Wording on the Field
 

Hello
I am a referee in Austria, Europe. Since we have a lot of American players as well in our leagues we sometimes speak English if necessary.
Therefore my questions:

I'd like to ask you what wording do you use for:

1) introducing the team to the HR before the coin-toss (bringing the teams in): e.g.: Mr. Referee, the speaking captains of the guest team, Dodge Vikings.

2) if there is a pile, to calm down the players and get them off the pile:
e.g.: up easy!

What wording do you use on the field in these situations .... ??

Thanks for your suggestions
Andy

To break up the pile, American players will understand the following phrases:

Get up easy
Roll off
Use the ground

When introducing officials just say:

I'm your Referee today and I am Joe Smith
This is Bob Jones your Umpire....

I personally don't like Mr. Referee or Mr. Official, but it is commonly used by many. We don't normally introduce captains to the Referee, but we will ask the captains to introduce themselves to the opponent's captains and shake hands.

I was given a "talking to" at one of my first college scrimmages this year by the referee for not calling him "Mr. Referee." I was communicating with him calling him by his first name telling him the downed player was close to the LTG to take a look. I asked about it the next week to that week's R to see how he wanted to be addressed. He rolled his eyes when I told him so it's a personal preference by the referee and other officials in that week's crew how they wish to be addressed.

I refer to the players as "gentlemen" which seems to work well.

I'm a very vocal guy who believes that using a strong voice
can go a long way to prevent problems.
"up easy"
"push off the ground/roll off the man"
"play is over"
"ball is away" (on a pass crossing the LOS)
"kick is away" (on a scrimmage kicj passing the LOS)
I use more depending on the play.

I agree that a strong confident voice, from the coin toss throughout the game can be very preventative. I say much the same as you, but "balls away" and "kicks away" is said once the ball has been passed or kicked cuz they do not have to cross the NZ for either roughing to occur. That must be said as soon as the pass or kick is made in order to indicate to rushers to not rough the passer/kicker.

thanks for your replies

Hi ML,

I'm on the other side of the coin - an English speaker who is officiating in Germany. My German is fairly good, but I have never felt comfortable with
"Druck weg vom der Boden, nicht vom der Mann". I guess
"Eine nach der andere" is a little more comfortable.

What do you use in German to communicate with the local players?

James

Hello James

Your German is quite good !!! I am impressed ! :D

I'd say:
"langsam aufstehen" - "up easy"
"nicht am Gegner abstützen" - kinda like "push off the ground/roll off the man"
"der Spielzug ist zu Ende" - "play is over"
"der Ball ist weg" - "ball is away"

hope that helps ;)

Andy

I'm pretty vocal on the field too, and encourage my crew to be the same. Before we leave the locker room, I always say to them to let the players know we are out there - stripey shirt, stripey socks, STRIPEY VOICE!!

Jerry Grunska (who for many years was one of the Football columnists for REFEREE magazine) came to Great Britain a few years ago to give a football officials training clinic. He worked a British game as Umpire with my crew and one of the many things he spoke to me about after the game was my "ball is away" calls. He was pleased that I was using such a preventative officiating technique (that I picked up from a US Airforce official) but suggested that instead of the word "Away", I use the word "Gone".

His reasoning was that "GONE!" had a hard edge to it compared to the wishy-washy sound of "awaaaaay....". A small point I know, but I thought I'd share it.