Category: Refereeing

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.

Kent International 2009 and my National ‘C’ examination

I was very happy to be invited to referee at the Kent International competition this year. This is a competition which has been going for a while and goes from strength to strength. It is officially a ‘mere’ county event, but due to its prestige and reputation attracts players from abroad. There is even a bit of an exchange programme where players from Britain travel abroad to similar competitions. It’s a great concept.

This year, the competition was back at Crystal Palace. This was also where the London Youth Games was this year so I had already had the delights of the ‘renovated’ venue. Admittedly, I had never experienced the pre-renovation one, but comments about the venue itself were generally negative compared to anything more modern. At the end of the day, it’s an old venue, but there are no alternatives in the area currently which can host seven full-size mat areas: When the competition moved to K2 in Crawley (due to the renovation works) it had to run over two separate weekends. Here is a bit more on the two venues.

It was VERY hot as the venue serves as a greenhouse and just to make things even MORE fun there is an Olympic sized heated swimming pool a short walk from where the judo hall was. Mmm, heat. Two spectators were stretchered out on oxygen after collapsing.

However, enough of the venue: There were seven mats there and a huge amount of judo. It was a great weekend.

Some of the mat areas. There were seven in total. 'My' mat central in this photo.
Some of the mat areas. There were seven in total. 'My' mat central in this photo.

Saturday (Juniors) was my practice day as the examination was on Sunday (has to be with Seniors where armlocks and strangles are permitted). Contests started at 10am and I believe we were finished by about 8pm. Each mat typically had two teams of referees so we were utilising an ‘hour on, hour off’ which worked well. It was still obviously a long day.

I had an IJF ‘A’ referee leading my mat and I was also on pretty much the most central one, so it would have been obvious very quickly if I wasn’t handling the pressure associated with the crowds and venue. I received continuous feedback so it was clear which elements I needed to tighten as the weekend went on.

When on breaks, I found various methods of cooling down:

An ice cream van was handily parked right outside.
An ice cream van was handily parked right outside.

The day over, we popped out for pizza, bumping into various members of the Dutch contingent who were over. They were all impeccably behaved. We also had a Dutch referee on our mat team which was great at getting different perspectives, although of course we had the common Japanese language of judo! That said, they all spoke pretty good English anyway.

I was sharing a room and behold the glorious digs that we had:

The glorious Crystal Palace accomodation. Note shown: Plaster peeling off wall, 2006 dated coffee.
The glorious Crystal Palace accomodation. Note shown: Plaster peeling off wall, 2006 dated coffee.

Up in the morning for breakfast and the next briefing. One element in particular mentioned was that rather than complaining about ‘crap judo’ we are in the perfect position to do something about, especially with the new rules on negativity. Penalise negative judo. Give the players the ‘shock’ they need to wake up so that something happens.

I then did my Theory paper. No problems, scored 100%. Really, anyone actively involved in refereeing would ace this.

Of course, a high score on the Theory paper means little – a pass is a pass. The practical is the meat of whether a referee deserves to be promoted. And it was now the day when this assessment would happen. Essentially, I would be watched throughout the day, so business as usual.

It was the turn of the youth and seniors, and it was a good day. Another hot day, but a good day. We had a good mix of different weights on our mat so got to see all sorts.

Towards the end of the day I was summoned back to the briefing room where I was asked for my own opinion, and given feedback. Here’s my combination of both:

  1. I had been working on my positioning and this was better. Some work to be done (‘working the triangle’) but better.
  2. Facial expressions still leaking through. I thought I had improved this but obviously they are still visible. Must try harder.
  3. A bit stiff. I need to relax more. I do feel relaxed but obviously more to be done. This is hard to do in conjunction with no facial expressions!
  4. All scores that I awarded were pretty much spot on.
  5. Newaza, hot and cold. Sometimes I called ‘Matte’ too early, typically as a player chose that moment to transition into an armlock attempt. Not good. Thankfully, there were other instances where there was clear and logical progression, and after about 45 seconds or so, an armlock or osaekomi was secured.

The good news is that I passed!

Da daaaaaa.
Da daaaaaa.

A long, excellent weekend with some great judo, and I have progressed. Ever onwards…

First steps in the spirit of judo

I have blogged before about the Obi tournaments that we run every so often. These are held on the same days as internal club gradings so it is a good way of getting everyone there.

The emphasis is on FUN which matches up quite nicely with FUNdamentals as specified in the BJA Long Term Athlete Development plan (LTAD). Although some material I have refers to that with ‘Player’ (LTPD) instead, so it remains to be seen what the correct version is this week.

FUNdamentals – (male 6-10, female 6-10 years) this stage should be structured and FUN with the emphasis on developing basic movement literacy and fundamental movement skills.

Some hold the view that this age is too young for any form of competition, be it events like ours or the ‘Mini Mon’ events which are held around the UK. My view is that it depends entirely on context. What is the event for and why are players at the event?

Players at the Obi events gain points win or lose (which go towards grading up their ‘Obi man’ figure). The crowd atmosphere is geared up to support both players. Those that may have had a bad run of luck will find themselves facing a Senior Dan grade in their final contest, where their luck tends to reverse, of course 😉

Perhaps the most memorable thing of the last event was a girl who was unfortunately in tears at the beginning due to nerves and so on. But by the end of the day, having watched her friends and had a go herself, she was practically bouncing onto the mat for her third contest. A complete turnaround and that right there is a good example of the spirit of judo shining through.

It is also not just about the players. This time around I had several players from the club who were having a go at refereeing for the first time, so we managed to run a proper team. They certainly got to see that it was not as easy as it looks. This is a perfect sort of event to give it a go though: Friendly atmosphere, all fun.

Naturally, it is still important to get the results right, and one of the main things I had to drill in was correct application of the ‘Majority of 3’ ruling. A couple of times the other members of my team disagreed with my score, but the referee sided with me just because, well, I was the senior referee. I had to call a stop to point out that it doesn’t matter: If I am over-ruled 2 to 1, I am over-ruled, full stop.

Even better, at least one of those helping out wants to go on to do the proper course and subsequent exam.

The correct, supportive environment is a boon to any aspect of judo: Training, competing, officialdom and I’m sure many more.

Tactical awareness: Throwing (or being thrown) from the floor

Ippons are perfectly scorable when Uke is on the floor. There’s this blurry line between the tachiwaza and newaza phase and you want to exploit it, and avoid being exploited.

Here’s Choi throwing Paischer for Gold in the 2008 Olympics:

This illustrates an important factor that referees must remember when scoring techniques: “It ain’t over ’till it’s over”. The whole, continuous motion must be kept in mind when deciding what score to give. In the above example, the referee team clearly felt that the attack continued from Uke dropping to the floor, resulting in the Ippon.

Before I continue, it is very important to point out now that the throw Choi used here is not going to be allowed come 2010! This thread on Judoforum.com has the information. Unfortunately, it isn’t 100% clear. For example, some of the techniques are not permitted when both players are clearly standing either. Also, fine line here: Will Ura-nage eventually be disallowed as well, due to it also involving picking a player up?

(Forgetting to consider the entirety of the throw can catch referees out for a different reason: A HUGE Kata guruma which has the “oooooooh” factor and the referee instinctively awards Ippon but… right at the end Tori loses control and Uke drops onto their side. Oops.)

Anyway, we have covered that throws in this phase are scorable. I saw a couple of great examples of this at the weekend, including one for the Gold medal.

Firstly, a player comes in for a failed Kata Guruma or leg grab of some description. They are down on one knee. Their opponent can take advantage of this (Uchi-mata especially!) for a good, sweeping, clean Ippon.

Secondly, this could be combined with a more tactical approach. Uke may feel they are ‘safe’ and will start to stand. This can also happen if both players have stumbled to the ground and stand up again. This is fine and the referee will not call Matte if both players are doing so of their own volition. Tori can take advantage of this lull and throw! Perfectly scorable and beautifully tactical.

So always be wary of these opportunities. If you are Uke in the above, you may want to turtle up and not move until Matte is called… just in case. ALWAYS be away of the tactical situation. Your opponent is unlikely to be letting you stand up because they like you and want to give you a nice slice of cake, are they?

Making your own luck in Golden Score

Golden Score was changed at the beginning of the year to three minutes for seniors. However, it can be shorter than this depending on the circumstances at domestic events: Juniors may only get two minutes, or if time is really pressured just one!

Golden Score ends if a player gets a score (either directly or as a result of their opponent being penalised). The way you don’t really want it to end is if time runs out and the referee team have to make a decision (hantei).

Let’s go back a step further. Don’t let a contest go to Golden Score! Yes, this is a repeat of the usual ‘Go for the Ippon’ mantra but more contests than I would have liked went all the way to flags at the weekend. The removal of Koka has perhaps contributed to this but hopefully over time the technical base will develop and make it less likely. That said, a stalemate is a stalemate.

I do appreciate that a player may possibly let a contest go into Golden Score for strategic reasons: Their fitness may be superior to their opponents and they know that they can look a lot more ‘busy’ in order to appear superior, and thus gain the decision. This is rare to see though: Generally both players are equally tired.

So, you’re in Golden Score (After trying REALLY hard to get an Ippon but not quite getting it, of course). You’re going to keep going for that outright win, but want to have all bases covered should it go to decision. What now?

1. Remember the scoreboard is wiped. This includes penalties. More importantly, this includes the minds of the referees: Only the Golden Score time is counted if it goes to flags! You could have made five hundred more attacks in the preceding time period but it counts for nothing.

2. Valid attacks only. Just tapping your opponents legs every so often or ‘flopping’ will not count for anything. What is a ‘valid attack’ ? Definitions vary but two examples: Actual attempt at kuzushi and Tori must be putting themselves at risk to a counter.

3. Going for strangles, trying to pass the guard etc on the ground will generally NOT be counted. Securing Osaekomi will though, but it is MUCH easier to gain kinsas in the tachiwaza phase. NOTE: I’m taking this up with some senior referees – it has not been an issue for me so far (has not changed a decision…) but I want to be sure.

4. Some valid attacks count more than others. Both you and your opponent make strong Osoto Gari attacks. You are the one who gets knocked down, managing to land on your front. Your opponent’s attack counts for more.

5. ATTACK FIRST. Straight from the grip. If your opponent is going for drop throws then that ‘wastes’ time on the ground before you can try something yourself. Do it first!

6. Combinations. Put in flurries of attacks. Don’t just look busy.. actually be busy!

Just remember, if you can get a nice swift Ippon in the first 15 seconds of a judo contest, you don’t have to worry about any of this…

How to complain

It happens. A referee makes a decision that you as a player or coach really are not happy about. To be precise, you will not be happy about the decision that the team of three referees has made. We’re not going to play the numbers game now of ‘three versus one’ as getting the right result is the most important thing. The players are the most important people on the mat, and a good referee team should essentially be invisible.

What should you do?

Well, what NOT to do is to do what the minority of players and coaches do: Abuse, attempt to intimidate, showboat (e.g. every throw is one which almost broke their neck, every decision is wrong…). This won’t help you at all. It has no place in any part of judo or even sport for that matter and has to go. In addition, if you’re not prepared to lose you are not totally in tune with what shiai is designed for as part of the judo pedagogy.

However, I never want a player to lose because of a bad decision.

Typically, most errors are picked up by the referee team. Score the wrong side? That’s a typical one. It will be noticed and corrected. If it isn’t then I’ve never been averse to a coach pointing out the possibility (other referees may feel differently about this). Note this is entirely different to trying to pre-empt things: Calling out scores mid-throw, calling for penalties, complaining about grips… don’t do that!

Let’s assume that something really is not right. Call the Referee In Charge to the mat (typically done via the Competition Controller). You want to do this as soon as possible and certainly before the next contest if possible. Explain your grievance in detail. Bonus points for not being abusive, of course.

A common complaint is “What’s the point, nothing gets changed anyway”. This is false as I have witnessed decisions being changed of a correct challenge by a coach. There is no referee conspiracy that I have yet seen to try and protect a decision. The whole point of having a team of three in the first place is to accept the fact that we are all human (honestly, we are) and that we are just trying to minimise errors and consolidate opinion. After all, scoring is subjective – Was that mostly on the back or not?

The RIC will then speak to the team in question to assess what to do, and certainly to advise for in the future. Now, the RIC can’t try and influence the referees to change their mind (say, who scored what?). But what if the team has made an error regarding the rules? If the rule is correctly pointed out, NOW do they change their minds?

The RIC is also called by the team themselves when a controversial decision is perhaps about to be made and they want back-up ready! A direct hansoku-make is typical. Although all three referees must agree before this is ‘awarded’, it can be controversial if the reason is not totally clear. Head dives are pretty obvious, endangering the spine with headlocks not always so obvious when in newaza.

When I have had abuse it is due to this last one, and in fact for not awarding hansoku-make. As just described, all three referees MUST agree. So not only must have they have observed the incident from their angle on the mat, they must ALSO agree that intent was there. Not one I’ve dealt with, but one incident talked about concerned a player alleged to have kicked their opponent when getting up off the ground… the angle meant there was no way all of the referees could have seen it.

So, a coach may demand a hansoku-make for Kani Basami, but what if the referee feels it was more of a result of two simultaneous techniques? (One player going for a rear sacrifice throw at the same time as the other turning sideways for, say, ouchi gari?). Players collapse in a bit of a heap and the legs are in a ‘sort of’ Kani Basami position, but is the intent there?

The coaches I most have respect for are those that are balanced. One minute I can see them calling for a score which was not given, but the next they are also telling their player to get a move on! (In a nice way, of course). They recognise that referee decisions that are bad will come and go, but ultimately the player can make it all very easy: Win decisively by Ippon with a crisp technique. Job done.

Certainly you never want it to go to the referees’ decision: Golden Score has been reduced to two minutes for seniors now, less for juniors. As the decision is based purely on the Golden Score contest time, that is NOT much time for either player to look far superior to the other unless they get a score. (Currently, this superiority is judged purely on ‘number of attacks’ which in my humble opinion could be improved, but that’s one for another post).

Junior shiai: Difference between the sexes

I was refereeing at another junior event at the weekend and a few things struck me regarding the difference between the sexes. This is in regard to Junior shiai.

First of all, this is a generalisation. There are notable exceptions to all generalisations and this was also the case at the competition.

The best attitude and technique regarding shiai tended to come from the girls. This is how I lay it out:

  1. It was taken as a learning experience more. Win or lose. Yes, there were some tears, but it was far more common to see happy smiles even after a loss.
  2. There was much more reliance on standing technique rather than ‘roughing up’ the opponent. With the boys you did see a lot of wrestling grappling going on. A bit more on that later. There was a lack of kuzushi evident, but expected at the level of the competition (Classic never-ending Osoto Gari attempts from both competitors, for example).
  3. Related to the previous point, I saw a LOT of Tani Otoshi attacks from the boys from the wrestling approach. I’m definitely not criticising here as I have always used this a lot! But ideally we are looking for more stand-up judo at this level. Sometimes Tori would be pretty much creeping right round Uke before throwing them to the ground with this technique.

I would go so far to say that Tani Otoshi is now the new drop Seoinage, as it gets round the U12 restrictions due to sutemi-waza being permitted.

There is a lot to learn from the attitude and typically more stand-up technique from the girls. But there were some stunning throws from the boys as well, I will add. This post is all about the generalisation!

Is it time that we also disallowed sutemi-waza in the U12 category, and not just U10s?

What are the best way of encouraging students (first phases of competitiveness and testosterone getting through!) to use more technique to win and not RARRRRGH grappling?

First adventures with the new Judo rules

I have now refereed for the first time using the new Judo rules. This was at a junior event for orange belt and under but still handy to get a general feel of how they are working out.

First of all, the new ‘on the edge’ ruling is excellent for promoting positive Judo. A very quick summary here is that as long as one player has something touching the contest area, the action may continue (No “Matte”) and a throw which starts from there may be considered for scoring purposes. It kept contests moving and reduced interruption. Perfect. It does need decent sized safety areas to be truly effective and happily these were in place.

No koka! Most contests were ended by Ippon. A minority were decided on other scores. Only one contest I was involved in went to Hantei and was a clear unanimous decision. No koka meant that the sort of scrappy stumbling throws where one player just about was pushed onto the ground is not going to score now. Great!

First penalty is now a warning. I also liked this in action. A few times I had to give this penalty for negative posture, typically stiff-arming to excess. Once given the player opened up and the Judo started to happen. The contest was subsequently ended by players obtaining the scores through technique, as opposed to a score from a penalty. I did not have to give a second penalty to any player throughout the day.

Giving penalties more quickly for negative Judo (drops with no kuzushi, forcing a player down etc). This sort of thing is not so evident at junior level. Warnings were given for ineffective Tomoe Nage attempts, but then the same player did some cracking Ippons later on with the technique! I am reserving judgement on this one until I have refereed some senior contests with it.

A good start!

New Judo rules – Leg grab interpretation

The new IJF rules are now in effect in the UK. I have yet to use them myself but have been studying them, so I do look forward to it. First competition for that is this coming weekend.

I did make an error in my initial study of one aspect of the new rules, with regard to leg grabs.

My own interpretation was that grabbing the trouser cloth was allowed if absolutely simultaneous with an attack.

Elaine Down (BJA Refereeing Commission and IJF Referee) has been kind enough to clarify this correctly (Emphasis hers):

At no point can tori take hold of the trouser (actual cloth) to execute a throw – simultaneous or not..

A shido penalty will be immediately awarded when tori ‘grabs‘ the trouser (cloth) when this action takes place.

Exception: Whilst the throw is taking place and tori losing his grip or cup of uke’s thigh or calf and is holding the trouser cloth on completion of the technique. (This would only mean a momentarily time that tori holds the cloth – if at all). No shido will be given.

It is going to be very interesting seeing this in action. Note the above is referring to the cloth – cupping the leg, as per Morote Gari or Kata Guruma, is still permitted.

Also remember that grabbing the trouser cloth for defensive purposes is also an insta-shido.