New Ref - here's how it went

[wardtc]

Once again, I have to thank you all for your support. I have been working hard at this, and I think I am starting to get it. My wife thinks I am a soccer junkie now because I have been stopping to watch any game I can in our area. Next, I went to our school varsity coach and got a hold of some old game films. Spent last weekend going over them forwards, backwards, in slow motion, and in zoom mode, I think I am understanding better. I learned two things - 1) why the calls were made when they were, and 2) that there were several calls that were missed. So depending on angle, speed, being screened by players, or for what ever reason, other people miss calls too - I'm not the only one.

I also found a real good web site (corshamref.net) which does a great job of sorting out the grey, and offering real world advice to the new guys.

The other thing I'm finding is that experience is the best teacher of all. Since I started with AYSO and believe in their program, I am still doing U12 and U14 games. The neat thing is that the pace now seems much slower, and I can see so many things develop that relate to the HS level. Lastly, it must be working because I am now being called to fill in on a few more games this fall (picked up four more -hopefully because I'm not that bad).

Once again thank you for your support. And for all the other newbies out there, if I can help you, let me know.