A&H

The "Wrong" Diagonal

GraemeS

GraemeS

RefChat Addict
Level 5 Referee
I presume that everyone here will almost always put their assistants on the LB side of the pitch and therefore run roughly RB-to-RB as a referee in the middle.

I've been wondering over the summer if anyone has experience of switching this round - either being an assistant on the RB side, or a referee in the middle who's felt it necessary to run LB-to-LB? If so, what motivated the decision to switch from the "usual" pattern and how much of a disruption did you find it?
 
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Yeah used to do it all the time when I was 17/18. Took some getting used to mind
 
Doing this is surprisingly difficult!
I remember going for my upgrade field test, for some reason my AR's just ran straight to the wrong lines.....thanks guys!

Aside from that, I've done it a few times when, say, the 'right' line is really muddy and slippery, or there may be a bit of a dip or hole just off the line, not enough to be an issue for the players but a potential risk for somebody sidestepping over it all game.

You don't realise just how much of what you do is habit and muscle memory. As an AR, you need to consciously change the hand your flag is in for a lot of decisions - that simple fact alone means you're concentrating more on your flag mechanics, which takes some of your cognitive capacity away from judging offside and fouls.

As a referee, you need to constantly think about your positioning as well as where to glance to check your AR - way too often I found myself standing right next to the AR as I forgot to change my diagonal. So it really throws your positioning out - just those 2 things, again as a referee, mean you're spending a lot of effort concentrating on stuff that really shouldn't take any thought. So yes, running a reverse diagonal can certainly have a negative impact upon your game as both AR and referee.

Because of this I used to like to run it once or twice a season on games that were unlikely to be particularly difficult. I figured that if I was forced to on a particularly difficult or important match, then I'd want to be comfortable with it.
 
CapnBloodbeard said:
Aside from that, I've done it a few times when, say, the 'right' line is really muddy and slippery, or there may be a bit of a dip or hole just off the line, not enough to be an issue for the players but a potential risk for somebody sidestepping over it all game.
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This is exactly why I asked the question - I hurt my ankle on a hole in a line last season and was wondering if I should have asked the ref to switch the diagonals, and how big an issue it would have been for him if I had.
 
I've done a couple of lines the "wrong" way round and didn't like it, just doing something you're not used to I guess.
 
It was standard practice in England to run left wings in the mid 90's. So older referees will have run both.

For myself, I sometimes rang one diagonal first half and switched for the second half. Causes confusion for the players...

My Logic - I could run both diagonals equally badly
 
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I've done it a few times when the normal touchlines are waterlogged or too muddy for the assistants to run in. Takes a bit of getting used to - including before the kick off when I looked for my assistant and couldn't find him. Only for a player to say "he's over there ref" ..!
 
OK, well glad to hear I won't be too badly mocked if I try it! I've got another pre-season match with CAR's at the end of the month, might give it a run-out then and see how confusing I find it.
 
GraemeS said:
This is exactly why I asked the question - I hurt my ankle on a hole in a line last season and was wondering if I should have asked the ref to switch the diagonals, and how big an issue it would have been for him if I had.
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The AR's zone should really be checked as part of the prematch but if you have any concerns certainly raise it.
 
I did a 9 a side u15's game in a tournament once with CAR's. In the second half, both CAR's ran to the same touchline (so one was on his own right back, the other on his left back). Rather than adjust them, I just left them to it and ran a reasonably straight line up and down the other side of the pitch. Made for an interesting 20 minutes :D
 
I've ran rb as a referee who still referees is still in the system of running them but in middle now we run more of an oval or split s now in the attempt to get wide
 
I've once told a referee to switch whilst I was an AR. The pitch was unplayable in my opinion and I was running through about 1ft of water and it extended about 1m onto the pitch. I had been moving onto the pitch to avoid it in the first half whilst play was away from me but it grew further in. About 70 minutes in when he came over to me for another reason he said the words, "Happy?" as a query to something else and I responded, "Yes, but we're switching wings." Running the line on the opposite side was the least of my worries in those conditions, you soon get used to it!
 
Brian Hamilton said:
Yesterday's Contrib referee did LWs
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I hope you marked him accordingly. Positioning nil - he would never been in the correct position.....

Did the AR get any marks, as you will have not seen them all game. You would have been looking at the wrong part of the FOP
 
He never missed an offence so he was in the right place at the right time. Only once or twice did I flick to the wrong place to check for an offside signal. Had an enjoyable afternoon apart from the weather.
 
I have done RB's a few times on the line and did it in the middle for the first time on Sunday. The home team secretary asked me to as the lines were getting pretty churned up so i thought, why not? I like a challenge and its good experience. It was weird and took some getting used to but i managed it and was fairly pleased my positioning overall.
 
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