Runnin Ref x FHU Fitness for Every Umpire: Waitlist Opens Today!| #WhatUpWednesday Ep. 154

📅 May 15 19.00 GMT
➡️ YouTube

Have you ever wondered if you're doing the best fitness preparation you can in the time you have for hockey umpiring? Want to make this next season your best and perform at your highest level? Looking to prevent injuries throughout the season so you can push for that big promotion?

The amazing Austin Ardrey of  @runninrefs  is joining the #thirdteam today to talk over all of these topics and more. In fact, we're teaming up with Runnin Ref to beta an exciting fitness plan tailored to exactly what we need as hockey umpires, so you're not going to want to miss the big announcement live. 💪

@runninrefs is a company dedicated to fitness training programs specifically for Referees & Sports Officials. Austin brings an insatiable passion for fitness along with a decade of experience in the collegiate strength and conditioning industry, working with schools such as Ole Miss, The University of Nevada, Washington State University, and Liberty University.

As a performance coach, Austin has helped officials across multiple sports prepare to officiate their sport at a high level by maintaining a high fitness, becoming stronger, and preventing injuries.

We'll also chat through a couple of aerials, and drive by a redux of last week's PS drag discussion.

See you there!

🏃‍♀️Get on the Season Training Plan waitlist today and get your Match Warm-up bonus

⏱ Chapter Markers:
0:00 Chair Dancing
00:02:58 Topics!
00:05:11 1. Runnin' Ref x FHU 🏃‍♀️+🏑=🏆
00:42:38 2. Dragged PS Redux
00:57:19 3. Aerial Goal – Silver Cup (NED)
01:18:04 4. Aerial to PS – Victory v Waterloo Ducks (BEL)

Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.

🟢🟡🔴 🏑

Transcript

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Ep. 154 Transcript

Music: 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'm me,

and else 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. La la la la la la, I me. I think I'm gonna be me. Everything's 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 going to be me.

I know gonna be me.

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

I think. Me, me. I know I gotta be 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. I know I gotta be me, me, 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. La, la, la, la, la, la. La,

la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la.

It looks great.

Keely: Welcome everyone. It's Whatup Wednesday, Keely Dunn, FHumpires. I am so excited about today's show. I cannot stand it. It's going to be a really good one. I'm going to show you what the topics are because I want to do a little introduction, but we are going to start off talking to Runnin' Ref, more about that in a second.

We're going to do a dragged penalty stroke, uh, revisit because we did that last week and I have a little bit more and then two aerial situations that came to me through the socials and, uh, those are going to be tasty little treats to knock off the end of this day. I am really, really, uh, looking forward to this.

And so is Lou. Good to see you, Lou. Glad that you're here and you're rehabbing a knee. So we are going to be able to talk about that with our guest coming up. Uh, Simon's got an AGM. Um, Chief Pedant, I'm a little sad, but I understand duty calls. You're, you're, you're Chief Mao there, so that's totally fine.

And there we go. Hi, cutting it fine. I tried to start a little early, Rachel. So that's why you were sort of going. Gary, if you're new, can I please blow an air horn for you? I don't remember seeing you before, so I'm excited to have you. And Matt is here as well. Thanks very much, everybody, for joining in. So.

A few months ago, I found a podcast on the internet called Yes Ref and it popped up on my YouTube suggested things. And I usually ignore all the YouTube suggested things because they're so useless. But this, I was like, Oh, Hey, these two young guys, they look kind of cool. And they're talking about mostly football refereeing.

And then an episode came up in the cycle where this guy was talking about training for officials, physical training and I thought, wow. Like this, he's running a business specifically to support umpires and referees and other officials in their physical training. And I was transfixed. I started following him on social media and I got myself on the Yes Ref podcast and then I had a way to introduce myself to him and I said, Hey, you and I should do something together.

And he was like, yeah. And I was like, great. And here we are. So everybody, I would love for you to give a warm. Very warm FHU welcome to Austin Ardrey of Runnin' Ref. Hi! How you doing?

Austin: Hey, I'm great. Thanks for that introduction there.

Keely: That's not too bad, eh? It just kind of flowed. I was pretty excited about it.

Austin: No, that was pretty good. Super fun. You make me feel like a star or something.

Keely: Well, you are a star. We are all stars in the internet. And I think, I don't think people understand how difficult it is to, you know, Uh, how, how much, you know, you have to push through resistance to start creating content, to tell people about your business on the internet.

And I'm really, um, I'm just, I really appreciate you and that you're doing the same sort of thing and specifically in our niche. So, um, let's get started and. Tell me about your background, Austin, because I think everybody in the FHE community is going to want to know, like, where do you come from and why do I have an American on my live stream?

Austin: I know, right? We're not going to talk about referees today. We're just talking about umpires, right?

Keely: I primed him, everybody. I primed him.

Austin: Um, yeah, you know, I was a college strength and conditioning coach for 10 years. Uh, I spent the better part of that decade diving into everything that made athletes tick, made athletes perform better.

Uh, some of my roles were on field movements and, you know, sprinting slash running technique. So, here you are Runnin' Ref. And then the other things that came with that were I was a specialist in um, Rehabilitation programs within these different sports programs. So you kind of put all that together within a background of strength training, uh, you know, fitness, things of that nature.

And, um, that's my love. This is what I do. And, you know, now we just cater it to officials, right? We're, we're, we're specific to officials and umpires and referees all over the world.

Keely: That's, that's awesome. So. I, I know you have a story that you'd like to share about how you specifically transitioned into working with officials because you're not actually an official yourself, are you?

Austin: I am not. So that's the, uh, that's the thing for, uh, everybody here. Um, so, um, you know, the plan for me was to never get into training officials. I now live in Dallas, Texas after college strength and conditioning. All over the country. And, you know, I came to Dallas to start a business training athletes. I wanted to help them run faster.

So it was a very, very specific running technique. You know, um, I had timing gates. We had resistance sprint machines. We had all of it, right? The plan was never to start training officials. I got a phone call January of 2021 from a couple of college football officials, American football here. And, uh, you know, these two guys had a couple of different issues that they called me about, right?

Their supervisor had first said, Hey, We need you to learn how to run better because what I'm seeing on camera, you know, I want it to improve. The other thing is they wanted to get in specific shape for football season. American football follows, you know, a nice smooth transitional timeline to where we know August is really where I need to be in shape and prepped for.

And then the other thing is they had some nagging injuries that they needed to work through and the basis of running and being on their feet for miles and yards and all of those things really led into, you know, our first workout together. So they called me, we set up a workout, we wanted to go through all of these different things.

And once again, you know, I'm teaching athletes at this point, right? Um, I had to start learning officiating because at that point, I'm not watching the officials in game. All I'd ever watched was the athletes, the play, the ball, you know, and I Bounces up and down the court or on the football field, on the soccer field, so on and so forth.

So we went through a workout together. Taught them, you know, the finer points of some things that we will cover today. But dynamic warm ups and pre game options that they can do in the locker room and at the locker room. They started telling me the things that they struggle with running technique. And then.

We went ahead and devised a specific fitness program specifically for those officials. So it was, um, you know, very, very cool session. I wasn't expecting to get paid from it. I didn't know if I'd ever even hear from these guys again. That wasn't the thing, you know, I just lend out a helping hand and said, Hey, yeah, sure.

I'm free. Let's get together. And then before you know it, here we are, uh, you know, couple of years later and we're trying to help officials all over the world.

Keely: Yeah, that's, that's awesome. I want to ask you. Um, a little bit more about a couple things that you mentioned. First of all, you talked about, um, you, you talked about how they contacted you.

Did you find? Um, there's a lot of people doing fitness programming for officials in the market, or was this something that they were like, there's nobody out there doing this for us. We really need your help.

Austin: Yeah. I mean, to my knowledge at the time, there was nobody, um, you know, here and there, you hear about people that work with personal trainers and stuff, but there was nobody that's dedicated to officials.

Um, now there are, you know, there's one other group that's attempting Um, but across all other sports, soccer, basketball, um, you know, field hockey, there's nobody. And we've actually even been approached by, you know, ice hockey too, and we're like, I don't even know how to skate, so I don't know about that one, but, uh, I can give you some pointers, but I don't think skating's up our alley, at least for now.

Keely: Absolutely. So you, you started watching the referees and the umpires on the pitch or in whatever their environment is in order to figure out what they specifically needed. What did you learn from watching, say, an American football referee on the pitch and how they move? Like, what, what really intrigued you about what we as officials do when we're, when we're out there.

Austin: Yeah. There's really so much that goes into it. I mean, the first thing is officials are athletes. You have to be able to move well in all directions, you know? So from the, um, perspective that I used to have was that, Hey, officials just stand out there. They're watching the play. You don't even notice that they run, right.

Except on kickoffs in American football. Now, when I watch basketball game, NBA playoffs are on TV right now, and I'm watching the officials and I'm like, Damn, what's the score again? I don't know what the score is, but, um, you start watching them and you realize that they stop, they turn, they sprint, they change directions.

Um, now, they also do this, what a lot of people don't realize, is they do this the entire game. The athletes get to take a break. They get a water break, they get substituted, you know, they may play a third of the minutes. Officials? No, you're in the entire game, so You know, having a high fitness level is extremely important at that point because you don't get a break.

And then nonetheless, if you're a lower level umpire or referee or official, you're doing multiple games in a weekend. So now it's even more important because those players in a lot of instances, um, may not be doing so. So, um, it's extremely important that we're really watching how they move like athletes.

You know, they're getting older. The players are staying the same.

Keely: Well, it seems like you're cutting out a little bit here. Uh,

Austin: training.

Keely: Sorry, can you say that part of the, because I think that's really important. That's something that I've really noticed that the, that, that we as officials, we have this longer career span than the athletes do, the players do, and they're, they seem like, and they are realistically, they're getting younger as we, as officials.

Keep getting older and we're adding decades and decades onto our playing, um, and that sort of thing. How does that impact your approach to putting together programming for officials? How do you sort of address the inter generation or multi generational aspect of training for officials?

Austin: Yeah, at that point it's got to be progressive, right?

I mean, anybody who just jumps into a season without any preparation is only going to set themselves up for the potential downfalls. But the other thing is now you have to realize that I have to keep up with my body year round because I'm getting older and older. And as I continue to, um, add more and more games on top of myself, now my body is getting broken down.

So it's extremely important at that point, you know, rest is not solely injury prevention. At that point, it's important to train your body to be stronger, to be fitter, to be more mobile, um, so that you can withstand a lot of those things that officials have to go through.

Keely: Absolutely. That, that makes a lot of sense and definitely reflects my experience going through decades of umpiring hockey for sure.

I just want to remind everybody, uh, in the third team watching that, you know, this is the same as every other live stream. I want to hear your questions on this because Austin and I have had a chance to do a whole bunch of talking, but you might have some things that you're going to think of that you want to ask Austin about.

And I know that he would love to answer any questions that you have as we're going through the, um, you know, our discussion. So don't be shy, everybody, you know, get in, get in there as always. And, um, I think the most exciting thing is that Austin, when you and I started talking, um, I had sent you an email and said, Hey, let's have a chat about this.

You know, what do you, what do you think about looking at fitness programming for, um, hockey umpires, and by the time we started having a conversation, you said, I've reviewed your YouTube channel, I've gone out and watched some, uh, some hockey matches so I can get familiar with how things work. I was just so excited by that, and I was wondering if you could tell me what you saw, just in, you know, whatever you've been able to watch.

What was different about how hockey umpires were moving as compared to, say, soccer referees or basketball referees?

Austin: So, I think, um, you know, from the games that I watched, the clips that I saw, they tend to move more so like soccer and rugby officials than basketball or American football. Now, here's where the specifics go into what you need as a hockey umpire because a basketball official, if you watch the game, there's a lot of sprint, stop, start.

Sprint, stop, start. And then they get to walk quite a bit. Um, American football, there's a lot more time in between plays, right? Uh, field hockey umpire is constantly moving. Now, they may be walking, they may be jogging at times, but you're constantly moving. American football, you don't get to do that. So, those are the major discrepancies is watching the time that you are always moving.

Um, so that never lets your heart rate completely relax, if you will, right? Um, and then, you know, I noticed a lot of, uh, multiple directions, right? You have to always have your head on a swivel. If you don't have good instincts for the game, uh, it probably makes umpiring a lot more difficult coming from somebody who hasn't been in your shoes yet.

But I want to keep watching, I want to keep learning, I think it's extremely important for you to be able to sprint when you need to go and sprint, so. Um, but the high fitness level over the course of those matches is extremely important. Those are the biggest things that I noticed right off the bat.

Keely: Yeah, that's, that's absolutely true. And we have a question here from Matt who is, uh, part of our community. Uh, it was just going to lead us right into my little run of show here and all the questions I wanted to ask.

Austin: Oh good.

Keely: Matt's asking, he's done a lot of running. And now he's using backwards running, and that's something that you and I talked about in terms of, uh, mission critical positioning and the style that I, I teach and advocate and that's working out really well for the umpires that, that work in my community.

And he's saying that he's finding his quads are getting really tight. Do you have any tips on pregame warmups? I think you do.

Austin: Yes. In fact, I do. Um, should we show Matt what we've been looking at, Keely?

Keely: Yeah, let's, let's go back to, to this and you can. Talk about this material.

Austin: All right, Matt. So, let me go back one more time.

So, um, yeah, there's a lot of different things that you can do. And just know, this video I'll loop a couple times if I need to, just know, uh, with a lot of backwards running, I think there is a high value in that, right? Being able to move well in multiple directions. But Keely has also, you know, told me that that's part of what she thinks, uh, you know, you need to be able to do on the pitch.

So there's a lot of things pre game that can be done. And you're seeing a video here of prep work. Now, this is a. Big video with a lot of different things, but I think that you can target some specific areas. So when we talk about prep work, we're talking about loosening up specific regions to make you more mobile and to soften up that tissue prior to going into game or training, if you will.

Right? So I think that you can use some different soft tissue implements. Um, as a form of self massage to open your body up. Now you're seeing soft balls, golf balls, uh, the one with the upper back is a peanut ball or on the shin for shin splints. Now we're not talking quads specifically, but you can pack tools into a recovery bag which makes it very easy for you to be able to prep yourself and to loosen up that quad beforehand.

Okay? And then there's some other things that, you know, we've prepped here for you as well. Um, in, in terms of a warm up, right, so you kind of do your prep work, you know that you have a certain amount of time within the locker room, or you may be outdoors, not sure everyone's specific situation at this time, but all of these things can be done in confined spaces.

So, you're saying, hey, my quads are getting tired, but really you need the whole system to be loosened up, right? My quads are just the culprit here. My hip flexors need to be loosened up. My calves, my shin muscles, the anterior tibialis, my glutes need to be loosened up. So, when you put all of those things together, start to stretch them appropriately, work mobility in all different angles.

Now I think you might get some looser quads. If you're talking specifically from a training perspective now, um, I think that you can overdo the backwards running. And I say that because I think a balanced approach is always best, right? I don't want to do everything straight ahead. I don't want to do everything side to side.

I need to be balanced as an athlete, as an official, just to be successful. So. Um, if that was a little long winded, Matt, I apologize, but I think the prep work, the uh, early stationary warm up type of things, and knowing those particular spots that affect the quads specifically. So, as I mentioned, glutes, um, groins, hip flexors, calves, all tie in.

Anything that's, the knee's just in the middle, the quad's in the middle. We gotta stretch and loosen up everything around it. So.

Keely: Yeah. That's great.

Austin: I wanted to you, you go Keely.

Keely: Yeah. No, that's fantastic. And I wanted to ask you a little bit, um, more about the soft tissue work that you were, uh, that you demonstrate in the video.

When you're working with your feet, how do you find feet and soft tissues are connected to? Uh, to performance and injuries, you know, throughout the rest of the body. Is there, is, is that something that maybe we neglect to our detriment as we're doing a physical preparation?

Austin: 100%. So the best example that I can give you is your car.

Your feet are on the bottom. Your tires get flat. What do you get? Right? So your feet are the only thing that impact the ground. Every. Step that you take, your feet have to be strong, they have to be mobile, to withstand all the forces. You know, in today's world, we focus on the hips, the hamstrings, the quads, the torso being strong, right?

But we neglect the feet. So, just imagine, you know, a flat, every time you're running, hitting the ground, all of those forces come up your body, which could lead into shin Keely's tendonitis issues. We're seeing a lot of fifth metatarsal, the outside foot bone breaks, uh, in today's sporting world. We're seeing a lot of knee patella tendonitis.

I'm a big believer, when the feet get strong, they're gonna be a lot better, uh, in all aspects. Now, that being said, specifically of targeting it, That's a golf ball. That's one of my favorite things to talk to officials about when we start talking about self massage, recovery, pregame stuff. It's just a minute or two minutes on each feet.

Golf ball works well. You can use a baseball. You can use anything you want. I just personally love the golf ball the best. It's tight, easy to pack in a travel bag. You feel night and day difference when your feet feel loose again. So there's muscles, there's tendons, ligaments. Everything is within your feet.

So just keep that in mind.

Keely: Yeah. Oh, I, that's fantastic. And it's something I'm, I'm, I'm sitting here in my seat and I'm starting to move my feet around cause I'm getting aware of them and I'm thinking. Man, that's something I should have been doing a lot more of. And I know that, you know, I've had bouts of plantar fasciitis and, and obviously with, with double knee replacements, I've had lots of other issues and I'm just thinking, man, that's something that I, I wish I had been paying more attention to as I was coming up, but it's something I'm definitely going to add in there.

Can you tell me more about big mistakes that you see officials making when they are, uh, You know, trying to do their own physical preparation for seasons. What, what are they doing wrong a lot of the time?

Austin: I think it comes down to a couple things. First, I don't think there's typically true guidance for them.

So, I think you're just guessing a lot of times. It's what I did in high school, or um, CrossFit is what I worked for so and so, so I'm going to do CrossFit, or hey, I have a, my wife has a pass to Orange Theory Fitness, I'm just going to go with her a couple days a week, uh, I'm a gym bro, I want to do curls, I don't think there's direct guidance on what you need to remember.

Officials are athletes, so you need to train like that. Now, if you want to be a bodybuilder, train like that. Just understand the repercussions that may happen when you go onto the pit. You've got to be in shape to do some of the things. The other thing, I think, personally, I think when we talk about fitness, now there's some officials that take their fitness very seriously.

I think some of those people do too much. And I think a lot of the trail running, long running, the miles, Uh, can be problematic for you. Now, if you say, Hey, I need to go out on Sunday, clear my mind, it's a stress relief for me. Please, be my guest. I am all in support of that. But, in terms of, The physical preparation, um, running mechanics are vastly different from what you would do in a game, especially if you have to take off on a sprint.

The high volume of that approach now just repetitively puts you in compromised muscular positions over and over and can lead to some trauma in different areas. Um, it's just not efficient. I'm not being very efficient when I'm going on long, slow dogs. And the cool thing, um, Go off tangent here a little bit.

We are starting to, with some of our, uh, soccer officials, putting some GPS units on them. So we're actually getting some in game data that's telling us exactly what needs to be done. So, we're in the beginning stages of collecting data. It's, um, not, um, you know, all out on the forefront yet, right? We're still trying to sift through it, but what we're seeing is their volume is high, but their sprint volume within the game is actually kinda high.

Now, we've got to find a way to delete all of the walking volume, and that's going to be the key to tell officials Hey, I don't need to run five miles every time I go out to be fit to officiate. So, um, I think the high volume is one thing from the fitness side that people get wrong oftentimes.

Keely: Oh, that's, that's fantastic.

And for those of you who are in the Discord server, we have a channel called FHU Fit, uh, and the Discord server, if you haven't been a part of it before, FHumpires.com/ds, Austin, you're going to be in there very soon. I know. And, uh, one of the things that I've been starting to get on people about is when they post something about how they're going for their 5k run, they're going for their 10 Ks.

And I'm like, okay, but. What if you didn't do that, you know, and what if you spent half that time or even a third of that time or a quarter of that time doing some interval running and doing some agility work or something like that? And I've been trying to warm people up to that idea and that sort of thing, but I'm not the expert.

You're an expert. You have a master's, right?

I do. Yeah. I

There you go. So this is why I've come to you, uh, for all this, and it's nice to hear that the things that I've sort of learned ad hoc and in my own, you know, not just in my own research and things like that are actually not far off base. And, and Gary here just, you know, he did ask and I, Gary hope, I hope that that whole segment was a really good answer for your question about jogging and things like that.

And then, and obviously, you know, Austin, you wouldn't argue that jogging isn't good for your cardiovascular health generally, your, your, And like you said, mental health benefits and stuff. But I, I think one of the things that we are worried about as officials is we have these, you know, we're, we're, we're being asked to do more and more matches all the time.

We have long travel days. We have, um, you know, our family commitments, business commitments, all the other things that we're trying to do in our lives. And we don't have a lot of time for training. So how do you address that in your programming? Uh, for officials in terms of just the, the, the restrictions of time.

Austin: Yeah, exactly. That's one thing that I had to learn early on when we started helping more officials, right? When we first started with, uh, our two officials that you saw previously and you know, previous slides, it was kind of easy at times, right? It was like, Hey, we're going to go out and do this a couple of times a week.

Well, we start adding more officials. They want strength training. They want mobility. Now you start to package this entire program and you're like, that could easily take you two hours. You have kids, you have a full time job, you have a gym membership, or you're in a, uh, cold weather portion of the world where you can't get outside right now, so we have to learn and make modifications to that.

We have now figured out how to devise all of our training within a 50 minute time window. So on the very short end, on an extremely short day, maybe a deload week, something of that nature, it could be on the 30 minute mark. Now, it depends how long you take your prep work and go into some of those things, but I think you can get everything you need done within a 40 to 50 minute timeframe.

And we're talking soft tissue prep, dynamic warmup, um, Sprint technique drills on the running days, strength training, so on and so forth. So once again, there needs to be guidance. There needs to be a certain plan in place because I know what all I need to get into the week. And once again, it kind of goes back to the long jogs and the long runs portion.

That stuff is very time consuming, right? So now how do I have time for mobility work when I've done all that? Or how do I, I don't have time to knock out three sets of side planks. I've just spent an hour running. Well, you can be more guided. You can be more direct with the approach that you're taking into training.

And I think that that takes care a lot of that timeframe and that commitment to being a better official.

Keely: Yeah. I love that. And I wanted to ask you a little bit, just as somebody who's struggled with these issues over, you know, the span of my career, how do you find this approach, might impact somebody's, say, body composition.

So a lot of people, I think, still believe that long cardio is necessary in order to, to, to, to lose weight, to lose fat in order to be leaner and lighter on the pitch and more mobile. How do you, how do you find the sprint and the interval training and, and the strength training components that you focus more on,

how does that change the way that. Does it meet the needs of officials who are looking to, you know, sort of improve their body composition?

Austin: Yes. Uh, 100%. So the best example that I could give you is look at sprinters with their shirts off. You can Google sprinters and they are so lean. So what happens when you sprint is your body uses so many more total muscles and the exertion rate is so much higher.

So we'll kind of preface with that. Now there's substantial research out there also showing that, you know, with interval training, high intensity interval training. Um, that the proportion of body fat lost is much greater. And then once you go to true strength training, kind of fits into the same category, true strength training builds muscle and the metabolic costs.

So I'm actually wasting a lot more energy at the same time. So true strength training ties into that as well. Um, you know, where I think people get misguided within shrink training too, is they think once again, I need more volume, more volume, more volume, I have to do three sets of 10, four sets of 10, five sets of 10.

Well, you might need to do something heavier too, to build strength. And to build that frame. So I think when you put all those pieces together, the body composition can be greatly reduced or greatly affected. You know, body fat mass can be greatly reduced. And in today's world where officials and supervisors and signers are really judging everything that you do and wanting a more athletic and professional build, I think that it's got to be taken into account.

I mean. And I wish if I would have known that question was coming up, we would have just popped up a bunch of different research articles for people here on, you know, interval training or sprint based training, um, to guide them in that direction. But yeah, I think that sprint training 100 percent positively affects body fat percentage.

Keely: Yeah. Oh, that's great news. And don't worry. So once I get you in the Discord server, Austin, like I would love for you to pop those links into the FHU Fit, uh, channel so that everybody who's interested in this can have a look and, and read it and all that sort of thing. But that's, that's really helpful.

Austin: Yeah, no doubt.

Keely: Now, that sort of leads me into sort of my, like, my last question for you is that, um, you know, one of the things, so the, the video that I pulled out for, um, one of the, uh, Instagram reels that I put up, I loved seeing it because you were working, I think, with football referees I mean, they were on a football field, but they could have, I guess, been, been any other sport, but yeah, soccer, yeah, they could have been rugby.

And, but I looked at the officials and I thought, Oh, They look just like me, like they didn't look, there was a variety of body types, a variety of ages, they're all kind of things. So, my, you know, I would love for you to describe just who you think this programming is for, because I know, from my perspective, and a lot of people might feel this way, that they might get a little intimidated by the thought of fitness prep for officials.

They're like, Oh, but I'm not very fit. I don't look that way. I'm, I'm over the hill. I'm this, that, or the other, and have, have sort of negative mindset about it. How do you, uh, how do you, you know, deal with that in your programming?

Austin: Yeah, I think that's a great question. Um, you know, all officials need training, right?

And that's where communication is still part of this. You know, it's not a program where it's just like, hey, here's a PDF, here's a piece of paper, go on as you please. Everybody's doing the exact same thing. So injury history matters, age does matter, right? Equipment availability matters, but once you tie all those things in and we have some communication that's gone back and forth, now we can kind of cater it to what you need.

So we kind of start with A general baseline. It's not too easy, but it shouldn't be on an extremely hard end either. But here's where the communication goes in. You don't just quit and give up. Hey, this is too easy for me, right? I'm ready for step two or vice versa. Hey, I actually am an official. I'm, like you mentioned, I'm over the hill.

I haven't done anything like this in, you know, a decade. Can you help me out? And every week I'll go through and we'll just adjust programs for specific people that need those adjustments. And we'll take some volume off, we'll take some jumping off, we'll modify some sets and reps of everything that they do and just make it a little bit easier on them so that they can get the benefits and get what they need out of the program, right?

We're using a program to make you a better official, so we'd be very misguided to not help you and making it exactly what you need to improve yourself. That's right.

Keely: That's awesome. That's just what I wanted to hear. And I think this is, this is what's so great about, you know, me being able to, to look over your, your materials on social media for the last little while is that I knew that this would be something that would, you know, just sort of really fit in with what I'm trying to help everybody in the FHumpires community with.

So I, I think this is a really good time to, you know, to show off, to announce to everybody that Austin and I are working together to provide a beta or beta program for, uh, people to do a preseason, a 12 week preseason, uh, warm up, uh, Programming to get ready for specifically the UK or the, uh, European season coming up.

It's going to be a limited program. It's not going to be, you know, we don't want to have 50 people in it. We don't even want to have 30 people at we're capping it at 20. We don't want any more than 20. And Austin keeps trying to edge the numbers down because part of it is that we want to make sure that we're able to serve everybody really well and collect the information

that we really need to be able to understand what do we need to do to get us as hockey umpires ready for this season coming up. So what we have is a waitlist sign up that I'm going to pop into the chat right now. and this also helps us gauge just how interested people are in this kind of system. So if you go to the website, you go to fhumpires.com/STP, there is a Google form sign up and we're just looking for your genuine expression of interest that you would like to be part of this program. The wait list is open now. We're going to, uh, open up sales on June 1st. So depending on You know, how many people jump in soon, but we're going to go to the people on the waitlist first and say, Hey, you know, it's, it's open.

Here's the, here are the details of the program and that sort of thing. And the program will start July 1. So that gives everybody about 12 weeks, maybe 11 weeks before their first real match. And maybe you have a couple practice matches, but we wanted to make sure that it was a solid 12 weeks of prep for those people whose seasons start around the end of September or right at the beginning of October.

So is there any, any details that I missed out on that, Austin, that, uh, you think we should share with? Uh, the folks about all that.

Austin: Um, well, I think that we can give them a little bit of a preview of kind of how it's laid out.

Keely: Great idea. Let's, let's do that. I'll go back to our magic screen.

Austin: I think that that would be great.

So, as

soon as mine loads, that is.

Alright, we're almost there, guys. So, we wanted to make this very simple and effective for all officials, as we mentioned. So we wanted it to be laid out so you get in, you get out, you train, you get back to your family, you start your job, you take a shower in the locker room, so on and so forth. So this is what it looks like in the app view.

So you have all of the days of the week, you have different categories. It tells you your warm ups, there's text descriptions, um, there's input in different plates, there are demo videos for every single exercise. Some of them are a little longer in terms of like, hey, the warm up, stretch it out, but then it's listed out for you as well.

Uh, once again there's different sections so you'll be asked to, hey, check I completed this today, check I completed this today. We also now, this is new, we have a function to where when you get to your conditioning because we thought it was extremely important to have. For you to be able to push yourself during fitness training, uh, for you to either enter miles per hour that you reached on that session, if you're on a treadmill and doing our indoor option, or if you're able to get outdoors or our basketball officials on basketball courts, so on and so forth, they're able to enter the fastest time.

So you need a stopwatch, but you could use your cell phone. Uh, you can enter all of your weights and track those things. There's a wonderful journal function where we can chat back and forth and even though we're in different places, you can send me videos via the app and I can send you videos back. Um, so I can still virtually coach you from wherever and I check these every day, uh, but we just wanted to give a good overview of how simple, easy, effective this is for you because a lot of people are kind of thinking, hey, can What am I getting into?

What is the, uh, I don't know what it's going to look like. That may cause some anxiety for you. And I don't want it to. The whole goal of our training program for all of our sports is to make it as simple, effective, and time efficient for you as possible.

Keely: That's, that's awesome. I love that. So. We are, you know, really looking forward to working together.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think this is a really exciting opportunity for us to Yeah, we are. Uh, to, to really get in to the weeds of what it is that hockey umpires do, and, and how we can best prepare ourselves for the specificities of of our sport and make sure that what we're doing is efficient and really targeted and there's no waste, there's no nothing and if you want to add things on because you've got lots of time to You know, go do some gymnastics, or go for your hikes, or do whatever it is that you like to do.

You know, you will have the time to do that, but you know that you've got your bedrock available for your season. You are set to go, so there you go. Anything else that you want to add, uh, as we're wrapping up here? Anything else that you want to add? Send the folks home with.

Austin: No, I think if anybody has any questions initially, obviously about the program, reach out to myself or Keely.

Uh, but also if you have any general questions, you know, I'm pretty easy to get ahold of Austin at runnerrep. com. If it's, you know, general stuff, you just want to kind of get in touch. Um, I check my emails relatively frequently, so I'll get back to you. Uh, more than happy to help in any way I can. So, um, and if you have any tidbits on clips and how to's for officials, Um, or umpires.

I apologize. Um, I know umpires are the best now. Uh, please feel free. Send them to me. Let me know. But yeah, we can chat on social media as well. Um, uh, always on there as well. So yeah, if there's any way you want to get into contact, just let me know.

Keely: Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. You, you are very responsive on email.

Um, your Instagram is really thorough. So if you want to follow Austin's stuff and see what his philosophy and get more in depth into what he's doing with people, it's at Runnin' Ref without the G. So it's just runnin, Runnin' Ref. And, uh, that's how I got hooked on, on his stuff. So I'm sure you'll be able to find more about that.

And yes, we're going to, we're going to bring him into the server so that he can I'm going to ask, answer questions for, for folks and get to know just what an amazing team you are in our server. So that's awesome. Thank you so much for giving up your time today. I, I'm really excited about this. It's something that I've been wanting to do for a while, but just felt like I don't know what I'm doing.

I don't have the background. I don't have the science. I need an expert. And then. You plunked down, uh, came out of the sky in the internet and landed in, you know, my world, so.

Austin: It was meant to be!

Keely: It was meant to be. Yes, absolutely. So thank you so much for hopping in and yeah, let's, let's get, what's the phrase?

Let's get to runnin'. Let's get to running. Absolutely. Thanks, Austin. We'll talk to you real soon.

Austin: Thanks everybody for tuning in.

Keely: All right.

Austin: All righty.

Keely: Thanks. All right. Well, there you go. That was Austin Ardrey of Runnin' Ref. And I, um, like I said, super excited. I, I can't wait to get people into this program and find out.

So part of the waiting list. That, again, is at, uh, FHumpires. com and let me get that going again. Um, fhumpires.com/stp. Part of that process is that, you know, we have some questions for you because I wanna find out and Austin wants to find out what it is that you are, uh, looking for. What have you tried before that hasn't worked?

This is really important information for us so we can make sure that we're targeting your direct needs. 'cause one of the reasons I love doing live streams and the reason that I keep coming back, even though I keep being told it's not the most efficient way of doing things, is that I get a chance to be in direct conversation with everybody.

And I learn from you. So we're gonna use that survey and all of that in order to, uh, make sure that we keep learning from you and we're gonna be able to build an amazing program in this beta together. So have a look at that. If you have any questions, like Austin said, you can email him, you can email me, you can get in the server and ask all the questions in there.

Can't wait to, uh, to hear what y'all have to say. And, um, Here's Ben. Good to see you, buddy. Catching what you can't before work? Yes. And I mean, he is a wealth of knowledge. I just can't believe how much he knows. So there you go. Okay, let's move on to a few more of our clips because we have just a couple things to cover that came to me from the internets.

And yeah, we're getting back into the, uh, land of the, the land of the penalty corner dregs. So, have a look at this one and get in the polls, get in the comments, uh, go ahead and vote. What do you think of this one? So, of course, I mean, who else sent this to me but Fraser? Obviously, because he said, Oh, have a look.

How often do we get a view like this on a penalty stroke? Very, very seldomly. And I like, how did they know? Did they know that this was happening on FHumpires on Wednesday? I, I, I really don't know. So we talked a lot last week about what it is that actually constitutes a drag. And the assertion that I've been making, uh, very often, and I'm I'm working this theory with everybody.

This isn't a, you know, a firm. I know this and what, you know, it's, it's absolutely set in stone. It's not the rules. It's not defined in any guidance. It's not in the briefings, but I'm trying to help people figure out what a rational, defensible and visible criterion is on which we, what we can judge is a drag.

And I think this is a. Potentially a really good example of what actually is a drag. So I'm going to go to the screen so we can sort of, I can do my whole annotating thing. Got my iPad. I'm ready to go. And so if I drag this or I think I'm just going to slow it down really, really slowly and actually slow it down even further and hopefully we'll get there.

Okay, she's starting to move, she's starting to move. So, in order to blow it up a little bit to make it easier to see, I have, the goalkeeper isn't quite in the shot here, okay? So, remember, the player can take as many steps as they want, so I'm not concerned about the number of steps, but I am looking at where they step.

And this is for me, the critical moment right here. Okay. And, you know, Fraser sent me a screenshot, but I prefer this one where I'm looking at the ball still in place. It hasn't moved whatsoever. That is the starting point of the ball right here. And from what I can see, the foot is. You know, at best in line with the ball.

It has not started behind the ball. It, the, the right foot is ahead of the ball before the ball has been played. So the ball hasn't moved and the right foot is in front. And that results in the motion that we see and the ability for the player, if I can pull this back, come on, work with me here.

This isn't liking me manipulating it like this. Do what I want you to do. Okay. Is that, She's then able to release the ball. That's just after the release point. The, uh, juh, juh, juh, juh. That's pretty close to the release point there. And this is what I'm talking about. This is, I'm saying that when a player is able to drag the ball, they're able to release it because of where the right foot can end up.

So much further ahead of where it can, where it should be, that the The distance between the goal line and where the ball is, is a dramatically shorter. It's been cut in this case by probably a meter and a half, if not two meters, okay? And if she can't, if she can't play the ball with her right foot in front of it, then that means That she can't release it this close to the goal.

Okay. And let's see, that might be exactly what Ben said. Kind of peak angle. Uh, they bring the right foot beyond the ball and pull it forward. Yep. And there you go. And it's all about how close they get to the, to the goal. So, there was also discussion, um, I, I got a few more comments on the same reel and that sort of thing from a few of the sources, including, um, Lee Baird, Baz, uh, thank you very much for chiming in, and I know you're on a big walk across the UK right now, so good luck with that endeavor.

Or if you want me to plug anything, I, I do. Don't remember if you're doing this for charity or if you're just doing it as a challenge for yourself and your friends. Um, do let me know because I'm happy to, uh, I'm happy to promote and plug, you know, my friends and past guests of umpired home. And he repeated the same comment about a double movement of the ball when we were looking at Fraser's, um, example the other day.

So if I go back to this. And this was the

Uh, this, this was the stroke that sort of started the whole conversation. And, and what he said is that there's, he used the words double movement. And again, I think the challenge in trying to use that as a criterion is that first of all, double movement is not used in the rule. It's playing the ball twice.

You can't play the ball twice. So what constitutes playing the ball? And with the stick still in contact with the ball, Yes, it changes direction because of different levers that Fraser uses in his hands at this moment. How can you, how, where is the line between a single movement that is simply a push and extended contact of the stick along the ball, which naturally means that the ball is going to contact different areas of the stick?

It doesn't just stay at one point because it's not a hit. There isn't just the stick hitting the ball and the ball springing off. There's an extended contact and movement there. Then that necessarily means that the stick is going, the ball is going to shift along the stick in the pushing motion. So how do you distinguish that between that or this?

And I think that's the big question. Sort of challenge in that situation. So I'm trying to play it again and it won't play. Here we go. So yeah, a real challenge there. And there's absolutely a change of direction here. And if this happens in midair, what do we do? So I think it's a lot easier to look at this from the perspective of the feet.

Sorry, I still have this cough. I haven't been able to shake it. And what that means, what the feat means for shortening the distance to the goal, which I think is the primary concern and what the concern is in not dragging the ball, it's not, the concern isn't about deception as far as I can read it the way I see it.

I'm still open for more discussion. I still want to hear more from you all on this, and I will check. Okay. And I know that I'm going to have to do this. I know that I'm going to have to log into discord live because, you know, that's, that's just the way my life goes. Or if I'm smart, I could go into preview mode.

Let's see if I can do this and I can do it behind the scenes. Oh, that's right. That's right. I'm winning. You get to keep watching the replay of this and tell me if there's anything else that you see, I'm still looking for more. I'm still looking for a. A good, you know, solid argument that gets me thinking more about, you know, why Oh, I'm not editing the status.

This happened to me last time and I couldn't remember how to do this. I'm not editing Ah, it's settings. That's where it is. I'm still looking for more ways to be able to explain this. And the, the The standard that I use for this is, can I explain this to a player? And if I can't do that, if I can't explain it to a player, then it's not good enough.

Because a player has to feel very much like they can have a conversation with an umpire, umpire, umpire. The umpire has the ability to convey the information. This is the standard that I applied. This is what I saw. This was the call. If you can't be that sure, and you can't be that clear, it's not good enough.

And that to me is, is the big difference. Okay. So let's do it. This is what the poll says. Let's see. Three people voted. Oh, come on, you guys. What? Why so quiet? Why so quiet? But at least a hundred percent of you agree. Okay. That it's a drag. So I get all of that. Um, Mr. Muis, you're late. You will catch up on the first half tomorrow.

Yeah, I think you're going to be really interested in this because, you know, William, you've done some extraordinary work on your fitness over the last year and had some amazing results. And I'm just, I, I, I think you're ready to get to the next level. I'm pretty excited about it. Um, let's see, in the first one.

Oh, and now you've real names slipped my mind. It's going to come to me in a second. The first one, that penalty stroke, that's how you take them yourself, even though yourself would disallow a penalty stroke, taken like that, but you don't have the highest level umpires. Look, I'm, I'm not here to bust on you and your, you know.

Your, your, your thoughts and that that's part of our challenge as umpires is that we often know the rules better than the level at which we're playing and we can play a role in pushing the envelope and helping to educate the umpires that we do work with in a non condescending, non confrontational, non destructive way.

Right? We can have conversations that make sense, that help spread the message, and there have been times where I've, you know, done things at the league level where I've gone to the board and said, you know what? I cheat this way because I can get away with it. We need to stop it from happening. I have to be stopped.

So this is what everybody needs to learn. And, um, you know, to my competitive detriment, absolutely. But it's for the betterment of the league, so that's the important thing. And then, um, let's see, the Google form says needs permission. Can you, can you expand on that, Lou? Needs permission. Cause I think it should be, Oh, I wonder if the page is setting correctly.

Oh boy. That would be bad. Okay, we're going to go back to this scene so you can keep watching this and I'm going to try to fix this right now, live, because if it's locked off, it's wrong.

I copied and pasted it and then, okay, edit, edit. It's coming. Lou, thank you very much for speaking up. That's very important.

This can be viewed by all people, restrict access to courses, memberships.

Okay, I think it should be okay, but I'm going to, um, make sure I disable

Disable any permissions.

Did that work? Let me know.

I'm going to go, I'm opening another window so I can have a look and see. You need permission. Oh, Google Forms permission. That's dumb.

Google, why are you tripping? Why are you tripping? It's clearly not my fault.

Oh boy.

Recent, recent, recent. I'm trying to open up the form as we're sitting here live because I'm That's how I go. Ah, sword. Did I say that right? So is it sword? Is it short?

I forget. Rachel. Okay. You've raised a ticket. Thank you. I think I know, I think I know how to fix it, but we will see. We will see. FHU and running rough. This is fun. Hey, at least you get to watch something. Hey, you know what I'm going to do is we're going to go to the next segment. And while you're watching the play.

That's clever, right? While we're, while you're watching the play, I'll fix the problem. Here we go. An aerial goal. Have a look at this tasty treat. This was raised in the server by our good friend Alex Vrie. Now, I don't have any other angles of this, and if you saw it, um, then And you know a better place to have it.

I wish I'd known that before, but here we are, this is, this is where we're sitting with this and have a look at this as best you can see from this angle. And that's going to be something that I do talk about in general. And I talk about this all the time, that these vertical angles, other than the last clip, that's the first time that a vertical angle was like, Oh, that's pretty good.

I think a, a horizontal and a bigger picture still would have been helpful, but we could actually see everything that we wanted from that. So, um, make this a quiz responses presentation.

Okay,

I don't understand how to make this open to all. It should just be open to all,

but keep watching this and let me know what you think. The poll is there and present.

I'm deeply troubled about this. Deeply troubled.

Oh, there it is. Found it.

Okay. Try it again. Try it again. You know, Sherd, I've, I am always trying to pronounce names and I'm always getting them wrong, but I'm doing my best, right? It's the spirit. It's the spirit and the constant attempt at improvement. That's what we're looking at. That's what we're trying to do.

Okay, so let's have a look at this replay while you all give that an attempt for me. So this is in progress, obviously, and it looks good now. Thank you so much, Rachel, for that feedback. Okay, I believe this player that is coming into the left side of the frame, I believe that's the one who scores. So we still can't see the ball at this moment, and we have the goalkeeper looking there.

We have a trouble, we have a problem with this angle, don't we? It's not a great angle by which we can really determine what is the distance here between these two players. And we can see the stroke mark, we can see this, and we can see that the, that the attacker could be at this point within five meters.

But the goalkeeper is quite stationary, so if you're going through the steps of determining without knowing where the landing area is, You can see the receiving areas, that at this point, from what we can see, it looks like the goalkeeper is the initial receiver. However, it appears that the goalkeeper misjudges this ball.

You can see the umpire is in a position to see the action. Maybe not the best position, but this player is moving behind the goalkeeper and as the ball starts approaching, this player is now moving away. There is no danger in this moment. And the goalkeeper is starting to realize, Oh, he's looking over a shoulder.

I think I've misjudged this ball. And then right here, it's very, very quick. And I. Even though I've got it in slow mo, I don't know if I can cut the frames properly. Oops, that's how fast it is. Oh, you can't even see it as it moves through the air because the sky makes it very difficult.

So we don't see, we can only infer the path of the ball here, but it appears to go right over the goalkeeper's head. And so if that is the case, if the goalkeeper isn't even able to reach it in that point, at that point, then there must be a significant difference between the goalkeeper and this attacker who is able to play it.

Not even super over his head, but in a lowered position, almost at the shoulder height, by the time he actually contacts the ball, there's a distance there. And so he tips the ball in that direction and off it goes. Maybe at that point when you're watching right after the goal is scored, the attacker and the goalkeeper are closer together at this point because the goalkeeper is reaching back.

But. What do you think? I'm going to put it back on the scrolling replay so you can tell me what you're saying. I appreciate that. And I know you meant that as a compliment. Okay, William, it's a goal for you. The goalkeeper looks like the initial receiver. They miss the ball and it doesn't appear the attacker has any influence on that. The ball falls to the attack. So goal. So I've talked over and over again about this outdated notion that there's a five meter disc around the initial receiver on the ground. And that determines whether someone is infringing on the five meters or if a player is inside that, that they are then, uh, creating a situation or there is a situation where there is no initial receiver. And I just don't see that applying in this case because of the trajectory of the ball and how even if the goalkeeper is the initial receiver, they don't seem to be in the.

receiving area. That ball isn't receivable for him. And it's dusk. It's a little tricky. I'm sure that the lights are turned on. Can we see that in this clip? Let me play it on the full. Yes. So the lights are on, which makes it even harder. That tricky dusk time is, you know, what a pain to be able to pick out a ball.

And if the ball is there, then, um, Yeah, you're, you're kind of in a mess. Thank you, Lou, for that confirmation. I really appreciate it. Um, hi! I'm starting at 6am New Zealand time. Sorry, I'm a jerk. My bad. Um, brain? Goalie even steps back into the receiving area. Yeah, from that angle. I'm gonna keep, I'm trying to correct this language because I don't like landing as a term.

I don't like a landing zone because that connotes that the ball has to get on the ground. And if we are If we're trying to determine how players are able to receive the ball instead of where the ball actually hits the ground, then we should describe it as a receiving area. And the receiving area also freezes up from this artificial five meter disc on the ground and into the area where the ball is going to be coming at all kinds of angles and there's different sort of planes on which we're dealing with that are more accurate and responsive to what the players are actually experiencing on the pitch.

So there we go. And the submit works. Yay. And so you don't think there's an initial receive or should, um, as the ball appears to land about one to three meters away from the goalkeeper. So, so would that in your. Can you, your view, make that a free hit for the defence, because there is no initial receiver and the players are too close together?

I guess that would be what the question is?

Ok? And this is a really fabulous clip. It really is because it shows the difficulty of trying to put a black and white sort of five meters and, and, you know, drawing diagrams on the pitch and things like that to a situation that is much more fluid and dynamic and has a lot more variables in play than a traditional aerial situation does.

It's not often that a player is misjudging the landing zone. See, you've done it now. You've got it in my head. The receiving area that they've misjudged that to that extent. And so If the goalkeeper had been in the receiving area, they would have been where the attacker was, and they were there first because the attacker was coming in secondarily.

I think you absolutely have an argument for a free hit defense. For there being no initial receiver, because they would have been in the same spot, but the attacker has slipped in behind into an area that presents no disadvantage for the goalkeeper. No danger to the goalkeeper. There's nothing dangerous in the way that the ball is played.

Nothing like that. So this doesn't, to me, instinctively, and when I try to apply all the reasons that we have, the error rule in place. This doesn't fit a situation I'd want to award a free hit defense for. So there you go. There is no making fun of me in this show. I've had to do many challenging things today, including interview a really fabulous person.

And that takes a lot of brain power. And I would, you know, there's no tongue sticking out happening here. Okay. Let's go to the poll and see what y'all think of this aerial goal. And let's see. So 80, 86 percent of you. Six of you believe that it's a goal, and then one person wants the free hit defense for no initial receiver.

And I think it's, it's good to just go through the process. What are we applying here without, you know, making any sort of declaration? Because like in a lot of these situations, we don't have fabulous angles on this. I would have liked to see, obviously, a better, Big play. I would have liked to see this from behind the goal instead of from that angle.

And I've noticed that there's a big trend in the Dutch games and should maybe, and Marijn, you can correct me on this if I've, if I've gotten this wrong, but I really do think that there's a lot of social clips coming out now from the end line. Perspective. So whether these are fans or these are actual, um, you know, these are official content creators, um, gathering content for accounts from these games, but there's a lot of perspectives, a lot of video coming out from that place.

And I mean, it's fabulous because any different sort of angle and presentation of the game, I think is great. It's exciting. We're seeing the players reactions, we're seeing, you know, it's fresh, fabulous, all that kind of stuff. But in this particular situation, it doesn't present us with a great angle on this particular thing.

And again, I think we've got You know, when I look at where that aerial started, and let's see if we can stop it right at the moment where the aerial is going to start. There's lots of clapping of hands and that sort of thing. So, this ball looks to be, maybe, at the most, halfway between the 23 and the central line.

And, I can tell you under MCP, I would be saying this umpire should be, ideally, In their happy place right at this moment.

There is no reason for an umpire to be standing at the top of the circle off to the side at this angle and I think if they had been there, they would have had a better angle. I don't think they would have come to a different conclusion but they would have had a better angle on which to sell this and present the decision.

Okay. So again, MCP people, it just works. It works. And it makes everybody a lot more confident about these calls. Um, let's see, got a couple of late ones. Hi, Mark. Good to see you. Uh, isn't this the relevant part? The ball may be intercepted within five meters, but outside playing distance provided is done safely and unsafely.

And I read the repetition out because I'm adult. Um, you know, Mark, that is a really good point. And so what you're saying is this, if I'm understanding you correctly, this is an interception sort of situation where it is within the five meters, but it's safely done. The initial receiver is the goalkeeper, but the attacker is essentially beating the initial receiver.

To the ball, even though they weren't there sooner, they were there later. I like that a lot, Mark. Good work. Big fan, big fan. Um, in Dutch football, these are the official angles used in official replays and broadcasts. So it could be the same. Yeah. I mean, I think these are, these look to be organic, uh, you know, uh, what do they call it?

You, user generated content, UG. UGC stuff. I, I think these are, um, not necessarily, you know, planned, programmed, decided ahead in advance, but this is, um, this is what they're doing. So that's good stuff. Uh, Samantha! You're back. I'm just excited you're back. Um, it looks like the keeper completely misjudged the receiving zone and stepped out too far, um, where the attacker stepped into the receiving zone when the ball was headed.

Yep. And, um, I agree with that. And Mark, he didn't receive it within the playing distance that Keeper was using. Yeah, I like that too. So thank you. That was really, really, and Richard likes Mark's comment too. I just, I'm giving you an air horn because I hadn't considered that angle. And this is why we do this.

We get the conversation happening. Very, very helpful. Thank you very much, friends. Um, I have a couple of announcements. Thanks As I always do, because I have some people to fet and celebrate. First of all, joining our green program, John Woad, who also earned 13 Badger status on the server

today. I was like, yeah, it's, yeah, that's me. That fits, that works. Uh, John, thank you very much for joining the third team. And if you want to know more about it, there's a QR code there, there, there, Oh, I'm always pointing the wrong direction there. Uh, you can go have a look and green is a really great option for you.

If you're looking to take advantage of the resources that we have, uh, available in terms of the clip library. Joining in the watch parties that we do, and hint hint, Pro League starts up again on the 22nd, so in one week from now, things are gonna be bonkers again on the server, and lots of watch parties that you can take part in.

You can also, uh, this is a new feature, to, you can join in and observe. The debriefs, and you can talk as well and ask questions and, you know, make contributions to debriefs of yellow members. So yellow members have the opportunity to provide their video and I coach them remotely and we coach them remotely, uh, on their match in a very holistic way.

And I draw pictures with my fancy, my fancy Apple pencil, and we do all kinds of work like that. So, um, I mean, it's a pretty great way to be able to get more out of your, uh, FH umpires experience, get more information in the community. And I've combined the chat areas of green and yellow now into, uh, one, it's a private area in the discord, but we have more in depth conversations about people's matches and their concerns and things like that.

So it's also valuable. And speaking of yellow. If I may, Kristen Britz, a friend from Australia. Oh, whoops. I'm just so DJ airhorning today. Have you noticed that? I just, am I overusing it? Am I overusing it? Sorry. Um, Kristen, I've been in conversations with Kristen for the last, Oh God, how long has it been, Kristen?

Probably like four or five months. We've been talking about AI and rules and things like that. So, you know, stay tuned for more of that. I just, you know, just whet your appetite a little bit. Kristen's kind of smart, just saying, and, uh, has some projects going on, but he has joined Yellow and that is actually his daughter who's also, uh, I understand, rumor has it, a fabulous umpire.

So, um, Thank you so much for joining the third team. I can't wait to get down to work with you and get to know you better and support you on your umpiring journey. So there you go. Um, this is the whole shebang about the third team. And I'm, I'm really proud of this. Not just because I get to work with fine people, but when you are a part of this, it helps me be able to continue to offer free resources for the rest of the world.

Cause I understand the private umpiring coaching isn't necessarily within everybody's reach or it's not the right time of their career or their lives or whatever the case might be. So even joining green, if you aren't looking for your own, your own Individual coaching. You don't want all of this up in your grill all the time.

I don't know why you wouldn't, because this is fabulous. But if you just want to be able to access some more resources, but primarily just be able to support the things that I'm doing every week here on What If Wednesday and work that I do on the internet and in the server for everybody, then I really appreciate that.

It means a lot to me. So thank you very much. And Samantha, you're right. There can never be too much error. Good, good call. Oh, and Rachel agrees. So there you go. Fantastic. I'm rich. Don't threaten me with a good time. That's what I like to say. Okay. Um, whoops. I should probably take that off the screen. I should probably go to that screen and come back here because we're going to go on to our.

Wait, is this, is this the right one? Are we on three? Let's see. Wait, two, three. Damn

it. I knew it.

Hi. Ariel the penalty stroke. This is our third clip. I think I'm just kind of out of sorts.

(Commentary): And who sent this to me?

Keely: I don't know where all those rolled R's are coming from. I had no idea. Is that Flemish? Is that a Flemish thing where they're rolling their R's all the time? Because this is Belgian hockey.

This is a victory, uh, playing what ducks, what are we ducks in some form of playoff. I couldn't pick it up. I like it a lot better when I get the French commentary from the Belgian stuff because for some reason. You know, six years, only six years of French in my schooling just all comes flooding back to me and I can, I can make out a lot of the stuff that's happening.

So, so there you go. There is a poll, as you can tell, it is indeed a Flemish commentator. Your girl, you know, she's pretty good at this stuff. Um,

So there's a poll. Go vote on this one because, uh, yeah, this one, this, this one may have actually been played a while ago. I'm not exactly sure, but this was deemed as a penalty stroke. And it's interesting because the person who sent it my way on Instagram is a Dutch umpire. And it was confirmed, I think it was passed around an umpiring group there.

And it was a topic conversation about how rare it is. This is a very rare situation. That you would give a penalty stroke for an aerial infringement. And I know that there has been guidance that bound the KNHB umpires to not call penalty strokes at all in aerial situations. And then of course, you know, this happens in Belgium.

And. in international matches and in England. And so it's got to be really hard to give out a piece of guidance like that and then have to backtrack because everybody else at this level in the world is actually calling it correctly. So let's just sort of parse this one out and see how we feel about the whole thing.

And I'm gonna blow this up.

Okay, so when we watch it from this particular angle, Uh, okay, ball. And, oh, I think that was a really good stopping point, because that's about 20 meters from the receiving area. The receiving area that happens to be occupied by a player in white. And then, and again, dude,

so as the ball's coming down, let me clear this out, into the landing area, we have two problems. We have two problems. We have a defender who is reaching back and moving back into the receiving area. And then we have a goalkeeper who is moving much more laterally. And the umpire makes a very well timed decision to award the penalty stroke here.

And don't even, he's like, I don't know, what else am I supposed to call here? And I sort of, uh, agree with that. And when we watch it from the goal angle, which is why MCP really, really works, you can see initial receiver area. You can see that there's one. Player here, and then as we start to scroll, watch the goalkeeper, okay?

The goalkeeper is moving Laterally, and they have a fantastic view of that player. So the defender is moving backwards. The defender is trying to move back into this. Oh, let me clear this. And okay. So yes, the goalkeeper looks to be looking up, uh, the ball, but from what I can see, this is not. There is pretty decent visibility in this situation as opposed to the defender.

So if the defender is moving back into this receiving area and they are the only player involved, I think you absolutely have a reason to call a penalty corner. That makes a ton of sense to me, but it's the goalkeeper who knows better because they can see the receiver and they are reckless as to the results or just Blatantly breaking the play down in an intentional way, but we can also call that reckless as a result.

That's what I'm seeing there. Let's bring up your comments and see how many people vociferously disagree with me. Oh, thank you very much for that, uh, showed the commentator says, or the umpire may have a point. Um, I want, how far distant, I know Flemish is very close to Dutch, but I'm impressed that that wasn't an issue for you at all.

Um, The umpire may have a point about the fact it's a penalty stroke, in case I'm wondering and that's nice to know. Good work, commentator. Good work. I, I, I agree. Mark. Uh, the keeper was, he was face on. I wouldn't say it was face on, but he was certainly, you know, side on and I think, obviously there. Oh, you couldn't see me.

Oh, well. Oh, well, that was dumb. Here. How about I go to that screen again? So that you can see,

Oh, dear. See, I have another, I have another me.

Nobody needs this in their life. Okay. Sorry. Left there.

Let me do all this again. No, not the whole thing, but because I think, I think you probably have the situation. So you can see how this defender is definitely looking up towards the ball, but the goalkeeper has a few more meters is a few more meters back and it's tough because this is a fish eye, right?

Which will obviously push out. It'll, it'll push out the vertical instead of keeping it nice and flat. But as we scroll through this. I think the keeper has no problem knowing that he is moving into the attacker's space and the attacker was there underneath the ball. So I think, um, there you go. So hopefully that, um, revision of that made that a little bit more clear.

And do I have to do it in this scene too? Because I can. I can.

Watch this.

Multiplicity!

Oh, it's frightening. Okay, see? I can do anything. Anything I want to do. Um, Mark, if the keeper is at fault here, should he still be on the pitch? Um, well, he could be. And just because a goalkeeper commits an intentional foul inside the circle, doesn't make it an automatic green card or yellow card or anything like that.

Just like with any other play, when we're combining a team penalty with a personal penalty, I actually don't think that that angle's helpful. So I'm going to turn that off and turn that on. We're going to apply a framework that I've spoken about in lots of streams. And so I'm going to keep referring back to it.

It's the RDI framework, repetition, danger, impact. And when we apply it, particularly in the situation where we have the ability to award an upgrade or the more severe team penalty for that, the RDI framework means that we're going to look at, do we need to add more to this significant team penalty because the behavior was repetitious.

So the message needs to be sent. Like you seriously haven't. You know, this has happened before and you're doing it again. So because it's repeated, even though we can award this more severe penalty, now we're going to also add on a suspension because we need to give more to the situation or there's danger.

That's the D of the framework or high impact. Does the impact require that more penalty is applied than the severe penalty we're able to give? In this case, a penalty stroke, which is pretty much a sure goal. Does the situation need it? I mean, it's possible, but if I remove my head out of here again,

and we get back to the goal, um, to the score here, I mean, we're in quarter one, it's 1 1 at this point, this goal makes it 2 1. Do we have a high likelihood of, um, you Oops. And now I'm clicking on the wrong overlay. Do we have a high likelihood that this was repeated in quarter one with four minutes left in the quarter?

Probably not. There's no danger in it. Not at this level. And the impact, did it impact the play in such a way that a penalty stroke just isn't enough to reset the scales of justice? Charley steps up and bangs in the goal. So to me, no, this doesn't need an extra card. This does need the addition of a card in that situation.

So I hope that discussion helps, Mark. It's, it's one that I love to work through because the more times we process the information that way and we apply a standard, we apply a framework that really helps us frame it in a consistent way, we're going to come up with the same decisions every time we're on the pitch, even though the facts are different.

Uh, vary each time. Okay. And I think, I think that's a DJ or horn.

I like that. There you go. Yeah. Repetition unlikely, danger no, impact team penalty is. The more severe penalty. Should I start? Working on that. I don't know. Let's look at the poll and see where everybody is at on this one. Ooh, it's halfway almost. It's only 58 percent or 57 percent on a penalty stroke and 40, 43 percent on the penalty corner.

So I'd love to hear if there's anybody who's watching this and was thinking penalty corner, and look, this is an exercise. This isn't a final examination. This isn't an owl to, for entry into, you know, your next level of Hogwarts and whether you're going to be an oar or anything like that, this is simply an exercise for us to be able to make a decision and then to go through the process of Possibly of hearing that one, um, that, that what we came up with in our initial decision, Oh, here's some different information that I can take into account.

And we're working on our neuroplasticity there. We're working on our ability to change our minds. And that is a very, very important skill that we need to keep, uh, developing. As umpires, we have a lot of practice at standing firm and arguing with whichever player or coach or fan or whomever. Um, wants to come and have a go at us because they don't like our decision.

We have tons of practice with that, but we don't have a lot of practice at getting in information and saying, Oh, I think that the better decision would have been this. And here's a learning opportunity. And I can rewire myself to go out there and make a different decision next time. So there you go. Uh, this is ridiculous.

It's 1 31, my time. And, and we're done. We're done. Fabulous discussion with Austin earlier. So if you're joining late and you didn't see the first half of the show, please go back and have a watch because Austin had some really fantastic information for us on fitness preparation, and it was the announcement of our Beta program.

We are running a 12 week. Preparation program for a limited number of participants. No more than 20 are we going to have in this program. It's going to be very reasonably priced. And if you are a yellow member, you're going to get a discount on this, uh, this program as well. So if you're thinking about yellow, this is a good time.

And we're running it that way because we want to make sure that we have the ability to get all the information and feedback in so we can make this program fantastic and is Productive as possible for everyone to come. So, um, I appreciate that. That is the Keely Hour. There we go. Like what, what is happening today?

And I don't think I've had any major, uh, actually I had, I had the major glitch with the form. So. But I didn't know that was going to happen.

I shouldn't test it out. Okay. Thank you very much for joining in. Don't forget that you can pop into the, uh, the discord server and come and join in more conversation. We're going for teas at the local. It's the local is one of our voice channels in the server. Come on in and you can pepper me with questions about Austin and fitness and why am I so amazing with technology and why the DJ or horn is always an appropriate option and we will see you next week on What Up Wednesday.

Thanks for being here.

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