Soccer Referee Mentoring Program

Mission
Scrimmage Games Essential
In-The-Game Mentors
Power of Compliments
Getting Started
To Learn It, Teach It!
Guidebooks Speed Progress
About Tommy O'Brien
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Mentors are to new referees as coaches are to players .
Once new referees leave their licensing class, mentors are the ongoing front line for fulfilling the training and development objectives of local Referee Coordinators. From theory to practice, caring mentors explain and demonstrate the how's and why's of soccer officiating to our newly licensed referees, whose parents are responding with exceptional support and participation. There are many approaches to mentoring, ours is primarily what we call in-the-game mentoring, where assigned mentors, usually as the Center Referee, officiate games with newly licensed referees.

In-the-game mentoring embodies the best of all teamwork concepts while simultaneously role modeling desirable characteristics of an ideal Center Referee. Whether your involvement is with USSF, AYSO, ODP, PAL, USL, adult or premier level leagues and regardless of the status of your referee grade, if you have a solid/current foundation in the fundamentals of soccer officiating and want to be a part of the delivery system for improvement in your local league, your heart will find no better way to bring about change than by being a mentor. A quick phone call could put you "in-the-game" in the very rewarding capacity of being a leader and teacher of the art of officiating.
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Today's mentors are more ready to lead, to teach, and role model than ever before.

Today's new referees are more ready to learn than ever before.

One newly licensed referee put it this way, " Hey, call it what you like, transitioning, morphing, whatever, I want to know what to do."

Mentors can be deployed in several ways, as developed on the In-The-Game-Mentors page:

As Center Referee for the game, training newly licensed Assistant Referees as well as relatively new Assistant Referees(one or two seasons of experience)in regular season or scrimmage games

As AR1, Mentor from the touchlines working with new Assistant Referees or new Center Referees

Center / Mentor out on field with a new Center Referee...in scrimmage games; with possible assistance from another Mentor who works with new AR's

Today's soccer referee administrators, referee coordinators, assignors, mentoring program coordinators are ablaze with energy. Much of which stems from gratifying results associated with mentoring newly licensed referees. It makes eminent sense to pool the best local resources available to teach those who need to learn the most the quickest and who demonstrate the strongest desire to learn.

It's Your Call

A How To booklet that is the perfect primer for new referees and mentors. A Guidebook with 100's of tips that maximize best use of time at the fields to become a better referee

Companion Resource For New Soccer Referees & Mentors

Companion Resource For New Soccer Referees & Mentors

Read All About It... Tell Us Your Story

Automatic Mentoring?
Setting Mentoring Goals getting Easier
One league's USSF newly licensed refs are mentored at least 4 times within the first 2 weeks of the Fall Season, In-the-game . The Center Referee is their Mentor. Coaches are glad to see referees improving. Parents feel that their kids are being officiated better / safer...It's a 'win - win' for sure.

DID YOU KNOW HOW EASY IT IS TO MENTOR FROM THE CENTER REFEREE POSITION? The key lies in how often you NOTICE the one(s) that you are mentoring. Stoppages and PRE-STOPPAGES(((the second or two before the ball actually leaves the field of play)))--->usually seen first by the Center Referee and/or the Trailing AR before the Lead AR realizes what just happened<---is a prime opportunity to see your Lead AR in action / just as he/she is finishing their run or signaling. What we notice is what we mentor, which could be something to compliment or to work on.

Of course, you have a game to manage & that's the first priority but managing your officials falls within the broad range of game management, especially as a Mentor. Lower level games will provide more Stoppage and PRE-STOPPAGE moments to notice your new officials than higher level games. At the half time break or and of game, you can go over things that you noticed. The key to success in the area of 'noticing' lies in developing the new habit of doing just that.

In the Pre-Game Conference, some Mentors have found ways to discuss a few common situations that could come up in games where they would send a 'silent signal' to a new AR to adjust 'on the spot.' The signal is sent during a stoppage, and it might cover: " hustle " or " get even with that 2nd to last defender" or " more eye contact when you signal" or " flag's in the wrong hand"...There's a way to send these signals and have it be fun, not heavy handed.
League Assignor uses creative ' blocking ' of AR2 and Center positions to bring about intended 'automatic ' referee hands-on training.

The AR1 position, falls to Relatively New Referees with 1-3 yrs experience as AR's; they'll automatically be mentored at least two times in the same four weeks.

New Zealand website ... From local parks to FIFA; council grounds to great stadiums
Brian Precious and Bruce Grimshaw began refereeing around 30 and both reached FIFA level and FIFA Tournaments
Lynn Fox began because her son's team needed a referee. Eight years later she was refereeing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
Paul Smith decided to concentrate as an assistant referee in 1996. Six years later he was officiating at the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup

More leagues are incorporating scrimmage game officiating into their USSF Licensing class scheduling than ever before. Host leagues deploy their mentors to coach Licensing class students during the game. Students are actively / frequently rotated into the game as AR1, AR2. Students can be placed ' two deep' : 2nd AR mirrors the student on touchline, the Mentor moves with both-
up and down field, offering advice / tips / etc. Then rotates 2nd into front position, adds a new ' 2nd AR' from others waiting to participate.
Those waiting to participate are being coached / kept focused by another Mentor.....

Center Referee slots are filled by Licensing Class Instructors or local talent.

Scrimmage Games Essential	In-The-Game Mentors	Power of Compliments
Officiating scrimmage games is for new referees as practice is for players, as oxygen is to breathing. Players and coaches practice - Why not the same thing for new soccer referees? Let's end hit or miss training for new referees, put stability and predictability into their training and development. Supervised scrimmage games by qualified soccer referee mentors creates the perfect laboratory in which theory is fused into the art of officiating	99% of in-the-game mentoring where the Mentor is the Center Referee, and the Assistant Referees are new and/or relatively new referees, occurs outside of the game itself. We consider the 30 minute period before kickoff, the half time break and brief end of game conversations all to be part of that game. These are precious opportunities to be helpful...and we don't want to waste them.	Differentiating between what is going well, fairly well, or, not so well is a critical self evaluation skill. When a mentor leads with a compliment on what new referees are doing well, the new referee can use that as a benchmark to learn what other skills he/she ought to be working on. Mentors play a pivotal role in bolstering their learning curve when they lead with the compliment.
Getting Started	To Learn It, Teach It!	Guidebooks Speed Progress
Almost every soccer league has a handful of referees who have verbalized their desire to see things improve within the ranks. Their complaints or concerns usually fall toward what the new referees are doing or not doing.	Now we are getting to the heart of things: consistency and accuracy in what we teach. The challenge is to be on fire with accuracy with what we teach. When you teach something you learn it! Ever wonder how teachers got to be so smart in their subject areas? There ya go!	"It's Your Call" picks up where licensing classes end, as a companion resource to existing documents like Laws of the Game, Guide to Procedures, Advice, Laws of the Game Made Easy.
About Tommy O'Brien	Subscribe	Contact Us
In the early 60's I was lucky to go to college with a dozen or so guys from Canada, who readily shared what they knew on how to play hockey and soccer with a passion.	Tommy will alert subscribers of website updates via email. Look for updates in *Read All About It ...* box above	Tommy O'Brien 351 E. Hedding St, San Jose, CA 95112 www.SoccerRefereeMentors.com 408-298-2824