International refereeing

 2024 has been an interesting year in my referee career so far.

National A referee badge

In 2019 I was starting the process of assessment for National A referee badge. Of course Covid got in the way, I couldn't maintain a regular refereeing for a period of time. So naturally I was a bit rusty when competition restarted.

I don't doubt that contributed to my failure to obtain National A on 1st attempt.

In 2024 I'm restarting the 'programme' for National A. Essentially that means as some on the programme for national A I am expected to attend more higher level events where I am continually assessed. I need to maintain a score over several events to qualify.

Unfortunately I didn't get the Irish or Scottish opens this year, which I'd hoped for. That would give me a chance to practice refereeing at a high level. I need to keep the number of quality events up (not being rude to the L3 and under events, they simply aren't the same as the national / L4 events).

International refereeing

While I missed 2 of the home nation events (Scottish / Irish) this year, I was invited to attend 2 events in Europe.

Neil Lawcock and Mick Guatieri organised the travel and event invites for UK refs, no small task that I'm glad I didn't have to worry about.

Bremen 2024

My first European trip as a referee was tp Bremen in Germany. A good level of player provided for some challenging contests as a referee, exactly what I need in my development towards that elusive National A ref badge.

 

The venue was so much more than anything we'd have in the UK, with 8 mats running all day.

 

I found I was much more relaxed than usual, the event in general had a relaxed feel to it. The Ref(s) In Charge (RIC) were both very good at discussing issues with the referees and explaining how they came to a decision in a calm way, none of the "what did you do that for, you idiot?" attitude that I've experienced with some RICs.

 

I got on well with my German and Dutch colleagues in the team. Indeed I started a new tradition of tie swapping, securing a Dutch tie in exchange for my British tie.

As a result my refereeing was fairly solid, indeed one of the senior refs that travelled with us provided feedback on my performance concluding with "....that was a National A performance". So good boost to confidence.

Venray 2024

Next up was Venray (Netherlands) at the end of May.

Another 2 day event, on day one I was assigned to a mat that was specifically for the finals (medal deciding) contests which was a slightly daunting prospect.

 

Once contests started, the room lights were dimmed and the overhead lights visible in the photo below were used to really put the room focus on that mat. 

For the gold medal contests there was a musical intro to players with lights flashing etc it  all worked together to provide a bit of atmosphere to each final.

Saturday was a loooong day! Startling around 0930, finished around 1900-1930, pretty much refereeing constantly through that time. Exhausting.

I did get some complimentary feedback from RIC at the end of the weekend based on my performance on Saturday.

We went to the house of one of local referees in the evening for a beer and nibbles. That was a lovely evening but meant I was late to bed, with getting up at 0630 on sunday, far from ideal time wise.

On sunday I was on a different mat. Teams changed but still working with one of refs I did on sunday. We had 5 refs this time, but with rotating every 3 contests it was difficult to get away from the mat for a drink.

Another long day (0900 - 1700 ish). With seniors pretty much all day and some very capable players taking part I had some challenging contests. As with the Bremen trip, this is exactly what I needed in my development.

In the UK players wear white or blue belts to tell them apart. Scores go on the board against the colour of their belt. 

At the Venray event players wore red and white on top of their grade belts. That probably won't sound like anything more than a curiosity to players/coaches, but as a referee used to looking at blue / white to mentally note who scored, when a player wearing a white belt over a blue grade belt can (and did once or twice) introduce confusion in the mind of a UK referee! 

The Venray event also had slightly different rules than the UK in terms of which category can do which techniques.  Another potentially confusion inducing factor!

All said I feel I generally coped with the differences fairly well, but there were a couple of occasions I was glad of having 2 local refs with me who were used to refereeing with that setup.

Once again I secured a tie swap, this time with a Dane called Pele (?). Once I get a few I might frame them together for the wall!

On Sunday evening the organisor of the event took the GB delegation out for dinner at a local restaurant and presented us with a goody bag, including nibbles and event branded goodies. The Brolly he gave us isn't in the photo below.

So while that was lovely and much appreciated, it meant I (we) were knackered for travelling home on Monday, another 12 hours of travel with and early start (0700-1900 ish).

Final thoughts

I'm very glad I took the Tuesday after the event off work! An exhausting weekend.

However much the travel and rushing about for these events was exhausting I am very glad I accepted the invitation to attended.

Interesting to see different approaches to running Judo events compared to what I'm used to domestically. Even slightly different rulesets.

I keep being told of 'the old days' in UK Judo when we had 6-10 mats in use at an event. It was great to see events of that size, even if I did have to travel to Europe to do so!