Welcome to Match Official Brain Training
In all sports, match officials learn on the job. It's almost impossible to fully prepare to officiate without participating in actual games. Saying that, teams often don't take well to match officials that are learning, they just want a good referee all the time. So how do you get 'good' in this seemingly 'Catch 22' situation? Match officials typical prepare themselves physically using similar training techniques as players, and mentally prepare by revising the laws of the game - but this is not enough to become a good match official. Decision making whilst under physical stress and whilst in the pressure of a game situation, is significantly different to when you are calmly sitting on the couch! Any way that a match official can incorporate decision making and physical and mental fatigue into their fitness training, will help them prepare for real games. Match officials must also learn from their real game experiences. Game reviews are important for matc...
