Appraisal Time

I remembered the suntan lotion this time and I escaped the sunburn usually associated with delivering practical training on the Basic Course for New Referees.

I had an indoor session on pre-match day preparation to deliver, just after the opening ice-breaker exercise by Bobby. It was lively enough and we still had time for a brief panic attack and some technical hitches before I settled into my run through. It went well and I finished right on the 30 minute mark.

Then it was outside to prepare for my session on which I was being appraised. It was another pre-match session, this time covering from the arrival in the car park to entering the field of play. I covered the meet&greet with the club secretary, including getting a match fee and expenses before moving on to a player equipment inspection. The candidates had some fun completing an inspection on their group mates.

The last session was based on a game I devised around getting a team of officials on to the field at a cup final. The candidates seemed to enjoy themselves and responded well. As a result, they appeared to learn a lot. Steve, who was carrying out the appraisal was happy too and gave me some very encouraging feedback.

Next it was back outside to help Bobby with a session on referee signals. We had a lot of fun running around the various stations getting the candidates to loosen up and start to have some more fun, then it was time for lunch.

After lunch we had a long session on starts and restarts and then it was time for me to stand down. I read through my feedback again and asked Steve how he thought it would be graded. Again he gave me good feedback and then it was time to head home.