In cooperation with Voetbal Vlaanderen, a 5-day training course was organized
(7/2/2022-11/2/2022) in San Pedro del Pinatar, for the group "BCORE". This group consisted of 16 men and 2 women.
The Pinatar Arena is a well-known training center for many Belgian (top) soccer clubs. The training center offers a wide range of facilities to organize intensive and professional training sessions.
In this short report you can find the experience according to the trainers and supervisors. This will give you a better idea of what you can and should expect from such a "development phase".
Kris Bellon:
((Head of Refereeing - Referee Observer)
In the first session, the strengths and areas of focus for each (assistant) referee were taken individually in order to formulate short and medium term goals. There was also a more in-depth collective discussion on some concrete situations where tips and tricks were shared for some areas of concern that apply to many. Finally, an assignment was given to pairs. They were to make an analysis of an upcoming game and then present it.
Three sessions were organized during the remaining days, in which 3 groups of 2 people each presented their analysis of a European match. Depending on the level of the person concerned, the presentations were made in Dutch (*), English (**) or French (***).
Depending on the situation, certain elements such as match management, player management and a number of technical elements such as advantage, hand game, etc. were discussed in an interactive way.(see pictures)
Wesli De Cremer:
((Professional Referee & VAR)
&
Jonas van Dyck
(Secretary of the referee department of BAVB Football Flanders)
Field training:
Monday::
"On the first day we had an activator training session to loosen up the flight muscles a bit.
As the referees already had to get up early and had a long flight behind them, the focus was on free running, stretching and some short game-like accelerations.
Tuesday::
In the morning an "integrated session" was held with Jonas Van Dyck, "In this session the referees learned some processes and had to make decisions after physical exertion." An example is the whistle of a penalty where they were put under pressure by a coach, after which they had to give a certain penalty. Thus, in effect, a real game situation was created.
In the morning an "integrated session" was held with Jonas Van Dyck, "In this session the referees learned some processes and had to make decisions after physical exertion." An example is the whistle of a penalty where they were put under pressure by a coach, after which they had to give a certain penalty. Thus, in effect, a real game situation was created.
Wednesday:
The morning session was dedicated to a solid training push. After a quick warm up, a 30 minute HIIT block was offered. Again, decisions were introduced to keep them thinking when they were exhausted. In the afternoon, a gentle workout consisting of free running, stretching, core stability and some games was offered.
Thursday:
To conclude, an "integrated session" similar to Monday's was scheduled in the morning and a relaxing Padel tournament in the afternoon.
Additional technical session:
An additional technical session was also scheduled. This time it was about leadership on and off the court. In this interactive session, we looked together at how a referee can act as a leader in preparation for the match. Leadership during the game was also discussed. Finally, we also discussed the right mindset to adopt after the game. An attitude of lifelong learning and taking full responsibility for their development was central. For the leadership during the game, the different aspects were discussed and explained with the help of footage from my games (Wesli). The right images and learning moments were explained to the group. We looked together for the different aspects mentioned in the footage and reflected on them together. It was a successful session where we gave a lot of baggage in terms of taking full responsibility as a leader on and off the field.
Kris van de Velde :
((President responsible for the Football Flanders refereeing).)
They brought the technical session on Tuesday morning that they would normally have received during the regional training. These sessions are always aimed at discussing and clarifying recent phases of the game in professional soccer. These sessions are delivered from top to bottom (professional soccer to provincial).
There were also the personal interviews every evening with the talents present (Ref and AR) in which the IPG (individual growth plan) and their working points of the current season were discussed. These interviews were always conducted in collaboration with Kris Bellon.
During the 5-day course, Céline Mabille provided excellent film and physiotherapy services and Yvan Longin provided administrative and practical support on site.
The Expo-Line team itself was also represented on the course, we were very excited after a "long covid silence" to be able to support and co-organize such an event. We would like to thank the trainees for their motivated cooperation and all supervisors and trainers for sharing their experience.
EN 
NL 
FR