Game #4: Reflections

Reflections, reflections, reflections…

I have reflected after each of my games this season on how I’ve managed them and how they could have gone better (relatively). This was a game for reflection both before and after I received my assessment report.

I feel a reflection is never complete without another neutral person’s perspective on how the game went; not necessarily an assessor. I’ve sometimes watched a game that I thought was out of control but those in charge didn’t think anything was out of the way. Hence I promised myself that I never wanted to be misled to believe that any game I managed was in full control without further input. I’m also coming to a stage where all the officials I am working with in my crew are older than me so there is far more benefit and less pride/awkwardness on the line in helping me improve. Advantage!

My immediate impressions after the game was that I had enjoyed myself. The match was volatile due to the elimination nature (cup match) but wasn’t one overly difficult. Game #2 had me on my toes more-so and this was a notch down and working with a familiar crew so I was in decent condition going in and out of this fixture.

As usual, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this e-mail

I was disappointed in myself when I reviewed my performance post-assessment. I definitely have a bit of work to do before the season is out. Having reviewed a few points and replayed incidents, I thought of better alternatives/additions to the actions I took. Maybe next time.

I summarised the development points onto a priority improvement sheet so that I can work on them every game and this past Sunday I put the feedback into action. One of the major focuses is widening my diagonal to build a panoramic side-view of play and to keep a good view of my ARs. An S or 8-diagonal. I definitely felt a greater difference in my view of the game although a burnout of energy and stamina as I had to run around play to get the good view. I need to focus and maximise the use of recovery time in the game better.

In the context of my next match (Game #5) and its reflection, I’m pretty sure a team and the atmosphere manipulated me out of showing a player a yellow card. Likely fear or lack of confidence. Not to happen again… An awkward scenario for a penalty decision but breaking up a promising attack.