[BoBo]

NFL Refs Go the Distance

All officials understand, or at least should understand, the importance of being in good physical condition. But few studies have been done to measure the physical demands placed on officials in competition.

Last year, the NFL decided to conduct just such a study, with the help of Dr. Kathleen Poole and Dr. Jim Poole, professors at Radford University in Virginia. The Pooles have worked closely with the NFL for nine years and help supervise the officials’ preseason physical testing program.

"We’d been talking through the years about the physical demands of officiating," Kathleen Poole said. "In talking with Larry Upson (director of officiating operations) and Mike Pereira (director of officiating) and some of the officials we found they were interested in finding out, ‘What is the distance they cover?’ ‘What is their heart rate?’ ‘What is their exercise intensity?’ and ‘How many calories burned?’"

With the support of the NFL, which funded the project, the Pooles monitored four officiating crews during the 2003 preseason. The 28 officials, all volunteers, each wore two monitors that measured their heart rate and calories expended. The data was augmented by onsite observations.

"We watched each game from the pressbox," Kathleen Poole said, "and charted what the officials were doing during the game. One of the referees had a 92-yard run, so we went back and looked at his heart rate, and whoo, it was up there!"

The tests showed that on average, each member of the seven-man crew covered an average of 5.9 miles a game (including pregame duties) and burned an average of 711 calories.

Perhaps most illuminating was the effort expended at moderate intensity (roughly defined as running, but at less than a sprint). On average, each official spent 37 percent of each game on the run.

And which position expended the most energy? The back judge, who on average, covered 7.3 miles per game, spending 50 percent of his onfield time working at moderate intensity.

Pereira envisions expanding the program and said that last summer’s testing was a good first step. "We wanted to find some concrete data," he said. "None of us had any idea of the physical demands placed on officials. If anybody had asked me in the past, ‘How much ground do officials cover in a game?’ I wouldn’t have been able to give a definitive answer."

While lower level officials don’t deal with the speed and intensity of an NFL game, the data is still useful. If members of a seven-official crew are covering nearly six miles a game, smaller crews are covering a lot as well.

Kathleen Poole is talking about developing monitoring programs for other sports. After all, fitness is crucial to all officials. "To perform at a high level as an official you have to be in peak condition," Pereira said. "You can’t officiate to the best of your ability if you’re not in condition."

Written by Rick Woelfel, an associate editor of Philadelphia Golf Magazine and New Jersey State Golf. He works various levels of amateur baseball and has also worked basketball, football and softball.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2004 Referee Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please contact [email protected].