Training the World Cup referees

How fit are the world's leading referees? What extra challenges have they been facing at the FIFA World Cup in Japan/Korea? uefa.com heard from the man responsible for keeping the men in black in top condition, Werner Helsen, the renowned Belgian referees' trainer. 

Reference point
Helsen has become the reference point for many of the world's top referees as far as fitness training and programmes are concerned. He has also been working together with UEFA on referees' training since 2000, and provides Europe's top referees with detailed and comprehensive programmes to help them achieve maximum fitness - and perform to the best of their ability.   
 
uefa.com: How did you help the referees prepare physically for the World Cup?
Werner Helsen: First of all, we studied their actual game performances, because it is important to know what they actually do in order to prepare them. We now know that in tough games like in the World Cup, they do between 12 and 15 kilometres in a match, and, more importantly, they show 1,300 changes in activity, which is more than players - players only show 1,100 changes in activity. This means that referees change activity every four seconds, and this is very important when we design our training programmes. 
 
uefa.com: Did you meet up together beforehand?
Helsen: We had a seminar in Seoul in the Korean Republic nine weeks before the start of the tournament, and there, we had several objectives - the first was to provide referees with a nine-week training programme, with separate programmes for referees and assistant referees. This involved four or five training sessions every week, not only for their fitness, but also for their strength. In addition, they also had to learn to work with Polar watches - watches that measure their heartbeat to help us produce individual training programmes. It is mandatory to use them during training, and they also wear them during the matches. This is just to have an idea of the intensity of refereeing a game of these people who are, on average, 15 to 20 years older than the players. Forty-two per cent of a match is now refereed at high intensity, which is double what it was a decade ago.
 
uefa.com: How does the Polar watch work?
Helsen: It measures the heart rate every five seconds and then you can assess over the game what the physical impact of refereeing a match is on the human body. For a referee of, on average, 40 years old, they have to be fully fit to control a game from the very beginning to the very end. I have used this for the European federation but it is the first time for the World Cup and I think it is the very best way to optimise and to individualise training sessions for referees. Individual maximum heart rates are different and based on that maximum we estimate different target zones so that whenever they are in their home country they can do the training session as a referee in a different federation. 
 
uefa.com: How else does technology help you?
Helsen: Another new thing is that these Polar files are recorded on PCs, and each referee has to send them back to me by Internet - so, from Belgium, I can easily check if the referees are doing what they have to do, and if something had to be changed I could easily do it - I can email them back with additional training advice, perhaps to do more, but most of the time to do less.
 
uefa.com: How do the conditions here affect a referee's performance?
Helsen: This applies specifically to Korea. In Japan, it is less humid and less warm, but from the Polar files that I have analysed so far from the matches, I can see that the energy expenditure is 20 to 25 per cent higher than in games that they referee in other parts of the world. We have referees after the games in Korea who have lost between three and five kilos, because it is so warm and they sweat so much. Fluid intake was something we discussed in Seoul, and they have guidelines for drinking, for instance, during the break before extra time. We take their weight two times a week. 
 
uefa.com: Like the players, did the referees arrive early to acclimatise?
Helsen: Yes, this is the case with players, and obviously also with referees. Each hour of time difference you need a day to recover, so we did well to come out eight or nine days in advance of the opening match.
 
uefa.com: What do referees do before and after a match in terms of preparation and recovery?
Helsen: They train 45 minutes the day before a game and then have a 20-minute warm-up immediately beforehand. After warming up, they do a number of short sprints over the distance they usually sprint - this is a maximum of 30 metres. Ideally, they should also do a cooling-down, but this is not always possible. That is why we take time the day after a game - they have a very specific match recovery programme. It includes not only running, but also sauna and jacuzzi and massage. We know from research that referees and players also recover three times as quickly with recovery training than without. In tournaments where they have daily training sessions and more matches, obviously it is very important. We take our time the day after.
 
uefa.com: And what does a normal day's training comprise?
Helsen: For referees between matches, they train about two hours a day. They have high-intensity training, in which they run along the white diagonal line as they have to do during games. But they have to change from walking to backwards running to forward sprinting to accelerating - the typical sequence or changes in activity that they have during a game. After the mandatory training sessions, they do strength training - we do a lot of upper limb strength training, which they need to help them accelerate. On top of this, there are other activities, such as mountain biking. 
 
uefa.com: Are they at all competitive when it comes to training?
Helsen: Often we play games at the end of a training session. It is physically the same as refereeing, so it is good for their fitness, and also for reading the game. I have to say that some games are quite competitive in the way they play to win - mostly, we have to slow them down rather than motivate them.
 
uefa.com: And what is the spirit like among the referees?
Helsen: The goal of the seminar in Seoul was not only to familiarise them with the Polar watches and give them the specific training schedules, but also to form a team and work on team-building. Already at that time, it was a group and the past four weeks. We have stayed together in Japan and Korea. They are a group on and off the field.  
 
uefa.com: Are you happy with the results of your work?
Helsen: I only look at the referees from the fitness point of view, to see their positioning and where they are in relation to the incidents. So far I am happy to observe that until the very end of games, their fitness has allowed them to get into positions to make the best possible decisions.