I haven’t blogged for quite a while so I thought that I would provide a mid-season update.Christmas has now been and gone and the goose is on a diet!
Just before the Christmas holidays I was summoned to a meeting with the County FA in order to receive my mid-season bandings – both club and assessors. To put it shortly, I am right where I need to be therefore, without wanting to tempt fate, should the second half of the season go as well as the first, I will be in with a shout for promotion to Level 4.
Having said that, the marking is that tight that one really bad mark could send me plummeting down the banding grade scale, and one very good mark could see me sky-rocket to the top of the banding scale, so it really is in my hands.
I have just received an email from the County FA advising that “there have been growing concerns in recent seasons about the fitness level of some of our L4 referees. In particular, there have been noticeably higher levels of injury/fitness problems during the season with a number of those who struggle to pass the current fitness test which is 2500m in 12 minutes”
therefore
“the FA Referees’ Committee has decided to increase the minimum requirements for the 2012/13 Level 4 Fitness Tests. The requirement for the Fitness Test for 2012-13 onwards will now be:
· A continuous run of 12 minutes with the completion of a minimum distance of 2600 metres within that time.
· After a 15-minute break, two x 50 metre sprints, each in under 7.5 seconds.”
So, an extra 100m has been added to the fitness test, which, if my calculations are correct, mean that the minimum run speed overall needs to be 13KM/hr (or 8.1 MPH) – that’s a 7m 25s mile to you and I.
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