Rookie Referees

[coach41]

Oz,

How did your presentation go? I can emphatize with you. I was asked several years ago to do something similiar as you. I play in a adult church league and the players referee the games.

I tried to summarize "reffing" in about 2 to 3 hours of presentation and then the "refs" got a chance to work some scrimmages.

I would venture to say I had it worse than you. I had some young kids/old folks so the audience was diverse. Reffing experience was basically nil. Rules knowledge (as the officials know it) was probably nil as well.

I put together a word doc summarizing some items like "blow the whistle", "hustle", "see through the cracks", etc.

Honestly, I was pretty prepared but I don't think most people grasped the information. The lack of experience was the biggest hinderance. Most of the players would never ref outside of the league and so what works for "us" won't work for others.