you end up in traffic for some reason don't complicate your movement. I am tall and when I do U14-16 girls especially there are times when it's important to minimise risk of collision. So, no sudden movements in traffic, be really careful when sprinting on fast breaks - especially as the diagonal often means crossing the paths of the players somehow... and the big learning for me... sometimes you should clearly and obviously stand still, arms at your sides. This is sometimes the best option to make sure players can avoid you and focus on the game and ball. The last thing I want to do is jog backwards into a sprinting 14 year old...
 
Sharris said:
I like the advice to get wide to get a better view of the offside. I’ll put that into practice a few times on my next game.
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...obvs, as discussed elsewhere, you have to be careful with this as it gives you extra ground to make up if there is a break the other way... but, even if you only do it a few times, it has a positive effect on match control too..
 
Sharris said:
I have been using the diagonal but majority of the time the play was changing sides in the center of the park or the opposite side to the AR. I just stood still and hopped the play moved away from me instead of trying to get out of the way.
Click to expand...
Some games are messy and unpredictable in midfield... sometimes you get a midfielder that seems to constantly turn into you whatever you do... try things... try a little bit wider... try wide at the next GK... or short and narrow so you are not attacking the drop in the same direction as the players...

Maybe you've also answered your own question there... you get better angles when you keep moving... maybe it's that you've been moving with/towards the play rather than with the diagonal or by anticipating the next phase of play (pass/cross/through ball)...

Don't get hung up on this. Two games in... just concentrate, call what you see, signal clearly... expect the unexpected... worry about movement after 10 games, 20 games :)
 
santa sangria said:
Some games are messy and unpredictable in midfield... sometimes you get a midfielder that seems to constantly turn into you whatever you do... try things... try a little bit wider... try wide at the next GK... or short and narrow so you are not attacking the drop in the same direction as the players...

Maybe you've also answered your own question there... you get better angles when you keep moving... maybe it's that you've been moving with/towards the play rather than with the diagonal or by anticipating the next phase of play (pass/cross/through ball)...

Don't get hung up on this. Two games in... just concentrate, call what you see, signal clearly... expect the unexpected... worry about movement after 10 games, 20 games :)
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Perfect, thank you. I will take your advice on putting some of it into action over the next few games and see how I get on.
 
Sharris said:
I have only completed two games as a referee after recently qualifying. I feel I am getting myself into good positions to see and follow play but all of a sudden the team loose the ball and I’m suck right on top of play, sometimes even too close I’m in the way.

What is the best way to extract from that type of situation?
Click to expand...
Are you getting too close to play in an attempt to get into good positions. The optimal distance is 10-15 yards. Getting any closer than 10 yards could get you in strife when there is an unexpected change of direction in play. Being within optimal distance not only gives you more time to react to change of direction, it also gives you a wider view without loosing the focus area of play.

As Santa said, good positioning comes with a lot more game time. Even if you know the theory it is much harder to put it to practice than the basics. Concentrate on the basics in the first few games.
 
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As a dinosaur still actively officiating, as much as I understand the demise of said diagonal, to this day I maintain its the key to positioning..
Yes you do have 6 yards to make up here and there but if you cant cope with that, maybe you are not fit enough to officiate in the first place
 
Generally when on your own you want to take up wide positions with an oval patrol path around the pitch. You dont want to get caught up in the middle, this is generally a high traffic area and more likely to get caught up in play in this area.
From restarts there are various positions you want to find.
Goal kick - wide same side as kick is veing taken from level with anticipated drop zone (the area the ball will land). Might take a couple of gks to find this.
Corner - goal line far post. Can switxh this up for short / repeated near posts/ keeping players on toes.
Defensive free kick - similar to gk.
Attacking free kick - again looking at a wide position around drop zone area or where players are gathered to help.spot any offences, fouls/offsides. Also will put in good position to get to goal line of required.
Throw ins - again, wide. Always down field of the thrower.
Following the above guidelines have served me well over my career so far.
Obviously with neutral assistants this changes radically to a more diagnal patrol path
 
I used to struggle with this then an assessor taught me "think left, get left, stay left". What this basically means is stay out of the centre circle, when you cross the half way line try and do so to the left hand side of it. That will naturally force you wide and put you into a good position. That said, don't do what one referee did after I said this to him at half time, as he then thought that the centre circle had land mines in it and comically ran round the edge. You will still need to cross it sometimes, but it did help to fix my positioning problems that I had in the early days.
 
The best position is the one that gives you the best chance to get your decision right.

All good advice here and in theory it should help you do that but in practice every situation is different and experience is your best bet. For example, being on the left of play (external angle) is what is recommended but there are times that the best option is to get on the right of play (internal angle) because by the time you attempt to get on the left of play, play has already moved to the next phase. Similar with diagonal movement, it is the recommended movement but sometimes you just have to deviate from it to give yourself the best chance to get a decision right. Positioning for the sake of positioning is pointless. The ultimate goal is to get all decisions right.
 
It will come with time, it was my biggest issue pre course and in my first game, I’m only four games in and it’s still something I’m wary of but it gets easier game by game and becomes more natural.

You can’t get any worse than my first game I’ll never forget it, I somehow managed to get myself off the pitch completely - inline with the winger I then proceeded to sprint half the length of the field side by side with him whilst I’m not even on the pitch it’s a wonder I didn’t bundle into the Lino and stack it, god only knows what I looked like to bystanders I felt a right numpty.

Having played football most of my life I’m now using my instinct a lot more on where and when a player will play a ball, I’m still probably terrible at points in the game for positioning but it certainly seems to be getting easier.
 
RustyRef said:
I used to struggle with this then an assessor taught me "think left, get left, stay left". What this basically means is stay out of the centre circle, when you cross the half way line try and do so to the left hand side of it. That will naturally force you wide and put you into a good position. That said, don't do what one referee did after I said this to him at half time, as he then thought that the centre circle had land mines in it and comically ran round the edge. You will still need to cross it sometimes, but it did help to fix my positioning problems that I had in the early days.
Click to expand...

I go with the approach of thinking that the centre circle is full of sharks. It's okay to cross through it, but you want to be out of it ASAP.... ;)
 
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