A&H

A different pre-match

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Wolfy123

New Member
What do you do to make your pre-match different?
Typically they are pretty dull and all follow the same pattern, observers and ARs switch off. And to be honest, I find delivering a pre match boring too.
Does anyone mix it up at all?
 
The Referee Store
Can't really mix it up too much, unless you've worked with the pair a few times, especially recently. I liked the idea of my old league wanting to try and create "teams" to get familiarity and good understanding. This way you can tweak a speech based on if something happened previous game that we need to "learn" from and adapt.
 
I had a card with a few bullets point on yo make sure I went through the pre-match in the correct order.

As you say, many pre-matches are the same and it results in some AR's switching off. Ultimately you have to find what is right for you and what will work.

My main thing that was different from many others was throw-ins. I didn't break it up into thirds or halves. It was eye to eye contact right the way along, with the expectation I would lead on most (of course there are times AR would be e.g ball under their nose)

The trick is to give your AR responsibilities, but then also take some of those away.
 
For me, the key is to ask myself who are my ARs today, and what do I want them to know about what I want. If I have a newbie ref, some basic reminders are going in. If it’s an experienced ref I’ve worked with, it’s really brief. If it is an experienced ref I haven’t worked with, it talk about my preferences. (How I like help with fouls, what I want from the AR on a PK, signals I do or don’t want, what I want from the AR on throw ins, etc.)

The one size fits all pregame is a serious mistake and waste of time for all involved.
 
Runner-Ref said:
I had a card with a few bullets point on yo make sure I went through the pre-match in the correct order.

As you say, many pre-matches are the same and it results in some AR's switching off. Ultimately you have to find what is right for you and what will work.

My main thing that was different from many others was throw-ins. I didn't break it up into thirds or halves. It was eye to eye contact right the way along, with the expectation I would lead on most (of course there are times AR would be e.g ball under their nose)

The trick is to give your AR responsibilities, but then also take some of those away.
Click to expand...
Mine is mostly the run of the mill usual, though I change throw ins, corners and goal kick decisions to say it's the AR expectation to give the decision if it's within a rough 15 yard circle around them as the move along the line, but to wait and see, take their time, look at how teams set up to give them clues before making the decision. Most of the time, decisions aren't close so using some thinking time doesn't affect anything.
 
The risk of mixing it up is you might miss something, better to stick with a routine. I always used the pitch to cover things in a sequence. Start at the goal line for GK / corner and ball over line for goal, into the area for penalties, middle of the pitch for free kicks and mass con, and the touchline for throw-ins and offsides. Just helped me to remember everything without needing to resort to cue cards.

One thing I did different to most is if an AR called me over to deal with a coach or manager I told them not to come with me when I spoke to them. That way I could say to them something like "look, based on what he told you I was going to send you off, but he (AR) wants to give you a second chance so if you behave you can stay". That makes me look like the bad guy and takes some pressure off the AR, who can't run away from the technical areas like I can. Doesn't really work now that technical area occupants can be shown cards though, and I would obviously never do it if the behaviour was such that it merited an immediate removal from the TA.
 
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Through the magic of Google Docs, I send my assistants my "stock" pregame a day or two before the game. I ask them to take a look at it, and I tell them that I expect them to read this before we get to the field. That way, we can get the "basics" out of the way and we can spend the pregame at the field talking about specifics like:
  1. How do these teams like to play?
  2. Is this a rivalry game, a game with big impact on the standings, etc.?
  3. Has anyone had an issue with players or a coach on either team?
  4. Do we have any issues with the field? (This can be important in the US, as we sometimes play on combined soccer/American football fields that may be narrower than normal fields)
  5. (If we are using comms for a high school or college game) what specific questions or issues do we need to address so we can use comms to their maximum benefit? (Note that if we are using comms, my #1 instruction about using comms is we don't referee ANY differently than if we aren't wearing them. I still want eye contact, soft signals, good flag signals, etc.)
I realize that assigning methods may not provide email addresses or phone numbers, so this may not always be feasible.
 
RustyRef said:
The risk of mixing it up is you might miss something, better to stick with a routine. I always used the pitch to cover things in a sequence. Start at the goal line for GK / corner and ball over line for goal, into the area for penalties, middle of the pitch for free kicks and mass con, and the touchline for throw-ins and offsides. Just helped me to remember everything without needing to resort to cue cards.
Click to expand...

This. ^ ^ ^

Treat your pre-match as you would any work-based "safety brief" cos that's effectively what it is. Like any safety brief it has to cover certain basic points which are based on the risk assessment you've done on previous games ... ;) :)
 
Kes said:
This. ^ ^ ^

Treat your pre-match as you would any work-based "safety brief" cos that's effectively what it is. Like any safety brief it has to cover certain basic points which are based on the risk assessment you've done on previous games ... ;) :)
Click to expand...
The other thing about doing a pregame like what's mentioned here is that it becomes part of your own pregame routine. Just like players go through the same warmup to get their minds in the right place before a game, we should also do that. I treat my pregame like I do my own warmup. I go through the same things so I can get my mind in the right place and I'm ready to take the game on.

My pregame is part of my pregame routine, and I don't like to have my routine be knocked out of place. So I want to go over the same things in the same way as much as I can.
 
Each of my pre-match conversations are different because they usually depend on the teams involved. I talk about what I know of their tactics, ask my team to do the same, and then about how we are going to control the controllables and be prepared for the unexpected.
 
Pre-Match
Some aspects necessary, but the repetitive nature of most of it adds little to no value. These aspects should be put in the 'guidance' section at the back of the book, not repeated on a weekly basis and not be judged as a competency. The referee should only mention anything that differs from what I've suggested should be added to the guidance section. Less than 5 minutes of stuff that's unique to that referee or refereeing team

For example, I don't want soft and safe defensive fouls. Stuff like that
 
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