Active Goalkeepers, Recovering Mid-Game, and EHCO Trophy! | #WhatUpWednesday Ep. 142

📅 Jan 10 19.00 GMT
➡️ YouTube

Let's slide all nice and easy into 2024.

We've got a couple of clips showing off interesting goalkeeper choices that'll get our brains back into umpire nerd mode.

We'll also discuss how to recover when you're having a rough game, touch on the new FIH umpiring panels, and most importantly: EHCO TROPHY IS COMING OMGOMGOMG

Nope, we're not excited at all. 😆 See you there!

🚨 Sign up now and nail those big calls with Mission Critical Positioning!

⏱ Chapter Markers:
00:00:00 Chair Dancing
00:04:32 Topics!
00:06:06 1. GK Outside The Circle
00:43:42 2. GK Fakery
01:04:29 3. Recovering During a Tough Game
01:36:20 4. FIH x Nike Sponsorship
01:43:42 5. EHCO Trophy 2024 in Amsterdam!

Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.

🟢🟡🔴 🏑

Transcript

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#WhatUpWednesday Ep. 142

I've been crazy, just wanna be okay. How can I pick up the pieces? When everything breaks with every day. I'm getting older, I feel the weight up on my shoulders. I'm strong enough, I will rise above. It's all gonna be okay. If I can be anything, I think I'm gonna be me, I know I gotta be me, Cause I

wanna go, no one else I'd rather be, I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm I think I'm gonna be me. La la la la la la, la la la, la la la. Think I'm gonna be. I think I'm gonna be me. Everything's changing, just tryna navigate. Oh I keep on believing. I'm gonna find my way. With every day, I'm getting older. I feel the weight upon my shoulders.

I'm strong enough. I will rise above. It's all gonna be okay. If I can't be anything, I think I'm going to be me.

I know I gonna be me.

I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm.

I think I'm gonna be me, me, me. I know I gotta be me, me, me. Cause nowhere else I wanna go. No one else I'd rather be. I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm gonna be me. I know I gotta be me, me, me. Where else I wanna go? No one else I'd rather be. I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm gonna be me. I gotta be me.

What up Wednesday, FHumpir Third Team, I'm Keely Dunn, and we are back.

It's 2024. Apparently there is a rule that after January 6th, you are no longer permitted to say the words. So I'm just going to welcome y'all to 2024 and say, Hey, we're here. Another one. And another, and another. Yeah, we're just, we're just, just going to keep trucking through the years. I think about how it was three and a half years ago that I did my very first live stream and I'm pretty darn shocked, surprised, absolutely amazed, in fact, that I'm still doing it, but Hey, here we are.

And I saw everybody's comments before. Welcome to all of you. I want to give a big, warm welcome here to Tim, one of my new friends. Thanks for coming by. And I got your DM. I'll get back to you. I was just like busy, really prepping for the show because a little behind the eight ball. Things, you know, stuff's changed.

Things are different. It's all like, you know, things going on anyway. Uh, it's going to be a kind of a chill show. Casual, just a couple of little things and some news. I mean, news. We actually have newsy things to talk about for once, which is kind of interesting, but not a lot of hockey. Cause it was actually quiet over the holidays.

There weren't any, uh, international competitions or major club competitions and indoor or anything of the sort, but don't you worry, that's all changing starting Friday night for me, uh, Saturday, if you live in the future, as many of you do. So let's see if I updated the topics. Yes, we are gonna look at a goalkeeper outside the circle and a little goalkeeper fakery.

Just a couple little clips. Uh, we're gonna have a discussion about recovering, duh duh duh duh, during a tough game. And then some bits and bobs, because boy, is that ever gonna get the search engines running, hey? If you're searching for something in particular, you're gonna find those bits and bobs and be like, yeah, okay.

So I'm gonna fix it. Just, just give me, give me a hot minute. Um, okay. Um, let's see if anybody else has popped in. Yes. Um, hey, okay. Yes. It's going through on this account. So you are, you are here, my hero. You are Here and present, and I can now put your comments on the screen. Uh, Shan's here, great to see you, and Raj, you're saying the words, but I'm not saying them because there's a rule.

I'm just saying. Yes, I flicked, I was thinking of you! I was, I, I was like, okay, time to fluff. Time to fluff. A flick is like this, a fluff is when you get into the roots, okay, I'm just saying. I know it's been a while since you've Had to do that yourself. Uh, Rupert's tuning in and add, and let's see, Mike is here.

Jolt's here. Oh, it's just so good to see you all. I did miss you. Uh, two and a half weeks away is, is a bizarrely long time. I, it was. Okay, let's get into it. Goalkeeper outside of the circle. This is making the rounds, uh, coming to me specifically. And it is, uh, Oh, I don't know why Ian's comment from before is still on, but Hey.

I ain't mad. He can always talk about Cider on my show.

Let's, let's just, let's just hide that, shall we? Yeah, so this is, this is from Top of the D, or at least, uh, Ross was one of the accounts who posted this one on the Instagrams. But it really, to get the effect, like watch my reel or watch his reel, please go subscribe to Top of the D, by the way, because Ross is a fantastic person.

And, uh, when you get the Cypress Hill going, all last night, I was just insane in the brain. And say in the membrane, like it just totally took me back to the 90s hip hop stuff that I loved. So I was just all over that. That's me dancing. I'm a great dancer. I'm not as good as Godders, but I am a dancer. So, um, but it was, um, and if I'm saying this incorrectly, my apologies, Anis or Anis Ahmed on the Instagrams, uh, DM'd me and said, Hey, Hey girl.

Hey girl. Hey, you want to have a look at this little sitch? And I'm like, absolutely. How does. I don't know, three weeks from now sound. So here it is. Anissa, I hope you're, you're watching on replay probably. And there you go. The irony of my requirement, uh, recovery requirement talking about how to recover topic.

Yeah, well, you know, I've got all that going on. Holy smokes, Jade Bloomfield. You're shocking me. I'm so glad you're here. Good to see you and top of 2024 to you. As well. So the poll has been posted in the discords. Your votes are sought. Please give me your thoughts on this here slide because we've had quite a few of these over the last little while.

You goalkeepers, you sassy little individuals being all like, I want to play outside the circle. You know, I, I like. I like all that rest of the pitch action, get me out of here. Like, let's do this. And that is something that we're looking at here. So have a, have a search, have a, have a look, see, and we'll talk about this.

Now, the basics as we know, is that a goalkeeper is not allowed, not permitted to take part in the match, take part in the play and look. I have this really handy rule scene that I can pull up anytime. And let's see, this is, let's see, which I had it, right. And let's make sure this is, and this is the outdoor rules.

Okay. Look, it's, I gotta stay centered. Hi. Um, here we are, um, a goalkeeper under,

yes, you can, I can kick it. Yes, you can. Is that showing up? Excellent. 10. 1. All that fuss for just like a. Random circle, goalkeeper must take, not take part, must not take part in the match. Okay. Those, those words we look at very carefully outside the 23 mute area they're defending except when taking a penalty stroke.

So that is the, the clause that we're looking for and we are looking to apply in this particular situation. So how are we feeling? What are our thoughts? What are our first impressions? And, uh, Murph's first impression is that goalkeepers never commit offenses. Fact. I like this thinking. I think I've said this several times on streams before.

Oh, you know what? It's a little quiet. There we go. Music, music incoming. I've said this on several streams, how my biggest, I've got a lot of weaknesses as an umpire, but my biggest weakness, please let me know if the music's too loud in the background, is that I just kind of looked at goalkeepers and thought You know, you got a tough life.

You're wearing all this smelly gear, first of all. Nobody can see how ridiculously good looking y'all are, because helmets and, and, and padding and all this kind of stuff. You gotta sit around and wait for me, as your defender, to make a mistake, which maybe you don't have to wait that long for that to happen.

And then if you make a mistake, it's the ultimate. The ball is going in the net. And I always just, I'm not gonna say I felt sorry, but I really wanted the best. I wanted the best for goalkeepers. And I kind of thought, you know, like, you do you. Go nuts. I was very lenient on goalkeepers. As an umpire throughout the years and I was delighted every time we went through a rule cycle and the rules about how goalkeepers were permitted to play the ball got less and less strict because Back in the day for you youngins, you have no idea how bad it was It was goalkeeper can only meet the ball in the air cannot even Propel it to any side, it must only drop, you cannot be moving your blocker, and then it was, you know.

Ugh, like, so ridiculous. I mean, just let people play. All that kind of stuff. So, there you go. Let's see, so Rupert, uh, just so you're clear, the goalkeeper only plays it with their stick, you're on a small screen. Look, you can't watch this on a small screen. I mean, I might look much, much prettier. on a small screen, but, and I appreciate that about you, but still, you gotta watch this on a bigger screen.

Um, so Mike is confirming that. Dave saying hi and yo to Mr. Jade there. Um, for Jolt, it's a straightforward free hit attack and yell card. It can't be a Penalty stroker, penalty corner because the foul is outside the 23. Yellow card because that's the standard for a goalkeeper outside and once they dove, dived, they were always crossing the line.

Okay? Um, that is interesting and I think I would just want to expand when you're explaining this point, Jolt. When you say it's the standard for a goalkeeper, that, those words could be very, very dangerous. This is exactly how I get misinterpreted in many, many situations. What I think you meant to say is that you would apply a yellow card because this is a high impact foul, uh, by a player who is in full control of their actions, full control of the decision that they're making, and the recklessness to which they are breaking down the play, and that high impact factor, and the potential danger perhaps.

To your view, most often warrants a yellow card, okay? So, it's important, I know you're working with 200 characters here on YouTube, but it's important for us to work through that language, especially when we're talking to players and coaches about this sort of thing. And parents, and fans, and each other.

Right? Language is important because there are important qualifiers in there that restrict this to just that situation. Um, let's see. Heroicade, it's within the 23, only playing with a stick within the 23, and not tackling or bringing down the player. Perfect. Having had one of these saves myself, and likes it.

It's an absolute beaut. It's a beaut! Such a Canadian way. I know you said beauty, but I'm, I'm Canadian izing it. Uh, for Rougeau, it's a play on the goalkeeper played the ball with the stick inside the 23 metre. And it's a play on for Rupert because he played the ball within the 23 and didn't make contact with the defender.

Him leaving the 23 had no effect on the game. Okay, so a bit of a counterpoint to what Jolt had to say earlier. Frank's just like, great play. Yeah, that's what I'd be doing. I'm like, meh, great play. That's fine. But I'm trying to help you lol be better. That's the key. Um, Reju, yeah, play on outside the circle, but inside the 23.

Alistair, is it all of the goalkeeper or any part? Could he leave a foot inside? Do we treat this like a ball crossing the line? Wow. Okay. Oh, I hate it when you guys get all super technical, justifiably so in this case, with me. But no, it's a really, really good point. Excuse me. My nose is running and nobody wants that on my mic cover.

Okay. I would, I would say. That the first thing that we do, and we're not sure about the wording and how strictly we should apply, we should be applying a rule like this, is that we should go back to the rules itself, okay, make sure we examine the actual wording And remember, I, I stressed this. I didn't say, as it doesn't say that in the actual rules, the rule does not say the goalkeeper must not play the ball outside the 23 metre area.

The rule says the goalkeeper must not take part in the match outside. Okay, so we revisit the wording of the rule for sure to know what we're talking about. Now let's talk about why that rule's there. Okay, we need to get an understanding of the spirit of the rule. And why is it? Well, it's because, at some point, there needs to be a shared understanding amongst all the players on the field that there is this very intense, slightly larger participant who's wearing a whole bunch more equipment, who can slide on the ground more effectively than anybody else, who has a hard object on their head with some sharp edges, okay?

So, And that participant in the game can present a danger to all the other field players. And in that case We have to be concerned and everybody has to be mindful that that player is more of a danger just due to wearing the equipment that they're allowed and playing in the manner in which they're allowed.

And every player is allowed to slide on the ground so long as they don't present a danger to other players. So, that's the spirit of the rule. Now, when you apply that back to your question there, Alistair, about, you know, whether we're getting really technical about whether They're in or out, or, you know, is it a foot?

Is it half a foot? Is it, you know, their torso, if they're sliding along the ground and things like that? To me, understanding what the taking, and you take that alongside with the taking part in the match, which is sort of a more vague concept, is that it would be really difficult to add taking part in the match to a very precise, measured, objective spot on the field.

If that makes any sense, let me know if I'm on drugs, but combining those two and, and trying to make like, then you start having to get really pedantic about taking part in the math,

which is rough. Okay. And now we're starting to sort of get the feeling that, Oh, you know, also if the spirit here is about danger, we want to examine this particular scenario with reference to danger and where that danger could be occurring in this case. And whether that means that we need to, oh, I'm going to start poking on all the wrong areas of the field here.

And how that interplays with the positioning and what the participation is. So here we are in this moment. This is the point at which the ball is being played. Right here. So, contact very accurately pointed out by everybody. So thus far has been. That it is inside the 23, so the playing of the ball, that moment Within the rules, what we have to determine is, and the reason I'm backing up this clip, and then I'm going to slowly scroll through it, is because this is not a situation where a player has con an attacking player has control of the ball and is dribbling towards the goalkeeper.

This is a 50 50 ball situation, and yes, the attacker is closer by the angle that we have, but actually, Like, I, I mean, unless this goalkeeper is just like ridiculously fast, we have to assume these players are of even speed. So the fact that they meet the ball at the same time means that they are equidistant away and they are equal speeds.

This is a true 50 50 ball. So once the ball is cleared, at this moment, the ball is contacted, what we have to determine is, should we be judging that moment, this moment right here, as participating in the match outside the 23? Okay? Now that I have more fully expanded on that, I'm gonna let this play out, check a few more comments, and then see which one of you has, uh, persuaded me.

Card the attacker for the lulz. Keepers are infallible. Well, I, I'm, I'm here for lulz. Uh, Stijn, this is more of a guidance to 10. 2 to you. The danger of the attacker because of the equipment. Yes. Okay, so now you've By using 10. 2 you've picked up on the spirit of the roll, that's really good. And it's a penalty corner and a yellow card to you.

Simon, it looks fine as the ball was played inside, okay, but he did end up outside the 23. Did he participate in the match? What is participating in the match? Does he change the way that anybody plays? Uh,

Mike's not bothered. He's not bothered. Are you bothered? I'm not, I'm not bothered. I'm not bothered. He's not bothered about the slide going outside the 23 metre area. It's pretty close to an offence for just the slide itself. Almost taking out the attacker, but you think the goalkeeper's in the space first, so play on.

And to that, my friends, oh, there's more. Oh, gosh, there's a lot more. You guys are getting all over this. Godders, play on. Legitimate play within the 23. Jonathan. Uh, the keeper took the ball on a stick inside play on for you where white got the ball and white got the ball in the end. Advantage. Okay, I'm gonna sneeze.

Hang on.

What is going on? Well, what's going on is about minus 23 outside and it's going to drop to minus 34 in a few days. So that's what's going on. Yes, Murph, it all comes down to this definition of taking part in the game.

This is a bit of a nasal emergency, you guys. Not happy about this. You're close to that Stijn, uh, says Mike, but personally you think it's okay because the attacker has time to stop and avoid by jumping. So If we look at the 50 50 situation, the question comes to us, is it legitimate for the goalkeeper to challenge for this?

Like, do we think that, you know, the goalkeeper is doing the right thing by playing this ball, and they do what they can to make it safe, and because if they don't challenge for this ball, like, would we say, well, the goalkeeper's got to pull out of this? Because of that possibility of that extra slide over that line.

Because of the angle the attacker is coming in, or does the attacker also have a responsibility? Because it's reasonable for the contact to be made by the goalkeeper inside the 23. He can see the goalkeeper coming, it's not especially dangerous, all that sort of thing. So what are the responsibilities of the players here?

And it doesn't feel, from a hockey sense to me, that it would be fair for us to look at this goalkeeper and say, You can't, you can't try for that ball. Because you either do or you do not. This is a Yoda situation. There is no try. You do or you do not. And we still want players to be able to compete.

Compete fairly and compete safely, but we want them to be able to compete. That's where the joy and excitement and amazingness comes out of our game. Alan, the goalkeeper chooses a slide which requires the attacker to jump over him. Not too bothered about the 23. Does that mean there's a follow up? Okay, so I'm not sure because that's like two things.

That could lead to different conclusions, Alan, so I'm curious about that. Uh, Luke, the keeper's going to ground outside the circle, causing the attacker to take LEA to avoid them. You're looking at the potential danger caused to the attacker before he slides outside the 23. Um, okay. You might be correct for once.

Murph, do you see where I'm going? Slow mo looks like a stick tackle.

Let's see how this goes.

Nah. Um, there you go. No, no, no. It's not a silly question. Don't worry, apparently I'm really good at pointing out to people when they ask dumb questions. That's not a dumb question. It's a good one. And it helps us get to, I think, the whole point of what we're bothered by. Because the, the need for the attacker to jump over the goalkeeper is not caused by, or it's that event doesn't occur outside the 23.

The ball was nowhere in play. There's nobody else affected. By that goalkeeper being out that far, there's nobody else who goes, Whoa, I can't take part in this. Like the, the clip that we looked at a few weeks ago where the goalkeeper came out and there were two attackers coming in and one defender in the mix and the goalkeeper came out and was right at the edge and right at the edge of the 23 and he, and he clipped it with a stick.

And then there was another player who then had to hold up because he was going to collide with the goalkeeper. That is a player who gets affected by this goalkeeper potentially playing outside the 23. I can't remember exactly what happened to that one, and I probably should have reviewed it before we did this, but there you go.

Mr. Clifton, the player did well to jump out of the way. If he let himself get caught, his team would have been a player up. Um, okay, so, Phil, we don't use the words naughty step, because players aren't naughty. Players are competitors, and we don't use condescending language to describe any punishment that we You know, any penalties that we award to them, okay?

It, it's, I hate that languaging so hard, we're, so we're not going to use it here. But going about, going, going back to it, do I think that that would have been a 10 minute yellow card? And, uh, you know, for the goalkeeper, if the goalkeeper, if the player had been taken down? You can't have it both ways. Just because the player was able to jump over doesn't mean that the goalkeeper wasn't necessarily at fault.

I don't think the goalkeeper is at fault here. I think they're doing what they are allowed to do in the safest way possible. The attacker is coming in at an angle. And they are the second player to the ball. I wouldn't be awarding a yellow card for this.

I just wouldn't.

Uh, Jolt. You're sad about the votes? I'm sorry. The goalkeeper wins the ball. With the intent of sliding outside the 23, which is prohibited. Um, and here we go with the words of intent. Is this, is he intent, is he intending to slide outside the 23, or is he reckless as to the result? He's reckless as to the result of sliding outside the 23.

But that's not a foul. Participating in the match outside the 23 is the foul. And is this participating in the match? That is the question. Not being outside it.

Shan, would participating be having an influence on the game? In that case, I don't think he has an influence as attacker doesn't fall down and continues running in a circle. Yeah, I mean, that particular player isn't disadvantaged, but I think there's more to being an active participant. It's similar to me to, let's say, the attackers being within 5 metres of each other of a free hit that is inside the 23 metre area.

So The fact that an attacker is there isn't necessarily disadvantageous, but if they impact the way that the opposition moves, the defenders are marking because they're like, well, we can't mark two of them because we can't, you know, we can't get close to them. And now that pass is going to go and blah, blah, blah.

There's not a lot of situations like it's a little bit of a. It's a little bit esoteric, but it's, it's one where you think there's a lot of situations where unless the ball actually goes to that player, you're not going to, you're not going to call it because it doesn't change the behavior of the defending team.

And the spirit of it is, is that you don't want that less than five metre pass to go and create that danger for the defending team with the ball getting sent inside the circle. So, what would happen if the attacker did follow of the keeper? Uh, yeah, I don't want to hear about it. Heh heh heh heh.

Jade, you had an instance where, previously, where a goalkeeper was yellow carded. The MO allowed the goalkeeper to return on the pitch when their suspension ended and not wait for a natural stoppage in play. Is that right or wrong? I believe that's wrong. And, um, this is a bit of a, this is a tangent, but I'll deal with it really quickly because goalkeepers are not, because they're, they're running through the middle of the pitch because they have to re enter the field.

They have to re enter the pitch within five metres of the center line. And the fact that they're running back and they may be doing so in a way that is right in the middle of stuff, it needs to be at a, at a stoppage, and play needs to be stopped in order to allow that player to come on. Another player could go back on the pitch, a field player could go on absolutely immediately.

And as an umpire, you need to be very mindful that this is what's occurring. And you don't want to unfairly disadvantage the team whose goalkeeper has been suspended. You're not going to sit there and pretend that you don't notice, you know. You have to notice absolutely the very first stoppage so that they can substitute off the field player they set back on and then put their goalkeeper back on.

But you just, they simply just can't run through the middle of the pitch like that. Too much! It's too much. Uh, can a goalkeeper go over the baseline then while making a save? Because the definition that's outside the 23 metre. Okay, now you're good. Now you're looking at some red herrings, sir. We're not the brightest.

So diving headfirst on the 23 is a natural reaction. There you go. Ah, interesting. We have a nice little debate going back, uh, about what taking part in the game, uh, they're making, they're, if they are, if they are, if they're making a save and one leg is off their, off the pitch. Oh my goodness. On the basis we're saying it's 50 50 and the keeper wins the ball, you're happy, there's no danger.

Wouldn't consider this participation in this play as happening elsewhere in the deflection play on. There's a big difference between taking part of the game outside the 23 and over the backline. Ball isn't playing the former, not in the latter. Well, no, Mike's description doesn't talk about where the ball is, he's talking about where the goalkeeper is.

Hi Simon, good to see you. You'll be on the catch up, alright. Welcome to 2024. Matt, you're happy to play on. It's a fair challenge, uh, that costs money apparently. Just kidding. Homonyms are hard, I get it. Uh, with no danger, closing angles, let both players, um, The, the, the closing angles lets both players adjust their actions.

And, hero, they're allowed to run back after this dimension is over. No. No, they're not, as I explained. Um, what would I do? Um, I would probably stop time for the safety of all the players involved. And I would tell that match official, don't do that again, thank you very much, in my game that's the acceptable way of doing things, please notify me that the goalkeeper needs to come back on, and, um, Yeah.

I mean, it's hard. You have to have to know exactly what's happening in the game. Like, where is the ball? And, you know, what are you doing as the pitch side umpire? Are you in control of the mat? Like, are you primarily responsible for what's happening? Cause the ball was falling towards you, blah, blah, blah.

Like there's a lot of, a lot of permutations. So, uh, stay in, you're sticking to the PC and y'all card though. And, because the goalkeeper causes L. E. A. the attacker by taking advantage of his protective equipment. Yeah. I basically just said that. More gently. Didn't I manage? Godders, in your opinion, the keeper is not making unfair use of protective equipment.

It's a simple one on one and a fair clearance. Ball played inside the 23 metre play on. Get on with it. Okay, the last thing I'll say before I go to the polls. is that we have to be mindful that when there is such a like, Ooh, should we apply a technical interpretation? Should we not? And the penalty is so high, a penalty corner and a yellow card to a player where there is doubt, we should not be calling it when there's such a significant degree of doubt, right?

We're here to find reasons not to blow a whistle, not to find reasons to. When you apply that general theme, it can really help you out in a lot of these situations. So what does the poll say? What does the fox say? Doot doot doot doot doot. So 81 percent of you are playing that on and we have a, uh, we have three votes for the free hit.

And attack and the yellow card, um, because the foul, if the foul was participation in the match outside the 23, it can't be a penalty, can it? Because that's not where the foul is. The foul was outside the 23. So, the penalty corner in yellow card, which two people voted for, is a trick? Look, I have to put those things in here, and luckily nobody went for the penalty stroke.

I've seen it happen. My vote is for play on. Because I don't believe there is any actual participation in the match at that point. Nobody is affected, nobody is disadvantaged, and I don't believe that that constitutes Danger, and anything that requires an intervention by an umpire. There you are. Um, Simon, so you're welcome to write in your own options.

You can add your own options to the poll whenever you feel like it. That is a freedom that I, I allow on most polls. Because I think y'all are hilarious, and I enjoy a laugh. Just like everybody else. So there you go. Let the kids play. So, I understand your point of view guys, but I really think that it's important to consider just where actual impact happens, actual participation, all that kind of stuff.

Okay, um, you know, it's happened. I've, it's happened in matches that I've done where all of a sudden a player is coming on when they're not supposed to be because a match official has incorrectly applied the regulations or the rules of hockey and I've had to be like, whoa, what? No, no, this, no, this isn't okay.

Don't do this. That's not my match. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. There you go. And yes, and I love this. Rachel is prompting me to prompt you to do this thing. Good discussion, everybody. I enjoyed it. And if you enjoyed it too, hit those things. Especially the subscribe. It's been really interesting. I, I, I thought about doing a sort of a 2023 recap so that y'all can see a little bit under the hood of what it's like to try to do this on the YouTubes and social medias and what we do in the server and sort of some of the stats and the, the real.

I guess, you know, just measuring what we do as a community and what I'm learning from all that. And the one thing that I've learned from YouTube is that I am guaranteed to add the same number of subscribers each and every week for three and a half years since I've been super active. In fact, I'd say four years now that I've been super active, I've added exactly the same numbers of subscribers.

It's, it's, it's had this very slight increase. I would add. 14, sorry, 15 subscribers every week for like three years. And then over the last year, I've been adding 20 subscribers a week, every week. What is, how is that possible? I don't understand. Like I don't have a week where there's only five and then there's 50 the next week.

Oh no. Oh no. It is. It's almost like I'm paying for them and I'm on a subscription, you know, pay 20 a month and get 15 and get 60 subscribers, get 80 subscribers. It's just ridiculous. None, none of my friends in the creator space have such steady non exponential growth metrics like mine. So anyway, if you want to prove me wrong, and everybody wants to prove me wrong, a whole bunch you subscribe today, and then let's see what happens.

See if you blow my mind. There you go. Okay, um, what? What do I want to announce? Well, I, I do have some good news. Because Alexander Taylor has joined Green! Very excited. Thank you very much, uh, Alexander, for signing up. And it's been great having you in the server. It's been great having you along, and, uh, I can't wait to get to know you more and help supporting you on your journey.

Uh, in your umpiring career and green is the FHU third team membership tier where you, I mean, look, I'm not going to lie. I think it's kind of a good option for a lot of people because you get access to the clip library. You get access to a special AI server where I'm far more attentive. Okay, I'm attentive everywhere, but pretty soon I'm not going to be able to pay as much attention everywhere.

And yellow members and green members are gonna get just a lot more of this in their grills than everywhere else. And you get access to the watch parties. And I think, um, if you go, for those of you who have access in the server right now, you can go back and you look at just the watch party replays that I was able to put up for the last set of tournaments.

What the hell were they? Junior World Cup. Uh, yes, the Men's and the Women's Junior World Cups and Pro League, that all happened in sort of November, December. And it was chaos! There was so many of them. I was so busy. It was really fun. And that's a lot of value. It's a lot of value there because you get the opportunity to be coached along into how to watch a match from an umpiring perspective and apply a critical lens, an analytical lens, learn from the best umpires in the world because I use the FIH matches very, very particularly, very intentionally because even the best, there's so much to learn from them from either the things that they're Nailing down solid and, and when they make their mistakes, because everybody does and it's great hockey to watch.

And we need to become, as a sport, we need to become consumers of our own sport as well. We all play, we all umpire, we all volunteer, we coach, but we don't watch our own game. What is, what is, what's up with that? So we gotta fix that. Okay, um, but as always Oh, that's not what I meant to do. I meant to do this.

Let's try this again. The Control Elevator course, this show, is being brought to you by me, and the Control Elevator. Go find out how to manage a game. There. There. Use that QR code, go to that link, and y'all know about mission critical positioning by now. If you don't know Oh boy, I am not going to stop talking about this for the next 14 years until I'm so old and grizzled.

Y'all are going to be shut up, Keely, you old, you old, we don't want to hear about it anymore. Okay. So go have that. And yeah, I'll just put this up too. We have QR codes of a QR code. If you are a fan, if you're one of my best friends, because you're in part of the community and, and. And I, I get really sheepish when I start talking like this, don't I?

But if you want to help spread the word, we have fobs that you, we will just, we will just put them in the mail for you. You don't have to pay a thing. If you happen to order something else, like a water bottle, or a hoodie, or I don't know, something else. I'm not the boss of you. Like, you do you. We'll send you out some fobs too.

So, yeah. I think I covered everything good. Okay. Let's move on.

Oh, it's not Cards After a Melee.

This is an oldie but goodie. This was sent to me by Alex Brie, whose, um, father, Taco, might be in the comments today. I don't know if he is, but he often comes by to What Up Wednesday and Alex loves to send me stuff on Instagram and I love to receive them. If you've seen a clip on the Instagrams, on the Twitters, on TikTok, I don't really like TikTok very much.

But if you see something on social media and you're like, you know what, this really needs a WhatUpWednesday treatment, tag me in the comments or send me a DM with a link to it so that I can have a look and You know, we can do this thing, this over analytical 40 minutes per clip thing. Super fun. Well, let's keep doing it.

And I need your material for that. So, uh, this one I absolutely loved, um, posted by icons and actually didn't pick up on, pick on umpires for once. Thank you very much. And just a really interesting play, but do you have any thoughts on this? Is this a play on for you? Is this an offence by the goalkeeper that would cause you to call a penalty corner, perhaps a penalty stroke for an intentional foul?

Oh, Taco's here! Alex at Violent Lessons. God, we have such a really cool community. People do lots of really great things, like play lots of instruments and code and languages and um, I, I would like to say this right now out loud, I had a conversation with Neils. Who is a moderator in the server and on the YouTube channel.

Long time member of the community, but we haven't seen him around for the last little while because he's been really busy at school. We had a chance to catch up. Niels is applying for the police academy. He's doing all sorts of cool shit. So I just wanted to send a shout out to him. I'm glad he's doing really well.

He's still progressing in his umpiring and he promises he's got seven months of freedom coming up, he said, and he's going to be back. So I can't wait for that. Because the Discord server was him. I give him all the credit for that, because he dragged me into it kicking and screaming. So, that means a lot to me.

We miss you, Niels. Can't wait to have you back. Okay. Uh, there you go. Ah! Cat popped in! She's a little bit late. She's there. Alex wants to know if he can get away with it. Well, what do y'all think? Hero. What do you have to say? Lovely stare down of a goalkeeper, but leaning towards obstruction because they purposely put themselves in the way of the ball with no intention of playing it and obstructing the player.

Okay. So you both have purposefully. Which you might be indicating intentional or reckless as to the result. And you're indicating that you feel that the attacker has been obstructed from playing the ball.

Okay,

uh, let's see. Um, Stijn is close to that, but the attacker is Is the attacker making enough of an effort to play the ball? Nick has obstruction.

Uh, the poll should be up too, hopefully. Did the poll post? I don't even know. Goalkeeper fakery, there it is. Okay, the poll is there, so make sure you go vote. So, when it comes to obstruction, Luke, are they though, question mark? The keeper steps over the ball, but is the attacker actively pursuing the ball still?

I don't think they are.

It's clearly a planarly stroke intentional by the goalkeeper.

Tell me more, Mike.

Frank's got no effort to play the ball by the attacker.

This is where I need that gif of the guy settling back with his popcorn.

That's what I want to be doing right now.

I don't think the player had a decent chance of getting there. Okay. So, this is a good situation to start out with, or a good clip to illustrate how sometimes we don't, pretty much all the time on Instagram particularly, we're not getting a very good view of the incident. The vertical video confines the space that we can see, it's, it's like putting blinders on an umpire, so that they only get to see a little thing, and so you see people coming out of nowhere, then suddenly entering the picture, and especially the way that the, the direction changes here.

This. This change of angle, this change of camera at this moment really makes it difficult to determine. So all we really have for information is, at this moment, the second attacker, the one who is involved in the play afterwards, is completely out of the picture. So they're They've got to be coming from pretty far away and we only see them right here in this moment.

So we've only got this, we've only got this moment going forward to determine whether there may or may not be. and obstruction.

So here we have the moment in which the goalkeeper steps over the ball. The ball is still fully playable at this moment, but is not within reach of the player of the attacker who is running after the ball. The ball is now passed. This is the moment. where there is a potential obstruction. Has the attacker made sufficient inroads to getting closer to the ball in that split second such that this is actually an obstruction?

The little hop that happens in that moment, let's see if I can stop it right at the moment that she that she does the little hop, okay, she might be hopping over, um, Ann's pads there, but you can sort of see the, the last bit of that, that movement

compound the short angle, short angle, very limited angle that we have with,

um, Oh, what was it going to say? I totally lost my train of thought there.

With all the factors that we can see. It'll come to me in a moment.

Not being able to see what actually happens more in the lead up so we can get a wider perspective on the ball. Do we think that this player is actually obstructed from the ball? Oh, thank you. I was,

okay, let's see. How far back am I going to go? Ooh, very far. Holy smokes.

Player has to move out of the way not to hit the goalkeeper. In what regard is that taken into the con converse consideration? Well, it is taken into consideration, but if she's Late, and the goalkeeper is in the space first, but there's no actual way for that player to have played the ball, maybe. Yeah, that wider angle would have been nice.

Jay, this happens week in, week out, never seen an umpire blow it. Yourself included, yet every time you think in your head it's obstruction, same as a defender shadowing a ball out of play. And, I see where you're going Jay, but I just want to be careful because I have shown clips recently. And maybe I'll have the wherewithal to put them up, links to them.

We did have a shadowing, um, was it Europeans? Where a player got called for, uh, for that obstruction. Or should have been called? I can't remember. But my conclusion was it was definitely obstruction. On that shadowing of the player. It can absolutely happen. It just doesn't happen here. So there's no, no blanket there.

Tim, it looks to you like the player keeps sprinting until she has to avoid the keeper. It's true, but Was she going to reach the ball?

Did the goalkeeper not kick the ball? It changed direction. I don't think she made contact with the ball because it's, I mean, I don't think it changed direction of bounces, but we, we, we have a pretty crap angle on all of it. They've left enough of an angle.

Yeah. God, I love that nine 21 aspect ratio. Um, I have like, if I, if, if I sort of widen it and it cuts out, it doesn't help because now we're even seeing. Less of it, so I, yeah, 9×16 is terrible. It's 9×16, I think. Maybe it's 9×21. Shan, for what it's worth, looks legit until after the ball's gone out. Also, the angle of the ump to goalkeeper there is difficult.

Where is the umpire? Can we see the umpire? Anywhere?

The umpire is nowhere to be seen.

Wait.

There's the umpire. Hi!

Can we talk?

Y'all are standing still right in this moment. And you're already behind the play. What is happening here? I want to help. Call me. Okay? I want to help. This can be better. That's what I'm going to say very gently.

You know, you can stop with all this clowning around, sir, because I'm not good at I'm Canadian. I'm not good at reading sarcasm and writing. The goalkeeper intentionally steps on the ball. If they hadn't, it would have hit them and the attacker would have scored. It's not fair that they allowed the ball go to play play on for you.

No. Taco. But if a field player would be doing this with a stick without actually playing the ball, that isn't a foul, is it? So why for a goalkeeper who can kick the ball but doesn't kick the ball? Taco. Good point. Um, yes they are. The attacker is still in the frame. Even this by the time the goalkeeper plays before.

Um, plays towards the ball.

Uh, Mike, the goalkeeper's in the space first and entitled to play with the ball. They do by stepping over it and then it is out of the reach of the attacker. Yeah. Oh! Yeah, you're right. Sorry, I'm out of practice. 2024 was my year to not pick on the word clearly, and clearly I have to. Oh, you know, y'all can just, y'all can just step back with that.

Take a knee, alright? Slow your rolls, big rigs, because this is getting, like, way too confusing for me. You know that I'm gonna go off on a rant on one of you, and you're gonna, you will have just been kidding, and now I'm gonna be an asshole, and I don't wanna do that. White on attack hits the ball last, so the goalkeeper has to let it go.

Yep, that's what it is. And the white running in was just a, just a little late. Jams. Perhaps the player jumping, is jumping out of the line of the rebound.

Yeah, the attacker has to be actively playing the ball. Daan, you're absolutely right. Luke, there was a left spin on the ball. It started curving away from the attacker towards the back line. Oh my god. I'm trying not to, Jonathan. I'm so trying not to.

I don't Okay, I know I have to say these things because I there are people apparently Rob Argent, I'm talking to you, if you're listening. Cause you listen, we had a discussion at the MPA conference. He doesn't watch this. He actually listens to me in the car on the way to work. I think that's dangerous because I'm really distracting, like who doesn't want to watch all this?

Hmm. But, so, I will read out your comments, because that's the polite thing to do, not necessarily endorsing the things that are being said. Murph, you can't have a decision if there's no umpire. Stijn, didn't the umpire go invisible? Matt, the keeper gets the ball first, Attackers reaction is, she's lost the chase, she didn't complain at all.

Yeah, there's a little bit of that body language there too that we can look at. And, I do, I do, thank you Shan, sorry, Shan saying that you need, that I need to chat with that umpire, I'd like to, just call me, okay? I'm actually really, really supportive. Actually, I am really supportive, I think, and I know it works, and I know we can do so many things so much better, so let's do the better thing.

2024 is the year, everybody! Y'all are gonna be doing MCP, and it's gonna be glorious! And there's going to be so many fewer, you know, Oh, look, the umpire didn't make this call clips on Instagram and TikTok and all those places because you're going to be in the right spot and you're going to see your shit.

Yes. Sorry. Swear. Hey, Kieran, are you new? If the attacker's not making an attempt to play the ball, why benefit them? Yeah. Uh, she decides to disengage. Nothing to bowl for or play on? Yeah. Xander?

I don't know if you knew, but you seem new. So hi. Welcome. Sandra said play on. Uh, Luke, umpire was adopted by the aliens in the middle of the field. You can start with a reef, 50 metre, and the aliens keep their umpire. That's nice. Offside first. Okay. That's it, Godders. That's it. We're done. We're done. Oh, it's 1 0 5.

That's why the umpire was so high and wide. They were looking for the offside call. They certainly were. Richard! I think if a goalkeeper can, uh, you think a goalkeeper can step over the ball like this in the hope of persuading the attacker to stop their run, that's why goalkeepers use the technique if the attacker calls their bluff obstruction.

Um, yeah, it would be obstruction if the attacker's within playing distance, that's the whole point, and I don't think the attacker is. That's my Call on this. Let's see. Hi, Ian. And welcome 2024. I'm specifically not saying the HNY. Ban the J hook. Ban the J hook, please. But let's like, oh my God, is that going to be our t shirt?

HCO people, let's talk about it. Just say no to J hooks.

It's too much. Okay. Let's have a look at the poll because it's only right to see where we're at. So. 22 of you and 81. 48 percent of you said please. Let's just play this on. And 3 of you wanted a free hit attack in yellow card. Okay, that is a red herring vote. It's not a, it's not a thing. How can it be a free hit attack for a foul that's inside the circle?

Who is playing with the poll? Stop it. Change your vote right now. It can only be either. I put the, I put the options in there to make you think, but it can only be a penalty corner or a penalty stroke and a penalty stroke and a yellow card because you cannot, oh, okay, let's just make sure I don't F this up royally.

An intentional foul against a player who does not have possession or likely possession of the ball can be a penalty corner and a card at the same time. This is not one of those situations. Because the whole point of calling the obstruction is because the attacker would have had the opportunity to play the ball, but for the foul.

Therefore, it has to be either an unintentional foul or it's a recklessness to the result slash intentional foul and a penalty stroke, to which you could add a card if you needed to. Okay, so there's only, only three correct answers here. Possible answers. And there's one correct answer, which is play on.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we have gone through the two clips that I had. Very fun. Um, let's see. That's a J hook. Oh wait, what?

Right, so let's try this again. Hi. Oh my god, you jerkfaces. What's happening? So, if I could edit the livestreams, I would take out that last three minutes. But I can't. Life's really hard. Okay. It's really hard to do this. Okay. So 77 percent of you said play on. 12 percent of you said penalty corner. And some of you said penalty stroke.

And one of you said penalty stroke on a card. 15 metre restart defense. Okay. What? Yeah, I get it. Same as play on. Subscribe to MCP. Says Simon Dolby. Restart with a bully. Also added by Simon Dolby. Wrong poll.

I'm fine. I'm fine. I can do all these things. Let's talk about something where I'm not going to be changing any scenes. Recovering during a tough game. Okay, so we had a discussion in the server and I thought it was a really important question and a really important issue that would merit some time that we could spend on this, because we don't talk enough about umpiring tactics and strategies and things like that.

I used to do that all the time before I got really good at clips. And I had lots of, lots of clips to talk about, and I wanted things to be very practical from that sense. Those are useful exercises. The things that we just did, going through the theory of it, wrangling our brains, you guys all confusing me.

You see, you confused me with the sarcasm stuff. Blaming it on all you. But getting down to some of the strategies and techniques that we can use to improve our umpiring performance actually are just as important. So I'm going to try to do one of these once a week. I just thought of that right now. Once a week.

It's my 2024 resolution for WhatupWednesday, okay? The question that was posed in the discussion point, and I don't want to call out the person in particular, but and I don't have to because every one of us have had this experience where we've been in a game and things just start going wrong and the players are questioning our decisions and there's a lot of appealing coming from both teams.

And we know that we're, we've lost the plot a bit. Nothing major, it's not like, you know, we should have awarded a penalty stroke and we didn't. We can stop, you know, we can stop time and go to our colleague and we can sort of reset that way. No, it's, it's just that the, the little calls, the sidelines, the, the free hits, the play ons were getting a lot of grief and stick from the players.

And we know it's our fault. So we had a really good discussion about that in the server, and I wanted to sort of highlight some of the things that we thought of of approaches. And I think one of the important things that we need to do when we have these sort of situations, and we're talking to, say, our umpire coaches, or we're talking to our umpire friends, is that We ask ourselves questions and don't just look for sort of an, an, uh, an offer, a quick solution.

It's important to tease out everything. How did you feel about it? What do you think was happening? Was there any particular instigating moment? Was there something that struck you about the way that you were umpiring that could have been contributing? And so it's kind of a connection to how things were spiraling.

And once you go through a lot of those questions, you, you really do start to come to a few different common aspects that can get us into this trouble situation. And so a few of the things that I would recommend trying without going into particulars of. You know, what happened to you, what happened to me that day, what happened to anybody else.

One of the first strategies I often recommend, when you are making a lot of mistakes in a game, and whatever a lot is for you, I'm not the boss of you, you decide what that is, the biggest challenge is, Getting yourself out of those moments and stopping thinking about those moments. Because that makes everything worse.

Why? Because as you are rehearsing, replaying, reanalyzing the decision that you I didn't quite get, was it that the player was in front, or was she actually in the side, and who touched that ball last, and I was pretty sure with the way the ball moved. And you can see, I'm distracting myself from the next thing that I want to say to y'all, because I'm Rehashing something that I'm visualizing in my head.

I'm not only analyzing what I'm seeing in a moment, but I'm having to recreate in my head, and I'm thinking about it, and I'm doing it repetitively over and over and over again. That takes up a lot of brain power. It's really hard. It's really hard. We don't need to do that. So getting away from that, that cycle of rehashing what's just happened is Crucial for you to get out of that death spiral.

Am I making it too dramatic? Death spiral. I don't know. When I watch umpires, I can often see when they're in their own little spiral because they stop moving. As soon as an umpire isn't moving the way that they normally would, they're not changing directions quickly enough for their, or they're sort of going back and forth a little bit, or they're leaving too late.

And to move into the next best spot where the ball is going to be, getting to their happy place early enough, all that sort of thing, it's because they're thinking. That's sign number one. Another sign that I look for is an umpire who is proactive with their verbal and their body language communication with the players.

When they stop doing that, they're thinking. Cause you can't do both at the same time, okay. So how do you replace, how do you stop thinking about something that you have to think about? You can't not think. You have to replace unproductive thoughts, unhelpful things. With something that is going to make you better.

So I recommend a few different little strategies that you can try and areas to focus on. The first one being is that you need. To give yourself specific future-oriented tasks about reading the game. Those can include things like, Where's the next pass likely to go? The second pass? The third pass? Oh, I think the fourth pass might go over there.

I can see that player's really open. Predicting where the ball is going to go, and really pushing yourself in that exercise. If you're in a slower-paced game, maybe something that it's really easy for you to lose your focus in, that can be a really effective way to get yourself into it. That not only has the benefit of getting yourself out of the past thinking, but that future thinking is going to help you with your movement again, because it's like, Oh, well, if the fourth pass is going over there, clearly I should be moving this way right now.

And by the time I get to my spot, the third pass is going to be about be ready to be executed. And dang, do I look good? Cause I'm in the right spot. So. It has the effect of taking you out of the past thinking, but also getting into, getting you into the future stuff.

The other thing that you can try, and really it's, it's, it's not just something you should be doing periodically, but a skill that is really important for you to be carrying throughout all of your game is to be predicting, to be reading ahead, what potential fouls could be occurring in any given contact point between two players.

From the way that the players are coming together, one of them's coming in from the side, and the body position is like this, and she's leaning a little bit off, and not looking this way. Probably, we're looking at a potential stick obstruction, and because her stick's kind of up in the air, her feet are also vulnerable as well.

So those are probably the two decisions I need to make. And then the next layer on that is, is there anything reckless as to the result about this foul that I'm about to see when a player is under pressure and they're about to try to pass the ball you're thinking, is there a potential obstruction coming in, danger on the shot or on the, on the pass, because they don't have good body position as they're executing it.

Great umpires just do this automatically because they've been doing it as a matter of habit for thousands and thousands and thousands of reps. We can focus on these things. We can actually pay attention to be more mindful of these things. And putting ourselves in that future position again means that we don't have time.

Ain't nobody got time for that call that you made three seconds ago? Three minutes ago? Fifteen minutes ago? No, like you're busy. You've got things to do that are about to happen. And by restricting for yourself, eliminating possibilities instead of 15 rules that you have to think about with all the subclauses.

You've got like two, which means that the pace of your decision making is going to be so much faster because you've already greased the neural connections between only those two, three, maybe four options of things that you have to decide. And you know what you're going to do about it. That is how you decide what advantage is.

Because you're like, well, these things might happen, but boy, look at that great space that's going on. I, I think this is going to end up being advantage when this happens. And in the moment that the foul occurs, you're like, I can do it. Play. Let's go. So you've already made this decision, you've already made four decisions and you just pick the one that you need right at that moment.

All of that glorious mental work takes you out of thinking of the thing that you did wrong three minutes ago. The last benefit to all that future thinking is that your whistle timing gets immensely better and whistle timing is the key for everything. It is both the cause and the effect of great, flowing, and non contentious hockey.

Because when your whistle timing is rapid, it is in the moment, it is right when something is happening, players start to finally understand what the fouls are for. They're like, oh, oh, that, the ball is literally on my foot right now, and you're calling a foot, oh, okay, that makes sense. One second, three seconds, five seconds afterwards, players are like, 15 other things have happened!

I don't get it. What's happening here? I'm so confused. We don't want players to get confused. We need to more closely associate the cause, the disadvantage that's occurred, requiring us to call an offense. And reset the balance with a team penalty. So we connect those events together for the players and make it so obvious to them, they got nothing to say.

Plus, the ball was closer to the spot of the foul, meaning that players can get on with the next phase. They can get on with that self pass. It's much more quickly because the ball's right there. Players have gotten trapped, defenders have gotten trapped within five metres of that. They can't interfere.

All of a sudden, the options that are open for that player are bigger. So now you see, like we've got this, instead of spiraling into this death of anger and balls flying away and you having to explain things. Now you've got bang, bang, bang, flowing hockey. Everybody's having fun. Dogs and cats are living together.

It's glorious. That is how you recover yourself in a tough game. Or at least, those are some ideas that you can try. And hopefully, y'all have been chatting in the comments, and I'm about to go through them right now, and you have your own ideas. And I'd love to hear all of this sort of thing as you're talking.

Um, heh heh heh heh heh. Murph's advocating an adult beverage. No, you can't do that. Okay. Um, let's see. Oh boy. How far do I have to go back?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay Everybody had a good time. All right,

ran to the week Question did you really did you discord and what's at me and I totally ignored it. Yeah, that's cuz I'm awesome I think I have discord closed. I do have everything pinging though. Let's see on my watch How many notifications there are many wrong poll wrong poll wrong poll. Okay. Thanks Mike.

Great work. Good job. Thanks mods

I'm the worst. Get the options. Okay. Okay. So good. Um, I have no idea what this means, Rachel. Even the beryllium sphere only gives you 13 seconds. I don't.

So in the server, please explain the inside joke that I don't get. Ryan's here. Hey, thanks. I mean, Ain't happening in my lifetime. I'm burning in some fires, I'm just telling you. But, I appreciate the sentiment. Uh, Godders, mental side is crucial here in the South Central. We're focusing on this. Big piece at the moment is on how to plan for this and discuss in the pre match chat.

Excellent stuff, I like it. Um, you read the Wayne Barnes book over Christmas. Oh, yeah, you wrapped the last Rugby World Cup final, and I know that he just retired, uh, because he was done with the lifestyle and the abuse that he had to deal with. Um, that his family had to deal with and that sort of thing.

But he writes reset on his hand every match to remind him to move on. Yeah, that's really good. And keywords can be a really effective thing. I know that as somebody who is compulsively over analytical, um, probably bordering on obsessive, that I need to do something that can replace that behavior that's equally as obsessive.

And by studying where players are moving and where the ball's gonna go, and trying to predict things that seem unpredictable but actually kind of are predictable, that's something that really works for me. And so if you're like me, and you're ridiculous, those things might work for you. Um, so for Godders, discuss with your colleague and have plans to support.

Okay? And so these are sort of the things that I'd like for you to try to, to, like, talk about these with your colleagues. Talk about these, these tips and tricks. Talk about things that you've tried and haven't worked. Things that have actually worked for you, ask for that from your colleague in a game.

Also be open to the fact that perhaps you're asking for something that isn't helpful, so make it a productive And be experienced and be open to getting feedback about how, you know, I told you, like I said the word reset to you a few times and it didn't work. So let's, let's do something different next time.

Let's see if we can't, you know, and so just because you happen to sort of find something doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be the end all be all. This is a growth and ongoing experience. Thank you. Uh, read the play is a great idea. Reset the mind too. Yeah. Uh, Simon, I find as part of a pre match prep, getting to bed, sleep early in the night, does a lot for you games.

Absolutely the worst that you've slept, the worst, the worst you sleep, the worst you umpire. Okay, so I got a confession. Over the holidays, I spent an inordinate amount of time watching Andrew Huberman videos on YouTube. Okay, first of all, he's hot. He's super nerdy. But he's hot. Second of all, he seems to know a lot of things about performance from a scientific perspective.

And one of the things that he bangs on a lot about is sleep. So, something that I sort of came to grips with. After the Tokyo Olympics, when I was sleeping in blocks of three and a half hours, and three and a half hours, and those blocks of sleep were from, how did I do it, I was sleeping from about 3 in the afternoon to 7.

30 in the evening. I'd get up and have dinner, I'd have a shower. And then the night matches would, night matches for me, would start at 11pm and I'd do the four matches and then I'd go to sleep for three and a half hours and then I'd get up and I'd do the next second block of matches. I'd prep for the live stream, do the live stream at noon and I did a daily live stream during Tokyo and then I would go to bed at three o'clock again and I did that for the two weeks of the Tokyo Olympics and it seemed really cool at the time.

I knew it was affecting me. I knew it was some bad, you know, some bad temporary life choices, but the impact it had in the long term on my health. Um, over the next several months, um, significant weight gain, um, inflammatory issues, other things that I don't really need to get into details on, but I did perceive and in hindsight now I can assess that there was a really detrimental impact on my health from the choices I made in that moment.

Would I do it again? Probably, but cause I love hockey, but understanding just how significant those moments are and how important sleep is to our brains and our performance. I'm now taking a really, um, I'm going through it. I guess sort of a testing period on my sleep where I'm making sure, and apparently this is, this is one of the keys that I've, I've heard from a few other people other than Huberman going to bed at the same time.

And most crucially, getting up at, getting up at the same time every day. Very, very important. I'm turning on red lights before I go to sleep. It's kind of, it's kind of fun. You know? Okay, let's not get in, let's not go down that road. Um, red lights on before I go to sleep, making sure that I'm doing a, a nice It's wind down rituals so I can get things out of my brain so that when I am hitting the pillow at 10 o'clock, I am going to sleep.

I have an automation that turns off all my lights, turns off everything, turns off my air pod or my home pod system. So if I'm listening to a podcast and I'm, I'm, I'm listening to information, they shut down to 10 o'clock, everything goes dead. I'm like, Oh, time to go to bed. It's time to sleep. And working on things like that, I'm looking forward to seeing how that impacts my mental performance because, you know, I'm, I'm in the server all day trying to be smart, trying to help, trying to be impactful, trying to choose the right words.

These live streams, like, I don't mean to humble brag, but they are a lot of work and they are very intellectually challenging. So. As you can see, it's very easy for me to make big mistakes, like looking at the wrong poll. Thank you. And being able to do this better is a big goal of mine. I want to continually improve, so I'm looking after my sleep.

If you're interested in talking more about this, we have a channel on the server called FHU Fit. I believe this is an area of mental fitness. It's part of all over fitness. We tend to talk about physical training in there, but let's, let's talk about sleep fitness. Let's talk about nutritional fitness.

Let's talk about all those things because y'all are here because you love getting better. You're not here because it's like, eh, whatever. Umpire is all about hookers and blow. I don't need to get better. No, you're here because you're very serious. Uh, as I say that. You're very, you are determined. You have, you have goals.

You have, you've fallen in love with the process of getting better as an umpire. So let's do all that together. Oh my gosh. I am talking up a storm.

I'm suggesting, what I'm suggesting is difficult as you need to make split second decisions. Okay. Like let's, I, I know that Sandra, you made this comment a little bit earlier. So I'm wondering if what I said, As things were moving along, did I, did I address this for you? Let me know. Okay. Um, let's see. Stijn, you can't change what you haven't or haven't given, but you can change what you are going to give.

Godders, you agree. Advantage is just pre scanning. Yep. Absolutely.

So, okay. Let me just, let me just go through another few comments and I'll come back to you, Sander. And, and, cause maybe because of the delay and because I just went on a Another tangent, um, that changed. Uh, Jonathan, you can only aspire to be that, but one should always, uh, try. Thank you. It's very logical.

We'll have to try. Look, it's all about improving. And I talk about these concepts knowing full well that they are challenges, that they are different approaches, that there will be failure and resistance and all that kind of stuff. And, and look, but this is why we're here. We're here because we love getting better at stuff.

So let's do all that. Um, let's see. So players are like cats. Got it. Yes. They're like goldfish. Be a goldfish. Um, what was that character's name on Ted Lawson? Um, so Luke, when you were at Indoor Hockey UK and having supportive colleagues in your ear, you found that very helpful because you were being told lots of affirming things when you were giving decisions from people who were better than you.

And you really enjoyed that. That's awesome. Even if it's a quick yes, I agree with that. It helps new umpires out of the moment and onto the next decision that has to be made. So, interesting stuff, and I've talked about this when we do watch parties, and I talk about the international umpires, who you'll hear doing things like telling each other, yeah, good call, in the radio.

From a presentation perspective, um, and I've said this in the past, I'm not a fan. However, another thing I learned over the holidays, listening to podcasts about performance, I don't have a life. Whatever. There was a study done with a group of, uh, a group of women who went through a physical test. The whole group of women who weren't particularly athletic or fit were put on bikes and told to bike for, let's say, 10 minutes.

And their heart rate, their distance, was all recorded. And then they were split into two groups and one group was told, all right, maybe not the best performance on all these sort of things. Like your results were a little low, so we're going to redo the test in three days. Okay. The other group, the other half of the women like, wow, you, you did great.

That was fantastic. We're gonna redo the test in three days. So the test subjects have been told that they either hadn't done well, or they'd, they'd done great. And the key was, actually, the two groups were split up randomly. There was no correlation between whether they were put in the, you know, poorly performing group or the better performing group.

It was a complete random assignment. So actually, whether they did well or not did not tie into what they were told. On the retest, the results were something to the range, and I'm just going to make up the number, but it was something around the 35 percent mark. The group of test subjects who were retested, they had a 35 percent improvement in their results.

Nothing else was different. They didn't get extra coaching on how to ride bikes better. They didn't change the nutrition. They didn't do a whole bunch of fitness training. That's why it was only three weeks to make sure, or three days, to make sure that they weren't able to really change anything. They weren't able to go out and get better equipment or anything like that.

The only variable that was controlled was what information were they given about their performance. Being told you're good at something makes you better at it. End of story,

right? So Luke illustrated that and had that very direct experience. His anecdote proves that. Oh, Lenscreens too. The science that I just discussed with you. Think about how you can make your colleagues better by telling them that they're good at stuff. Think about how challenging it is for us to go out there and so many people tell us how bad we are at things.

All game long, and yet we persevere and we still umpire well, despite the fact that so many people are telling us we suck.

Ain't that interesting. And what if a player actually took the, the approach that, ooh. You know, I want this umpire to do better because if they're umpiring better, we're going to be able to play better hockey. It's going to be more fair, more flowing, safer, more fun for everybody. What if I told this umpire, you're really good at this.

You're really good. I'm glad you're here. And suddenly they're 35 percent better at umpiring.

Wait, there you go.

The next decision is the most important is the thing that you think of when you next, when you need to dig yourself out of a swamp. Yep, that can help. Um, not drinking 48 hours before a game, says Jonathan, really helps your mind focus. Yeah. Yeah. Drinking is something that, you know, y'all know I love it.

I'm also looking at this as an area because it is that important to me that I'm able to show up for you as my best. I am the smartest, the funniest, can give you the best information, can understand and learn from you the best, like all those sort of things. I'm thinking about these things as well. Wait!

Huckers and Blow? It's my writing joke. I love to say it. Yeah, it can be overdone. And I think the key is that You know, there's some things to explore about the sincerity of the message. So when somebody is clearly not in, not meeting what they're saying with the message that, you know, Hey, you're, you know, you're good at this.

I don't think it's going to work, but if somebody just, you know, one message, Hey, you're, you're good. You're a good umpire. And I think that's something that I've been able to use in my own umpire coaching on a more frequent basis recently, because at the heart of it, even as critical as I can be, when I'm looking at people on my team, I know that they can perform.

That's why they're there. And so my job is to get the absolute best out of them. And they are good umpires. So I need to tell them that I need to make sure that they understand that as we go forward. When your colleague allows a great advantage, you always tell them. No one else probably noticed. Yeah, that's great.

Great philosophy, Casper. Thank you, Bob. You're back from the gym. Loved seeing the video of your mom. That was really, really great. And somebody needs to tell the coaches that too. Yeah. Well, it, it's, it's interesting because they're, they're directly responsible. Like imagine if them as coaches and, you know, we've all gone through this transformation from a, you know, playing coaching perspective of, of positivity and berating our players as a terrible idea and all that kind of stuff.

Um, there are some coaches that still need to learn the lesson, still don't actually agree with that. And, uh, but sorry, it doesn't matter what your feelings are. Science is right. You can't argue with science. It's the rightest thing that we have. So um, there you go. And Simon, you've had a few players and coaches compliment your advantages, despite the team being the ones conceiving the goal.

That, that's when it really matters, right? When a player says great call and you've just given them the ball, you're like, shut up. Don't give me that, right? It's not sincere. But the sincerity of somebody saying, yeah, we just got, you know, ramshackled there. For a goal, but you know, you did something good for that.

That's dope. Godders coaching umpires on Saturday. Players congratulated the umpire on the band for a great first goal. That's awesome. Hi, Barry, your colleague bought positive feedback from the crowd on an advantage that led to a goal. Like, Oh, wow. Right. Give us a wave umpire. Ooh, so good. Love it. Okay, boy, that went, that went a little while.

So I'm going to, we're, we're well over a Keely hour already. Um, so let's quickly bits and bobs. That was nice though. I really enjoyed that. I, it's, it's nice to talk about. Times in this tournament, Spain though, free hit to them. Wrong scene. Oh, and look, there's YouTube. This is what I wanted to show you. And right away, look at the branding design.

Look at the visual design on this. That's good. Sorry. I've always been a Nike person because their shoes fit my feet and I like this. And hey, how many times have we dunked on the FIH, all of us, Jade, hi, that, you know, for, for shortcomings. And lack of fulfillment of promises and things like that. This is good.

This is a, this is a big deal. And the fact that Nike is also on board with this and helping with branding is, I think, a remarkable thing. And the FIH should be applauded for being able to net this deal. What's interesting is that in the press release, it talks about, uh, that it's including the umpires and officials gear.

So there's more, and in this article on frh. hockey, um, Lita van Velten, uh, gives, um, a little package talk. Pian Sanders, I probably said that wrong, sorry, also chimes in. These are players, so they're, unless there's something coming to the players, like it would be weird. So clearly there's something more about this deal that's, that's going to be coming.

And I think that's. That's very exciting, exciting. There's been a little chat in the server about whether, um, you know, it, it includes, you know, skorts and trousers and shorts and shoes and things like that. Traditionally, that hasn't been the case. Because sometimes the providers just either, that the deal doesn't cover that it only covers the shirts.

And maybe some of the off pitch wear. Um, but it's been weird. I remember going to, um, the two times I went to general cups and, and that sort of thing. So when you get to a world level tournament as an international umpire, that's when, that's when you actually get a little bit of sweck. So for these lot, pro league and all that kind of stuff and.

It was Graze at the time. Graze was second, and then, who was the first? I can't remember who the first sponsor was. But we got tracksuits, we got a couple of shirts, we got shorts, um, we got a, a hoodie sweatshirt, things like that to wear off the pitch so that we were always, and we were required to wear that gear.

Whenever we were around the, the tournament site. So basically non stop for two and a half weeks, this stuff got pretty stinky. And then we got match shirts to wear, but not skirts, not socks, not shoes, not any of those other important on the pitch elements. So it'd be interesting if This deal is different.

I haven't heard anything yet, but I will dig around and see what I know. So, there you go. Oh, hi! Nice to see you. Fee nited? Is that how we say it? You're gonna have to tell me. But welcome, and you'd be surprised. I should have been done a while ago, but I'm not. Okay, so Richard, you like that. Great. Good to know.

Um, yeah, you have to refresh to see all the likes. All the likes! All of them! 30 likes, you guys! That's good! Oh, thank you. Um, nope, it wasn't Malak. And there you go. Um, okay, so that's great news. Uh, can't wait to see more awesome swooshes all around the spot. They do have turf shoes, so who knows. But don't just make the umpires wear black turf shoes.

Let them wear colors. Gorgeous colors. Whatever colors they like. Cause it's fun, and it's cool. I hate black t shirts. Not a fan.

I can call you Florian. Okay, thank you. That's awesome. Thanks, Dane. Good to have you. Okay, another piece of news that I wanted to Or another thing that I wanted to touch on. Let's see. What's really crucial that we have to Okay, just, uh, quick spot. Just to give you a teaser. So that you can send your questions in to me.

New FIH umpire panels were released. Uh, they kind of did it just like, um, when governments release bad news late on a Friday so that nobody can convene a press conference because everybody's gone home for the day and they weren't prepared for this and then the news cycle doesn't pick up on it over the weekend and by Monday like a whole bunch of other terrible things have happened so they don't have to talk about it.

It kind of felt like the umpiring committee did that with the new FIH panels because they released them like days before Christmas. Like two or three days before. Can you don't don't do that. That's not. However, there's been some really thorough changes. The names have changed and people have moved around on these lists.

There, there's a lot of shifting. So. Uh, it was RT3449 on Instagram asked me, what do they mean? And I was like, shrug? So what did I do? I contacted my friend and past colleague. Retired legend and now umpiring committee member, Michelle Joubert and said, Hey, Hey, girl. Hey, I have questions. And she said, let's get on a call.

So we're going to shoot an interview thing where I get to ask her a bunch of questions and she will tell me as absolutely much as she possibly can. I'm so excited because I realized, oh my gosh, like I have an actual friend on the rules committee or on the umpiring committee and I can like ask them questions.

And hopefully this will start an era of greater transparency to the public. I'm excited about it, and she's the right person to do this. Right person to do this. Okay, the last thing Before I let y'all go, I'm glad y'all stuck around, is this!

EHCO Trophy 2024! Let's go! So excited, we are going back to Amsterdam, to the Amsterdam Hockey Bandy Club, gracious hosts, excellent hosts last year, they are going to be hosting again the second EHCO Trophy. And FHumpires and the community, we're doing it! We are staffing the event again. I am so excited that this is happening.

The tournament is doubling in size. Eight teams from each gender, from Belgium, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. So it's the champions and the vice champions, as they describe them in the Instagram post. And we are going to be descending upon Astro. We just booked the hotels today. So we have a whole bunch of rooms set aside at a, at a hotel.

So, if you are not a member of the Discord server, holy smokes, become a member of the Discord server, because although in terms of umpiring selections, it's, it's very much a, like we, we really have to staff this tournament with a lot of intentionality and make sure that we can serve the games appropriately.

We have needs for more match officials. If you are interested in learning about umpire coaching, we have a team of three of us now who are going to be available to be, we are going to be working with our umpires and our match officials and lots of opportunities there. And if you just want to come and hang out with us, oh my god, that would be amazing.

Come to Amsterdam for Easter. Let's just hang. It's going to be great. So, there's lots of ways that you can be involved. So, come into the server, DM me, or just say something in general or anywhere else, and I'll plunk you into the EHCO channel, and we will get moving on this. March 29th is the first game, through to April 1st.

We are going to be there on March 28th. For sure, because that'll be briefing day, and that's the first day of EHL. EHL is gonna be held at the same place, again. So, you can do a combo thing, where you can come and you can hang out with us, HZO Trophy, and then you can go watch, you know, some EHL with your friends, and, you know, we'll go out at night, and, and, and drink a lot of water, and it's gonna be awesome.

Okay. Um, is there gonna be a ward? Got your J hook right here. Uh, awards for Well, it's not fair, is it? It's not even a competition. Unless Godders, you will be the judge. Because you get to pass along the trophy for being the best dancer every year. That would be awesome. That would be awesome. Bright pink shoes, bright pink shoes!

Um, March 27th, yes, so for those of us who are participating, hardcore, arrival, um, I'm highly recommending March 27th, and then you're gonna be Departing on April 2nd, which is the Tuesday because what are we doing on Monday night? Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom. Okay. Is anything happening out of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, by the way, cause it's Easter, Uh, is anything happening?

Well, that's a great question. I am planning on going over Early, so the weekend before, and so if there are people in the Netherlands who are like, Hmm, wouldn't it be fun if Keely came and like, watched my game, or came and talked at my club? Give me a call. Okay? And by call me, I mean go into the Discord server.

And we will talk about this cause I would love to do a few talks, uh, in advance of the, of the whole thing. So there you go. You're very welcome Raj. I'm really glad that you enjoyed it. What are we doing Monday night? Not going to a random Aussie bar. We are absolutely going back there. Whatever's open on a Monday night in Amsterdam on Easter Monday.

We'll do it. We'll do it. Maybe we'll find a different place. I don't know. I don't care, but me and jams. We're gonna be dancing again table dancing

Okay, sorry, um, yes and then after Easter after the HCO trophy I'll be going back to the UK And hopefully seeing a lot of y'all. So, if you are part of the community, part of the y'all membership, I'll come watch you umpire. Hopefully, I will come talk to your association. I'll have two weeks that I've set aside to do a whole bunch of FHumpires things before my dad flies over, and then we're gonna do a family holiday for a week or so together.

So, that's all gonna be talked about in the server. Have you, have you joined the server? I don't know. It's right there. FHumpires. com forward slash ds in the chat. You need to be there because that's like my, that's like my hippocampus and my corpus callosum and everything. It's, it is parts of my brain and I could not operate without it.

Rachel, thank you so much. Hopefully there'll be no dip in your concentration this weekend, but there's, yes, you'll have some things to try. It happens to all of us. All of us, and some of us, a lot, because we're bad at focusing. This girl. Two thumbs this girl, right here. There you go. You're very welcome.

Enjoy the rest of your hockey week. Enjoy your hockey weekend if you get out there. If you're in the shed, you're smarter than the rest of the folks who are gonna try to play in the middle of winter. Minus 34 here. Do you know what that weather's good for? Absolutely nothing. Staying inside. Yay. I get to see Jade.

Okay. Great show. Thanks for participating. Great hockey weekend. We will see you next week. See you in the server. And, oh wait, where's my button? Oh, that's my button. Okay. Bye.

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