Getting In Shape

[coach41]

Hi all,

This is more of "me thinking out loud" than anything else. However, anyone else who has anything they want to add, feel free to chime in.

To recap, I've reffed CYO ball for 15 years now and high school 5 years now. Despite the long years, I don't think I learned "how to ref" until I joined my high school association. I think I've finally grasped some of the finer points of reffing and feel like I'm understanding what I need to do on the court

One thing that I hear other referees talk about is "getting in proper shape" for the season. I've not an old guy and I am pretty active in general. I always thought I was in pretty decent shape.

However, thanks to a combination of reffing more games on the boys side in my high school association this season, reffing a lot adult league games at big courts and playing basketball in my adult league, I was running up and down a lot in the past few weeks.

I realized how easier reffing came to me when I was running up and down. I wasn't as easily fatigued in an uptempo game and my mind was able to focus clearly on what was needed (most of the time) in my games.

The challenge now? My high school season is over and I won't have as many games that will make me run up and down. I want to find a way to keep myself in tip-top shape.

My season this year wasn't as good as expected (didn't get many great games due to work schedule) but I think I still managed to learn some things that I hope I can put to use next season.