Referees lay foundations for success

UEFA's new crop of match officials received lessons on how to achieve an optimum physical and mental condition on Day One of the 18th Introductory Course for International Referees.

Lay the groundwork
Injury prevention and physical and mental preparation were the first subjects on the agenda for the 37 referees, who have travelled to Benalmadena in southern Spain from 28 different countries across Europe. Dr Bart Gilis, a UEFA physical trainer, stressed to the referees that they had to put in the groundwork now to help ensure prolonged good fitness later in their careers. "What is important is to start training now to prevent injuries in the future," he said.

Training regimes
Gilis and Roman Jahoda, an expert in injury prevention, led the referees through a series of exercises – to be done before, during and after training sessions, and designed specifically to help avert the threat of injuries – and the match officials will subsequently receive individual programmes to follow. Each of the referees has received from UEFA a Polar Watch – a wristwatch to be worn with a heart-rate monitor – and Professor Werner Helsen, a member of the UEFA Referee Instructor Panel, demonstrated how to use this during training sessions.

Mental training
The referees also heard about the importance of mental preparation. "A referee has to be in good physical form but also he must have the mental qualities for these big matches that hopefully you will get in the future," said clinical psychologist Thor Åge Egeland, who works with Norway's leading referees. Egeland advised the referees to develop strategies for before, during and after games. He said: "Mental training is something to be learned – you have to think about it in the same way you think about physical training. You have to find the techniques that suit you and use them regularly."

Extra day
The introductory course will run for four days from Monday through to Thursday, 24 hours longer than in previous years. Rather than start with the Fitness Test, the format was changed to accommodate individual medical, physical and mental examinations for each referee on this first day, in addition to the group sessions on injury prevention and mental preparation.

'Unique opportunity'
Yvan Cornu, UEFA's head of refereeing services, explained the benefit of having the new referees together for an extra day. He said: "It is a unique opportunity for the referees' committee and the referee services to get to know these referees better. By having discussions in smaller groups it is more interactive, we can get more information and provide more support, and this additional day was really beneficial for preparing the start of their international careers. Instead of rushing in and having the fitness test straight away, we can see now that after one day they are already a team."