In cooperation with Arbitrage Voetbal Vlaanderen and Patrick, Expo-Line organized an internship in Pedro Del Pinatar again this year. From 06/02/2023 to 10/02/2023, 28 young talented referees used and honed their skills to reach the top.
This short report will give you a clearer idea about the internship and what to expect.
Weekly schedule: Both technical and training sessions were scheduled every morning and afternoon. With this, the participants' schedule was filled from 8:00-18:00.
Below is a summary of the sessions given.
Kris Van de Velde (Referee Observer Arbitrage, President Arbitrage Oost-Vlaanderen) presented the group each day (Monday through Thursday) with a "Laws of the game" test that they could complete digitally (via their smartphones).
Each day they received 10 questions (in English) including 5 game phases (clips).
On Friday, the rankings were then announced.
The top three consisted of Thibo Le Pera, Arthur Seynaeve and Ruben Calluy.
Seynaeve and Calluy finished with equal points (70 out of 80).
Arthur Seynaeve was the final winner because he was the fastest in forwarding the answers.
Olivier Stiers (Fitness Coach) taught all the workouts together with Wesli De Cremer (Fitness Coach)both morning and afternoon.
On Monday, training was based on recovery from fatigue from the very early flight, air travel and the previous day's games.
On Tuesday, we organized a VMA assessment. These tests were used for Wednesday's training session. An integrated training session with decision-making was scheduled in the afternoon.
Wednesday was individual work (according to the previous day's test). A strength training session was also on the program, interspersed with a spinning session.
On Thursday morning another integrated training session with decision making was scheduled and in the afternoon a padel tournament was organized (as a team building activity).
Finally, Friday morning we concluded the course with a jog along the sea.
Such an intensive program obviously helps the referees to progress physically!
Stijn Hutsebaut (Assistant Referee Manager, Sports Referee ACFF) gave the first session on Tuesday on offside and more specifically on the aspect ' Interfering '. When does an attacker influence the game or a defender? Different situations (clips) were discussed.
The second session on Thursday was also about offside but more specifically about the new rule ( since the beginning of this season ) regarding 'Deliberate Play '. Here a number of situations were discussed where the difference was shown between a controlled action of a defender and an uncontrolled action of a defender.
Alexandre Boucaut (Manager de Recrutement des arbitres ACFF) gave a debriefing on Wednesday morning on the World Cup Video test - it consists of 100 clips / decisions.
He also helped on the field during the integrated sessions showing the clips to the refs + debriefing after the session.
Frank De Bleeckere (Expo-Line Ambassador Vanishing Spray)
1St technical session :
The emphasis was on using your personality during the match. Illustrated with Clips from our league. Respectful communication against players and coaches. Management of situations and players is also important here. Sensing the match.
Do not give cheap yellow cards. No low cost yellow cards...your card management should be clear to everyone. If you exclude a player for a second yellow card this should also be clear and obvious. The ref makes a super important decision that will affect the match so that decision must be correct.
Teamwork is also important. Use your teamwork to the fullest. With 3 or 4 you see more than alone. Give clear instructions and don't watch the same situation with your team all together. Make good arrangements before the match.
As a ref, it is important to make logical decisions. Decisions that everyone can understand. You will have few discussions with the players because the decisions are made logically.
Stay invisible !!!
2nd Technical session :
Group work. The group was split into 2 groups with a secretary and speaker in each group. A compilation of decisions in 1 match was shown. The participants had to see for themselves which decision they were going to take or take differently than in the video.
Consultation, listening to everyone's point of view and then coming out with a joint decision was important here. It was an extremely interesting meeting with a lot of abandonment from the participants. At the end of these presentations, the conclusions were gone over and discussed.
The purpose of this presentation was to empathize with the competition, sense different situations, show body language and personality on the field and analyze decision making.
Lieselot Vanmeenen (Kine) and David Edelman (Kine) took care of the participants every evening. They could come to them for: care, muscle loosening, taping, ... Mainly the ailments occurred on the gastrocnemius and/or soleus (short and long calf muscles), possibly together with a tibial meningitis. This is mainly due to the terrains they train on at home and the frequency of training. Footwear is also an important factor in this. Other than that, there were also a few back, iliopsoas, neck and shoulder problems that were treated.
If you would like more info on "how to become a referee," please follow this link.
We would like to thank all the coaching staff for their efforts at the internship.
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