A&H

Junior/Youth What whistle to use in which situation?

S

Swedishref

New Member
Hi!

I'm a fairly new ref from Sweden and I've started officiating 9-a side games (u13) from this year (the seasons in Sweden are spring-autumn because of the climate). Because of the higher level and bigger pitches I decided to get some new whistles. A fox 40 classic and a sonik blast. I absolutely love the sonik blast but rarely use the classic. During which situations should I use the whistles?

Thanks!
 
The Referee Store
The Sonik blast is very loud but personally would go for the fox classic as your main whistle

Yes the blast is loud but it's very flat toned. The classic gives you much better variation in tone

Don't change whistle to suit the situation

Change the tone of one whistle to suit the situation
 
I've recently put a Fox whistle (got it ages ago, can't remember which one) and a sonik blast on the same wrist lanyard. I use the fox for almost everything, but grab hold of the sonik blast to diffuse confrontations and to display "anger" (essentially when I'm about to get my cards out), as it's got a much more piercing tone - and as HertsFinest says, slightly less variation, making it less good as a standard choice.

I've only used this system in 2 matches so far, so it's far from tried and tested, but it seems to work well for me. I'd suggest that if you're going to switch between whistles in one match, then do what I do and keep the louder/more piercing one for exceptional situations and use the less aggressive whistle as the day-to-day choice. That way, when you do get the big guns out, it will have more of an impact.
 
The sonik has an unjustified bad reputation. It's pretty versatile when you learn how to use it, just needs practice. I just use the sonik.

What gets lost sometimes is that you don't have to absolutely blast it every time, it's quite capable of some quick peeps when that is all that is needed, but if you need to deafen everyone within 10 yards of you then that is in the repertoire also (and everything in between)!

For the most part and situations you don't need to blow anywhere near as hard as you would the classic to get the same level of sound.
 
Yeah, that's fair enough - I probably should have said that it's harder to learn how to get a range of sounds out of a sonik.
 
Sonik is my weapon of choice. Took some time to master, but having resorted to the Fox40 occasionally, I'm left with a feeling of "Is that ALL you've got?"
 
I have the same set up as GraemeS with sonic blast as my "we are not amused" whistle.

However I find these sorts of things can be horses for courses. My refsworld organiser has about 5 whistles and various lanyards etc, mainly because it took me a few different types of whistles before I found the best set up for me. I also have a valkeen, but I save that one for special occasions, or if I'm on one of the recs where there's 3-4 pitches next to each other, as I find players are able to recognise it over the whistles coming from the other pitches.
 
Before the game, @Brian Hamilton - for me, during a game, its the Fox Pearl (first choice), escalating to a Sonik, I know a lot of people don't like the Pearl, but for me its lower tone distinguishes itself nicely. And the Sonik is an escalation whistle, only when needed.
 
HertsFinest said:
In reality most whistles allow you to get any tone you want out of them. Shouldn't need to carry two
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By which I assume you mean "You should always carry at least 2, but not necessarily have 2 on the same lanyard"? :p

Again, if I'm being accurate, I always carry a third metal pea whistle in my back pocket in case my lanyard with the main whistles on breaks mid-match. I've not had to resort to it yet in 3 years of refereeing, but I guarantee that the week I choose not to bother with a backup whistle will be the week I come to need it!
 
the pearl is the worse whistle i have heard, and metal whistles are for rugby. i ha\ve never found out why rugby referees use them, buy a couple of decent whistles
 
I've got a sonic blast and that's all I'm using... My missus is a singing/voice coach and I have her teaching me breath control.... Weird but it works :)
 
The Fox 40 is for use in football refereeing.
The Sonik is for use when you want an item to practice stamping on repeatedly until it can never be heard again during a game of football.
 
Mewcenary said:
The Fox 40 is for use in football refereeing.
The Sonik is for use when you want an item to practice stamping on repeatedly until it can never be heard again during a game of football.
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Haha
That has tickled me.
Seriously though...the 40 over the sonic ?
I'll give it a go
 
the sonic is best kept for when the players are being stupid, they cant fight while holding their ears great whistle
 
SM said:
The sonik has an unjustified bad reputation. It's pretty versatile when you learn how to use it, just needs practice. I just use the sonik.
.
Click to expand...

^^^ This ^^^ :)

Short blast - medium level
Long blast - medium level
Short blast - very loud level
Long blast - very loud level
Intermittent blasts - very loud/extremely loud level.

There's 5 there that the sonic is plenty capable of. What other variations would a referee need?

I've never encountered an on-field situation where the whistle blast required wasn't within the repertoire of the sonic and I'd love to hear of/from anybody that has...... ;) :cool:

Talk about complicating stuff...... :confused: :eek:
 
People use two different whistles in the same match?? Maybe a bit of practice varying your whistle tone would do you some good... ;)
Valkeen: bit expensive, no?
Metal whistles: LOL
Pea whistles: see above

Fox 40 all the way.
 
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