Hotel room musings
Here I am, sat on my own in a hotel room ahead of tomorrows referee course.
Why am I writing a blog post about another reffing course? Well this is the start of my journey from national B to national A badge. Will I ever get there? Hopefully, but I have to go through appropriate training.
An email arrived a while back inviting me to to take part in the A programme. To me, that's a huge compliment from the UK chiefs of refereeing, they have identified me as having potential to to progress to holding the highest (in terms of ability) BJA reffing award.
I'm sat here thinking of occasions when coaches have (incorrectly) tried to explain rules to me when I've been at an event as a coach or player. I'm also thinking of a recent conversation in a Facebook thread where a couple of (all be it national level) coaches were waxing lyrical about how refs don't know Judo. How it seemed said coaches clearly had a someone derisory opinion of referees and their Judo knowledge/ability.
I've lost count of the number of time I've seen posts online (Facebook or elsewhere) suggesting coaches know more about Judo than referees. What so many people seem to miss is that in order to be a referee you have to put effort into staying up to date with rules of the game of Judo and the current interpretation of those rules.
It's easy from the sidelines to say "that decision was wrong". Indeed it might have been. What people saying that fail to recognise is that the wrong decision may have been one of only a couple during the day. Referees are making decisions all day.... score or not, penalty or not etc etc if only a couple of those decisions are "wrong" in a day, I'd say that's pretty good going.
I would sincerely love to see some of these "I know better than refs" coaches put a blazer on and have a go at reffing. Perhaps then they would have half a chance of understanding the thought process of so many ref decisions.
Maybe it would do these coaches well to remember a large proportion of refs are also coaches and players.
Tonight I am relaxing ahead of another referee training course. One of those courses that so many seem to question whether refs actually do. Yes, we do. By all means disagree, but to suggest coaches know the rules better than refs (at equivalent level) is laughable. I've even seen it suggested coaches do more training on rules than refs, I don't know in what world that person thought that was even remotely plausible. Yes, I have been incorrectly 'corrected' on several occasions by said coaches.
I digress, enough of my "coaches rant about refs, I'm going to rant about coaches" digression. I both coach and ref, I understand where some of these opinions come from, however all said and done one has to accept a decision. That's sport.
Now... tomorrow. Starting my training for national A ref badge.
It's a scary step up. Not least of which is it means I will likely be expected to take on more ref leadership type responsibilities in the Yorkshire & Humberside area, it will also mean I'll be more involved with top (national) level competition and thus be more exposed to those top level coaches that hold opinions about refs as described earlier.
I need to develop an appropriate way to deal with those coaches that look down on refs and handle them in a way that comes across as respectful, regardless of my actual view of such people in the Judo community.
In general I'm pretty good at biting my tongue, letting the other party feel they "won" the discussion. Will I be able to continue with that when someone is questioning my professional (unpaid) opinion?
I can but hope!
Why am I writing a blog post about another reffing course? Well this is the start of my journey from national B to national A badge. Will I ever get there? Hopefully, but I have to go through appropriate training.
An email arrived a while back inviting me to to take part in the A programme. To me, that's a huge compliment from the UK chiefs of refereeing, they have identified me as having potential to to progress to holding the highest (in terms of ability) BJA reffing award.
I'm sat here thinking of occasions when coaches have (incorrectly) tried to explain rules to me when I've been at an event as a coach or player. I'm also thinking of a recent conversation in a Facebook thread where a couple of (all be it national level) coaches were waxing lyrical about how refs don't know Judo. How it seemed said coaches clearly had a someone derisory opinion of referees and their Judo knowledge/ability.
I've lost count of the number of time I've seen posts online (Facebook or elsewhere) suggesting coaches know more about Judo than referees. What so many people seem to miss is that in order to be a referee you have to put effort into staying up to date with rules of the game of Judo and the current interpretation of those rules.
It's easy from the sidelines to say "that decision was wrong". Indeed it might have been. What people saying that fail to recognise is that the wrong decision may have been one of only a couple during the day. Referees are making decisions all day.... score or not, penalty or not etc etc if only a couple of those decisions are "wrong" in a day, I'd say that's pretty good going.
I would sincerely love to see some of these "I know better than refs" coaches put a blazer on and have a go at reffing. Perhaps then they would have half a chance of understanding the thought process of so many ref decisions.
Maybe it would do these coaches well to remember a large proportion of refs are also coaches and players.
Tonight I am relaxing ahead of another referee training course. One of those courses that so many seem to question whether refs actually do. Yes, we do. By all means disagree, but to suggest coaches know the rules better than refs (at equivalent level) is laughable. I've even seen it suggested coaches do more training on rules than refs, I don't know in what world that person thought that was even remotely plausible. Yes, I have been incorrectly 'corrected' on several occasions by said coaches.
I digress, enough of my "coaches rant about refs, I'm going to rant about coaches" digression. I both coach and ref, I understand where some of these opinions come from, however all said and done one has to accept a decision. That's sport.
Now... tomorrow. Starting my training for national A ref badge.
It's a scary step up. Not least of which is it means I will likely be expected to take on more ref leadership type responsibilities in the Yorkshire & Humberside area, it will also mean I'll be more involved with top (national) level competition and thus be more exposed to those top level coaches that hold opinions about refs as described earlier.
I need to develop an appropriate way to deal with those coaches that look down on refs and handle them in a way that comes across as respectful, regardless of my actual view of such people in the Judo community.
In general I'm pretty good at biting my tongue, letting the other party feel they "won" the discussion. Will I be able to continue with that when someone is questioning my professional (unpaid) opinion?
I can but hope!
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