Month: August 2009

Referee cross-training: What can football teach us?

Cross-training can be a great help in judo. Brazilian Ju-jitsu (BJJ) would be a classic one due to the newaza cross-over in particular. Mix in anaerobic work like circuit training, tabata sprints. Skipping is a classic. You probably have your own favourites and opinions on what is worthwhile and what is not.

Should the same apply to refereeing? Can referee principles from other sports assist the judo referee?

I’m intending to find out. I’m partaking in a Football Association Referee Course. It’s where the money is. Let me clarify that! I don’t mean I’m after the money! Instead, what differences will the sheer numbers and money available make to the quality of training?

Also, will my judo refereeing skills help at all with football refereeing? What about the other way round? Judo, 2 players, short matches. Football, 22 players (just on the pitch), 90 minutes. Oh, and the referee can’t saunter around a small mat area to keep up with what is happening.

It will be interesting to find out.

From the introductory session, here are a few differences in training that I have already noticed:

1. Big, glossy books and training materials. The Laws Of The Game are detailed in a book. This book is also freely available to download in PDF format. Here it is.

2. Lots more initial training. I think around 25 hours of ‘classroom’ training, and you are expected to spend that much of your own time going over things. In addition, 6 games must be carried out. For the basic referee course, it was a day of training, and you were examined at the next competition you could help out at.

3. You do not go on the course to learn the rules. The introduction pointed out that in the initial gap between introduction and first core module, you are expected to learn them. The classes are to cover interpretation, answer queries, basically the nitty gritty rather than, “What is the legal kit for a player?”.

Number three is a big deal here. In judo, we have a refereeing manual which has the rules. Where is the information and training on matters such as handling contentious situations? Calming a player down so the good judo can happen without hansoku-make? What makes a good conflab between the referee and the two corner judges? Football has LOTS of information out there on how the Assistant Referees should work with the man in black in the middle.

(Note that football has a different policy here: No majority of three. Referee has the final word. The assistants are just that: Assistants.)

Now, this is in no way a dig at judo. Let’s face it, football has far more money and numbers involved. 7,000 referees LEAVE football every year. There is a pool of about twenty THOUSAND.

There is some slowness from the BJA though. Koka was removed at the beginning of this year, for example. The revised 2009 rulebook only appeared within the last week or so! And I only found out about this from a cursory forum post. I have received no official notification. I make a determined effort to keep abreast of all the rule changes… but does everyone? Is learning on the morning of a big event really enough?

I think the main culture shock will be attitude of players, spectators and coaches. Judo is very refined. Abuse nowadays is VERY rare, most of those involved are respectful of each other and the officials. Partly due to respect, be it the ‘Rei’ or otherwise, is drilled in from the first session. Also, maybe because Judo referees must be judoka to even qualify (blue belt or above, but most are Shodan at least)? I’m not sure.

Watch this space…

West of England Judo Open 2009, and July’s Budokwai grading

This is perhaps a delayed blog post as the event itself was held on 12th June 2009. In fact, the results are available for download.

This was my first referee outing as a newly qualified National ‘C’ grade. Quite exciting. Being newly promoted this probably meant I was duty bound to make some massive cock-up. Thankfully, this did not happen, which means it will most likely carry over to the next event…

Amusingly, I was still ‘bottom of the pile’ as there were no Area referees present at the event. Ho hum!

We were presented with a ‘Thank you’ certificate during the briefing which was a really nice touch.

western_open_certificate

The event itself? The lighting took some getting used to. The whole hall had no natural lighting and the artificial lighting had a yellow tinge. It all looked a bit murky. Despite my initial concerns this turned out to be fine.

I was blessed with a great team (Nat ‘A’, Nat ‘B’, Me!) and we worked very well together throughout the day. There was some good spirit and judo on display. This always makes me happy.

It wasn’t a good start as perhaps the most negative judo manifested itself in the first batch of fights (+100 men). There was a lot of just NOTHING HAPPENING, with both players taking overly defensive sleeve grips preventing any attacking moves.

I was a corner judge on the fight I am thinking of. The referee correctly penalised (twice!) but nothing changed. Now, there are two ways of looking at this:

1. Keep giving Shido as the offence keeps happening, until one or both players are disqualified. You may then have a winner, but is it judo? Exercise for the reader: What happens if both players SIMULTANEOUSLY receive indirect hansoku-make because of this?

OR:

2. Tell the players to sort it out! The ref was VERY harsh (“Sort it out or you might as well get off the mat now”) but in my opinion perfectly correct. They are adults. They (should) know the rules.

‘Should’. It’s a shame that senior players are still coming out and not knowing the shiai basics (walking in front of the judges’ chairs, not walking around edge of the mat, bowing procedure…). THIS IS SHIAI 101. The loss of competitive gradings for the kyu grades has not helped here as they were an excellent introduction, but really, coaches should be on top of this before sending any player to a competition.

More recently I was invited to referee at the Budokwai again. I was VERY impressed with the standard of the 1st Kyus vying for their Dan grades. It can sometimes be a bit scrappy but there was some stand-out technique and spirit. There were excellent players there who walked away with zero points simply due to the high standard of the opposition. It was a great day.