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Getting promoted

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alexv

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Level 5 Referee
Hi, I’m one game away from completing my 5 ‘assessed’ games before I get promoted to Level 7. I’m about to turn 18 and was wondering if there are any tips to help me get promoted through the ranks quickest. I see CORE is good for this, but I’m unsure on the ways referees get chosen for this.

Thanks!
 
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Hi, I’m one game away from completing my 5 ‘assessed’ games before I get promoted to Level 7. I’m about to turn 18 and was wondering if there are any tips to help me get promoted through the ranks quickest. I see CORE is good for this, but I’m unsure on the ways referees get chosen for this.

Thanks!

Being prepared to take the time to learn your craft, rather than just rushing in and being the typical impatient teenager who wants everything yesterday?
 
Thanks, it isn’t that I’m the typical teenager at all. I just want to learn what steps I can take to improve and therefore get promotion so I can referee at a good standard for a long time
 
By your referencing the core program I will assume you are based in England.
I am therefore confused as to why you are being assessed 5 times for promotion to level 7. As I understand it, upon turning 16 years of age, referees are automatically promoted to level 7, period.
Unless of course you are on a mentoring scheme - but as above your promo to 7 is not reliant on that

I see that you are a younger referee. Meaning you have lots of time on your side. You're in no rush.

1st steps at level 7 are 1 apply for level 6. No double jumping. It sounds great in theory but you'll get found out at a later level when you lack the experience of working through the levels.

There are lots of things you can do. Speak with your RDO (county and district) regarding CORE, they'll explain their selection criteria and process.

Look to join your local referee society. Lots of experience there and they hold training events at meetings which are great learning tool. Attend any training events you can. These are all designed to help you become a better referee.

My last piece of advice is to join your local supply league list of assistant referees. This means you'll be paired with other assistant referees and go out with a level 4 who you can learn good, and bad, habits. The experience gained from these appointments will really help you out as you progress and ARing is a requirement of most promo schemes. On top of that supply leagues have lower divisions which you can ref, again, improving your chances of being succesful when faced with being the level 4 in the middle.

Again, you have so much time on your side. You really dont need to rush things, cut your teeth, learn your trade and you'll go further and faster than if you rush things.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I have to complete 5 games before I get promoted to Level 7. I plan to join my local RA soon. I know this is a silly question, but should I buy a different colour kit when working as a team of 3 in case the others use another colour? How do I go about joining the supply league for ARs? I want to do a few more youth games before I ref OA to get a little more experience with game management. Thanks again!
 
It's a bit unfair to assume Alex is a 'typical teenager', when we don't know anything about the lad yet. He might be the next Michael Oliver for all we know. I would however, echo the points about taking time to learn one's trade. I've notched up 50+ middles over my first two seasons, yet happy to leave it another season before any promotion attempt
 
Yeah, I do agree with the points. Thank you about the teenager thing! I really enjoy reffing and hope to do it well enough as a career (as unlikely as it may be), which obviously takes a LOT of time.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have to complete 5 games before I get promoted to Level 7. I plan to join my local RA soon. I know this is a silly question, but should I buy a different colour kit when working as a team of 3 in case the others use another colour? How do I go about joining the supply league for ARs? I want to do a few more youth games before I ref OA to get a little more experience with game management. Thanks again!
Sorry Alex, assumed you were already refereeing. So you're just doing/done the basic course then?
You'll need to speak with your RDO regarding your local leagues. He can point you in right direction and give you a contact.

With regards kit colours this is all based on your county FA. For example, here in Cheshire we only allowed to wear black. Clubs arent, supposed to be, allowed dark/black kits.
Some counties have elected to select 1 colour so you'd have to find out what that was. BUT at supply league games you are still only allowed to wear black.

My post earlier might be a little ahead for you. I would reccomend doing some youth games first. I did a whole season and then starting thinking about moving forwards for promotion.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have to complete 5 games before I get promoted to Level 7. I plan to join my local RA soon. I know this is a silly question, but should I buy a different colour kit when working as a team of 3 in case the others use another colour? How do I go about joining the supply league for ARs? I want to do a few more youth games before I ref OA to get a little more experience with game management. Thanks again!
Hi Alex, welcome!

As others in this thread have suggested, the best way to get through the ranks will vary slightly from county to county, so I'd suggest befriending your RDO and making it clear to them that you're ambitious and want to progress. They may recommend CORE or they may not. They'll be able to tell you about local supply leagues to help you gain AR experience as well. You'll still be looking at around a year per level though, plus you won't be able to sign up for promotion until next March - technically you need to have a years experience under your belt by then, but I think they'll waive that requirement if you've done 9 fairly intense months.

You'll also need to be aware that only adult (Open Age) football counts for promotion, so although it's not a bad idea to find your feet in junior football, you'll need to look at making the step up fairly rapidly if you do want to progress.

And with regards to colour, that will depend on which county you're in. Technically, I could have owned a "jade green" shirt last year, and I would have got absolutely zero use out of it - all teams around here are still required to avoid black, so you should never clash in black. I personally think ref's in colour at lower levels are a bit of a gimmick and don't plan on wasting my money, but you may prefer the option if a team turns up in "navy blue" or black and white strips with a mostly-black back.
 
I completed the course and the test a few months ago and I’ve refereed 4 9v9s/11v11s and one mini soccer game as well as two tournaments. I’ll speak to my tutor about the supply league ARs. I haven’t run the line ‘properly’ before as a team of 3, so I definitely want some experience with that, as I was meant to do one before but it got cancelled.
 
I completed the course and the test a few months ago and I’ve refereed 4 9v9s/11v11s and one mini soccer game as well as two tournaments. I’ll speak to my tutor about the supply league ARs. I haven’t run the line ‘properly’ before as a team of 3, so I definitely want some experience with that, as I was meant to do one before but it got cancelled.

Hi Alex, welcome!

As others in this thread have suggested, the best way to get through the ranks will vary slightly from county to county, so I'd suggest befriending your RDO and making it clear to them that you're ambitious and want to progress. They may recommend CORE or they may not. They'll be able to tell you about local supply leagues to help you gain AR experience as well. You'll still be looking at around a year per level though, plus you won't be able to sign up for promotion until next March - technically you need to have a years experience under your belt by then, but I think they'll waive that requirement if you've done 9 fairly intense months.

You'll also need to be aware that only adult (Open Age) football counts for promotion, so although it's not a bad idea to find your feet in junior football, you'll need to look at making the step up fairly rapidly if you do want to progress.

And with regards to colour, that will depend on which county you're in. Technically, I could have owned a "jade green" shirt last year, and I would have got absolutely zero use out of it - all teams around here are still required to avoid black, so you should never clash in black. I personally think ref's in colour at lower levels are a bit of a gimmick and don't plan on wasting my money, but you may prefer the option if a team turns up in "navy blue" or black and white strips with a mostly-black back.
Thank you! I didn’t realise only OA games counted towards promotion, so I’ll definitely try to get involved with it as soon as I’m ready. I’ll speak to my tutor about running the line in supply leagues and I’ll make sure I show that I’m ambitious and want to take it far. Thanks again for your reply!
 
Hi Alex, welcome!

As others in this thread have suggested, the best way to get through the ranks will vary slightly from county to county, so I'd suggest befriending your RDO and making it clear to them that you're ambitious and want to progress. They may recommend CORE or they may not. They'll be able to tell you about local supply leagues to help you gain AR experience as well. You'll still be looking at around a year per level though, plus you won't be able to sign up for promotion until next March - technically you need to have a years experience under your belt by then, but I think they'll waive that requirement if you've done 9 fairly intense months.

You'll also need to be aware that only adult (Open Age) football counts for promotion, so although it's not a bad idea to find your feet in junior football, you'll need to look at making the step up fairly rapidly if you do want to progress.

And with regards to colour, that will depend on which county you're in. Technically, I could have owned a "jade green" shirt last year, and I would have got absolutely zero use out of it - all teams around here are still required to avoid black, so you should never clash in black. I personally think ref's in colour at lower levels are a bit of a gimmick and don't plan on wasting my money, but you may prefer the option if a team turns up in "navy blue" or black and white strips with a mostly-black back.
Actually, I noticed in the FA Handbook the following criteria for Promotion 7-6, 6-5;
  • Club marks from competitions over the age of 16 years over a minimum of 20 games (a minimum of 70% must be in open age competitions) officiated in as a Referee in the marking season.
 
Well, there's no rush at your age.

Be open-minded, willing to ask questions and willing to learn. You'll find your own style of officiating at some point.

If you want to improve your chances of going up the ladder though then my advice once you've completed your initial five and are level 7 (or whatever) would be;

1. Be available - The more time you have to officiate, the better. If you're one of the lucky ones that can be available all the time, your fixture secretary is going to love you. Don't over do it though, some people do five games per week or something crazy like that. Be aware of mental fatigue if you have a fixture over-load.

2. Do your paperwork (Cautions, sending offs etc.) - if in doubt on these, ask your RA for help, there's usually always a point of contact who has a wealth of information to help you out with. I still send off e-mails once in a while to double-check caution codes even now! :p But they're there to help you find your feet anyway, so ask questions! They'll help with most things, misconduct white paper reports for example.

3. Have a fitness routine outside of football - This was stressed to me by assessors when I was around your age. The mantra being 'Don't referee to get fit, get fit to referee.' You'll need a decent level of fitness to get up the ladder anyway. If you're at all serious about it, start thinking now about what lifestyle changes you'll need to make; Cut out the alcohol for example, be more considerate about your diet, be aware of the mentality side of things too; Get a good night's sleep before a match, try not to make mistakes such as going on a stag do the night before a match etc. :p

4. Get involved with your Referee's Society - Get to know people from all levels and abilities. You'll be partnering up with some of them in the future anyway, so you'll learn what to do and what not to do from them on the field as well. In the meantime, at meetings you'll get to hear of incidents that occur that need discussion. It'll also cover local issues. At mine the league and fixture secretaries are in regular attendance and will keep everyone up to date with issues on their side such as league re-structuring or other political issues.

5. Never stop learning - I've fallen into this trap myself, but I've seen it happen with a lot of referees. They do well, they get settled, they get some bad advice somewhere along the way, they stop learning and become unwilling to be flexible or change something. You may not even realise you're doing this. Always take time to self-reflect - be your harshest critic. If you're coming away from matches with the impression you've had a great game with little to improve on consistently, then you'd better be hoping that an assessor is agreeing with you! Even if you have a 9.9/10 match, find something that you didn't do well and think about how to fix it. (This isn't to say you should get into a spiral of self-defeatism though, that's not what you're after. You're after self-learning and criticism, not 'oh woe is me, I'm an awful referee!' etc.)

6. Regarding above: Advice comes from anywhere - Try not to be dismissive of it. Some of the best advice I've had has been from players or managers believe it or not. Savvy players know the tricks of the trade, they know how to disguise fouls - If you're lucky, a player or manager will point this out to you in a more helpful way than usual. Of course, you have to be careful with advice from players/managers - there's a lot that you will have to filter out. But there's always something you can pick up from anywhere. One of the best bits of advice I had was from a disabled child when I was officiating in a disability tournament for charity - In fact, that incident that day was how I figured out I fell into the trap of point number 5. ;)


7. Have fun - The most important rule for me. You'll encounter a lot of obstacles over the years; abuse, injuries, politics, external factors. These can be draining. It should never feel like you're stepping out there because you have to. You should be out there, because you want to be there, because you're enjoying it, warts and all. Take the time to enjoy yourself, take the time to celebrate your successes, minor or major.


8 Track your progress - This is completely irrelevant advice actually for promotion. But, as you're a young referee, here's something I wished I did when I was your age. Download a tracker spreadsheet, like the one on the resources page here. Start logging all the games you play in. I have no idea how many games I've done over the years, and that's probably one of my biggest regrets so far, logging everything so late in my career. It gives you something to look back on and to see how far you've come. :)

I think that's all I can think of right now. Hope you have a fun career. :D
 
Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate it! I’m going to find that sheet right now. Thank you again:)
 
I agree with the point take your time and learn your trade.The more games you ref the more experience you will have and you should improve. Do not get into the I must get promoted at all cost asap. I know a lot of young refs who are already level 6 but when I watch them I cringe over their match control.
 
Okay, thank you. I’ve asked my tutor about getting involved with the AR supply. Do you think that’ll help a lot with experience?
 
Okay, thank you. I’ve asked my tutor about getting involved with the AR supply. Do you think that’ll help a lot with experience?
Yes. You'll go out with referees that are very experienced, mostly. Some good, some...like me, not so good ;).

You'll see how they handle and manage games, which will allow you to take what works for you into your games.
Assisting is part of the job even more so once you reach level 4 and 3. (After 3/4 years at three you have to specialise in one or the other, reffing or ARing) but certainly at level 4 more time is spent on the line so its a worthwhile skill to invest in for many reasons.
 
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