Trying my hand at next level of reffing

National B referee assessment

So, along with 2 other candidates, I was being assessed for my BJA "National B" referee badge at the weekend at the Heart of England competition.

The exam was split into 2 parts, the theory exam was conducted as a face to face interview with 3 senior refs (two of whom were training the 3rd to be a ref examiner), then the practical part conducted as an exercise in observation of performance.

Theory exam

I surprised myself a bit here, this was the part of the assessment I was most nervous about. I didn't need to be it seems, with scoring 19.5/20 I can be pleased with how I did here.

Practical assessment

Generally I felt I was doing well, getting some tough calls right (at least the B and A refs that were on the table with me agreed with my decisions) so full of confidence.

As ever, there are mistakes. I had a wobbly half hour where there were a few mistakes which I realised I had got wrong as I left the mat after each contest. Unfortunately it seems that was a period I was being watched for assessment as those mistakes were mentioned in my feedback.

Results

I didn't pass this time.

Main faults:

- Not being hard enough when giving out penalties, ie I need to be faster to penalise. This is something I'm aware I need to work on and the examining panel seemed surprised that someone might realise they have weaknesses. Just hope I don't go too far the other way to correct it!

- Voice not strong enough. This one came as a bit of a surprise as the players, table officials and judges all seemed to hear me sufficiently well

- Mobility - apparently I spent too much time towards the rear of the mat. This is a deliberate thing being aware of the video/judges having a view from the other side I was trying to maintain 2 angles on the action, however the examiners felt that led to me having to try and catch up with the action at times.

Not all bad, the examiners did suggest some near future dates to try again, so I can't be that far off the standard required or I assume they would have told me to practice for another couple of years before trying again. So I'll take some comfort from that.

Now the decision is do I want to try again or continue within the area only? I'm not sure how much I want to do national events anyway but moving to B brings with it some additional responsibility that I think I'd like and it feels more like a "proper" referee grade than my current C badge.

At £50 a time for the assessment however I can't afford to keep taking it indefinitely.