By: Rodney Kenney, NISOA National Clinician, Florida
Most referees finish a game, and if no one has accosted them during or after the game they feel they had a successful game. The truth is that every game could have been better refereed. And the best referees are always looking to improve their performance.
One way to improve is to “self evaluate” your performance at halftime and after every game. This does not require an assessor, just a little help from your assistants, and the ability to look objectively at your actions or lack of action during the game.
Asking the following questions will help evaluate you performance:
HALF TIME EVALUATION
- Did I miss any of your flags? What? Why?
- In the next half, is there a player that we need to pay more attention too?
- Did I miss anything you think I should have dealt with?
- Does either team use the offside trap?
- Things I need from the assistants the next half that I didn’t get last half.
POST-GAME EVALUATION
- Was there anything in the game we did not cover in our pre-game?
- Was there anything I missed?
- Could I have prevented giving the red card (s)?
- Could I have handled the coach and players better?
- How was my position on the field during play? During free kicks?
- Were my signals clear and correct?
- Did I vary my whistle to give proper emphasis to my calls?
- How was my time management?
- Should I have given more or fewer cards (or earlier)?
- Did I apply the rules correctly?
- Did we communicate successfully?
- What were my weaknesses?
- What did I do well?
If you ask all the above questions and have no problems, then congratulations you should be on the next NCAA Final.