EHU21 Tackles, Intentional Fouls and an Aerial + Whistling | #WhatUpWednesday Ep. 163

📅 July 17 19.00 GMT
➡️ YouTube

The players of summer are here as we head to Terrassa for U21 European Championship action. We have some big tackles, intentional fouls inside the circle and…what's this? An aerial into the circle? dies of shock 😆

In our skill session, we'll talk about whistle technique and specifically, how do we blow our whistle and why. And no, I won't be firing off a Fox40 Classic during the live stream…. OR WILL I?

See you there!

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

⏱ Chapter Markers:
00:00:00 Chair Dancing
00:04:10 Topics!
00:07:49 1a. Intentional Foul for PS: BELvNED (W) #EHU21
00:29:48 1b. Intentional Foul for PS: BELvNED (W) #EHU21
00:32:57 2a. Big Collisions: ESPvIRL (M) #EHU21
00:47:39 2b. Big Collisions: ESPvIRL (M) #EHU21
01:00:05 3. Aerial Into The Circle: ENGvIRL (M) #EHU21
01:20:00 4. Skill Session: Whistling
01:38:52 5. Gabriel Labate Injury

Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.

🟢🟡🔴 🏑

Transcript

🎶 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'll rise above. It's all gonna be okay. If I can be anything, I think I'm gonna be me.

Else I wanna go, no one else I'd rather be. I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm gonna be me. Things changing, just trying to navigate. Oh, I keep on believing.

I'm gonna find my way 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. Plus I

wanna go, no one else I'd rather be. I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm gonna be me. La la la la la la la la la

Me Me. I know I got you. Me. Me. Me. There's 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. Cause I wanna go, no one else I'd rather be. I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm gonna be me.

Good day, afternoon, evening to all of you. It's What Up Wednesday, Keely Dunn, FHumpires. I'm so glad you're here, and I am so glad I made it on time. I, look, I don't want to, like, give you too much of, you know, breaking the fourth wall and all, but man, I had no I was ready to have to push this back half an hour.

But for some reason it all came together, and it's so nice to see all of my friends, and it's great to see Ernst, too. I'm just kidding, Ernst. We're, we used to be like frenemies and now we're actually friends. I'm, I'm just going to declare it. I'm going to declare it. It's nice to see so many of you who normally have Summer League or you have other kind of umpiring like Richard as well that are able to join, join in.

It's good to see you. It's a drive by, cause I know you're literally driving. So off you go, Alexander, drive safely and, uh, don't get into any trouble. A brief snow holiday. We're in a heatwave here, so I, it's, the world is such a fun place, isn't it? It's just, who knows, who knows what everybody's going through and what their thing is.

Okay, I'm just changing my, changing my aspect here. Apply to all scenes. Please apply to all. Thank you very much. Right! What are we doing today? Guess what we're not talking about? We're not talking about the Pro League. Yay! Just saying. Uh, we have some intentional fouls for penalty strokes. We have some big collisions.

Um, I, look, I was struggling with titles. Uh, an aerial into the circle, what? We're gonna do a little skill seshling, seshling?

A skill session on whistling. And just a little bit of news about Gabby Labate. Labate. Labate. Um, um, Le Bat. Somebody who's Argentinian watching the show, please correct me. I can't believe I'm, I'm having this crisis. I thought I knew it was Le Bat, but now I'm doubting myself. So please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm on the soft side and nobody ever says that about me, that I'm on the soft side. Um, let's see. That is my That is that. Um, how is Nope. That's going to be the wrong button. Let's try that. Is anybody else experiencing me on the soft side? The sound is popping in and out. Okay, let's see what's going on here.

Krisp microphone I bet it's the wrong microphone that's going. Sure? No? Seems to be okay. Sound is fine. Video lagging. Hm.

Y'all are just giving me all kinds of I appreciate all the feedback though. Okay. I've just changed the microphone, removed the jbjbjbjb. My frame rate is really slow since I adjusted my ratio.

Interesting. Frame rate is okay. Maybe it had to catch up. What is going on? Something is lower. My current stream rate is lower than recommended.

Hmm. Okay. Um, let's stick with it cause it's a little bit late for me to do anything else. I think. Why would I only have 120 megabits per second or 12 megabytes per second? That's an insult. That is an insult because I pay for a gig. Okay. So, okay. It seems like everything's recovered. It was a temporary glitch.

Someone will pay. I will find them. I will hunt them down. It will be merciless. You all know that. Okay. Thank you very much for catching me up. Um, let me know though, as things go on so that I can fret and not be able to change anything. I'm just kidding. I do, I do want things to be better, but sometimes there's nothing we can do about internet all over the world or.

In fact, mine. So let's get into it. It's European under 21 championships time. There are three, four tournaments going on right now, but we are focused on the A division of the under 21s because that is a good place to center ourselves. These are umpires who are. Coming up and through and the players who are coming up and through and, uh, lots of really interesting scenarios we can talk about and the quality of the broadcast is manageable.

It's not great this year. It's not great. Kind of struggling, but let's get into it. Here we go. Intentional fouls for penalty strokes. Here's our first one. Dutch escaping their clutches, hammering one down the field. The keeper's come off the line. Oh, and that's, oh, she's given it as a penalty stroke. I don't think there can be too much argument about that.

The keeper committed, took the player out. It was a defense splitting pass, again, not for the first time.

It was a defense splitting pass, again, not for the first time. All right, friends. Poll should be, is the poll in? I didn't see the poll pop up. Oh, what's going on, friends? What is going on? If, um, maybe Simon, if you're available, if you can pop the discord poll address in there. Let me get my phone ready for clarifying, logging in to discord for the poll.

Cause of course I forgot to do that. So, um, this Belgium Netherlands game was fantastic, really great hockey on display and excellent umpiring. And there were two scenarios in this match. This is the first one that I wanted to pull out for a discussion. And. What I think the, the, yeah, the poll is there in discord, but it didn't, it didn't get added to the, um, to the live chat.

Look, my hand looks really big. That's really fascinating. So it looks like, um, Tina Fey on the cover of her boss book. Anyway, um, I'd like to put it in the live chat so that people can, uh, link quickly over there. So when I saw this live, um, I. I had questions and when I see it on replay, thank you very much, Simon.

I see it. Um, I, I still have a little bit in the way of questions as well. And I, I won't, I'm interested to see if the rest of you are thinking this as well. And in real time, without the benefit of video replay, of course, this whole tournament does not have video replay or video referral. So, you know, we are.

We are at the, uh, in the interesting instance of these big decisions, you know, not having any second view. And it's nice because there's some scenarios that we're going to look at today where We are going back to what all of us are dealing with when we're on the pitch, which is making a decision in the moment and deciding when we as the, the umpires made the decision, want to talk to our colleague and how we have that conversation, or for the supporting umpire, when do we have a conversation with the controlling umpire as to, you know, what perhaps you can add to this, to the decision making process to make sure it's as accurate as possible.

What I'm thinking about as I'm watching this play is whether the Dutch attacker was going to recover that ball. And what is interesting for me is that after the touch of the ball, she attempts to go, you know, around the goalkeeper. And at the speed at which she played the ball, And the angle that it's going off, for me, I'm, I'm not sure.

I'm not sold on whether she was going to catch up to that ball. If she had gone to the right and she had tried to follow that ball at a much closer distance, that I think would have made a difference and potentially would have gotten her more in a position where that ball was at. playable. And that's what the question is for me in this moment is as to whether it's playable or not.

So I'm interested in your thoughts as you're looking through this. It's important because it's the difference between a penalty stroke and nothing. In essence, you could argue that it could be a penalty corner as the attacker didn't have possession or likely possession of the ball. And it was an intentional foul or recklessness to the result.

However, there still needs to be some form of disadvantage. And the disadvantage has to be that she was prevented from getting to the ball in some way. Or a teammate was prevented getting to the ball. Or she was prevented from doing something afterwards that would have helped her team do something. Uh, for example, if one of her teammates was catching up to the ball, but she was down on the floor and the teammate who was retrieving the ball didn't have a pass to come back to.

Okay. I don't see a lot of comments coming in. Friends, are we, are we thinking carefully? Are we a little, are we a little nervous about that? Um, Samantha looks to you like she lost control of the ball and that she went to the left, perhaps to try to garnish the penalty. Interesting use of the word. I like it.

Um, and I mean, that's, that's possible. I think that given that the goalkeeper's right leg was in place, and then she actually kicks out with her left leg to try to, you know, do something, I'm, I'm not even really sure about how reckless this is of a play. And because the Dutch kee the, the Belgian keeper came out the way that she did, I think that, um, You know, and this is not an aerial situation.

This is purely about, you know, the ball is raised off the Dutch attacker to herself, uh, essentially inside the circle. So the Belgian keeper is entitled to close and entitled to come to this. If anybody's created the danger here, it's going to be the Dutch attacker. And I, I don't think this is particularly, you know, um, particularly there.

Um, so why wouldn't it be a PC? Because there's no disadvantage, Alex, because she wouldn't have gotten to the ball anyway. Just because there's a collision doesn't mean that. So you're assuming first of all, that it's the Belgian goalkeepers fault. And I'm not sure about that. You're also assuming that there is some disadvantage there.

You don't just call penalty corners because something happens. You call penalty corners because that a penalty corner worthy opportunity was taken away from the team that was fouled. Okay. So it's gotta be commensurate. It's gotta, it's, it's gotta be a reset of the scales of justice. In that case, so for Steven, you think it's play on because, um, as it could just be a hockey thing

and for Urien, uh, it looks that she'd played the ball, which was out of reach when she was fouled. Would this influence whether it's a card or not though? Well, and, and that is the other sort of third option that could be here. Um, assuming the goalkeeper did make a foul. Now we, I want to distinguish the words foul and misconduct.

In this case, okay, it's important to do that because a foul requires that there's disadvantage on the play. Misconduct is you were, you just did something reckless or dangerous, or you did something that, that disrupted the progress of, of hockey. And it was, so, If there is no foul, what we would be carding for is a form of misconduct, that she was recklessly causing danger.

She, she was, she was putting a player in danger, even though it didn't, it didn't cause a foul. You play on. And whether that goes off, I don't know, I, I need to see it again, but whether the last touch is by the defender or the attacker, it's, I think it's the attacker. So whether you go with the 15 meter and then you give a card to the goalkeeper for misconduct, so you have to feel very strongly that the goalkeeper did something that was dangerous and yet did not disadvantage the attacker in that situation.

So I, I don't feel. It doesn't feel right to me in this case for Richard. It looks like the goalkeeper had already planted a right foot and the attacker ran into that. Um, Gecko lab, she attempted and played the ball. And after that was a foul. What foul, what was the foul?

And I know I get, I get really, um, you know, I get on people because you're typing and I get to talk and I get to use 200 characters or less, but I think that it's, this is an important exercise for you. So that you can fully explain that. What was the foul? Was it danger? Was it obstruction? Was it, you know, what was it and why?

And then, so if you tell me that that was an obstruction against the attacker, because she was disadvantaged from being able to play the ball, I will argue with you that she wasn't disadvantaged from playing the ball because she wasn't going to catch it anyway, she'd played it off to the right and it was moving at a sufficient pace that she wasn't going to catch it.

So that's, that's the way that we try to process these things in a logical way. Um, I don't know if I'm going to say your name, so I'm just going to say what your handle is, Athos Rich, uh, no foul, no card for you. And Richard, just to note the umpire's position, very square to the play. So tough to see what happened, except for the attacker falling over, being closer to, um, the happy place would have helped.

Um, yeah, potentially the problem when you're square is that you don't see where the players are coming from. You can't see both of them in your periphery at the same time. So if the players are, let's, okay, let's see, the players are out here. You can't. See both of them at the same time because your eyes can't split.

So your focus should be in this case to focus on the goalkeeper because the goalkeeper is the, is the defender, is the tackler in this case. So you do want to shift your attention to them and it's a lot easier to see what they do when From behind. I think she's got a pretty clear view of, of what she needs to see though.

So I wouldn't really pick on that. I mean, it's just sort of fortunate. It was a long bomb aerial, you know, all that kind of stuff, but the wideness is what I'm not, you know, super happy with some of the umpires do a better job of being inside. And in this case, I think that, you know, maybe that would, I don't know.

I don't think it would have impacted anything right here in this particular case. Um, You don't have to, you don't have to say that it's, you're a goalkeeper, and that's why. I mean, I'm a defender, and I don't, uh, I don't excuse every decision I make. Because, that, that is in favor of a defender by declaring, well, I might be biased.

You're not biased. You're an umpire, Matt. Uh, Simon, you're not seeing a disadvantage to the attackers. Is the, is it coming up? You're not seeing a disadvantage to the attackers by the goalies action. The attackers created the disadvantage by not controlling the ball and playing it to a position that can be used to play on.

Okay. DJ Park. Keeper did what keeper should do. Keeper did keeper things. Absolutely. And there are the, and by the way, DJ. Nope. Not that one. This one. Oops. This one. It sounded very loud to me. I hope that didn't bomb you guys out. Um, welcome. Welcome. I don't think I've, I've said hi to you before, so welcome.

Good to see you. Um, yes, she stayed on her side of the ball. Attacker takes a shot that's missing, then collides into the keeper who's set, no foul, no card. Yeah. And I think when you watch it in real time and you're not focused on what the goalkeeper is doing, it, it looks like. Just like bang. And it's really, really important for us in these situations to try to determine whether the secondary, the defending player is, what are they doing at the moment of contact?

Are they set in front of the ball? Are they sticking out a stick, a leg, a foot, anything like that? Um, are they late to the party? The ball's already gone by. Um, and the player is in hot pursuit of that ball, and then they take part of the player's body, for example. And just because this is an upright thing, you can liken it to a sliding goalkeeper.

It's the same thing. Really? And this is, this is one of the, pardon me. One of the things that I try to talk about with goalkeepers is that when they're down on the ground, they are expected to be there. So the way that we adjudicate their sliding tackles is different, far different from how we adjudicate a defender, a field defender sliding down on the ground in a tackling position.

But likewise, it's the same criterion for a goalkeeper who is supine or sliding and a goalkeeper is standing on their feet. So that's something to say.

Um, Gecko, as a matter of fact, no, hang on, we're going to be a lot more careful about the way that we assign what is fact and what is not. The goalkeeper missed the ball as well via the dangerous move. I mean, the goalkeeper, yes, the goalkeeper missed the ball, the ball was played around her. Now, go back to what I was saying, and I want you to respond directly.

To whether the attacker would have gotten the ball, but for that collision, and did the goalkeeper cause that collision? Okay. Words need to actually add up to logic. Okay. I think the DJ air horn at the volume is fine. Good. Cause it blew my ears out. So apparently I just had my volume up too high. Okay. So the key points here is like, I think, um, Richard or Steven, uh, Richard mentioned about positioning.

Are there different places from which it would help you to make this decision better? Focusing and the, but the biggest point is focusing on the defender here. Where are they moving to? What are they doing at the moment of contact? At the moment of the tackle and tracking where the attacker has played the ball and whether they actually would have been able to, um, catch up with that.

Those are the keys. Okay. Let's have a look at, I'm just going to get my phone out right now. I know what's going to happen here. I'm not going to pretend. I'm not going to pretend I'm better than this today. Cause I'm not. The fact that I'm even here, I think is enough. Okay. Let's see one poll. See, look, log in,

log in. Thank you.

Don't be making me wait. And there we go. Okay. So the results are six folks 50 meter restart. Um, one person wants a PC, PC plus card. Okay. So I'm struggling with that, Alex, because it's,

if you're saying that it was an intentional foul against a player who did not have possession or likely possession of the ball and, but no advantage or, but, but a disadvantage accrued, I don't know. That's, that's a really tough one. Um, and Alex, we already had 15 meter, 16 meters is too many, 15 meters. 14.

63. Okay. So I'm going to add your vote to the play on to the eight. Got it. Okay. So the point being that we want to work through the process, not adjudicate, you know, the correctness of that particular umpire at the time. But if we see something that we think, Oh, I wonder if I would have come up with a different decision, it's why, and what we would do differently.

How would we arrive at that different decision?

Um, the goalkeeper. Is that coming up? It is, but it's in the middle of the thing. Um, the goalkeeper kicked the attacker after the attacker played and missed the ball, I don't see that having happened. Are you looking at their left foot and seeing it flail out and saying that that's kicking the attacker because that didn't impact and the right foot was already set, so I don't see it that way.

But, but thank you. All right. What's. Let's get to here. I have some announcements. Steven, there it is. I finally did it.

I mentioned it last week. I probably mentioned it the week before, but I've actually got a picture of Viv on the screen, Viv joining the green third team. Fabulous. Thank you very much for, uh, your, your contributions. I'm glad that you're stepping through and I look forward to seeing you in lots more watch parties for sure.

Because it's fun. It's fun to have you. And yes, um, Jurgen, I'll come back to your question in a sec. Okay. And yes, yay for Viv. Okay. But she's not the only new green team member. Oh no. Oh no. Hang on. Back to this. We also need to congratulate Sarah Harris.

I don't have a picture of Sarah yet, but Sarah has now joined the crew. It was just a few hours ago. So. I luckily just, I snuck it in, I snuck it in, but, um, there you go. And Viv is glad to be here. I'm glad you're there. And Steven, honestly, biggest, biggest cheer. I love it. Um, there we go. Okay. And then the last folks that I want to send out some congratulations to are these two fine gentlemen.

I'm struggling a bit with my stream deck today. That's what I was getting all mad at. But anyway, Alex and Taco both. Father and son duo have both passed into the KNHB bio, um, level where they are now umpire training candidates. I, I got the words wrong, but anyway, all they have to do is write an exam and they're going to be national level umpires, KNHB, and they'll be able to have a blue jacket.

And it's, it's like a green jacket for the masters, but it's even prettier. I want one of those blue jackets. They're really, really cute. Just saying, but congratulations to both of you and, um, yeah, and yay, yay for the Varese. It's, it's, it's fabulous. Itako has been around for quite a while and Alex, having just turned 16, has decided to devote himself to umpiring.

And I have no doubt that he's going to make quick progress up the ranks. As tough as I am on him at times in comments and things like that, it's because I care. And I know he's tough and he's welcome. Team Vrije. I love it. Team Vrije. That's good stuff. Okay. Let's get, um, oh, I was going to address a couple of the last questions.

There we go. Christopher, Chandra, Gecko watched the clip again. The goalkeeper had a left foot, the tripping foot planted. The right foot was attempting to touch the ball. Um, I think, I think I see what you mean. I saw it the opposite way, but. But there you go. And then there was a question, um, about foul versus misconduct.

Does foul mean the same thing as offense? Yes, you're in. That is correct. I hope that helps. Okay. Tool pick two. Moving along. Big collisions.

Wait, wait, stop. Stop, Keely Dunn. Stop. There was a 1B. There was a 1B. Gosh. I almost wish you hadn't. Intentional fouls inside the circle, again! I was like, wait a minute, I know I'm missing something. Now the, uh, Belgium's given the, uh, more drama here. Russell Donaldson there, the Irish umpire in, uh, making.

Yeah. There's the delay. Got it, Rach.

We got lots of links flying through. Oh, that's a very long delay, but there we go. So this is the same game as the goalkeeper one. And this is a really good example of something that, you know, A, a type of foul that we see quite frequently that we don't necessarily attribute. I think the level of recklessness and the impact that it has on the play as we should, and I, uh, I mean, I'll come out and say it very early that I think that this is spot on for a penalty stroke decision.

And, sorry, my edit is poor because I've got a whole bunch of black space at the end of this. Video. So I'll try to keep my eye on it, but it's not the obstruction by the highest defender, the one who's closest to the top of the circle in that moment. She gets herself caught up a little bit. It's the second player who comes in and just thwacks the stick somewhat from behind high up.

And that's where the penalty stroke decision comes in.

And it's right there. And it causes the attacker to lose the ball off the stick. And we might go, Oh, sure. Stick obstruction. That's a penalty corner. In that position with the recklessness, the impact, a penalty stroke is a better call. And if we're better at identifying. These big impact recklessness to the result fouls.

It's going to help clean up the way that defenders tackle in the circle. See Matt, I'm doing it right now. This is a defender and I'm not sticking up for them just because I'm a defender. I'm saying, yeah, this, this absolutely, I don't get called for these enough. Just saying. What am I talking about? I'm not even close to the attackers in order to try to make this tackle.

Okay. So not a, not a ton there. I'll, I'll have a poke at the poll and just see if anybody's gotten their, their votes in quickly. But I just wanted to cover that off, um, to show. And so penalty stroke for five of you. And I'm sure more of the votes are going to come in in a little bit. And as people are watching the replay and all that kind of thing.

So that is, that is well done. Okay. Let's try this again. Now we're going to big collisions. And also,

And hi, Luke.

And hi, Shane. Okay. This is, this is a really tough one. And what I've smoothed out through the edit was that there was, this was actually a coat hanger between the two umpires. And one of the important elements I want you to tease out of this is that this is a midfield. Like literally in the middle of the field decision, which makes it a gray area of responsibility.

And what you want to think about as best you can, and you, and you need to have, you know, some reps at this in order to be really good at doing this on the fly is thinking about which one of us, of the, of, of the two team members out there is in the best position to see what can be happening here.

Because if you are on the side of, um, if you are, if the play is flowing towards you, you're going to have the defender's body blocking you from seeing what happens with the ball. Okay. And then if you are the, the, if you were trailing the play, if you were the supporting umpire, you are going to have. Um, a good view of where the ball is in between those two players, a better view potentially.

Okay. So this is a really, really tough one, but what I'm going to try to isolate here, the frame rates are really, really bad. I mean, it's, it's really difficult here. And as we're coming in, what I want you to see is that yes, the defender goes down low. So you're going to focus on the defender, just like we did.

And just, just like I talk about over and over again, we're going to isolate our attention. We're going to really hone in on that defender. The defender is going low for this tackle and yes, their leg, I can't even tell if it's the trailing leg or if it's the, yeah, the trailing leg is, you know, down in a barrier position.

Okay. The stick is for, he's got a forward. A four stick position. He's strong side, first time watching hockey friends. So he's got, he's got strong side stick. And as we're watching, we can see the ball sort of pop out a little bit behind the Spanish attacker, and then the Spanish attacker goes over top.

Okay. That is going to be very difficult for you to see if you are the umpire to whom the play is flowing towards. And the back view umpire is actually going to have a better spot at this. And this is why I get very, um, I'm quite insistent about umpires trying to stay more interior on the play because.

From the interior, you can see things that are happening in the middle and the far side of the pitch that your colleague who is going to be properly concerned about their circle and moving as far ahead of the play as they can in order to welcome it towards them. If you're not inside and you're staying out on the sideline, you're cutting yourself off from a lot of angles.

To see everything else on the pitch. Are you going to be able to see the sideline really well? Absolutely. Are you going to be able to see this call? Well, probably not. So we're talking about probabilities and the, the number of times of crucial decisions that you're going to want to see. And so thinking about that, and as you're working things out between the two of you, so assume that you've had a coat hanger in this situation, how are the two of you going to communicate about who saw what?

And knowing that, you know, knowing that as the controlling umpire, well, I think I might've seen this thing, but I actually couldn't see where the ball was. I need to trust my colleague on this one. Then that's where you should go. And these situations in the middle of the park are really, really, uh, tricky to see, but I'm interested in hearing what you all think, um, Stephen, you know, Let's, let's fix this.

Your initial gut feel is a free hit defense. As the red player, uh, has obstructed after the tackle. You're happy with the stick. Uh, and no misconduct, no card. Yeah, that's, that's the way I saw it. And one of the umpires saw it that way in, in that particular case, which is, um, which is perfectly reasonable.

It's tricky because when defenders go low, our antennae go up. We're like, Oh. This is going to be a trouble. This is going to be something bad could happen here. And that's an absolutely appropriate warning sign to pick up. But we can't assume that just because they've gone down low, that they've actually used their body as a long barrier, they have to actually be blocking the space through which the ball should be going there, they actually have to block the ball with their body in order for the long barrier to apply.

But if they've gone down low and it's their stick. That takes the ball and it's the, and they haven't put their body in a place that's blocking the attacker from continuing with the ball. If they get the ball, that's a good tackle. That's a good legal tackle. And the attacker has the responsibility to be dribbling around and getting around the player in these moments.

Um, Simon, the white defender runs across the line that red is taking and goes low free hit attack and a card. Yeah, I, um, um, I do not agree with that.

And I think what you have to understand is, okay, let's, let's parse this out. Sorry, bad start to that sentence. Let's go back to watching the defender and whether they come in late or do they get there in time? Do they get there in time? They are entitled to try to tackle. And the only way they can tackle the ball is to be in the line of the ball.

So he's in front. He's in front of the, of the attacker's, um, pathway. I'm not saying by a mile. It's not like he's standing there for five seconds, the attacker runs straight at him. But he certainly arrives in that space first. And I think that's really important to be able to see. Because obviously that changes the decision diametrically.

Um, Alex, so it seems like it's a clear tackle, and I think what you mean is, is clean. Clean tackle from white. What were the attacker's options? The other white player prevented the attacker from evading the defender and the tackling preventer prevented going. Well, I mean, It's, it's not like it's a, um, this is a horrendous thing, but the attacker has the responsibility to see.

I mean, the, the second defender who is channeling is doing a very good job. That is what channeling is supposed to do is to cut down the options of the attacker and guide that player into their teammate and cutting off their options. That's just excellent defense. So what can the attacker do? Oh, I don't know, like pull back, but you can't go through players who get to the space first.

And I mean, if, if say the span, that Spanish attacker had pulled to the left and gone into that channeling attacker, we would have had a, you know, potentially different situation to look at. Who knows? There's a lot of options that could have happened. But. Once the tackle has been made, that's the high risk point there.

And then after that, it's simply an obstruction by the Spanish attacker. There's nothing like big or dangerous or, Oh my God, he's breaking down play. You can't break down your own play. Um, that needs to be dealt with. Christopher,

I know you're going to get, you're going to get educated after this. No, am I that bad? I am. But you thought players weren't allowed to tackle unless they're positioned to do so without body contact. So what should the defender have done differently? How can the defender attempt to tackle this ball from this correct tackling position, which he's in without, he doesn't create the body contact the attacker does because the attacker just continues to run straight.

The attacker is hoping that the defender is going to come in from the good spot, but he's going to miss the ball. The attacker is like, Oh, I'm going to try to lift it over. I'm going to, you know, nutmeg him and pull him through the legs. And then we have a very different situation, but if the tackle is successful, if it's cleanly taken, if there's no stick obstruction, if it doesn't hit a foot, if it's simply a good tackle, defender wins.

That's just hockey.

Uh, Samantha, can one say in this situation, the defender, when low, also can't click his heels three times and disappear? Yeah. And he gets there first. He got the ball. You think for, um, for you, the attacker didn't have to run that line into the defender. Yeah. I mean, he was committed and he goes through and that's, that's just the way it goes, but risks are taken on all sides.

And, and one side one and Ernst agrees with me. Yes, everybody. It's a big day. It's a big day. There you go. Christopher, you wouldn't have given a card because it wasn't reckless, but preview previously you would have given the free hit attack. Totally fine. And that's what we're here to engage in this dialogue with, um, each other.

That that's, that's why we're learning because we're going to process this, but I really do want to guide everybody to, you know, what I think is a better consensus. If you see something that I haven't seen, I mean, I was concerned when I'm watching this that, Oh, where exactly was the stick? It is tough to see.

So if I have misseen this because of the frame rates and how blurry it is, I applied some sharpening to the video to try to make it. You know, more clear, but you can only, you know, it's a sow's ear and a purse and a lipstick and a pig and a, all these things, everything has to do with pigs. Anyway, um, you know, there's only so much you can do with the video.

Unfortunately, um, you must leave to eat. Well, then you must go. Thank you. Um, uh, defender moves into, into the line to make the tackle, tackle loses control as the defender makes the clean tackle. There you go. Um, look, to be fair, DJ, the red team screams for all the fouls. You know, it doesn't matter what the call was.

They will scream for all the fouls. Alistair, hi. Hi. It's like, it's so stupid, but I, I'm still going to ring the, the doorbell. The bell, ring the horn. Um, Alistair, anyway, sorry. Attacker is looking at the ball and not can, and not a continued forward run. Defender positioned well and took the ball to the stick.

Attacker caused the collision. Free hit defense. That's, that's a good summer. I like that. I agree. Okay. Let's have a look at the poll and there's a 2B. Don't let me forget.

2A, big collision. Free hit defense for 11 of you. One of you want a free hit attack and a cart. All right. That's a pretty good consensus. So when we're going through these discussions, completely fine that you take your early vote and you, you, you exercise your muscle and you, you tried it to, you know, just like you would on the pitch, you make your call.

And the most constructive way that we can continue these discussions is when you start hearing. A different viewpoint, having the neuroplasticity and the humility and all those things to hear the, the, the different things and to challenge yourself. So it's one thing for me to say it, but I want you to just take the words and pretend that they came out of your own mouth and challenge yourself.

What do I, what would I need to see in order for that to be true? What are the facts that back that up and then examine the situation again? Because we need to practice our ability to reevaluate situations so that we can re grease the neurons the other way. I mixed a lot of metaphors there. I don't know.

Christopher, this is good. This is good. Like you might be relatively new, but you're, you're laying it down here. Dang. He's like, you're not getting out of 2B. 2B! Strong run down the right hand side from Tom Moran, a

Spanish player picking up a yellow card.

Okay. This is, this is nice. Um, one thing I'm really enjoying about this tournament is the chance to watch some different umpires. No offense to all of you Olympians, but I'm, I'm just, I'm tired of watching y'all. I want to see some new people. And this is, uh, Anatole from France. Um, You know, I say that now I'm like, could it be Anatoly?

There's no accent on the, there's no accent de gu on, on the E. So I'm thinking it's Anatole, but, uh, I'm so self conscious about pronouncing everybody's names these days. Um, and I like. You know, just some ancillary comments about the card. I like the way that he presents it. There is a little bit of conversation.

And when it comes to something like this, if you're giving a yellow card like this, you probably don't have to explain, like a player may disagree that a thing occurred, but they know why you're giving a yellow card here. Um, so it maybe doesn't need to. Quite that much. And in order to, to diffuse a situation and not give the player a whole bunch of things to then argue back against, you know, it's just simply, that's it.

Okay. Um, three B or not three B. That's the question. Gecko. I'm glad we're on the same page on this spot on by the umpire. And you're not, you, you've. Oh my God. Oh, Christopher, what are you doing? You legend. Oh my God. I'm so flattered. Also, you currently have insomnia because you wouldn't have set your alarm for 4 50 AM and actually four o'clock AM at the start time, because that's ridiculous.

Oh, that's strong. Oh, you guys,

you have no idea. Ernst? Is it like a leap day or something? Is it Friday the 13th? Because that's exactly what was a word in that case. And exactly what I see in this situation. So I do talk on a regular basis about how attackers who are sliding aren't necessarily caught under the 10 minute yellow card sliding tackle guidance.

That is a very discreet situation that doesn't necessarily apply across the board. You can have slides by attackers that are very not dangerous that perhaps, and we've covered them on earlier streams, uh, in earlier streams, in past streams, where, for example, an attacker slides fairly gently into a goalkeeper who is You know, supine and has made the save and there's nothing there.

It's just a play on just because players slide without the ball doesn't necessarily mean we're going to be throwing out the 10 minute green cards. However, this is a really good time for a 10 minute yellow card because of the danger that is inherent in the way that this player slides. And he brings the, the, um, Sorry, the way that the attacker slides and he brings the defender very clearly down to ground.

So the message has to be clear. The reparation is there. And I agree with the 10 minute, uh, there it's, well, it's very reckless and it's dangerous. There you go. Um, oh, what else do I have in there? Uh, you don't mix mate with anything else. Trust me. That's, that's bad news bears. Let's see if I can just like water it down a whole bunch.

So we just poured a whole bunch of hot water in there.

Okay. That's, that's good. That's doable, but if you let water sit in it and it over steeps, oh my gosh, it's not, it's not good. Uh, Stephen, you think the attempt to play the ball was reckless as a result? Very ten minute y'all. It's, it's the danger element there and bringing the opponent to ground. Um, Samantha got a lot of the surprise when he got the card though, as though he didn't know what would happen.

I know. And, and sometimes you just got to go, it's, if you have this face, it's a good one to pull out at that moment. If you don't have that face, don't worry about it. Try it in a mirror. It's good. Pull!

Uh, let's see. So we had, we had a five minute yellow card there, uh, two votes there, and then 13 of you looking for the 10 minute yellow card, that's okay. That is okay. But I think when you see a slide that makes contact to the degree that it brings a player to ground, they are not balanced, they are not expecting it.

In a sense. One of the things that makes this so dangerous, lemme just go back to it because I, I think it's good, is that the defender has just picked up the ball and remember back to your playing days that when you have the ball, your head is down, unless you're really, really, really good. And then your head could be up.

But often when you're dribbling, you are just receiving a ball. You're, you're looking at the ball and that puts you in a very vulnerable position. That's quite different from a lot of invasion sports, pitch invasion sports where maybe the ball is a lot bigger, like as in sports ball, or the ball is up in your perfect view like other sports ball.

Um, this is a ball that's a low, small on the ground. You're trying to play it with a stick and not your body. You don't have the direct tactile, uh, report, uh, Appropriate receptive feedback, blah, blah, blah. And that's why it's so dangerous. That's why the sliding tackle guidance is the way it is, is because you're in such a vulnerable position.

You can't be expected at all to be looking around as you're dribbling, going, who's going to come at me? Who's coming. Right? So you're almost at that situation there because he's just picking up the ball as he gets taken down. So there you go. I don't know if you're laughing at the maté, you're laughing at my face.

It's probably my face. But yes, uh, it can be, it can be, I'd like to see this not necessarily get normalized, but anyway, thank you very much for participating in all of those various things. Um, just a quick word from our sponsor, which is me.

So we've been watching, uh, the under 21s together, um, in the watch parties. And, uh, as long as I haven't been having technical difficulties like I did this morning, you've We've been having some good discussions, tracking this down and watching a game from start to finish, watching, and you don't have to watch them all with me because I'm insane, you're not, so just popping in for some of the games for a few of the games, coming in for one game a week means that you have the opportunity to put together a sense of how something unfolds and how management decisions in particular, uh, impact the way that a game is played and.

How can different choices maybe positively impact that game? So if you join FHU3T Green, it's 17 US a month, which is about four Starbucks coffees. So it's like a Starbucks coffee a week. You can join for watch parties. You get access to the clip library. You get all these things and we are going to be going.

ovaries to the wall during the Olympics. I'm just going to live in discord and be showing matches and going back and forth because there are overlapping matches. It's going to be insane. And, and, uh, sorry, distracted by comments. I, I saw a funny comment. Anyway, just, just, I would love to see you in there.

It's going to be a great experience. And also it's a, um, It's a, it's a moderate, uh, investment in you helping me to be able to continue to provide all of this free content out into the world. This is really important to me to be able to do these live streams and to share it out to a whole bunch of people who don't necessarily comment on the streams or anything like that, but people around the world who I can, I can expand And embrace and try to bring everybody onto the same page.

It's just, it's so important to me. And you helped me do that when you are a member of the third team. So have a, have a gander, have a think, come into the discord and we can talk more about that. Um, and was there anything else that I needed to talk about? I can't remember. No, we're just, we're just going to leave it there.

That's good stuff. Okay. Um, Simon, I don't. It sounds like F, it says F hockey. Look, I, not my job, not my job. Um, yeah, I, I, look, there are a few of you that I would exempt from the saneness and you know who you are, you know, there you go. Watching the streams is great fun, especially when you join in and find that Keely is there by herself.

Yeah. I have in the past, just talked to myself as though I had a whole bunch of people in there. Um, some, some of this, some of the matches are at bad times and, and I'm like, I really just want to watch it. So I'm going to run the watch party anyway, even though I know not a lot of people are going to come in and, uh, I, and I might be talking away to myself or I might just be like on pause.

I'm paused and I'm just waiting for somebody. And then I'm like, hi, best friend. And then there are times where there's 10, 12, 15 people in the watch parties, and it's really great. And you can come in, um, uh, you don't have to turn on your camera at all. I don't turn on my camera because look, I don't always look this good.

I'm just saying this takes work. So. I will leave myself off camera so that you're focused on the game and, but you can turn on your audio and we can have a conversation, um, within reason, of course, you know, if you want to ask me about, say, my upcoming travels, I'm probably going to say, let's talk about that another time.

In the watch parties, we can talk about everything like that. And, and Keth, Keth, hi, glad you're here. And when I forget the mute button, I'm just talking to myself because that sometimes happens. Okay. Marquee, marquee clip, aerial into the circle. The one you've all been waiting for. I know you're out there friends.

He acknowledged the fact, but still felt he needed to have a word. That was a dang, well, one umpire's pointing for a penalty corner. The other one is pointing for a dangerous play. It was, for my money, that was clearly dangerous. Clearly dangerous. I buried the lead. The two umpires are going to consult about this one here.

You can hear what was, you probably can't hear, but both sets of supporters have got their own opinions of it. Oh, Matthijs, good to see you. Oh, this is, this is, this could be huge.

Okay, I'm actually, I'm gonna move my head back. This comes on very slow, but I need to add it better sometimes. So this play is with seconds left in a tie game. And so every call is a big call. Um, but this is another one of those big calls of all the big calls. And we have talked about aerials into the circle, I think in every stream since January, an awful lot of these.

These are happening, and I've alluded to this, I have a sneaking suspicion that this particular play may be the subject of examination by the Rules Committee immediately post Olympics. Not something that they're going to do anything about prior to then because it's just the wrong time, but, um, it's something that they're looking at.

One of the arguments that I've put forth, and this was backed up. By the conversations I've had with a number of people, including on the live stream about, um, aerials into the circle specifically with Ernst, who might still be here and maybe he's gone to bed. I don't know. You know, it might be bedtime in Netherlands.

I'm not sure. And so Ernst and David Ames and Bernardo, I say this, I'm sorry, if I've talked about this ad nauseum, but one of the consensus points we came to, Was that control in the circle is different from control elsewhere on the pitch, because in the circle, you are at many levels of play. able to make a play on the ball out of midair, i.

e. take a full wadded shot and one time it out of the air in a way that you would never try elsewhere on the pitch because you need pinpoint accuracy elsewhere on the pitch. Inside the circle, you don't need to be as accurate. You're going to take the chance of getting that ball on net. Therefore, what we look at for control At higher levels of play, when attackers are receiving that ball is, do they have five meters on their first contact?

And then does the close come in? Now we don't have the audio on these umpires, so we have no idea why the decisions were made the way they were. Um, but I'll lead you through what I see. And what, you know, could result in, in a decision. And then you can let me know what you think as well. I'd love to hear, um, and, and we'll, we'll, we'll take it from there and talk about how two umpires in this similar situation might handle this.

Okay. So Steven here is, is chipping in with something that I would have said as well. Goodness.

Happy with defenders being five meters on phase one. Think control was pretty much gained at that point. It's on the ground first time immediately. And I think the key again is not really focusing on whether it's on the ground, but whether the attacker can do something constructive with the ball in that moment.

And when you look at it very carefully, what has happened with my iPad here? Okay. Slow this down. Okay. So here we are right here and this is all going to go very wrong, but let's try. Okay. So we have contact. Now this distance. I don't know. Okay. We're flat. We are right straight in line. So who knows whether that put that defender is five meters, but he doesn't do anything.

And at this point we can say, doesn't disadvantage the attacker whatsoever. It's this defender, and we can look at this distance and assess that since we are perpendicular to this, uh, assessing this angle, that it's likely five meters. Okay. We can all be probably pretty happy with that.

Okay. And then the ball is played down. There's a bounce and two defenders are actually coming in at this point now here. These two, the two defenders are, are closing in on the ball and I'll try to do it really slowly, but the attacker attempts a shot. Okay. So they get Contact on this ball. And from what I can tell from the resolution, the blur is that it then is shot up into the body of the Irish, of one of the Irish defenders who's closed.

And then a reasonable call, if this is what you've seen, if what I see on this frame rate is accurate, oops, sorry. Um, I didn't have the, I didn't have the diagram up. Um, the ball gets. Get hit into that defender. If that's what you see, then you may have played on, on the reception saying that control was given and then it's up to the attacker to play that ball safely.

And are they able to hit a ball out of midair? Into the chest of a defender who is closing, who is at that point, uh, a couple of meters away. Is that, you know, who's caused that danger? The attacker. So if that's what you've seen, then a free hit defense is a reasonable decision here. Whether at your level you can play that as control, if the players at your level have that skill, is a different story.

And your understanding of that is key. Okay? So, you know, we may not be umpiring at those levels. Some of you in the comments, some of you not in the comments, but who are watching live are at that level where that skill exists. Some of us aren't, so we're gonna make different decisions on that basis. Okay, let me see if I can get this rolling again and let me go to your comments now that I've shown you.

Penalties are a little bit wider than what's possibly there. And there is a bit of a mistrat. So Matthijs, I think that's a reasonable thing to sort of see, which is that the, the ball is moved towards the, uh, defender a little bit, totally fair. And Jurjen sees that as well. The attacker receives the ball.

It bounces quite far away from him. Doesn't that mean he loses privilege to try and control the ball? Well, it doesn't mean that he can't control the ball. It just means that the defenders can close. So, uh, just being careful with language there. Uh, Samantha, uh, the five on the defender looked fine for you on stage one.

Uh, you do think that it looks like the attacker doesn't have full control. And again, at this level, like this attacker takes, takes a stab at the midair shot after the bounce. So they've played that down. The way that they played that ball wasn't affected by the five meter distance, if that makes sense.

So we're okay with the five meters on the first contact. The first contact above the head. Takes the ball outside. So whose problem is that, right? Who's caused that? We'll say the attacker, right? So that's why we're okay with playing that on at this point. At that point, one player came outside of five meters, but not sure about the second.

Let's just have another check at that. Um, because you're talking about that dude there.

Yeah, I think he, I think he comes from the same, the same distance away. Yep. So I'm okay with that. Um, did I miss anybody else? White players, the clear initial receiver. Yep. Seems like the defenders were keeping five meters when the ball's trapped. Yeah. And, and, and I think understanding what the players are trying to do and when we should be allowing them to close is, is, is a key point to these aerials and to inside the circle.

Uh, Matt, defenders look okay as he takes the ball. The wild shot is the danger of free hit defense. Okay. So Matt's seeing that same way, right? Yeah, of course. Just kidding. Okay. So what do we think about the communication? Uh, what is something they could have improved? Okay. So I, I want to be careful about how I approach this, obviously, because this is about us with a learning opportunity.

Um, and. One thing that I think is important as a supporting umpire, as we come together, and I'll, I'll come back to this just so you can see the body language and such. And I'll just, I'll just turn that off. When you are the supporting umpire, you are the supporting umpire. Okay. You are support. You're there to help make sure that your colleague has all the information they need to make a decision.

What concerns me about this situation is that the first words that come out are from the supporting umpire. And it's very much a, this is what happened instead of a, Hey, what did you see? And so we can, as a strategy, go to our controlling umpire and say, so what did you see there? Do you need help with?

You know, an angle, because this is what I think I saw. All right, you're happy with your decision? Great. So it's, it's more of a collaboration than it is an overrule, if that helps. Okay. I hope I'm, I'm explaining this right. And sometimes in our, um, in our, in our confidence, in our self belief, in our decision making, we might, Get into, um, being a little bit more insistent, but when you look at it this way, when you offer up some help, um, it's up to that controlling umpire to really take that into account and take that on board.

The other thing that concerns me is that actually at this time, both whistles blue and that again, That's, that's what I perceived. If I'm wrong, that's fine. So let's say hypothetically, both whistles blue. We have to make sure that the umpire who's controlling that circle is making that first call. And then if they need help, then we go help them.

And so there's, there's a different angle on that that can help us, I think, arrive at a more accurate conclusion. Now, I don't know what it was that the supporting umpire saw, and why he was so insistent that that was a penalty corner. Maybe he thought that there was a, maybe he thought there was a five meter infringement on the phase two.

Maybe he thought there was a stick obstruction committed by the, uh, umpire. By the defenders as they came reaching in, which is completely fine. Okay. But our presentation of these discussions as well, really has an impact on the way that players are thinking about and processing and the coaches and the fans, how we've come to a decision and their confidence level in what's happened there.

Okay. So, um, let's see. Something makes sense. Good. Uh, Ernst, are you seeing it right that the engaged umpire blows his whistle, but shows no decision? I, I, I think I see a free hit defense, but again, I could be wrong. It's, you know, I I've been really struggling with this video to see. And yes, it is a difficult call without the video umpire, but, um, let's just see if I can, yeah, no, he does.

He does have his arm out for a free hit defense.

Um, Mattice, are you actively operating, offering your opinion support as a supporting umpire or waiting for the cue from the controlling umpire? This is a classic pre match topic to work through. Absolutely. Very important to talk about that. And I am of the view that I am there if we, if we have radios, you know, I'm, I might be saying, you know, do you want to talk?

You know, let's talk about this, but if we have radios, I'm, I'm really trying to make sure that when I'm offering assistance, it's because I don't believe the other umpires had a, uh, the view that I did and I had unobstructed view. If I'm overruling their interpretation, I got to be really careful. I got to make sure that I'm right.

And I'm going to do it in a way that's going to help that umpire show that it's a collaborative decision that we've reached. And the fact that the two of them are on radios, but they come together in this moment is a very good decision by the umpires to go through because it's a big moment. And in a tie game, five seconds left, calling a penalty corner here is, is a big deal.

So, um, and I believe this was the time. No, they, they, they missed it. I was confusing that with another penalty stroke that the Irish goalkeeper didn't have to save because it went wide and then. He went all weird. Anyway, sorry, games bonding together. Um, but taking your time in those moments, even when you have radios to show how you're cooperating.

If that's the key, if that's what you're doing, show it, show it the right way with your body language. And allow the controlling umpire to lead, support as the supporting umpire. And then yes, okay, gotcha. And then, you know, you can just sell the decision in a very positive way for everybody who's around.

Yeah. Arena umpiring to confirm why the decision was given would help. Absolutely. So, you know, you might, and I've, I've seen, you know, the top umpires are, a lot of them are really good at this. They've learned this through hard experience that if the decision is actually, he wasn't five meters, you go, Oh, not five meters.

Oh, and, and then you can move on and you're like, Oh, okay. And so now I've given very clear. I don't know if you saw all the things that I was doing. But now I've given really clear indicators that everyone can say, Oh, it was a stick obstruction. And that's why it was called, Oh, it was a five meters. That's what it was called.

And even if you go to the captains afterwards, we're talking about everybody. And we all know that captains are players too. And they're busy thinking about their things. They might have to go take the drag flick. They may have to go. They might be the runner out on the penalty corner trying to defend it.

So they have their own focus and they're not going to spend the last five seconds of the Explaining the decision to everybody else. That's not the time. That's your job to present that properly to everybody who's watching. Okay. And the controlling umpire looked like he had four players in front of him.

Yeah. And that's something to, to weigh through this is who had, who had a really good view, and I'm not saying that the supporting umpire didn't have a good view of this. It's about how it appears, the way in which you contribute to this. And from what I see from how I'm, I'm seeing what is, is on the video, I thought his, his decision was, uh, was very understandable.

It was immediate. It was instinctual. And then the confusion came because another whistle also went and then the umpires got together. So had that just been a free hit defense, I think, you know, everything would have just, you know, the, the free hit would have been taken and everything goes because of the timing and the presentation of that initial decision, you know, there's the possibility there.

So just. Weighing all those things out, these are things that we can take as lessons into our future decisions in, in close to end of game moments, in close games. How do we present this in a way that shows everybody the process that we've gone through, that gives them the confidence that the right decision has been reached and all off camera.

I don't know what all, all happened off camera, but okay. So poll time for poll time for poll. Let's see what we're at.

Free hit defense for 12 of you and one of you for a penalty corner. And that's, that's completely fair. The frame rates are really, really bad. And it's like, it's 10 80, but barely just barely. Oh, it was all, all my signals were off camera. Okay. Sorry. Oops. Because I'm, I'm seeing myself on a confidence monitor like big, and then you're, you've only got me in a little desk.

So anyway, good stuff. Okay. Where are we at with time? What? How is it 120? I don't understand.

Oh, I've turned off all the volume. Oh, I haven't. There it is. Here's our skill session. We're going to talk about whistling. Okay. And what specifically about whistling? Oh, this is all this. Okay, so my friend Alexander asked me to look at this some time ago and I check it out. When, when a question is asked and I think, I don't know how to teach this.

You know, it creates a little bit of friction and I had to give it a lot of thought and I still don't know if I've got the ability right now in a skill session to talk about the duration of whistles, the number of blasts that you want to give and that sort of thing throughout a game. But I thought I would start a conversation and get y'all's feedback as to whether what you think I could do.

My instinct as somebody who deals with And the reason I do this video a lot is that I should be clipping a ton of video of all these different, uh, techniques to blow your whistle. And I don't mean how you make the sound, how you actually use your mouth, your tongue, your lips to, and your, your, your diaphragm, your air to Make a sound, but what pattern of sounds you make and why, um, to, to make clips of that, but it's been an interesting topic for me, it's, it's gotten to be a bit of a, an, an obsession when I'm thinking about this, cause it's one of those really small details, but I think it matters and this is why, okay.

So I'll talk about this for a little bit.

When we think about the ways in which we communicate with the players, Our whistle is the primary mode. And it's one that we can use regardless of, like, we don't need visual, like, we don't need eye contact with a player. We don't need the player to be seeing us when we're communicating with them. It's, it's like a subconscious message almost that we can send.

And if we adhere to commonly accepted patterns, We can help players to not have to focus on us and just go about doing the hockey because they understand what those sounds mean almost instinctually. They've had so many reps of knowing what a single blast is, what a double blast is, what a long blast is, what a long and a long blast means.

They know what those things mean without even seeing what we do. I know that when I'm watching hockey, I don't have to actually see the play to know what the umpire is about to do. If I have a vague idea as to where they are on the pitch, I'm like, Oh yeah, that's a free hit just outside the 23 and it's going to be a card.

And people are like, wow, no, it's, it's just because I've had enough reps. And that's the experience you want to create for the players because you want them to be able to play without you being the focus, they got enough on their plate. This is the best way we can be of service and the best way we can communicate.

So when I come back to the, this is what I did in order to try to try to figure out whistle pattern stuff. I thought about this as a form of most, uh, Rachel knows what I'm about to say. Uh, a form of Morse code, but it's the whistle code. And I would like to know, as I go through this, what have I missed?

Are there any patterns? That I've missed, but this is what I see. The single short blast is just a regular foul or maybe a small, quiet, easy penalty corner. And what I mean is, Oh, that's just a foot, that sort of thing. What, what am I doing here? Sorry. I have to erase all that. There we go. Um, to just, sometimes you don't want your penalty corner to be a big blast because it was like an obvious foot.

You feel bad for the defender. You're like, Oh man, dude. Beep, you know, so you're just giving that smaller, short blast. The single long blast could be a free hit where you're also giving a warning. Not a huge fan of that. And we talk about that very frequently during watch parties. When I talk about if you're warning somebody at the moment of a free hit, did they impact the play?

And if they did, is a warning enough at some levels of player play? It's not. It's not, you should actually be giving a card, but, um, you might use that longer blast as well for a penalty corner, for a penalty stroke, for a goal or to start or stop time. And I included the short blast to start time because I don't try to blow the crap out of starting time.

Some, some umpires are like the loudest whistle they blow in the match is to start time. And I'm like, is that the, is that the message we really want to send to players? So. This one, actually, let's, let's skip this one because I want to spend most of my time talking about that. The short blast followed by a long blast is often a free hit, stopping the time for either a card or because there's an injury, but the long blast is really important to stop time.

So it's very clear to everyone, even if they don't see you doing your stop time motion, that something more important is happening here. And that is. It has to do with the time. You might be using a long blast for a penalty corner that is stopping time for a card and injury. And you'll notice that I don't put the penalty stroke there because a penalty stroke stops time anyway.

So you don't need to double long blast a penalty stroke that you're also adding a card to.

Okay. This little pattern I will skip as well, because we'll talk about that in a sec. And then I don't know, end of time, you might be doing some funky I've heard lots of different things, how you end time. Luckily, I don't think it's a really big deal, so I'm not going to focus too much on that. But these are the two that I've been really thinking about and noticing when umpires use them well and when they do not, um, you love this.

I literally came up with it last night. Matt, you have to hold me to a highest standard. Okay. We need to work on this together. Um, and. Uh, Kristoffa, the strong and appropriate whistle tone shows players are confident. We'll be more, they'll be more likely to sub your decision. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

But what I'm talking about isn't how the sound comes out in terms of strength. This is about what, what pattern of whistle you use and this double whistle, this double peep, this double short blast, we need to be more intentional about using it and using it consistently. Uh, I, I, when I'm working with umpires who haven't been exposed to higher levels of play yet, and they're, they're on their way up and they're moving up performance ladders, especially when you're umpiring in domestic areas, you often have a lot of rapport already with players, you know, who they are, they know who you are, and you spend a lot of time talking to them.

Okay. So what you might do is blow your free hit and say, Yeah, can we just get the ball just right there, please? Yeah, no, just over there. Like just, no, five meters. Nope. Can you take the ball there, please? And by then we've said a whole bunch of words that the players have all ignored. We haven't been able to manage the situation the way that, that we want.

And we've wasted a lot of time. The double short blast, the double peep or blast before we start speaking is A great way to get the player's attention. And every time if you, I have a message for you players, and you proceed that with the double blast, players will start to become accustomed to, I don't want to say conditioned by, but sure, Pavlovi, when they hear that double whistle, they'll be like, Oh, umpire has something that they need to show us in terms of ball placement, where five meters is.

You know, something, something akin to that, or they, they want to send us some other message. And so, um, so you've got that as an ability to, um, I think it's really important that every time you talk to a player, you proceed it with that double blast. And the good news is, is that once that's happened, you can actually start teaching the players why you would be going into, why you would be double blasting at them.

Okay. So I've spoken about this on dozens of watch parties, but Kunto and Bunga, and I've noticed Michelle Otten is very good at this as well. And there's a few other umpires who, when the award free hits to the attack in between the circle and the five meter dotted line. They will blow tweet, tweet, tweet, and they'll be showing the player immediately, immediately where the ball is supposed to be placed because the precision in that moment is really important.

And the early proactive communication helps to. alleviate, helps to mitigate any problems and increases flow. And as an attacker, if I ever attacked, I would be really happy to know immediately where the umpire wants the ball instead of after I've already put the ball down, played it back to somebody and then the umpire, no, no, sorry, I wanted it here.

So knowing these moments where you're likely going to have to address the players and give them some information, this. Single blast followed almost immediately by a double blast right afterwards is an important way, a very effective way, I think, of dealing with this. Increasing the flow and the communication and players will understand, they will start to see the pattern.

Oh, every time there's a free hit in between the dotted line and the circle and the umpire blows their whistle twice, they want the ball where the foul occurred. I saw where that happened. I'm not going to F about, I'm going to put it right there and I don't even have to look at them. And so they're going to be showing me where it is, but I know where it is.

And I want, I see this happening with the, the, with the umpires that use this technique. Is that the players become, they learn what it is and it's to their benefit, especially for the attackers to understand this and understand these messages. So what I'm trying to get across with all these long stories is use the double blast every time you have a message to send to the players, okay?

You are going to teach them. That this is a time where I have something more to give you. And if you pay attention to me, then the game is gonna get on with itself, and I can now get outta your way. Do it early and do it consistently, and it will make a big difference in your game. Um, what you probably don't see on this list, what you do not see on this list is a whistle that goes something like this.

It goes FFFF. Which is what Rachel indicated, uh, here. The fluf, fluf, fluf, fluf, fluf, fluf, fluf, fluf, fluf. I hate that whistle with a passion. Okay. And being a misophonic, obviously part of my personal, um, affront to this sound is a little bit just oriented in the audio, but there is no need to blow your whistle repeatedly and then to trail it off into something wimpy and sad.

Afterwards. When you can just double peep with not necessarily anger, definitely not anger, but just with expediency, firmness, authority, just right here, please. Anything else imparts a different emotion and gives the players an impression that you're not taking what's happening very seriously. And that's one of the reasons that I wanted to sort of codify this.

Or take a stab at it, see if it works. Can we codify this? Is there a place for any other whistle? Basically is, is the question that I'm asking. Is there anything that I've missed? Obviously when you move from different levels and when you go for a long blast and a loud blast and the duration of that blast, there's a lot of artistry and a lot of, you know, subjectivity as to when you're going to do that.

And that's where I think videos come in, but maybe that's a start. Okay, let's see what, uh, what you've got. Uh, you love this and I can link, link it with clipped examples. Okay, thank you. Um, taco, why three long blasts for the end of a quarter? Uh, I don't, I only do two for the end of a quarter. Like, I honestly, this, this doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. I didn't want that to be the focus because umpires have different styles as to how that's going. Okay, office players. Okay, I'm thinking about this. Okay. From the standpoint of how can we be most efficient in communicating to players that they can get the information that they need and nothing else.

Like, we're not trying to speak more words to them and have long conversations with them. Like, we are trying to get out of their way so they can play hockey. But we have important information to give them at times. And the more effectively and quickly we can get that information through, the better the game's going to be.

So let's do that thing basically. Oh yeah. It's been a Keely hour. Okay. So that's a start, but let me know what you think. Come into the discord server and give me some feedback. You, I mean, maybe you're like me and you'll be lying awake at 4 45 in the morning, maybe you're Christoph and Christophe and you haven't had enough sleep and you're You're laying awake and you're like, you know, she missed this thing.

And I don't know what it will be, but you let me know. I'd like to hear about that because this is something that I haven't addressed. And it might be something that goes into a course, a mini course on presentation and whistling and signals and body language communication. Ooh, now we get into a big communication skills.

So Matt came up with this thing, which is a course that I wanted to build, but it's a big, it's a big area. It's a big area. Ideas, come back, come back to me on that, but Matt's already going to run with it. So there you go. The whistle code. Okay. And yes, please. If you, um, if you liked that. If you got any value out of that, please do give me a like and a subscribe.

It sends YouTube the message that I'm doing some good stuff here and people like you would like this stuff. So you make it easier for other umpires to find this. So go out on a ledge and just proclaim your likeness. And, and what you're doing is it's not for me, it is for me, but it's mostly for other people so that they can find this information, engage in the conversations as well, and benefit from it.

I really appreciate it. Um, let's see. Um, Christopher, you like the long, loud blow for the start of the game to get the players excited to play. If your whistle is what's needed to get players excited to play, um, there's something wrong. That's how I feel. So I, I don't, I mean, I blow a whistle that's distinctive enough from just a standard free, like, again, this is a shade of gray.

This is a nuance, but I'm, I'm not there to hype the players. I'm there to start the game.

That's what I think. Interesting though. I'll, I'll give it some thought. I'll give it some thought. The next time I'm out on the pitch, I'll be like, okay, do I want to blow the snot out of this starting whistle or not? I'm probably going to say no. I appreciate you all being here. Um, I look forward to seeing you in the discord.

Join the FHU 13 and you can hang out lots with me, like daily, cause I'm there all the time. And we will be back for another What Up Wednesday next week. We'll wrap up the under 21s. Um, oh,

I've been struggling today, but this is really quick. I just wanted y'all to see this. Sent to me by my friend Enzo Caravetta from Argentina. Cause you may hear something about this. Um, this is Gabrielle. From Argentina as well. And, um, what Enzo wanted me to know is that he's okay. Um, Gabby's going off to the Olympics.

So I've talked a lot about players in the watch party. I've been talking about how players are playing differently because they're concerned that they're heading off to Paris and all that kind of stuff. Um, but we don't think a lot about umpires and in their preparation and their lead up to the Olympics, um, how they go ahead and, um, how they're getting ready for this.

The important thing to take out of this is that Gabby's okay, he had a CT scan, everything's okay, um, I really appreciate Enzo sharing this so that, um, we could all know, but, you know, spare a thought that this is a really big moment in umpire's careers and that, you know, everybody's looking out for themselves and making sure that their preparation is on point.

They've been thinking about injury prevention. They've been getting their sleep. They've been doing their nutrition and they've been doing all those things in order to make sure that they have their best performances in Paris. So all the best, Gabby. I'm excited to watch you, uh, in the games. I'm excited to watch everybody in the games.

And that will be obviously starting on July 27th in the server, many, many watch parties, living, living there and breathing there. And it's going to be a very, very cool time. It's going to be a good time. It's going to be chaos, but it's going to be a good time. So next week will be the last What Up Wednesday that is live out there because I believe after that we will be into Olympic territory.

Is my math right? I don't know. And those watch parties, or sorry, those streams, my wrap ups of Olympic action will be happening inside the discord. Okay. So just keep that in mind as we're going forward and I'll talk more about that later. Okay. Thanks very much. Sorry. I'm like, I'm just all over the place.

I've been thinking about whistle code and it's got my mind all confused. Thanks for bearing with me and thanks for reminding me to make sure I don't miss 3B and we'll see you in the discord. Have a great day. Bye.

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