From Humble Beginnings

Zimbabwe: Fifa Hail Local Refs

FIFA have hailed the development of younger referees in Zimbabwe and believe the country could soon scale the heights it reached at the turn of the millennium when it supplied officials for the World Cup and Confederations Cup tournaments.

The World soccer governing body's instructors - Carlos Henriques and Felix Tangawarima - are in the country for an Elite referees course which began in the capital last Friday and has been running at Prince Edward School.

Another course for the match assessors also ran concurrently with that of the referees but it ended on Sunday night.

Fifa referees development officer Henriques who is no stranger to Zimbabwe having been in the country on a number of occasions on the mission to improve the standards of officiating yesterday expressed satisfaction with the 34-member class of elite referees they have been taking through their paces since Friday. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of AllAfrica.com.

Kicking Back Comments: I have to say this article gave me great pause. It is one thing to work toward an Olympics or a World Cup within a program like US Soccer which is very well established, very well funded, and very well recognized around the world.

It is quite another to build a program from the ground up having nothing established, little money, and even littler recognition on the world's stage.

Big kudos to these folks whose big dreams, will certainly flourish into big reality in the years to come.

 

6 Second Mania

Boy oh boy.

Looking around the web over the last couple of days after the women's US v. Canada Olympic match has been interesting. I have seen everything from a full blown US payoff to Norway for the win, to FIFA payoff of the referee to get the "final they really wanted", to it's FIFA's fault for having a neutral referee in there, to it's Canada's fault for not putting more goals in the nest than the US.

I'm not going to speculate on all the nonsense (just a little), but stick more to the heart of the 6 second rule, and some interpretations.

So where do we start? Yep, with the LOTG, which states in relevant part in Law 12:

Indirect free kick

An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits any of the following four offenses:

• controls the ball with his hands for more than six seconds before releasing it from his possession

(Other 3 bullets omitted)

Okay, simple enough. One may ask then, what is control.

Anything in the 2012/2013 Amendments to the LOTG? Nope.

US Soccer position papers? Nope.

How about the advice to referees that has been so widely cited in news articles? This states in whole:

12.18 THE "SIX-SECOND" RULE
The goalkeeper has six seconds to release the ball into play once he or she has taken possession of the ball with the hands. However, this restriction is not intended to include time taken by the goalkeeper while gaining control of the ball or as a natural result of momentum. The referee should not count the seconds aloud or with hand motions. If the goalkeeper is making a reasonable effort to release the ball into play, the referee should allow the “benefit of the doubt.” Before penalizing a goalkeeper for violating this time limit, the referee should warn the goalkeeper about such actions and then should penalize the violation only if the goalkeeper continues to waste time or commits a comparable infringement again later in the match. Opposing players should not be permitted to attempt to prevent the goalkeeper from moving to release the ball into play. 

Okay, that helps a bunch. Now sprinkle on top that referees should not punish trifling offenses and what do we have?

For the media I think it could have been a bit of a red herring.

Why?

Because this is a FIFA match, not a US Soccer match. So regardless of how US Soccer interprets this situation, it has no import. This is totally a FIFA deal.

That said, this last comment may be moot in this case as US Soccer and FIFA seem to align. I make the point as people are immediately jumping to the conclusion that if US Soccer says this is so, it is what happens. Not true in all cases with regard to FIFA matches.

So now what, was it a violation or not?

By the letter of the Law, in the 78th minute, my answer is yes as the keeper held the ball for about 10 seconds, 4 seconds longer than the proscribed time.

That said, I offer the following as thoughts for how to manage this situation (in general), without coming to the same (controversial) result, or even a need for that decision.

1. Nip it in the bud early.

Let's face it, Canada was time wasting. The Canadian coach proclaiming his teams innocence in this regard is BS. This is a coached tactic, a well known tactic, and one to time waste, plain and simple. A referee needs to know when this is going to happen, and deal with it through presence. In this case there were similar incidents in the 58th and 61st minute from the Canadian GK ... this was even after a talking to by the AR at halftime. Start dealing with it when it first comes up.

2. Make a show of it.

Players know how to waste time, and are coached to do so. There is nothing wrong with a referee very publicly showing their displeasure with the tactic and making a show of it. Yes this goes against the grain of being invisible, but it serves to not only put the GK on notice ... who already was in this case ... but also to put the entire stadium on notice the referee with deal with this.

Consider it in the context of a hard foul. A referee will whistle hard, go over, talk and usually gesture about this incident. Often times a "no more" sign language is used. Many times to great effect. Why not do the same here? At a goal kick or other stoppage near an incident with time wasting, go to the GK and gesture "no more", or "hurry up" or something to put the stadium on notice you are going to take action next time. In that way, when the referee does make that decision, the reaction is not, "did you see that!", it is one of "well, the referee told them to hurry up."

3. Be consistent (with tradition).

Much has been written about the "tradition" (my word) of how this particular aspect of Law 12 is enforced. Frankly, history is not on the side of this particular referee as it is rarely enforced through a free kick. The history of the Law points to the egregious abuses where GKs would hold the ball for minutes (!) and have no resulting free kick for time wasting. One thing a referee must consider is what do the players expect not just within a particular match, but from match to match.

Like anything else, tradition (or consistency from match to match for the sport as a whole) is critical for professional and international players. To divert from that tradition is asking for trouble.

Some have said this law has outlived its usefulness. I don't go that far as abandoning it would revert us back to the basketball era goal keepers who dribble around the 18 yard box like Larry Bird. Keep the law, we still need it as is well demonstrated in this match.

4. Don't send your AR in this case.

It has also been widely reported that the AR spoke to the Canadian GK about the time wasting, but the GK did not consider it a "warning" of sorts. She spouted some nonsense like "it was an informal warning" or "it didn't count."

This too is BS as the Canadian GK knew exactly what she was doing. Otherwise she would not be playing at that level. Believe me, I didn't question when a vice principle warned me about discipline in school. It certainly was NOT informal because I knew what was going to happen next. Both GKs should have as well here.

That said, and with all due respect to the ARs out there, it needs to come from the referee in these cases. Its not that an AR is not allowed to do so, or is empowered to do so ... in fact I am certain that the refereeing team was aware and spoke to BOTH GKs about it. In this case however it needs to come from the person who is going to make the decision, not their assistant.

So while the Canadian GKs "excuse" is weak ... it is best hearing this from the referee, and there is no harm in a follow up ... or many ... from the ARs.

5. Silence the dissenters.

If you are taking care of all of the above, and a player (like Wambach) dissents by action in counting in front of you, book them for the dissent.

Her farcical excuse of "I was just counting" is just crap. She baited the referee and knows it. This is not "heads up play", it's gamesmanship and needs to be dealt with. If you experience the same, consider a caution if you are doing what you must to avoid the time wasting.

6. Look for help.

Don't be afraid to get help form the ARs and 4th in dealing with delays as well. Their presence, as well as your words and presence will show that you, as a team, are on top of the issue.


In that way, when the whistle needs to come for delaying the match, it will be far better received.

Take it for what it is worth.

The OTHER, other US teams in London

So while I have been whining over the last couple of posts about the MNT and the lack of (US) soccer enthusiasm in general, there are a couple of other US teams worth noting over in London now.

The refereeing teams.

Sometimes in all the fanfare of the WMT doing as well as they have, we have forgotten about our brother and sisters in arms.

You can check out what is going on in their own words at http://usaolympicreferees.blogspot.com.

A worthy read for all.

"You ride for ME son"

I can almost hear those words coming out of Wiggo's mouth, holder of the yellow jersey, on the Team Sky bus after Stage 11 of the TdF where his climbing Lieutenant, Chris Froome, dropped him like a bad habbit, and had to be called back by the director to again protect Wiggins. As the stories go, Froome defied team orders in dropping Wiggo.

This of course has created much controversy (not as much as the happenings in Radio Shack land sadly) to many watching le Tour. So much in fact that the riders WAG's have got involved and had at each other on Twitter.

Lets face it, Froome is the better rider, yet Wiggo is the named rider. Now what? Hold back someone who can win out of tradition, or ego, or let the best person go forward?

Does this sound like a familiar scenario?

How many times have you as an AR worked for someone in the middle who you KNEW (objectively) you were better than?

How did you react? Did you "ride off" as Froome did and leave the referee to their own devices?

Or did you recognize that you are a team, bury your own personal ambitions, and support them as best you could?

Here is Froome right after the stage in his own words:



Good answer, mostly. His words were fine, how he said them, was less believable.

There are those of us who believe Froome is the better rider, and should be wearing yellow, and is giving up too much by letting Wiggo walk away with it.

My though on this is don't be so driven by ego. If you accept an assignment as an AR, you are there to serve as an AR until such time as you are called on as referee. Don't subvert The Game from the touchline by placing a match into disrepute with your ego.

Imagine, just imagine tomorrow on Stage 19 if Froome, knowing he is about 2:05 seconds back of Wiggo, rode out of his shoes to actually take the yellow jersey off him the day before riding into Paris.

Can you picture that, how horrible it would look, and the shunning of a career Froome would get? He would never be able to race professionally again.

Now just imagine if you did this as an AR ... what do you think the reaction would be?

I AM SPARTACUS!!

Photo courtesy of @RSNT

As most of you know I am a great follower of cycling, and specifically of Team Radio Shack.

This last week fans like me who have been suffering through injury, illness, and controversy of the teams early season have been treated with delight to the last week of the Tour de France and RSNT's stellar performance, save Frank Schleck getting caught in a crash on Stage 6 and losing a significant amount of time.

That said, Fabian Cancellara (Spartacus) has worn yellow for the week, and Andreas Kloden (Klodi) is sitting pretty in the GC at only +00:19 seconds back.

Not bad indeed.

So what does this have to do with the price of baguettes in France?

Well, as I continue to prepare for the Memory Ride in a week or so, I sometimes ... okay often ... go out an pretend like I am riding for RSNT on The Tour ... full RSNT kit and all.

While I generally don't pretend to be Spartacus (I'm a Popo fan), it is a nice distraction from grinding out hundreds of miles in an effort to try and get better on the bike.

I used to do the same thing as a younger, and honestly amateur level referee where I would follow the career of some other, more seasoned referees, in an effort to at times emulate what they do, as it was to me,  growing to be a pro.

Now in the RSNT case it is clearly being a fan(atic) as I have no where near the skill of these guys, and never will in my lifetime. The refereeing on the other hand was another matter.

I used to revel in watching Bratsis, Kleinaitis, Evans, and Mauro, and whenever possible pick up tips, tricks, and knowledge from these men from afar, and through good fortune, personally, over time.

Today is an age too that one can follow a referee from afar using tools like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs and I am here to assure you there is no harm in emulating the good behavior of the modern day giants like de Bleeckere, Webb, Stark, and Kassai. In fact it can be quite fun.

Also too as our world gets smaller and smaller, to reach out to these folks and say hello, or even strike up an appropriate dialogue is quite excellent as well.

You may be amazingly suprised just how open folks are to share what they love, when asked.

A coin flip?

Olympic Spot Conceded Without Runoff

EUGENE, Ore. — United States track officials had devised an unprecedented method to resolve an extraordinary situation. After Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix finished in a dead heat in the final of the 100 meters at the Olympic trials here, the officials gave the runners the option of breaking the tie by a coin toss or a runoff, neither of which has been used to determine a spot on the United States Olympic team. ...

See the whole story here, from the NYT.

Kicking Back Comments: So all the hand wringing aside from the rest of the article, my question to this audience is when in the LOTG do we use a coin toss to decide the match?

Never?

Sometimes?

Before the match if it is raining?

Any thoughts?

Les jeux sont faits, Platini??

Platini: Introducing goal-line technology would be a historical mistake

The clamor for confirmation over whether a ball has crossed the line has grown following Ukraine’s ghost-goal against England, but the UEFA chief is strongly against any changes

UEFA president Michel Platini believes FIFA would be making a “historical mistake” if it introduced goal-line technology, following growing calls for its introduction after Ukraine was denied a goal against England in its Euro 2012 Group D clash. ...

See the full story here, courtesy of goal.com.

Kicking Back Comments: I think thou protest too much Mr. Platini. While I agree with his position, and even the reason he states for it in this article, I'm not quite sure this is his only reasoning.

He was the inventor of EAR's (I call them AAR's) and frankly would not look great if they went by the wayside in lieu of GLT.

I'll be honest, I don't see the benefit given the cost. Given the amount of controversy a referee can inject into a match, and the given number of decisions they make, or can help get right, I'm not seeing it.

I think at the highest level it makes sense ... more eyes are better. What has been forgotten is that more referees == more controversy, and the Ukraine v. England match was no exception. The EAR should have called the goal as I wrote earlier.

Believe me, I don't like the ideas of EAR's, or the idea of GLT. Then again, you are listening to a guy who still wears long sleeves when he referees.

We are not all one trick ponies

Meet more of football’s all-round sportsmen

Four years ago, while Lionel Messi was preparing to light up the FIFA Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008, FIFA.com drew inspiration from the Games and ran a piece on the multi-talented footballers who have managed to pursue professional careers in other sports (see link on the right).

In the meantime, Argentina’s legendary former striker Gabriel Batistuta has taken up polo and ex-France full-back Bixente Lizarazu has become a European champion of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, while stars from other sports have been trying their hand at football, such as 2006 Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro, who signed for Spanish third division football club Coruxo. ... 

See the full article here, courtesy of FIFA.

Kicking Back Comments: A very good article and a excellent reminder that players, and referees are more than they appear. While we all play roles, we are often much more than the role we play.

... and by the way. Oscar Pereiro was actually 2nd in the 2006 TdF, to American Floyd Landis ... until he flunked several doping tests. (source)

What's good for the goose ...

FIFA to test referees for banned drugs

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -FIFA says referees could soon undergo testing for banned performance enhancing drugs.

FIFA's chief medical officer Jiri Dvorake says referees are part of the game and should be treated like players.

Dvorak tells FIFA's medical conference there is no indication of a doping problem among referees "but it's something we have to consider.'' ...

See the whole article here, from SI.com.

Kicking Back Comments: Just throwing it out there for now.

This is not news ...

Hat Tip to Madame X for this one.

She found this article, "Navigating injury: Can GPS help reduce player burnout?" from CNN.

I'll be honest, this was not real exciting to me as if footballers are just getting wind of this type of technology now, and ways to use it ... well, its just disappointing.

This type of technology has been around for a long, long, time.

Way back in the early 2000's I even worked at a company that did this type of work, Trakus. It is (now) a Wakefield Massachusetts based company that specializes in tracking for broadcast, near real time positioning of horses.

Back in the day, it did the same thing for hockey players and was used in the 2001 NHL All Star Game. A sample output of the technology is shown below.

Photo courtesy InterSystems

Without getting into the 1's and 0's of it, a player is tracked in real time, and that information is stored digitally and able to be regurgitated to get statistics such as distance, speed, acceleration, playing time, and so on.

Now, GPS and GPS type system (like the Trakus system above) have been around for a while, and recently with the advent of low and lower cost electronics have been made available to the "prosumer" (like me with my cycling stuff), and the consumer (like most of us with a GPS in their car).

The suggestion from the CNN article is a very simple, and very known one which is, if you track your effort, you will know how you should be training, and when you should be resting to avoid burnout, excess fatigue, and therefore injury.

Honestly, anyone who is really, really serious about training knows about periodicity and training, and may even track their efforts through a commercially available device, such as the Garmin 405CX that I have.

Heck for me I am even measuring power outputs on my bike during rides. This is hardly advanced stuff and is absolutely essential to me training. An example if how this looks can be found here.

This information can be really useful for match analysis as well. Take at look at "Stuck on the Diagonal" and "Just a High School Match?" from last October and you'll get a sense of just how powerful a tool it is.

If professional coaches are just getting wind of this type of stuff now, they are way behind the curve.

My sense is they have known about it for a while now as there are some really talented exercise physiologists working with teams. What I believe is that there will be great resistance to this on (2) fronts.

First, because it goes against "tradition" (whatever that is) the use of GPS systems will not be easily accepted.

Second, these devices will not be accepted because it puts data on the page that can significantly effect players salaries and transfer fees. As a result players unions and agents may fight to prevent such collection. Can you see the discussion, it goes something like this:

Team Management: Gee Becks, you want a 3 year deal? Let's take a look at your stats last year. Wow, you played in 25 matches and ran an average of 6.5 miles per match. That's down 13% from the previous year. Also, your average speed was down over 2 MPH as well. How about a 1 year deal?

You think I'm kidding.

Players, coaches, and referees are fired for their performance, and often times that is based on objective data such as how many wins, losses, goals, serious incidents, and so on. Imagine if there were a whole set of digitally collect stats for all of these folks? Can you imagine how these would be used?

Now, as we all know, soccer is much more than that. Even the best team on paper can produce horrible results. Just take a look at my poor Radio Shack Nissan Trek cycling team. On paper, the very best team in the world, hands down. In reality, they could not put a beach ball in the ocean if they were standing in the middle of the Atlantic, right now anyway. I am holding my breath for Le Tour however.

It's a piece of the puzzle, and one that can be really abused by those who choose to manipulate the data for their own devices ... as many do.

Secret Drink Mix Followup

So last week sometime I posed an article about "Secret Drink Mix", and more specifically about the science of hydration generally.

Well, I am happy to report that I have been using the Skratch Labs Secret Drink Mix for a week on training rides ... and it is AWESOME!!

Hands down best mix I have used, and I am hooked now and forever on the stuff. My personal favorite being the raspberry.

Now in that article I shared a video of Dr. Lim, and a really neat experiment about hydration in general.

Well right on cue, Dr. Williams of The Science of Soccer Online, posted Heat, Dehydration and Performance, a very worthy read on the topic.

The bottom line, and I quote from the article:

"The bottom line is, keep dehydration at bay by drinking plenty of fluids before and during play. Also, drink after the match. Staying hydrated can improve performance and avoid health problems."

Don't forget, referees are endurance athletes too, and need to abide by this same advice. For my money Skratch Labs has the best stuff around for it.

Refereeing Can Be Like This ...

Up, coffee, feed, gather, race, rinse, repeat

Cherries

That was the subject line of an e-mail from my husband, Lee. HMMM, wonder what that is about. Well it turns out that the cherry trees on our property are booming with lovely yummy cherries. I miss home.

Hump day is over, and I am excited about the last few days of this race. It has been a tough one. I know that I am a strong rider, but it is hard to accept that I am elite enough to be where I am right now. I truly have to fight back thoughts of not belonging and only being lucky. Some of the other ladies have some pretty impressive backgrounds that give them a fighting edge. I hope to be aggressive and competitive enough to pull this through. ...

See the whole story here, from Cycling News.

Kicking Back Comments: Let's face it, refereeing can be BORING sometimes. A match is not challenging, you are just not in the mood, a coach or player is really busting your chops, it can be less than fun.


It can be hard to have the mental toughness to be able to referee day in, day out like is detailed here in a multiple day stage race. It takes hard work, and a strong team to do well, day in, and day out.


Traveling is hard, being away from home is hard, working day in and day out in something that requires so much concentration is hard.


Don't forget, take a break every once in a while. I just (re)learned this lesson the other day. While training for a cycling event, I spent (11) days in a row training ... and paid dearly for it. I found myself just not wanting to get on the bike, tired, and not having fun. What did I do? Took a weekend off the bike, and eating some of my favorite junk foods and watched some TV.


Same is true for refereeing. Build in some breaks, and take some time for yourself and your family. The Game will consume every last moment you have if you let it. Take it from one who has been there. Take a weekend and unplug ... you'll be a better referee for it.

Why I Love "Zero Tolerance" in Youth Matches

Yesterday I wrote about why I really dislike "zero tolerance" mindsets. On a personal note Mrs. Kicking Back did not like that designation, despite agreeing with the subject matter. Henceforth she will be called "Madam X." I'm sure she will find that much more flattering. If not I hope the hospital has good WiFi =/

There is a flip side to the zero tolerance paradigm, and to me it centers around youth referees in general. If there is a place where there should be no tolerance for nonsense, it is in these circles.

Now I admit to having a true dislike for perceived authority, and I have run into my fair share of folks as a youth referee who thought I should listen to them, just because they were older.

Rubbish.

My dad gave me a stellar piece of advice when I was very young in my career, and it was while I was refereeing that I could "talk back" to adults.

I think when he first told me I could hardly contain myself.

Now, I have to admit that there were times ... are times ... that I go overboard with this one. While now it is based in good intentions, the negative results can be the same.

I am a big fan of telling it like it is, and a youth referee standing up, in a good spirited way, to a demeaning player or coach I think is a great thing. Sadly, I think far too may parents and coaches need a reminder of civility, and would not respond well to a "dressing down", even appropriately.

Enter Zero Tolerance.

Such a rule has the best of intentions which is to protect the youth referees that are arbitrating these youth matches. Frankly, they need it as how can a 15 year old reasonably withstand withering criticism from folks that generally have no idea about the laws of the game.

There is a better than 50% attrition rate for youth (soccer) referees after the first year. That number levels off just a little after year 3, but it is still a huge number.

Now while I am certain there are several factors that cause this attrition (gee what else could a 16 year old boy have on his mind), fan(atic) and coach abuse I am fairly certain are among the top (5) reasons.

Zero Tolerance may help in many cases by at least making people aware there are consequences to their oral actions.

Does it get us all of the way there? Nope, not by a long shot in my opinion as it is critical for referees of all levels to have the life skills necessary to fend off (or ignore) an oral tongue lashing when it is based in nonsense.

I will say though, if it saves one referee, or even just makes others feel better about their chances of getting abused when refereeing, it may just be worth it.

"Huffing and Puffing" Redux

Paul Levy strikes again with a good article from Not Running A Hospital. In this episode, Huffing and Puffing, Paul and some refereeing colleagues detail anecdotal examples of how the fitness levels of players has changed over the years. He comes to an interesting conclusion on that front as well. Take a look at the article, it was somewhat of a surprise ending that I don't completely disagree with.

It got me thinking however, not only do we have a larger rate of "more unfit players" (my term - and I don't think that is anecdotal, but is supported by good evidence regarding childhood weight), but I would also opine, even purely as a matter of sampling, that we also have a larger number of unfit referees.

Now there is a continuum here to be sure. Referees at the International and Professional level train nearly every day, and need to, to be able to keep up with the game. As you traverse the ranks, there is really less and less training required at the typical town level. If you go to a tournament like the Dallas Cup, all bets are off as those players in most groups are very experienced, very fit, and professionally trained. They will not hesitate to take advantage of a referee who has a "blind spot" because they can not get to a particular play.

Long story short, if you don't want to train to referee, to do well, you should plan to keep it in the youth soccer world (like U-12 and below who need a manager more than a referee), and fairly local. This may sound like a jab to youth soccer (who need good referees!), but it is really just intended to reinforce the point that you can not referee a match to train, to be ready to referee. It's a circular argument that holds no water.

Now, you can use matches to supplement your training. I used to do this a bunch where I would work a amateur match regularly to ready myself mentally and physically for a professional match. It was a "tuner" as it was. But to do no training, at all, and show up on Sunday for a match is not good practice, and frankly is not good training.

Think about it this way, you are training once a week in the event you are competing in. While I would agree by the end of a 3 month season you may have a marginal increase in fitness is it really the fitness you need for a match? Also, what about all those matches you were not "match fit" for? Is this fair to those teams?

I think not.

Train to referee ... not referee to train.

A Lesson from Indy

So in cruising the information superhighway, I saw the video below. Take a quick peek.



Player (in white) was getting cute, yes?

Referee is nowhere to be seen, which may be a bad think as if this player does not get rid of the ball, an opponent may have the mind to go in and clean his clock, just for showboating.

In cases like this, it is important for the referee to be aware, or bad things can happen.

Case in point is the clip below from Indiana Jones.



Any questions?

"Secret Drink Mix"

So dear friends, tournament season is upon us, and as many have heard me say in the past, refereeing at tournaments is an endurance sport.

At these events you are endurance athletes and need to fuel yourself like endurance athletes.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart as in my post-refereeing life I too am an endurance athlete in a different sport, cycling. These lessons are directly relatable though, and I offer an article on the topic here.

The author is Dr. Allen Lim, an exercise physiologist for Omega-Pharma-Quickstep pro cycling team. His blog post, Hydration Science and Practice, is a good reminder about how to fuel your body, and why just water is not enough, and some popular sports drinks are too much.

He does have an electrolyte solution for sale that I have not tried, so I don't have any comment on it yet, but (and more importantly of this discussion), the science involved is spectacular and worth looking at for any endurance athlete. I have included the video here which details his experiment.



Truly fascinating stuff, and a reminder about what it takes to keep and endurance athlete working at capacity for long stretches of time.

Think about it, a multi day stage race for cycling, 3 to 5 hours in the saddle churning for much of that time, for a few days in a row. Youth tournament play, several game sets, 5+ hours in a day working or exposed, for several days back to back. Both are demanding .... very demanding ... and there is some sharing between the two I feel.

"Secret Drink Mix" comes from Dr. Lim himself where he worked on the Tour de France in secretly replacing the overly sweet drinks supplied by the sponsor with his own, all natural recipes. Riders loved them, and thrived using this formula. As it was kept from the sponsors it became known as the "Secret Drink Mix."

Today, Dr. Lim and company can be found dispensing products, advice, and a most excellent cookbook (The FeedZone Cookbook) at SkratchLabs. If you are really interested, he has his "Secret Drink Mix" available for sale also, here.

Sometimes you have to roll the dice

So for those who have been following me for a while, you know that I am also a huge cycling fan. For those who have been unlucky enough to sit through one of my presentations on teamwork I go into great details about cycling, how they work together, and how they need each other to win.

Another refereeing lesson was reenforced for me the other day from the cycling world when I was watching stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California. It was about taking risks.

You can see a profile of the stage here ... it is basically straight up.

Now, Chris Horner (of my favorite team - Radio Shack Nissan Trek) is last years winner, and was expected by many to repeat again this year. Only problem was that he was down 2:30ish in the General Classification (GC) before stage 7, meaning basically he had very little chance, short of a catastrophe for many other rides, to win the GC.

Knowing this was the case, at the beginning of the stage, he collected several members of his team, and "Swung for the GC Fence."

He knew it was a long shot, and basically did not care what everyone else thought ... he went for it, and very nearly won it all with such an epic risk.

Refereeing can be like that sometimes. You have to take that risk. It might be in the form of playing an advantage, maybe it is NOT cautioning a player that did not "feel" right to do. Maybe it is sending off a player straight away to keep the match from going into disrepute.

In all matches there are elements of risk involved. After all, you don't know what is going to happen when you choose A over B. Sometimes picking one path has more risk than another. There are times that we do this knowingly as a referee to move to a particular desired outcome, ultimately to manage a match. There are times however, we make a decision not being fully aware what the outcome may be.

In all cases however, when we learn about the risks, we have to be ready to take them. There are times taking these risks (with the best of intentions) will yield disaster. There are also times when they will yield a beautiful match.

Taking no risks however may yield the same results, but you will get there in a far more unpredictable fashion than if you were to take the risk. After all, this is the magic of refereeing soccer where the referee is allowed such wide discretion to manage the match how they see fit, and take those chances to allow the magic to happen.

REVOLT!

FA should ignore Fifa and police its own game

The Football Association is full of talented people working tirelessly for the betterment of the game. Yet admitting at dinner parties that you work for the organisation these days must be a bit like confessing that in your spare time you microwave small animals on behalf of a consortium of leading merchant banks. Or worse, that you are a journalist. ...

See the whole story here, from The Telegraph.

Kicking Back Comments: There are (2) key passages that jumped out at me.

The first is the relationship between FIFA and any National Association:

But instead of recognising that it has the power properly to intervene, the FA behaves like the society hostess upbraided by George Bernard Shaw.

“Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?” legend has it the playwright asked her. “Yes,” came back the speedy reply. “Good, so would you sleep with me for a pound?”

“What kind of woman do you take me for?” she spluttered in indignation. “We have already established that,” replied Shaw. “We are now merely haggling over the price.”

Boy do I agree with this. FIFA should leave the associations alone to run their leagues. International play ... different story. I think that works and FIFA should appreciate it as FIFA does what is best for themselves, let the country folks do what is best as well.

The other passage is:

Professional referees have demonstrated they are willing to accept responsibility for their errors in the pursuit of improvement.

The FA, however, makes them look a body of men cowering behind procedure that covers up incompetence and punishes innocence. That is not the characteristic of a robust, self-confident organization.

To which I say ... CAN I HAVE AN AMEN!?!

Recognizing and adjusting to errors is a hallmark of the very best referees. The very, very best do this within a particular match so the adjustment is instant.

To have the league "whitewash" an issue when the referee genuinely knows he blew something is not productive, in fact it is counter productive. Now this is a fine balance as most folks are really undereducated to what may have actually happened, but if a referee screwed up, I think, and the author seems to agree, get it out there, learn from it, and move on.

If as referees we are not doing this anyway after EVERY SINGLE MATCH, there is something wrong.

Good for the US?

As I'm sure you've heard by now, the US was eliminated from Olympic qualifying the other day by El Salvador.

Is this a good thing for the US?

I would say yes ... but not for the disarray and disappointment the players were left with, it is for the US referees looking to go to England this summer.

As you can imagine, when it comes time to select tournament referees, aside form the European bias such tournaments have in selecting their referees, US referees I would think would do fine as the country now does not have a "dog in the hunt" courtesy of last nights result.

Lemonade from lemons, maybe. But also a very real fact of tournaments like this.

We'll see what happens this summer.

Now THIS is more like it

U.S. Soccer, MLS Create Professional Referee Organization to Manage Soccer Officials in the United States

The U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer announced today the formation of the Professional Referee Organization (PRO), an organization that will be responsible for managing the referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada.

CHICAGO (March 6, 2012) – The U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer announced today the formation of the Professional Referee Organization (PRO), an organization that will be responsible for managing the referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada.

The creation of PRO is designed to increase the quality of officiating in U.S. and Canadian professional leagues, develop more professional quality officials at a younger age and develop officials who will represent the United States and Canada in FIFA competitions. ...

See the whole article here, from US Soccer.

Kicking Back Comments: Here we go folks! NOW we are cooking with gas!