Managing Your Emotions When Refereeing Rivalry Fixtures

Do you get psyched up for appointments to referee rivalry games, or does the hoopla surrounding derby fixtures cause you to feel pressure and anxiety?

Rivalries can be highly motivating for some officials. These referees look forward to derby matches to prove they’re worthy of running the rule over high profile games. 

In addition, these officials experience a physiological and mental boost that psyches them up to perform their best.

However, for some referees, rivalries are fixtures filled with anxiety.

Before the match begins, these officials experience an intense, prolonged and overwhelming physiological response. This response is caused by excessive anxiety. 

In highly anxious moments, you experience significant negative biological changes: heart rate increases, muscles tense up, breathing becomes shallow, and adrenaline surges through the body.

Derby games change more than our body chemistry. When faced with the intensity of rivals on both playing sides focus, thinking, decision-making, and emotions can be adversely affected.

For example, consider that both playing teams are competing against historic rivals in a mid-season matchup. You feel a lot is riding on this fixture. 

For days, you have built up this contest to be bigger than it is. When the game starts, you think, “I’m so anxious, I can’t even focus on making my next decision.” 

Instead of immersing yourself in your refereeing style, you are immersed in how you feel mentally and physically.

The Truth Is You Have The Power To Reel In Your Response And Even Prevent That Negative Response Altogether.

When you reframe your circumstances, you shrink the importance of the game. Minimising the significance of a rivalry game lessens the stakes of the contest.

In other words, it is not the most important game but just another game. If one team loses to their rivals, it carries the same weight as any other match, there are only 3 points on the line, the same as any other game.

In American Football, the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles are historic rivals. Before the 2022 Dallas-Eagles matchup, Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown stated he was aware of the rivalry but not focused on it.

“I just don’t take it that serious. I’m not gonna get too caught up in the rivalry. It’s another game, and I’m just trying to do my job so we can go 1-0 this week. Huge division game. Now, that’s the big part about it, trying to get ahead in the division. But all the rivalry, the going back and forth stuff? You’ll never see me going back and forth or doing something I’m not supposed to be doing on the football field. I’m playing football, and I’m trying to win games.” – A.J. Brown, Wide Receiver, Philadelphia Eagles

Focusing on what you need to do to prepare as best as possible and paying attention to your role as a match official lessens the pressure, no matter who you’re refereeing.

Take the word “rivalry” out of your vocabulary. When your colleagues, referee coach, officials manager, or media hype up a game, remember that the game has no greater significance than any other match. Keep the focus on you and nothing else.

Pressure is not external to you. You create pressure for yourself when you place over-importance on an key fixture.

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,