A&H

Recovering from "one of those games..."

SM

SM

The avuncular one
Had a bit of a rough game on the weekend where a team high in the league play terribly and lose heavily to a much lower placed team. Home team gave me grief all match which i had under control until the 85h minute when I dealt with an incident badly. Pretty much ruined an already bad game for me, but such is the life of a lone referee! If not for the incident I would have been satisfied with my performance, nothing more.

I have sat down and thought through what I should have done better but still feel pretty low about it all, next game is not until Thursday to set my mind straight on the pitch.

I was wondering what you guys do to reset yourselves after a "not so good game"?
 
The Referee Store
Just go through the incidents that your unsure about, go through in your head and think how to avoid it or how you could prevent it and then next time it happens you'll sort it. And seek out advice from colleagues at local RA
 
Sadly the local ra is badly attended. I went to the last meeting and there was 10 of us, maybe. Past experience of support from colleagues led to me not attending for 6 months as I was pretty livid with the poor attitude of colleagues. It was so bad I thought of quitting refereeing, just imagine how crap that had to be!
 
write down any incidents I may have been wrong on. go through them step by step i.e positioning/ movement/ signalling/ gestures etc any problems ask a more experienced ref or assessor or take it to LRA
 
I am the same as you, I need to get back out before I can forget about previous games. After mine yesterday I struggled to get off as I was laying in bed running it all through my head, I can't help it and always end up like that.

I know I probably shouldn't but I go and watch a lot of other local refs at the same level as me when I have free time, see how they do things, what I can learn etc. but one thing I do is there are some that I have seen that make me say that no matter how bad I might have been I will never be as bad as him. One guy round here started a game with 6 players on one side the other day.
 
Personally, ill get home, spend an hour moaning to the missus. Get it all of my chest! Ill then do my usual post match routine, kit clean and boots, ill then have a soak in the bath, and run through the game again in my head. Next step is to go into the next game and try not to make the same mistakes.
 
get home, have a shower.

next step- I have a book that I record all my appointments in and keep scorecards and team sheets- each game I will make sure I write 2-3 positives and 2-3 negatives from each match, and have an 'aim' for next week. its very anal, it feels a little like homework, but it has helped me a hell of a lot this season. I feel that even from the very worst games I've improved as a result (maybe eve more than the good ones), and often when you think of the positive stuff you have done you realise that actually, maybe with one or two tweaks you could have this refereeing lark sorted!

I would spend fifteen minutes doing all this post game, then I would have a cuppa/crack a can of lager/sup some isotonic drink and put final score on. sit down, chill, and try to forget about it until friday/saturday next week, when I would read through last weeks comments to remind myself what i needed to do this time aorund. if in doubt, i would come on here and ask any questions i had :)
 
Supermonkey said:
Sadly the local ra is badly attended. I went to the last meeting and there was 10 of us, maybe. Past experience of support from colleagues led to me not attending for 6 months as I was pretty livid with the poor attitude of colleagues. It was so bad I thought of quitting refereeing, just imagine how crap that had to be!
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Blimey, 10 attending the local RA? You lucky, lucky b@st@rd!! Last RA meeting I went to there were 6 of us! And this isn't unusual.
 
Totally agree with Gaz, after every game I write down 3 things to work on and 3 things I thought I did well in each game. It's amazing how much it improves your game...not only are you more aware of the things you are doing wrong (like positioning in my case), you are more inclined do things again which worked in previous games, such as playing a good advantage.

To be honest, you can't afford to dwell on bad games, even if you've had an absolute shocker! I'm as guilty as anyone else when it comes to beating yourself up over a dodgy performance, but all it does it knock your confidence and makes you feel apprehensive about your next game. And it's not like you're the only person who didn't have a great game, there's plenty of players out there who have crap games week in, week out, and they get nowhere near as much stick as a ref....
 
James said:
And it's not like you're the only person who didn't have a great game, there's plenty of players out there who have crap games week in, week out, and they get nowhere near as much stick as a ref....
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I didn't have great game this weekend and made the usual mistake early in the second half of pointing the wrong way for a free kick (despite calling correctly "white ball"). A red player had a pop at me for showing one way then the other. I called back "Sorry player I made a mistake. If I had a go at you for all the mistakes you've made this game we'd be into extra time!" I know I shouldn't rise to it, but I couldn't resist it, and it got a smile from his captain. As someone said previously (on this forum I think) more often than not you will be a much better ref than they will ever be as a player. Reflect, but don't beat yourself up over it.
 
Mick. said:
I didn't have great game this weekend and made the usual mistake early in the second half of pointing the wrong way for a free kick (despite calling correctly "white ball").
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Lol...I am always doing that, even when on the line - I now make a point of delaying the hand signal to give me time to think (less than a second), and at corners etc, I always give myself a mental reminder.

Funny, it was never an issue when I was playing.
 
According to a recent sports psychology study, you should do what the top guys do and think about what makes you better than your colleagues ;)
 
And normal service is resumed after a very quiet and well behaved local match. Back to relaxed, happy, enjoying myself.

Such is life.
 
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