Advice - Dealing with U16 - U18's

[magpie1892]

I am a fairly newly qualified referee having done my course in March, so far amongst other games I have done two U17 matches and tomorrow I have an U18's match.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on a few things

1) how to deal with young men who are in the Kevin and Perry stage and complain about everything.

2) I feel as though I may be more lenient with players calling for fouls, they seem to want fouls for everything but for young adults they seem to hit the floor for very soft touches and I don't give into their complaining for FK.

3) I'm not the fittest person in the world (working on it!) and finding it physically demanding doing 40 minutes halves. I'm doing lots of running so think I may need to work on positioning, any advice?

4) Last week I had a game Blue v Red, red #14 had some handbags so decided to book him, he tried to run away before I was finished with him so whistled for him back after a bit of moaning he eventually came back to me and told him I was still dealing with him and gave him a YC. About 5 minutes later he goes in with a strong tackle ball goes out for a throw and the blue team are calling for red card, also look as though handbags may start so few blows on the whistle and call the player over and tell everyone else do disappear, gave him a very stern warning to calm down and watch his tackling as he's on a yellow card already and dealt with him through man management rather than cards, does this sound the right thing to do?

Thanks
Mike

 

[HullRef]

I am a fairly newly qualified referee having done my course in March, so far amongst other games I have done two U17 matches and tomorrow I have an U18's match.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on a few things

1) how to deal with young men who are in the Kevin and Perry stage and complain about everything.

2) I feel as though I may be more lenient with players calling for fouls, they seem to want fouls for everything but for young adults they seem to hit the floor for very soft touches and I don't give into their complaining for FK.

3) I'm not the fittest person in the world (working on it!) and finding it physically demanding doing 40 minutes halves. I'm doing lots of running so think I may need to work on positioning, any advice?

4) Last week I had a game Blue v Red, red #14 had some handbags so decided to book him, he tried to run away before I was finished with him so whistled for him back after a bit of moaning he eventually came back to me and told him I was still dealing with him and gave him a YC. About 5 minutes later he goes in with a strong tackle ball goes out for a throw and the blue team are calling for red card, also look as though handbags may start so few blows on the whistle and call the player over and tell everyone else do disappear, gave him a very stern warning to calm down and watch his tackling as he's on a yellow card already and dealt with him through man management rather than cards, does this sound the right thing to do?

Thanks
Mike

1.) Being a at this age myself, I can personally say that we teenagers love to moan. Don't get into a big discussion with them when explaining your decisions. I had my last game of the season which was U16 and I found quite a bit of moaning. A good way of avoiding it I found was to try to constantly move after decisions. (E.G. A ball is played that goes out for a goal kick, might be a corner, give your signal and just turn and jog away or carry on your run in an arc). If you are just standing around, players find you an easy target to moan at.

2.) With experience you will get a feel for games. Kids do ask for a lot of fouls, mainly just play on because they are all there because they want to play football. Just be careful because if players think that you're not dealing with fouls, they might take it into their own hands which will cause you problems. The main ones I've found are "In the back ref", at youth football though, it is often a case of hands being raised to the back of a player but there is no push involved.

3.) Try to cover a good diagonal across the pitch, from the corner of one penalty area to another. If this gets too hard towards the end of the game, carry on with the same line, just shorten it a bit. The main thing that I would say is try to get a good angle on the play if you can't get close enough to it. you can help yourself at set pieces too. For example, at a corner, don't take a position on the goal line, a better one may be on the edge of the penalty area, or near to it. If you have any problems just talk to the players, have a bit of a laugh with them. If a player says " Come on ref you're miles away", just something simple like "As you can see I'm not exactly Usain Bolt, but I'm trying to keep up as best I can", can really diffuse a situation.

4.) Finally, I can't really comment on the individual situation as I wasn't there, but it sounds like you did the right thing. If you are talking to the player, try and be as honest as you can and make it a teamwork thing:
"14, can I just have a quick word. You're already on a yellow card, please don't force me to make a decision that could lead to you being sent off. That last tackle was border line yellow and another one like that might fall the other side of the border. Just don't do anything daft from now on, ok."

One thing I've found after 2 seasons of reffing football, and one of rugby is that players really appreciate honesty. If you don't know a throw in direction, just tell them, most will understand.

Sorry for the long winded answers but hopefully they will help. Good luck!

 

[Padfoot]

Just shove a cherry or a lemon up their nose......watch how the moaning stops!

If you're a new referee, please don't start trying to 'manage' out offences that should be carded......it's a bad habit to get into and will cause you to lose control of matches because you are still learning.

Just do the job according the LOTG and you cannot go wrong.......don't worry about being everyone's friend or being 'popular'.....that isn't what you are there for.

 

[HullRef]

Just shove a cherry or a lemon up their nose......watch how the moaning stops!

If you're a new referee, please don't start trying to 'manage' out offences that should be carded......it's a bad habit to get into and will cause you to lose control of matches because you are still learning.

Just do the job according the LOTG and you cannot go wrong.......don't worry about being everyone's friend or being 'popular'.....that isn't what you are there for.

Nice to see you going for a more diverse approach to normal padfoot

 

[Monotone Whistle]

Padfoot is absolutely right, and the one big lesson you must quickly learn is that you should never try and be popular as it will backfire very quickly. You'll find yourself losing control of games as players will try and take advantage of you.

That said, for the example in No.4, I'd say you managed it well and took the correct stepped approach. If the second tackle wasn't reckless, then warning the player he is one infringement away from a second yellow for PI is actually very good player management.