Mentoring

1. Mentoring Helping Your Fellow Referee R. Baker

2. MentoringPreGame • Teamwork • Laws of the Game • Proper PreGame R. Baker

3. MentoringTeamwork • Be part of the team. • Introduce yourself to the coaches/players as a team • Work together from the time you arrive to the filling out of the paperwork after the last whistle. R. Baker

4. MentoringPreGame • Be part of the team. Work together from the time you arrive to the filling out of the paperwork after the last whistle. • Know the rules, who’s rules are you working with today, High School, FFA, Football NSW, District? There are definite differences in all of these. • Proper Pre-game. What needs to be covered? Start with all of the restart situations, Goal Kick, Corner Kick, Kick Off, Throw In, Drop Ball, Direct Free Kick, Indirect Free Kick, Off Side. Then add whatever else you think needs to be covered. • If you don’t hear what you think you need to hear by the center official, ask the question, what do you want me to do in this situation? • Don’t take away their pre-game from them. R. Baker

5. Observations Made by the ARs • Signaling, are you talking with your whistle, are your directions crisp and clear so that everyone knows which direction the restart is going? • Foul Recognition, was that really a hand ball or was it ball to hand? • Positioning, where were you on the field when you made the call, did you sell the call? • Making the call, was it made in a timely manner? Did you hesitate or were you not sure of the call? Did it look like either the players, the coach or the crowd made the call for you? • Game Control - Are you getting the first or the second foul? Perception is reality to the players. The less skilled the players, the less trivial the foul. Are you talking to the players? Are you letting them know that you saw what happened? • Use of Advantage, is it both vocal and visual, was it a true advantage? Do you give the advantage in the PA? • Bench Control - If the coach is out of control, how can the players be under control? What was your instruction to the AR on how to deal with this? • Fitness, are the players running away from you during dynamic play? Is the gap widening or closing? R. Baker

6. Questions you can ask each other at half time • What did you see in that situation? • Why was that just a foul and not a caution, was the act deliberate? • Why was that a caution and not a send off, was the act meant to injure the player with the ball, was it retaliation, was it just clumsy? • Why is that not a foul, was it a hand ball or ball to hand? • Why didn’t you give the advantage in that situation? • If you did give the advantage, why didn’t you come back and caution the offender after the play was over? I don’t care that you didn’t caution the player, I just want to know if the thought crossed your mind? • Do you feel that you have good eye contact with me? • When you ask these questions be prepared to give them options on how to correct or handle the situation differently. R. Baker

7. Questions to Ask ARs at Half Time • Do you agree with the calls I have made? • Do you agree with the calls that I have let go? • Should I have used a caution in that situation? • Did I get the peace on the field that I needed with that caution? • Do I need to tighten up on the calls I am making? What signal do you give to tighten up to the centre official? • How is my position on the field in relation to the play? • What are you seeing behind my back? How are you dealing with it? • Who do I need to be looking for as far as persistence? R. Baker

8. Post Game • Let them self critique to see if they know what happened on the field and why. • What led up to the incident, what happened during and after the incident? • Be honest with each other, admit to your own mistakes, be sympathetic let them know that you have been in that same situation, don’t argue, just ask questions. • Don’t tell them what to do, frame your questions so that it will lead to the problem and then to the solution. It will have a bigger impact if you let them discover on their own. • Form a course of action that will resolve the problems that occurred and keep them from happening again. • Give them options not directives. There are a lot of options to every situation, find one or two that will work for you. • There are a lot of referees out there that do things differently than it is taught in the theory class room. Don’t try to change an ingrained habit overnight. Work on two or three things at a time. R. Baker