Conditioning Tips To Ensure You Maintain Fitness For The Full Season

Having had experience of working with referees who operate at all levels of the game, I know that it doesn’t matter whether you train everyday or don’t train at all, the feeling is still the same, officiating can be mentally and physically taxing.

A season normally lasts 9 to 10 months, and such is the popularity of the game at the moment, some referees are expected to officiate all year round. Regardless of the level you referee at, your fitness levels will vary throughout the season.

There are a number of factors that can affect your fitness. Just like professional officials, grassroots referees get injuries and illnesses throughout the season. But unlike professional officials, those operating in the grassroots game may not have the benefit of a full pre-season training period, professional medical attention from elite physiotherapists and sport scientists, nor will they have the time for appropriate training, rest and nutrition to aid development and recovery. In addition, grassroots referees also have the stresses of full time jobs to contend with as well as the various life challenges that occur throughout the year, like that sunny afternoon spent with friends in the summer or the extra slice of turkey and mince pies with the family at Christmas!

But do not fear, even officials operating in grassroots football can maintain their refereeing fitness all year round!

Key Tips For Conditioning During The Season

Training and officiating is conditioning. Depending on the level you referee at you may only officiate matches and not have regular training sessions with colleagues. But there are additional activities that teams and individual referees can do. Simon Thadani, Regional Manager, Mosaic Group has the following tips for conditioning during the season:

• Grassroots officials, subject to what level they referee at and why they referee, should take responsibility for doing extra conditioning work in their own time.
• If your officials are refereeing two games a week, e.g., Saturdays and Tuesdays, then conditioning takes a back seat and the four ‘Rs’ take priority: Rest, Recovery, Rehydration and Refuelling. Do not underestimate the benefit of sleep and of not disturbing the sleep patterns as part of recovery.
• Nutrition is very important, get specialised help. Food and fluid intake does effect performance.
• When working on a weekly cycle (Saturday to Saturday fixtures) follow the tapering principles, i.e. do conditioning drills in the early part of the week and technical, higher-quality work closer to matchday.
• Although every official is genetically different, one basic rule for improving cardiovascular fitness, subject to the time of the season, is to train three times a week, ideally achieving approximately 16 to 20 minutes in the upper training zone (85% to 95% of heart rate maximum). Note: there will always be exceptions to this rule.

Try to have a ‘theme’ for every warm-up, which works on a conditioning component. Themes could be:

o Speed with relay races or technique work,

o Power with plyometrics or resistance sprint work (i.e. hill running),

o Mobility with dynamic stretching,

o Strength work with press ups, core work and lunges, etc.

• Do the simple things well. Keep the sessions simple and specific, especially if time is an issue and overtraining is to be avoided.
• Mix it up, keep conditioning fresh. There will, by necessity, be certain conditioning aspects you must continually repeat, but when the opportunity arises, employ variety. Examples include doing sessions with different colleagues, sprint relays with a baton or a rugby or a tennis ball, or in different locations, and so on.

• Do drills accurately and with specificity in mind. For example, in a match, referees walk, jog, run and sprint, so your aerobic and anaerobic workouts should reflect this. As a specific example, sprints in a game last between two and five seconds, therefore drills should reflect this.
• Educate the officials. Get them to ‘buy into’ what they are doing by telling them that they will become better referees.
• The mentality of officials is important. Referees will always ‘moan’ when they have to do a hard specific conditioning drill, it’s their nature! Their attitude on the day will always have an effect on the drill, so be positive and reinforce that it will make them better officials.

So, no matter what level you referee at, following these useful conditioning tips will ensure you maintain your officiating fitness all season long!

At The Third Team I work individually and in collaboration with different professionals where I have developed workshops and 1-2-1 sessions associated with Resilience and Mental Toughness Development to help referees. The workshops and 1-2-1 sessions are interactive, where referees are encouraged to open up and share their experiences to help themselves and each other.

Feel free to contact me if you’d like to know more about my workshops or 1-2-1 sessions and how I could help you or your officials.

Best Wishes,