I just joined my local FC's Committee and so for next year I am aiming to get Kids (or any adults for that matter) from our U11's to U16's teams to Lead/Ref a SSF game prior or after their own home game.

Last season I was ref for most my son's games on the half size field. I am also looking to taking the local Ref association's course to
a) get qualified and possibly ref adult games if short of a ref.
b) be getter an understanding so that kids that have been reffing with the club with 40+ games under their belt would be ready to take the course.

I plan to have the kids do 10 games on each size of feild and then progressing up to the next size, and myself or another committee member watching half a game they ref to make sure they are handling it ok.

I am looking for any comments or advice as to help/train the kids so that they feel ready to ref so thay our new U6 kids and parents have a better experience, and therefore come back next year.

Now over to the panel....



Edited by Gavinh73: 6/12/2011 09:57:43 AM

11-16 year old kids would need protection.

Your number one priority would be for your club to formally write a "no second chance" policy, directed squarely at sideline stalkers.

(and 11 is a bit too young, IMO)

Agree.

11 is young and the sideline stalkers are an issue. Maybe 14 may be more realistic.

You need to call a meeting with all coaches in your club and ask them to hold meetings with parents telling them of their duties in being responsible on the sidelines at the beginning of the season.

It is good for young players to referee and see the game from a different perspective.

These issues occur all over the world!!!

Good luck.:)

At our club we started with u 12s players leading u6 games. The feedback was the parents wanted the leaders to provide clear explanations for all decisions so the young players - and parents - could get to know the rules. 

We have 4xu 6s games running simultaneously. An adult official patrols constantly without focussing on any particular game. They should have a copy of the FFA SSG rules handy to immediately show parents. The leaders should not speak to parents.

After half a dozen weeks we got the u 12 leaders to ref u8s and u9s games. Again we had an adult official patrolling. We used three u12s players to officiate a u8s game. This was done to give each other a bit of moral support. Importantly, the u12s only officiated low division games where the parents were less interested in the result.

Sounds like this model is working successfully.

At our local club we get all our Ref's qualified and pay them to take all games from 8 upwards.
Surprisingly, to me, we have so many young people wanting to ref we have linesmen and women wanting to do the younger age groups - for money - as well! Get's expensive.

Some problems occur from players - re language, aggression and of course nutty parents but our Ref Coordinator and Committee handle such matters as and when they occur, supporting the game leader/ref if and when (not often) required.

Educating the parents/coaches is important each year but that's okay. Just what you have to do.

Also we've got all our 5 and 6 yr old players (120+) lead by our team leaders aged 12+. We make all the team leaders - lead a quick individual ball skill session with the players and then lead a game each week - each one is paid and will take the grassroots course next year if they want to be a game leader in 2012.

We also run a session or two with these team leaders immediately prior to the season, focusing on positive language, how to assist players and make the sessions better for players and themselves. Tried it in 2011 worked well - will work even better in 2012 and of course we're building a heap of quality young coaches to assist with skill development in the younger age groups in coming years.

On top the Game leaders in the 5/6s lead thru the skills to show each week. They meet 15 mins before each Saturday session by a qualified coach and person who is a specialist in primary school education/development. This guy has set the skills and simply rotates them thru every 4 weeks, tweaking what does/doesn't work.

Kids benefit if they get a good coach - ie someone who relates, enthusiastic etc. Not all our coaches are that confident yet.

It's a model - without outsourcing not sure how else we can get anything better for the young players. Just playing a game is great - but some players may never touch the ball in the 5/6 age group which happened at the past in our club.

Selling the message of each kid with a ball - means development - how to support your kid when they play - no boot it, get stuck in unhelpful comments - clubs need to educate which thru email and web is much easier than it used to be, but always takes time and meets resistance.

The pre-game sessions for u5/6s  - run by the leaders after a briefing by an adult coach - is a superb innovation. Doing this regularly not only benefits the players it gives the leaders experience for future coaching or reffing. It also humanises the leader in the eyes of the parents reducing the likelihood they will criticise decisions. 

sending the leaders on grassroots courses is also a progressive innovation. 

Payment of so many ref/leaders over so many games is an issue for any club as it racks up significant costs, leading to higher regos etc. Our u5-u9 game leaders/refs are unqualified because they are u12s hence they are a year too young to qualify. (their payment is a free drink and hot roll together with a sense of status and responsibility). We use this system to give u12s experience in case they are interested in qualifying as a ref the following year. They do not replace qualified refs and we always use qualified refs if we are allocated them by the association. They replace mum and dad refs who would have to officiate due to the frequent lack of allocated qualified refs.  

I will definitely raise the ideas your club's ideas for u5/u6s leaders within our club.