Set-Pieces

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Set Pieces: If you want to become a better Referee, try using the Set-Piece advice contained below.

Set-Pieces (A series of articles on how to officiate in a proactive way by improving how you deal with specific incidents and how to become a better Referee). In each game of football, the 90 minutes consist of many - what can best be described as standard - ''set-pieces', or jigsaw puzzle pieces that add up to form the whole 90 minutes, such as goal kicks, free kicks, kick-offs, penalised fouls, attacking moves, offside decisions, advantage applications and many others. The Referee needs to have methods and processes to deal with these in a reactive way, thereby increasing his management of the game, and improving the relationships (and the reputation) that he builds up in each game. Each 'set-piece', if successfully managed, will result in the Referee maintaining control. One of the first aims of every Referee should be to use 'best-practice' techniques when managing 'set-pieces'. Once the standard 'set-piece' techniques have been mastered, the players' confidence in the Referee will increase, and they will more readily accept those awkward (non-set-piece) match-changing decisions, which seem to crop up in nearly every game, such as a penalty award, or who to award a throw-in to, if the ball deflects out from the attacker and the defender at the same time!. Subsequently, the Referee will feel more confident in the knowledge that at least he has a structured premeditated way to deal with the majority of situations that can occur in a game of football. In addition to this, the Referee's attitude and how players, Club Officials and the spectators see him is also important. A new referee learning his trade will begin his career by dealing with incidents in a game in a reactive way (rather than dealing with them proactively). In other words, he only gets involved when they happen. And apart from making a decision, he does very little to manage the occasion. As time goes by, the new referee will learn ways to be proactive. He learns how to minimise trouble, and how to help players enjoy their game even more, by subtly guiding them to remain within the dictates of the written Laws, and more importantly, the 'Spirit of the Laws'. It is only when the new referee has mastered all of the standard 'set-pieces,' that he will be able to react with confidence, to those inevitable impossible scenarios that are part of football; such as a goal being scored when there are 12 players in the scoring team! These ideas are not prescriptive; rather, they will hopefully give you some new things to think about, and encourage you towards adopting a consistent approach by dovetailing them into your own style of refereeing to improve your performance.
A B C of Conflict	Advantage	Assistant Referee Tips	Corner Kicks
DAB Tears Dry (Using Red/ Yellow Cards)	Decision-making	Give and Go, Give and Sort	Goal Kicks
Image Building	Kick-Off	Final Whistle	Mass Confrontation Melee
Penalty Kick	Pre-Match Brief	Self-Evaluation	S.E.R.I.O.U.S. Method for Dealing with Injuries
Simulation	10-Minute Refereeing	Throw-in	TRUST Triangle