Monday 22 April 2013

#confused

So, I'm watching the NBA and a there's a steal and a pass up the middle of the court to a teammate breaking to the opponent's hoop. The teammate receives the ball around mid court and is fouled by an opponent who is clearly fouling to prevent a breakaway layup. Foul is called, then the refs huddle and go to video replay to determine if had a 'clear path' which if he did would mean (I believe) a technical foul along with the foul that stopped play. Apparently, there is a specific rule defining clear path, something along the lines of the player is in a straight line between the half circle under the hoop and the basket when fouled and is there are no defenders back? Something like that. Anyway a couple of minutes later the refs determined it was a clear path and so the additional foul shot.

Which is a long winded way to lead into my point... I don't know why other sports don't emulate soccer rules in some cases. For example, had the above situation occurred on a pitch then the referee needs to consider if the opponent by fouling broke up a promising attack 1. If the answer is yes, then Bingo, caution for unsporting behaviour. The Laws are silent in defining a promising attack, which places the onus on the official to *recognize* a tactical foul but I much rather take this than a set in stone definition.

Another example, different sport. In tonight's hockey game the goalie was assessed a penalty. Why does he get to stay on the ice while a teammate skater has to sit in the box? Is it because the team needs a goalie? Don't teams carry two goalies? Not sure why the goalie is treated differently when he commits a penalty.

In soccer, if a goalkeeper commits a send off offense, then the keeper is sent off. Can you imagine, the keeper violently strikes an opponent, is shown the red card, but stays in the game as a teammate is sent off in his place. Fantastic!

Anyway, if either of my two readers are either basketball or hockey officials and can enlighten me, please leave a comment. I will wade through the mass of comments and emails I receive to get your replies!




1. LoTG 119 "commits a foul for the tactical purpose of interfering with or breaking up a
promising attack" 

Saturday 20 April 2013

I don't say a-boot

I thought this was spring?
Bit chilly but bearable.
And I certainly do NOT want to hear anyone in August say 'it's too hot to play'. We live in Canada, we have seasons. 




Got to do some small side games today. Nice to see the enthusiasm and kids playing for the sake of playing. I had hoped the I could break out the new dark Euro (and bonus if it was raining, cause I suspect the dark Euro will look *fantastic* in the rain). As it happened I wore Goldmember. Liking the no collar. Not liking not having velcro patches sewed on. 


Game summary:
Two games back to back. Second game was higher scoring. 30 min halves.

Stat line:
half / total distance (km) / avg speed (km/hr) / top speed (min/km)
Game 1, 1st: 2.4 / 3.9 / 0:03:49
Game 1, 2nd: 1.91 / 3.5  / 0:04:09
Game 2, 1st: 1.55 / 3.0 / 0:03:00
Game 2, 2nd: 1.31 / 2.6 0:03:46

Game 1, on pace for 6.47 km (!?!) and game 2, 4.3 km.

Three games into the season and once over 6km and another at 5.99. Will be nice to see a full 45 min. 
Visual:
The satellite image is hopelessly out-of-date and doesn't show the current boundaries.  This image is good in that it shows the field coverage a referee needs to cover without AR's. Basically the whole field. 



Booking:
Nothing.
Assistants:
Nope

Kit:
Goldmember



So, one of my two readers suggested a name for dark Euro: Dark Knight.
Not bad. I need to wear it first then I will get a better sense of it's name.

The 10 Greatest Batman villians:

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Man of Mystery

Well, first game of 2013 in the books.
Exhibition with no AR's but oh well.
Good to get out and stretch the legs.

For those new to this blog, I write about my games. I have a gps tracker and provide some rudimentary stats. Nobody reads this but whatever. 

To bring everyone up to speed:
I generally only wear 2010 World Cup jerseys. I have 3 sets of 3 colours (yes, 9 jerseys total), yellow, black and red. I've named these:
Adjudicator (yellow)
Peacemaker (black)
El Presidente (red)

Actually, for this game I wore a new Euro kit. I only have singles of those (yellow and dark) so maybe yellow Euro shall be: Goldmember




Game summary:
Two halves of 35 minutes each. Exhibition so the boys were tame and restrained. Kinda nice in a way, just playing soccer and not trying to finish with body checks. One or two players didn't get the memo and went in a bit hard but other than that fairly straight forward.

Am using a new GPS tracker. Well, same software but new phone. I use Endomondo (http://www.endomondo.com/home) it's a free app(lication). Set the phone to mute, start the app, strap on via armband and voila, free gps tracker.

Stat line:
half / total distance (km) / avg speed (km/hr) / top speed (min/km)
1st / 2.49 / 4.2 / 3:16 
2nd / 2.17 / 3.5 / 3:53 

This version of the app provides top speed as min/km. Is a 3 min kilometre good?

However, not bad overall. On pace for 5.99 km over 90 minutes.

Visual:

I don't think the field boundaries are accurate, next game might have to do a gps baseline and 'mark' the midline.
Anyway, not bad diagonals each half.


1st half

2nd half

Booking:
Nothing.


Assistants:
Nope

Kit:
Goldmember



Must think of name for dark Euro.




Sunday 31 March 2013

Footie

So, I'm watching Australian Rules Football (Hawthorn vs Geelong). Back in the day I had an Australian exchange teacher who taught AFL for PE. Ever since, I've harboured a secret passion for the footie game.
Watching it on tv I love to watch the referees. Unfailingly polite to the players, run everywhere and the goal line judge has the coolest signal in refere lexicon...

Lot's of whistles though. Every time a player catches a ball kicked by a mate... whistle. Which got me thinking, the nice thing about soccer reffing is the whistle restraint. Restart the game at the 1st or 2nd half, after a goal, after a substitution, foul, really, that's most of them.

(not sure lexicon was used properly, but since nobody reads this I will leave it in).

Anyway, I hope the KSRA referee symposium gets a good turnout.

Only like 13 days to season start, then I can start tracking my games and posting for the enjoyment of... nobody.  Sigh.

Go Geelong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football 



Saturday 16 March 2013

Code Red

So, I'm on a six hour flight and wondering how to pass the time. Fortunately, I brought the Laws!
It's been a while since I've read the Laws from end to end (since the end of last season at least).
Every time I read it something new stands out.

I know that I'm preaching to the choir because my two readers regularly read the Laws. (if they're willing to read this blog they'll read anything) hashtag smileyface

Wait, you don't write 'hashtag', you use # instead? Social media is confusing.

But I digress.

I'm not sure why I read the Laws so often. Probably because I am waiting for the obscure situation to arise on the pitch and I can confidently quote which Law and subsection is in play.

Or if I'm ever on trial.


Now if I can only find that mess hall.

Top 10 Tom Cruise chase scenes...

Odin Poll Results


Monday 11 March 2013

Something found

Well, it has been a while since I've posted. Much to the chagrin of my two followers.
Could actually be only one given the attention span of the internet generation.

But what caused me to start writing?

A coin.

So, I put on a jacket I haven't worn for a while. Turns out there's a coin in there. A referee Adidas coin that went missing near the end of last season. Apparently it was in this coat pocket the entire time.
Made my day. It's super nice when you find something that you thought you'd lost, it's like you just got it brand new.

Which got me thinking about our two recent entry level referee clinics.
We held two clinics and welcome 43 new referees into the world. Many of these people are players already and I've seen them (or reffed them) on the pitch. Now, they are brand new referees!

Very encouraging to see the number of youth involved. That is the future of officials.

Plus, I have a whole new bunch to educate about Adjudicator, El Presidente and Peacemaker.


As always, follow me on "Twitter"  @_neil_farber