The Ref Stop

How your fitness has changed as a result of Covid-19

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Sheffields Finest said:
Who’s credible now when your making stuff up, guessing! Linos need a cigar for half the game 😂
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Football officials activities during matches: a comparison of activity of referees and linesmen in European, Premiership and Championship matches

We compared the notational activity of 68 referees and 170 referee’s assistants or linesmen officiating European matches from UEFA and the Champions League together with matches from the English Premiership and the English Championship competitions ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Good article. Can I draw your attention to:
Although we have demonstrated a negative correlation between distance covered and activity and competition standard, the physical activity across all competitions was intense and this reaffirms the high levels of fitness required by officials.
 
The Ref Stop
Sheffields Finest said:
Who’s credible now when your making stuff up, guessing! Linos need a cigar for half the game 😂
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Football officials activities during matches: a comparison of activity of referees and linesmen in European, Premiership and Championship matches

We compared the notational activity of 68 referees and 170 referee’s assistants or linesmen officiating European matches from UEFA and the Champions League together with matches from the English Premiership and the English Championship competitions ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Yeah organized defences and patient build-up play will lead to a lower overall work rate for assistant referees. Unfortunately, I see a lot more long balls in my games than one might find when refereeing Barcelona and Juventus.
 
CanuckRef said:
Yeah organized defences and patient build-up play will lead to a lower overall work rate for assistant referees. Unfortunately, I see a lot more long balls in my games than one might find when refereeing Barcelona and Juventus.
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And equally, for all the patient build up, you'll then get counter attacks that mean you are expected to be able to keep up with the likes of Raheem Sterling and Jamie Vardy. Pretty much impossible for anyone to do that, but to even have a chance of keeping vaguely in line you will need exceptional fitness.
 
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Geez, a couple of nibbles there from the Save the poor Linos Society.....They should do some proper running like the rest of us!! ;)
 
CanuckRef said:
I guess you don't run the line very often, and note that you seem to have a pretty sizable chip on your shoulder about referee fitness.

Regardless, Assistant Referees run a great deal. In a match where the referee runs, say, 12 KM, I will run about 10 as an Assistant. While there is a good amount of sidestepping, this is usually for a short time and intermittent. The vast majority of movement on the line, for me, is jogging and sprinting. Furthermore, ARs are more prone to constant movement as modern defenses tend to move much more to adjust to the high pressing style that is so en vogue.

To answer the question in the OP, my fitness level has remained approximately the same. Luckily, my association has developed a home workout routine and fitness plan for referees and I am happy to be able to follow that.
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I just don’t think 10km as an AR is credible. I’ve got over 7km once in hundreds of games (and that was with incredibly nippy top u17s and I run and crab far too much).

If you have a GPS map of doing 8km in a game as AR I’ll at least chew on an item of clothing. And make sure it doesn’t include the walk on and off ;) If you can prove 10km I’ll send you a bottle :)
 
santa sangria said:
I just don’t think 10km as an AR is credible. I’ve got over 7km once in hundreds of games (and that was with incredibly nippy top u17s and I run and crab far too much).

If you have a GPS map of doing 8km in a game as AR I’ll at least chew on an item of clothing. And make sure it doesn’t include the walk on and off ;) If you can prove 10km I’ll send you a bottle :)
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I tend to second this motion. Whilst I was somewhat surprised at the increased intensity when I moved from Level 4 (lining on Step 3/4 games in English non league) to Level 3 (lining on Step 2 games, the 6th tier overall) the highest I recorded all season was 6.5km. Accept that this might continue to increase all the way up to the EPL (and that super fast sprinting becomes ever more important) but a 50% further increase up to 10km sounds implausible. With regard to 'cigar smoking' as @Sheffields Finest so delicately puts it, I've found the hardest part of lining to be the sudden switch from relative inactivity to intense focus.
 
Probably all comes down to the accuracy or GPS systems, or perhaps the lack of. Some just cannot cope with refereeing as they don't understand the concept of changing direction so they will estimate based on where you started and where it thinks you should have ended up. It is down to the sampling rate, which is every 5 seconds for many of them, and this can mean it is massively inaccurate. The higher end ones are every one second, but even that is tricky with the constant changes of movement.

10km as an AR is pretty much impossible I would have thought.
 
I think a few members need to invest in some better tech and some extra cigars!!!

As an aside I know it was a man from Huddersfield who invented the split half Lino patrol, Before that they had the lot to do... @Peter Grove will know the year!!
 
You don't usually need to keep up with the strikers/wingers. It is 2nd last defenders or the ball. Defenders are not usually the fastest on the field but it is the latter (ball) that would test an AR's ability. You are generally facing the field stationary or crabbing in line with 2LD when a ball is put through and attacker following with a head start. You then need to get to the ball at the same time as the attacker from an standing position which is impossible. But the closer you are the better you can be placed for the next phase of play. This needs agility, acceleration and short burst of speed, . Three things an AR needs to be better at than a referee. Similar situation where a counter with the ball at the feet of a winger/striker in his own half. Except that speed has to be maintained for much longer.

Stamina wise however, there is much more demand on referees than on AR's.
 
RustyRef said:
Probably all comes down to the accuracy or GPS systems, or perhaps the lack of. Some just cannot cope with refereeing as they don't understand the concept of changing direction so they will estimate based on where you started and where it thinks you should have ended up. It is down to the sampling rate, which is every 5 seconds for many of them, and this can mean it is massively inaccurate. The higher end ones are every one second, but even that is tricky with the constant changes of movement.

10km as an AR is pretty much impossible I would have thought.
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Mine's got an accelerometer and I still question its accuracy!
Interesting that the top refs are roughly doing 7.5 miles in the middle and 4 on the line. I don't do metric
 
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Big Cat said:
Mine's got an acceleromoeter and I still question its accuracy!
Interesting that the top refs are roughly doing 7.5 miles in the middle and 4 on the line. I don't do metric
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You of thought with all this home schooling of late, 4 miles suddenly becoming 12km would be an instant fail on the online maths test! 😂
 
RustyRef said:
Probably all comes down to the accuracy or GPS systems, or perhaps the lack of. Some just cannot cope with refereeing as they don't understand the concept of changing direction so they will estimate based on where you started and where it thinks you should have ended up. It is down to the sampling rate, which is every 5 seconds for many of them, and this can mean it is massively inaccurate. The higher end ones are every one second, but even that is tricky with the constant changes of movement.

10km as an AR is pretty much impossible I would have thought.
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That's possible. Usually, my GPS has me doing about 7km on a line, but it is not extraordinary (a couple of times a season) for me to hit 10. Come to think of it, that may include warm-up too.
 
I've never felt physically fatigued after running a line, not even close tbh. Theres just not alot of distance or that many sprints considering its over a 95 minute match with 15 mins half way through.

Mentally it can be fatiguing in my experience. Womens match last season, evening game and its baltic. Team defending my opposite ARs half are 3-0 down at half time and theres an obvious gap in skill and fitness. 45 mins of doing practically nothing, the ball must have come into my half only from long ball set pieces. Can't run around on the line and the mixture of the cold and the relative boredom was pretty torturous. And the ref played 4 mins of added time!
 
Ben448844 said:
I've never felt physically fatigued after running a line, not even close tbh. Theres just not alot of distance or that many sprints considering its over a 95 minute match with 15 mins half way through.

Mentally it can be fatiguing in my experience. Womens match last season, evening game and its baltic. Team defending my opposite ARs half are 3-0 down at half time and theres an obvious gap in skill and fitness. 45 mins of doing practically nothing, the ball must have come into my half only from long ball set pieces. Can't run around on the line and the mixture of the cold and the relative boredom was pretty torturous. And the ref played 4 mins of added time!
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Required work rate on the line tends to go up more as you go through the levels than it does in the middle. At level 4 games are often direct with lots of long balls, not that dissimilar to grass roots games just better quality players, and that can lead to a lot of running in the middle as you are constantly chasing long balls. Go up to level 3 and a much bigger percentage of teams keep the ball on the floor so the type or running you do is different, not necessarily less but less pointless chasing of hoofed balls and more ready to react fast as the killer ball is played.

That works the opposite on the line, long balls aren't usually a problem as they are inevitably headed back up the pitch by centre backs or run through to the keepers. Slow build up play is more tricky for two reasons, one that the defensive line is constantly making small movements so concentration has to be spot on. Second is on a fitness level, players are vastly fitter and faster and you will inevitably have many more fast sprints to do. Get an end to end Conference National game and you can be forever sprinting from half way line to penalty area or goal line and that can take its toll.
 
I once took part in a charity SWFC v SUFC fans game 25 years after I retired as a player, 30 minutes gone and I was truly blowing out of my ar5e. I realised that I’d still got it upstairs but the legs truly weren’t listening. I subbed myself off at HT and spent the second half puffing Havana’s on the far line...Different muscle set and brain matter required, Apparently you can’t kick anybody these days or stand on big ugly CH toes at corners! 😂 Great to do but I regretted it for a few days after!
 
Sheffields Finest said:
I once took part in a charity SWFC v SUFC fans game 25 years after I retired as a player, 30 minutes gone and I was truly blowing out of my ar5e. I realised that I’d still got it upstairs but the legs truly weren’t listening. I subbed myself off at HT and spent the second half puffing Havana’s on the far line...Different muscle set and brain matter required, Apparently you can’t kick anybody these days or stand on big ugly CH toes at corners! 😂 Great to do but I regretted it for a few days after!
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I reffed the Sheffield fans game last year at Rotherham (fitting for a Howard Webb lookalike minus the guns). It makes alot of money for a local charity and is a very good event.
 

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Ben448844 said:
I reffed the Sheffield fans game last year at Rotherham (fitting for a Howard Webb lookalike minus the guns). It makes alot of money for a local charity and is a very good event.
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I reffed one at Bramall Lane and one at Hinde House School from memory, lots of good banter generally, cards not really required. They are charity raising and paying to play, all low key, not trying to kill each other!!
 
Sheffields Finest said:
I reffed one at Bramall Lane and one at Hinde House School from memory, lots of good banter generally, cards not really required. They are charity raising and paying to play, all low key, not trying to kill each other!!
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Last year was at the New York Stadium. Was going to be the same again this year and I was going be an AR but obviously its cancelled. It's a shame because it makes alot of money for a local hospice.

The organisers team play at Hinde House and I do most of their home games (although i missed a number this year as I was on CFA appointed games as I was on the promotion scheme). Hes probably a mutual contact.

Did they ever paint the lines when you were doing games at Hinde House???? :)
 
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