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refeire

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Not sure what the setup is in England but where I am it's expected you referee multiple games on matchdays.

Usually it is an U13 and U14 or an U12 then an U16, sometimes you get 3 x U13/14/15 games but it's rare. Anyway this Sunday I have been assigned 4 youth boys gamesright after each other.

Does is it sound like winging on my behalf to say this is too much? What are people's opinions? I'm hesitant to speak to the allocator, because I know he is giving me U17/18 games because our local assessor has instructed him to for my development. This Sunday's setup isn't quite what I had in mind though.
 
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The Ref Stop
It's not uncommon to referee multiple games back to back in England either (in fact I'd say most of us do this most weekends), but as you say it's far from optimal, particularly if your third game is being assessed.

Having the physical fitness to do 3 games in a row is one thing, but refereeing can be mentally tiring even if you have a relatively straightforward game, so having the mental capacity to give your all and be at your best for all the games is almost impossible.

It's definitely worth having a conversation with the allocator and explaining your situation. Maybe a case of dropping the U14 game and keeping the U17 and U18 ones? Ultimately it's down to what you feel you can manage without having an impact on your performance, but I think I'd be reluctant to do 2 games before being assessed in a third.
 
Exactly, I had an U15 girls yesterday, on paper a walk in the park but in reality I still had to have my mental wits about me, a few things happened that had I not been sharp enough on could have resulted in things going south very quickly.

I'd have pretty stiff calves after these games for sure but that's one thing. The bigger issue is going to be trying to be mentally sharp enough to be at my best for 250 mins. For the 17s/18s match control is almost always the biggest challenge and it burns a lot of mental juice.

Over half of our fixtures are down as Ref To Be Announced .. in other words they won't be getting a ref but they let the teams down gently. Huge shortage so they are trying to squeeze every last drop out of the ones they do have.
 
Three is too much IMO, you'll be fatigued by the third game and that will definitely have a knock on effect on the assessment.

Personally, I try to avoid double-headers. I did three over this weekend just gone, but three on the same day is just silly.
 
So I have spoken to our league observer, he has told me I have gotten these games because they are confident in my ability to do them and that I need to get rid of the negative thoughts and head out with a positive attitude.

Honestly I am not looking forward to it whatsoever. My biggest fear is that if I actually tell them I am not willing to do them then I can kiss goodbye to getting any U17/18 games for a very long time, be it 3 in a row or a single. Our allocation seems to work that if you piss off the allocator by turning down the fixtures as planned you are resigned to small sided or U13/14 girls games for a long time. I went a long time where I only seemed to get U12 girls games.
 
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refeire said:
So I have spoken to our league observer, he has told me I have gotten these games because they are confident in my ability to do them and that I need to get rid of the negative thoughts and head out with a positive attitude.

Honestly I am not looking forward to it whatsoever. My biggest fear is that if I actually tell them I am not willing to do them then I can kiss goodbye to getting any U17/18 games for a very long time, be it 3 in a row or a single, our allocation seems to work that if you piss off the allocator by turning down the fixtures as planned you are reserved to small sided or U13/14 girls games for a long time. I went a long time where I only seemed to get U12 girls games.
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Grief, absolutely zero concerns for your welfare or wellbeing. I'm fuming for you
 
refeire said:
So I have spoken to our league observer, he has told me I have gotten these games because they are confident in my ability to do them and that I need to get rid of the negative thoughts and head out with a positive attitude.

Honestly I am not looking forward to it whatsoever. My biggest fear is that if I actually tell them I am not willing to do them then I can kiss goodbye to getting any U17/18 games for a very long time, be it 3 in a row or a single. Our allocation seems to work that if you piss off the allocator by turning down the fixtures as planned you are resigned to small sided or U13/14 girls games for a long time. I went a long time where I only seemed to get U12 girls games.
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They are clearly taking the proverbial and, TBH, this sounds like a good reason why they don't have enough referees for all the games! Your physical/mental wellbeing is the most important thing here and personally I would be letting them know my limited availability (ie. one game/day, max) and then sticking to it, come what may.
 
I agree, unfortunately the only option is another league which is pretty much the same situation. What will happen is that if I turn them down they'll be given to another much older referee who doesn't leave the centre circle and is able to handle all 3. They won't have issues finding someone else who'll do them. Which puts me in an awkward position to say I think they're a bit much.

I have strong ambitions as a referee and it's difficult trying to balance advancing in my game and also dancing to the tune of all these politics.
 
Our local leagues are a bit short on referees at the start of the season. There's no pressure to do more than one game but several referees have volunteered to help get games played. Personally I'm not keen on this - in terms of physical fitness I'd be fine but what I find hard would be the mental concentration for 3-4 hours.
 
OIREF! said:
Our local leagues are a bit short on referees at the start of the season. There's no pressure to do more than one game but several referees have volunteered to help get games played. Personally I'm not keen on this - in terms of physical fitness I'd be fine but what I find hard would be the mental concentration for 3-4 hours.
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This is exactly it, concentration will lapse and when it does at the wrong moment you can have a serious situation and no AR to turn to
 
refeire said:
I agree, unfortunately the only option is another league which is pretty much the same situation. What will happen is that if I turn them down they'll be given to another much older referee who doesn't leave the centre circle and is able to handle all 3. They won't have issues finding someone else who'll do them. Which puts me in an awkward position to say I think they're a bit much.

I have strong ambitions as a referee and it's difficult trying to balance advancing in my game and also dancing to the tune of all these politics.
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Yeah, that's very unfortunate and I see the predicament. My thinking would be that in the long run you won't be getting any respect for doing all of that and it's bound to impact your effectiveness anyway.
 
Martiju said:
Yeah, that's very unfortunate and I see the predicament. My thinking would be that in the long run you won't be getting any respect for doing all of that and it's bound to impact your effectiveness anyway.
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Exactly right. How much slack are you going to get in the U18 game for the fact it's your 3rd in a row? From the players? Not a chance. Managers? Nope. Observer? Almost certainly not. Regardless of how fit you are, it's 100% unfair to expect you to be assessed on that final match after running for nearly 3 hours beforehand!

If you're old enough for OA, I would strongly consider finding your local OA league and making the step up and out of this unsupportive environment. And I wouldn't hesitate to explain to the appointing officer exactly why you've chosen to make that jump earlier than you otherwise might have done - it won't help you, but it might help another referee who finds themselves in that same position a year later.
 
Martiju said:
Yeah, that's very unfortunate and I see the predicament. My thinking would be that in the long run you won't be getting any respect for doing all of that and it's bound to impact your effectiveness anyway.
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It's all compounded by the observation in the last match, it's going to be the worst possible time to observe me.

What gets me wound up even more is that there are a number of midweek evening single U18 games. I got none of those where I can perform at my best and really show the observer how I do things on a full tank.
 
GraemeS said:
Exactly right. How much slack are you going to get in the U18 game for the fact it's your 3rd in a row? From the players? Not a chance. Managers? Nope. Observer? Almost certainly not. Regardless of how fit you are, it's 100% unfair to expect you to be assessed on that final match after running for nearly 3 hours beforehand!

If you're old enough for OA, I would strongly consider finding your local OA league and making the step up and out of this unsupportive environment. And I wouldn't hesitate to explain to the appointing officer exactly why you've chosen to make that jump earlier than you otherwise might have done - it won't help you, but it might help another referee who finds themselves in that same position a year later.
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I'm 26. I feel I'm running out of time to seriously make an impact in refereeing hence why these observations need to be nailed. Regarding going to OA, there is a "serious" OA league and a not so serious OA league.

To get into the serious league you have to be chosen (usually sent off by recommendation from the underage league i.e. where i am now)

To get into the not so serious OA league would be possible, but you will be refereeing hungover 40 yr olds who still think they are 23 and it's not uncommon for these games to get very nasty.
 
refeire said:
I'm 26. I feel I'm running out of time to seriously make an impact in refereeing hence why these observations need to be nailed. Regarding going to OA, there is a "serious" OA league and a not so serious OA league.

To get into the serious league you have to be chosen (usually sent off by recommendation from the underage league i.e. where i am now)

To get into the not so serious OA league would be possible, but you will be refereeing hungover 40 yr olds who still think they are 23 and it's not uncommon for these games to get very nasty.
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wow so different to england! i dont think you'd be observed at all on a youth game
 
es1 said:
wow so different to england! i dont think you'd be observed at all on a youth game
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Funny you say that, I have recently had the opportunity to move back to England (where i am originally from). I feel though that because of my age now making it to the higher levels won't be realistic and I'd have to start from scratch all over again. Here though it is still realistic (but heavily reliant on pleasing the right people) due to the lack of younger referees and there being less layers to the top.
 
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