Where Do Slumps Come From & How To Overcome Them

Slumps and repetitive performance problems are a natural and terribly frustrating part of refereeing. They can sometimes drive officials to distraction and into quitting or early retirement.

Unless you can learn to constructively handle times when you fall into a slump or suddenly have problems performing out in the middle, you’ll have a difficult time reaching your full potential.

So where do slumps come from? It could be from any number of places:

• A bad performance in a key fixture

• Too much pressure from club officials

• Spectators who push too much

• Unrealistic expectations

• Family or social problems

• An injury or series of them

• Two or more bad performances in a row

• Trying too hard

• Misfortune

Performance slumps, if they are unrelated to physical and technical factors, are almost always self-maintained by the referee. They are a direct result of what the official says to themselves before, during and after they referee.

I like to use a term called RIRO, which stands for “rubbish in, rubbish out,” when that self-talk turns negative.

If you tell yourself that you’re going to bomb, miss a Key Match Decision or get caught on your heels AGAIN and, while you do so, you accompany these comforting words with failure imagery, (rubbish in), what you’ll get back out in terms of your performance will be another bad game (rubbish out).

This negativity is also accompanied by what is called selective distortion. All this means is that you develop a long term memory for all your problems and failures and a short term memory for all your successes. In fact, frequently the slumping official forgets that last month they had several good performances and even passed their fitness test! Focus on just the negatives and ignore your accomplishments and in no time flat you’ll diminish your own abilities and find yourself in a seemingly insurmountable slump where negative beliefs, increased fear and worry, and lack of concentration rule your refereeing career and leave you feeling miserable.

Breaking Free

So how can you get yourself to finally get beyond that slump?

Rule Out The Physical/Technical

Before you assume that a slump is mental, you have to rule out the physical or Technical reasons that might be causing it. Is there anything technically wrong with what you’re doing? Is there anything physically wrong with the official’s eyesight or perception?

If there is a lack of physical endurance in the referee and this contributes to repetitive performance problems, then the solution is to specifically focus on building up stamina. This is an example of a slump that should be addressed through targeted physical training. As the official improves their skills in this particular area, their confidence will improve and the slump will be a thing of the past.

Develop Awareness Of The Block As A Faulty Mental Strategy

Slumps are most often maintained by what the referee says to themselves or thinks just before a match. As an official you want to come to learn the dialogue of your “inner coach” because what they feed you is responsible for keeping you stuck.

As a referee coach you want to get that official to teach you how you could have the very same performance problem that they have. Get them to tell you what they say to themselves, think and see when they’re in the hole, while on the field of play. What is the dialogue of their “inner coach” at these points?

Normalise & Reframe

Performance slumps are normal. To be a good referee you have to come to understand that over the course of your career you will have bad games and periods where you can’t buy a correct decision, or times on the field of play when you feel like you’re running through quicksand. This does NOT mean that something is wrong! A bad game or two or three does not necessarily mean that you are in a slump.

What causes any slump to grow and prosper is what you say to yourself about those bad games.

It’s directly related to your mental strategies.

Discover What Function (If Any) The Slump Has

Occasionally, a slump or block “does something” for the official. It serves some kind of purpose or “positive intention”, although the referee is rarely aware of this. A slump can keep an official safe and free from pressure to succeed. That is, it’s the referee’s way of saying “Back off, I can’t do any better, can’t you see I’m in a slump”. It can protect an official from the fear of failure. Sometimes a referee who’s stuck will stop trying. Even though they are failing, the slump gives them an excuse to not really go for it, and thus helps them avoid REALLY failing had they tried. It can also “help” an official (on a superficial level) get a whole lot of attention from their coaches.

Remember, sometimes negative attention is much better than none at all.

Challenge Faulty Beliefs

The blocked or slumping referee is one that has stopped believing in themselves.

As a referee coach you have to help your official restore this belief in themselves. You have to continually challenge and confront their “I can’ts” and “I’ll never’s”. Unless you can restore their belief, they will continue to stay stuck far longer than is necessary. As a referee you need to learn to once again believe in yourself.

Eat An Elephant

One of the best strategies for busting a slump or getting over any obstacle is simple: Do the thing that you are most afraid of over and over again and it will no longer scare you. Fears and slumps keep officials from working on skills and improving. The more a referee avoids something, the scarier it gets!

Help your officials take action and move towards their fears. Have your referees approach their fears using the eat an elephant strategy, one bite at a time. Break their performance problem/block into small pieces and then have them work more, not less.

Restore Corrective Imagery

One of the reasons officials stay stuck is because they are “watching” the wrong movies in their head. Slumping referees usually view the wrong imagery when they think about or mentally rehearse an upcoming game. They “see” themselves failing, making an error on a Key Match Decision, or unable to keep up with play. Remember, images program and control your movements. Have your officials used mental rehearsal positively as a bridge to get themselves unstuck and refereeing well again. Correct mental practice nightly will soon lead to correct actual performance. One of the ways to get unstuck is to mentally practice getting that big decision correct or making that sprint to see the full picture.

Restore Proper Concentration

Officials stay stuck MAINLY because they concentrate on the wrong things before and during a fixture. Your focus needs to be on what you are doing and on the important performance cues, i.e. the point of contact in a challenge, a colleague’s signal, your positioning on the field of play etc., in the here and now and not everywhere else. The slumping referee’s focus is usually in their head on their last run or the last error they committed (in the past) or in the future on the “what if’s” of screwing up again. As long as an official maintains this faulty focus they will continue to play poorly. Help your referees learn to switch concentration to the visual or kinesthetic cues in the here and now necessary to play loose and strong.

Reprogram Thoughts/Self-Confidence Work

The slumping official maintains a lot of inner negativity. Because of repetitive failures, they are continually down on themselves. This negativity is part of the problem. Help them work on changing their mental diet. Help them get off all that “mental junk food”, (“I’m poor”, “I’ll never”, “I can’t…”etc.). Do not collude with their negativity.

Arousal Control Strategies

Referees that get stuck in a slump are usually too nervous before and during a match. There is too much uncertainty and distraction floating around in their body to officiate well. In order to snap that slump, they must learn to relax.

Act As If

Have your referees act as if they are in control and confident instead of in a slump. Acting as if has to do with how the official carries themselves before and after a performance. It refers to their posture. Watch a slumping referee and you can see this in how they carry themselves on the field. The shoulders may be hunched up or drooping, the head is usually down, facial expression usually reflects unhappiness and/or disgust and their step is usually slow and tentative.

Acting as if is what I call a winner’s fall back position. When a winner is feeling intimidated, they act (posture, breathing, movements) confident; they hold their head and shoulders up, have a relaxed smile or passive expression on their face and have a spring in their step. When a winner is feeling anxious, they act calm, physically; get your referees to practice acknowledging inside that they may be burned out or intimidated, but acting as if they’re confident and capable on the outside, physically with their posture.

Follow these 10 guidelines and soon you’ll be able to put that slump behind you.

If you’ve ever been in a slump and gotten yourself out of it, how did you do it? What worked for you?

If you’re a referee coach, what’s been your most effective communication approach towards helping officials?

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,