Padfoot
The Persecuted One
Watching my son play this morning.....
The referee on the game is from out of area, never seen them before, came across as very very over officious during the pre match phase.
Anyway....1st half progresses......the away side have an attacker making a threatening run down the wing, near the PA.....as the home (my side) defenders are moving into challenge for the ball, I hear someone screaming, and I do mean screaming (I was 40-50 yds away and heard it clearly) "Don't foul Don't foul".......
I realise at this point it is the referee who is approx. 10 yds from play, and screaming at the top of his voice at our defenders......
Now, being 13 yr old kids, they naturally hesitate at the verbal onslaught directed towards them.....the result being the attacker skips around both of them and scores.
Ok, I'm all for communicating with players......and I accept that maybe the defenders should have ignored the distraction ( play to the whistle and all that) but easier said than done when you're 13 and the ref is screaming at you from a short distance away!
I question the words used the by the ref, personally if you're going to try to verbally guide the players the phrase "steady" is better....and obviously the volume needs to be appropriate to the situation......maybe with adults you can scream at top volume, but with kids its absolutely inappropriate.
Unless we have a referee who knows me, and my role as an assessor, I never volunteer that information, or even that I am a ref, so I didn't have the opportunity to explore it with the referee (I would have liked to know the thought process behind why he felt it necessary or appropriate to shout in such a manner at kids) but it left a poor impression of what was otherwise an average performance.
The referee on the game is from out of area, never seen them before, came across as very very over officious during the pre match phase.
Anyway....1st half progresses......the away side have an attacker making a threatening run down the wing, near the PA.....as the home (my side) defenders are moving into challenge for the ball, I hear someone screaming, and I do mean screaming (I was 40-50 yds away and heard it clearly) "Don't foul Don't foul".......
I realise at this point it is the referee who is approx. 10 yds from play, and screaming at the top of his voice at our defenders......
Now, being 13 yr old kids, they naturally hesitate at the verbal onslaught directed towards them.....the result being the attacker skips around both of them and scores.
Ok, I'm all for communicating with players......and I accept that maybe the defenders should have ignored the distraction ( play to the whistle and all that) but easier said than done when you're 13 and the ref is screaming at you from a short distance away!
I question the words used the by the ref, personally if you're going to try to verbally guide the players the phrase "steady" is better....and obviously the volume needs to be appropriate to the situation......maybe with adults you can scream at top volume, but with kids its absolutely inappropriate.
Unless we have a referee who knows me, and my role as an assessor, I never volunteer that information, or even that I am a ref, so I didn't have the opportunity to explore it with the referee (I would have liked to know the thought process behind why he felt it necessary or appropriate to shout in such a manner at kids) but it left a poor impression of what was otherwise an average performance.
