Fitness test, check. FA Contrib Meeting, check. Supply League Meeting, check.
So, having done almost 250 miles, it's official. I am now a Level 4! Chelmsford for my fitness test, Dartford for my Contrib meeting and Tring for Supply meeting. The past 6 weeks have been harder and more stressful than the whole of the previous year trying to achieve promotion.
The season is only 3 weeks away, although due to prior commitments, including my cousin's wedding, I won't be officiating on either Contrib or zsupply until September!
So, how should I as an official (and any officials reading this) prepare for the upcoming season? Lots of people do it differently. I know guys who do 10 or more pre-season 'friendlies' (that's a WHOLE other blog!) and nothing else. Equally, there are people who do no officiating at all and spend hours in the gym or running on the road. There are of course people who are somewhere in the middle. The people who do some pre-season games as well as some fitness, both gym and on the road. That is where I fall. I've got a couple of games lined up over the next two weeks, one of which is my first game as a level 4 referee, as I will be refereeing two Supply League teams in a friendly.
To prepare for my friendly fixtures, and the season itself, it is important to get into some form of fitness routine. It is vital that people do not over-train at the beginning, especially if, like myself, you've had a while out doing very little exercise.
So, what to do? Well, this depends greatly on the individual's natural fitness level and their age. I am 20 and reasonably naturally fit. This means that I can go for a run of a fair distance. My first pre-season run was around 3 miles in roughly half an hour. Quite slow for me, but a good start. Due to circumstance, I've not trained as much as I'd have liked so tomorrow (first fixture) will give me a fairly good indication of where I am fitness-wise. Over the coming weeks, I will look to up my training and I will be attempting to do a minimum of 3 runs a week, probably not too dissimilar from my first run, although I will look to cut down the time to 25 minutes or thereabouts.
Everyone is different so it's an entirely individual thing ad to how you approach your pre-season regime. Feel free to comment or even ask for tips!
Later in the week, I will be blogging about this season's law changes, which have already led to some good debates on Twitter! (You can find me on there - @DanCohen17)
All the best!
Continue reading...
So, having done almost 250 miles, it's official. I am now a Level 4! Chelmsford for my fitness test, Dartford for my Contrib meeting and Tring for Supply meeting. The past 6 weeks have been harder and more stressful than the whole of the previous year trying to achieve promotion.
The season is only 3 weeks away, although due to prior commitments, including my cousin's wedding, I won't be officiating on either Contrib or zsupply until September!
So, how should I as an official (and any officials reading this) prepare for the upcoming season? Lots of people do it differently. I know guys who do 10 or more pre-season 'friendlies' (that's a WHOLE other blog!) and nothing else. Equally, there are people who do no officiating at all and spend hours in the gym or running on the road. There are of course people who are somewhere in the middle. The people who do some pre-season games as well as some fitness, both gym and on the road. That is where I fall. I've got a couple of games lined up over the next two weeks, one of which is my first game as a level 4 referee, as I will be refereeing two Supply League teams in a friendly.
To prepare for my friendly fixtures, and the season itself, it is important to get into some form of fitness routine. It is vital that people do not over-train at the beginning, especially if, like myself, you've had a while out doing very little exercise.
So, what to do? Well, this depends greatly on the individual's natural fitness level and their age. I am 20 and reasonably naturally fit. This means that I can go for a run of a fair distance. My first pre-season run was around 3 miles in roughly half an hour. Quite slow for me, but a good start. Due to circumstance, I've not trained as much as I'd have liked so tomorrow (first fixture) will give me a fairly good indication of where I am fitness-wise. Over the coming weeks, I will look to up my training and I will be attempting to do a minimum of 3 runs a week, probably not too dissimilar from my first run, although I will look to cut down the time to 25 minutes or thereabouts.
Everyone is different so it's an entirely individual thing ad to how you approach your pre-season regime. Feel free to comment or even ask for tips!
Later in the week, I will be blogging about this season's law changes, which have already led to some good debates on Twitter! (You can find me on there - @DanCohen17)
All the best!
Continue reading...
