Umpiring Rhapsody Replay | Reading Hockey Club

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Fresh off a nearly record-setting UK leg (just behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift in ticket sales), this #WhatUpWednesday is a replay of the last stop of the Umpiring Rhapsody Tour at Reading Hockey Club.

00:00:00 Introduction by the amazing Ginette Tessier
00:03:19 Free Hit Management: Rolling Balls
00:03:29 ENGvAUS 2022 Commonwealth Games Semi-Final
00:10:52 NEDvENG 2023 EuroHockey Championships 2023 Semi-Final
00:18:19 NEDvENG 2023 EuroHockey Championship Gold Medal Game
00:20:43 NEDvENG 2023 EuroHockey Championships 2023 Semi-Final
00:25:03 Q: Where can video referrals be requested?
00:25:36 GERvWAL 2023 EuroHockey Championships Pool Match
00:30:11 Q: Letter. of the rule vs. spirit of the rule
00:34:05 IRLvGER 2023 EuroHockey Championships
00:35:03 ESPvBEL 2023 EuroHockey Championships
00:36:31 MASvIND Men's Asian Champions Trophy Final
00:40:11 Aerial Ball Management: Control vs. Mishandle
00:40:41 GBRvCHN 2023 Pro League
00:48:34 GERvBEL 2023 Men's Hockey World Cup
00:52:06 BELvAUS 2023 FIH Pro League
00:58:02 INDvARG 2023 FIH Pro League
01:01:23 Aerial Ball Management: Interceptions and Fails | ROTvKAM 2022 EHL Final Four
01:04:07 NZLvSCO 2022 Commonwealth Games (1)
01:05:06 NZLvSCO 2022 Commonwealth Games (2)
01:08:36 INDvAUS 2023 FIH Pro League
01:10:22 Personal Penalty Management
01:11:05 The Pelling Method
01:15:36 RDI: Repetition, Danger, Impact
01:17:13 Warnings: INDvUSA 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup
01:18:46 Warnings: NEDvGER 2021 FIH Pro League
01:22:38 Repetition: AUSvNED 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup
01:23:28 Repetition: BELvESP 2023 FIH Pro League
01:28:30 Impact: BELvGER 2023 EuroHockey Championships Bronze Medal Match
01:31:39 GERvESP 2023 FIH Pro League
01:34:20 Open Q&A
01:35:25 Q1: What do you do when your colleague tells everyone including the players that they don’t like to give cards?
01:43:48 Q2: How do we reconcile different approaches like traditional J-hook positioning and Mission-Critical Positioning?
01:45:37 Q2: What do you say at the captain’s toss?
01:47:34 Q3: What do you cover in your pre-match chat?
01:52:31 Q4: Critical thinking about umpiring principles
01:53:34 Q5: Managing different levels of umpires in the same competition
01:56:52 Q6: Do we need “set” interpretations?
01:57:10 Q7: How does a new approach to management help establish fairness in a match?

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Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.

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Transcript

Umpiring Rhapsody – Reading

[00:00:00] Lots of you will have seen Keely on What Up Wednesday, uh, on the YouTube stream, uh, so you know what a fun evening we're in. Or if you haven't seen it, buckle up. Uh, a lot of you will also know that, uh, I commonly talk about a group of umpires doing a disagreement. But I am happy to say that there is one person in the room tonight who I think can turn that into an agreement.

[00:00:26] And that is Milady Keely Dunn.

[00:00:29] I know, Milady, wow. You know, that line just keeps getting better. I, I absolutely love that. Just delighted, awestruck, and thrilled to be here, because I've spent the last three and a half years talking to a piece of glass, and it's way more fun to see people in person. So, I will be…

[00:00:51] Hopefully tonight, really conducting a conversation with you, because I don't get to do that very much, and I'm very excited about that. So tonight, what I wanted to touch on were some themes that I've been picking out from all the matches I've been watching over the last, You know, six months to a year.

[00:01:08] It's been a very, very busy sort of pro league season. Uh, if you need to know anything about me, you can go look at it over there, but nobody needs to all that. See all that. We are gonna talk tonight about these three topics because these are the sort of big issues that I think if you're not starting to see them in your levels yet, you will be seeing them very, very soon.

[00:01:33] Okay? At every level, because these days, Everybody is watching what's happening on the streams, on the social medias, all those things. We cannot escape what's coming for us. So we are going to be not only in time with all this, we're going to be ahead of the times and you'll be ready for the thought processes, the discussions, the principles that you need to apply to make sure that you are as consistent as possible when these things erupt.

[00:02:00] And you'll see that I overuse the word management in each title, and that is quite intentional, because everything here is about managing these situations, not necessarily being dictatorial about it. We're going to talk about rolling balls. On Free Hits, we're going to talk about aerials, which are coming, even if they're not there at your level yet.

[00:02:23] The kids are throwing bombs, okay? They're all learning this skill. So if it's not now, those 14 year olds are going to be 24 and playing at your levels in 10 years. You all are still going to be umpiring, right? Right? So there you go. And then we're going to talk about personal penalty management. That QR code takes you to the YouTube playlist for all the videos that I've included in this presentation.

[00:02:53] So if you're looking at this and it doesn't make sense to you or you want to go back, this will take you to that link. If you don't happen to get it now at this moment, just ask me and come back to this later and you can go look at those videos again. Um, you know, just don't distribute them and put them on social media unless you tag me.

[00:03:14] If you do that, I'm happy. Should I, should I go? Is everybody happy now? Excellent. Let's get this party started. on that ball, he's let it keep running. Just a random situation, you probably didn't see anything about this. No big

[00:03:42] whoop.

[00:03:43] in a team referral. England are saying the attackers made no attempt to stop the ball before taking the free hit. We'll have a look at the free hit, uh, and whether it's been stopped. So as it comes over here, it's on the edge of the circle when the free hit that is being contested as it's played in.

[00:04:03] Where is the free hit? There's the free hit. Ball is never stopped at any point. I'm completely with the fact this should be overturned. It's a steal underneath as Beale pops in the goal, but for me, the free hit, the ball is never stopped. This is the free hit. Watch the ball. It's moving. The whistle's now gone.

[00:04:21] That just carries on playing. At no point is there any attempt to stop that ball. It If they don't overturn, this is inconsistent with what was penalized.

[00:04:35] Spoiler alert! So how many of you are seeing this for the first time? Okay. Commonwealth Games semi final, I believe, kind of a big call, tie game, 2 2, Q4, 10 minutes left. This for me was a watershed moment in the conversation that we have about how much roll is a rolling ball and how stationary is stationary.

[00:05:05] What do you think, having seen this, I wanna hear from the people, especially who haven't seen it before. What's your reaction when you see this? What are your, your, your feelings and your thoughts? And don't worry, there's no wrong answers. Un until I tell you what the right one is. . Okay. I'm just kidding.

[00:05:22] Talking about no attempt, even just momentarily to control the group. Just played through. Okay. So we have, we have one, no attempt to stop the ball and he just played it through.

[00:05:42] No attempt to know it's in play. That's the problem. At the beginning of a game, that's what I say to captains, is, you So we know where the free hit's been played from. That is the principle of the rule. What is it getting at? It's getting at that all of us, umpires, defenders, attackers, we all know from where that free hit has been taken, right?

[00:06:10] The important thing is not… Slowing up the attacker and forcing them to change their momentum and change their direction or anything like that. The reason we do it, I am going to trip over that all night by the way. The reason we do it is in order to know how we can force then the 5 metre rule because that is the important part there.

[00:06:33] Now if you focus on that, do you look at that and say, I know from where that free hit's been taken. Tom, you no idea? Don't feel very clear about that at all? Looks like he's played, the whistle.

[00:06:53] Unfortunately, no, the whistle definitely did go. Otherwise, this would have been fine. And we would not be talking about it whatsoever. That would have been delightful. Yeah, go ahead. I know you're cheating, but go ahead, please. That was the stick over, wasn't he? That was his, like… He took the step with the stick over.

[00:07:12] And then we're back to replaying it. So for me, that was when he plays the ball. If it's at the right point now, you'll see it in his head. Okay. But he goes, so, whistle's gone, there, stick over for a step. And then that was it playing for me. Tough to see on that angle, but I want you to look at the, at the, at the front on, or, anyway, the other angle that we see a lot of.

[00:07:34] And I want you to look at where the ball is rolling, and what happens when the attacker does play the ball. It's taken a different. What I see is the defender doesn't step in to tackle. Okay, why is happy that it's been taken. Yeah, I mean Aubrey's

[00:07:59] never happy, like

[00:08:03] we're not, we're not gonna mistake ourselves.

[00:08:10] Yeah, but he complains about everything, so we're not taking him. We're not taking him as the barometer here, I just, I just want that to be understood. But we're starting to get to some of the other points. That the two defenders who are there, the one who's… Very subtle feet, may have danced into the path of the ball.

[00:08:30] Hey, I'm not raising allegations here, I'm just pointing out facts. That 11, I can't remember what his name is, and then Aubrey, neither of those two players can, at the moment that that free hit is taken, close to attempt a tackle. Because they are both trapped within 5 meters, and especially Aubrey, right?

[00:08:52] So, what that means, is that it's much more difficult for that player They're not being directly disadvantaged by very much because they aren't in a position to immediately go anyway. But what I'm most interested in is the fact that that ball comes to quite a bit of a slowdown, and then moves, is moved off into a different direction.

[00:09:20] When I watch this play, it's very clear to me exactly where that ball is taken from. despite the fact there is not that direct contact over the ball. Saying, hi, this has been stopped. As it turns out, after the referral, Canadian Tyler Clank, who has to be right because he's Canadian, decided that there was no clear reason to change the decision.

[00:09:48] And the goal stood, and England was mad.

[00:09:54] That's very true. And the presence of that subclause A is the biggest problem with everything that we have with the free hit. Because back in the day when this word was included, it made a lot of sense. We played very stationary. We walked up to the ball, we stood there, we looked up at our options, and then we had to pass it, we didn't have a self pass option, all of these things.

[00:10:19] The young people in the back have no idea what I'm talking about, right? But this was our reality. It was a very slow… Very stop start game. It's not what it is anymore. And this is why I try to focus on what the principle of the rule is, because it gives us something that keeps us in line with what is fair and what isn't.

[00:10:40] In the modern game, and it's okay if you disagree with whether this, necessarily this one isolated incident is, pardon me, okay or not, but I'm going to give you more evidence about these things. Have a look at this one, and let me know what you think. That's a great take. Okay,

[00:11:13] tackle comes in there.

[00:11:25] Your thoughts? You just create a game plan based on statistics. You've got to do you. So often how often do we see them go for the straight drive? What do you think? A few extra meters. Ball placement is definitely an issue. Absolutely. But… It's middle of the pitch. For two players who were taken out. Yeah.

[00:11:53] Do you feel confident knowing from where that free hit was taken? Steve says no, Rowena says no, Alan shaking his head. Oh, you're okay with that? Sideways, that's it, take it. Watch it on repeat, yes, but first time, yeah. So the reverse stick one, that's the one where you feel confident? Okay, that's fine. For me, this is less distinct than the first example we just saw.

[00:12:26] And yes, the two players who were there would have been caught out, or sorry, wouldn't be caught out because, well, first of all, one of them was intentionally running towards the ball, was going to make sure that she was in the way of the play. Very clever. I think that's Yibi Anson there in the headband who's…

[00:12:43] Committed the tackle and then,

[00:12:48] exactly, right? So now, that's what I want to talk about. Relieve she didn't get a card. How do y'all feel about that tackle?

[00:13:00] Breakdown. Stop cheating. You already know all this. Okay? It's a breakdown. Why do you think, in this particular situation, let's roll with me. Roll with me for a minute and say, that's too much. That is a rolling ball that we do not know from where the free hit's taken. Why would that happen in this particular instance?

[00:13:24] We have two exceptionally good umpires on the pitch.

[00:13:31] Yeah, you can speak. Um, basically, they've put the ball there. The defenders put the ball there. So, so for me, as in the foul, that.

[00:13:48] So if the defenders play the ball after the whistle and put it 10 metres away, You'd allow an attacker to take that ball from there. In that situation, or… I don't like that at all. I don't like that at all. You need to penalize the playing the ball all the way, if, if there's so much of that.

[00:14:06] Two things. One, it penalizes the Dutch, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. The Dutch, very effectively, then and there. Otherwise, you're gonna have to take the ball back, you're gonna have to card. The breakdown tackle at that point. England, England or GB? England. Have the flow of the ball there. Then what they want is to keep going.

[00:14:25] Yeah. Phenomenal path results from it. Yeah. So actually the advantage they want is to take this. The Dutch aren't complaining because by now they'll be down.

[00:14:35] I'm sure the Dutch are very happy with how this all works out for them. Yeah. The concern I've got is the line has been broken as a result of taking that free hit by a player who didn't make the foul. So, you know, I think if, you know, two wrongs don't make a right for me, so I would be

[00:14:59] Taking it back and penalizing the breakdown. Okay. And the point that I want to get to on that is that you all have, I think, come through in your head that that is a breakdown tackle. That is a breakdown tackle in a fairly clear area of the pitch, but it's in a tough area of the pitch for the two umpires to decide between the two of them who's responsible for this.

[00:15:20] That mid park center line, sort of on the sideline, the umpire from that end is probably coming out of their zone. Maybe they're coming a little more slowly, maybe they're blocked because they're in the train tracks because of the way that they're coming out, because they're not doing mission critical positioning, and they're in the wrong place.

[00:15:41] And then Yakub over on the other side, not to name him, but Yakub, over there, is also not quite doing mission critical positioning. He's not interior enough. He's well ahead of the play when we see him pop on the screen, but he's well ahead of the play, but he's, he's probably, for me, 10 to 15 meters wider than he needs to be.

[00:16:00] Which means there he is there. I would be in the center of the pitch there for mission critical positioning and from there I own that call. I can take that. I have an unobstructed view and I'm gonna be the one who's managing that. I think the reason that that rolling ball occurred is because the umpires were thinking to themselves.

[00:16:22] Oh dang Who's taking that cart? Who's doing that one? Is it you? Is it you? And maybe they were talking about it on audio that we didn't hear, probably not, because they're smarter than that. They're not out there in those streets on Euro broadcasts getting exposed, right? But when we have little doubts in our heads about something that's just happened, the mistake will compound if we don't get into the future.

[00:16:54] And worse, if we don't deal with the thing that was right in front of us. And we're thinking about, oh, should have done that. Oh gosh. Okay. Well I'm definitely gonna get the next one then. And all of a sudden the ball's 40 meters down the pitch and you've missed three different things. Okay. I think the bit that's being missed, is right.

[00:17:14] I'd be happy for it to go ahead. Right. Like you say, and then the umpires have got the chance then that on the audio come back and say to each other. Right. And who's taking the card?

[00:17:29] That's what's missed. The card's missed. Uh, I think the ball placement, but I still feel that because there isn't enough of a distinct motion, I mean, we can all sort of rationalize afterwards once we've seen a few times, and it seems… Okay, yeah, I'll take that reverse, but… You know, really, but was she, was she going to be bringing it back to where she wanted or was she thinking about it in the moment?

[00:17:50] Oh, I'm just gonna, you know, that is going to be my take? I don't think so. And maybe this is also my, unfortunate, sorry, um, experience watching particular players a lot and knowing that that's what this player does all the time is she does not stop for whistles because she takes advantage of the lack of advantage that's been given to her.

[00:18:13] And she just keeps going, hoping that she's going to try it on, and she did. Okay, she did get away with it. Also key, I think, Todd, speaking of unusual situations, further behind, there's nothing more difficult than coming back against a Dutch team with their tails right up. No, that's right, and that's where they'll be pleased with the way the quarter finished.

[00:18:38] When was the last time any of you called a five meter infringement on a center pass? What?!

[00:18:51] My, my home team were really trying their, uh, luck,

[00:18:57] which, um, for the people on the university side, it's probably funny to try and get their go, but I couldn't provide the time for doing it. Okay, hilarity aside, yeah,

[00:19:09] hilarity aside, um, proactive anybody? That shouldn't be happening that often, right? But, at this level, just imagine, the umpires here, the gold medal game, they are restarting play, And somebody's lined up not five meters away. They are not prepared for this. They make a decision, and then the ball, arguably, is quite rolling, considering where the foul happened, and there's absolutely nothing in the area of where the foul occurred that indicates to me that that's where that free hit was taken from.

[00:19:50] So at this, at the point that I see… If the free hit is taken from behind the center line, where the ball sort of rolls to, okay, if that is it, then he can engage a lot sooner than he does. And I bet he would have been pinged for a 5 meter infringement had he done so. So, the problem with very liberal ball placements is that we give Uh, we, we create an ambiguity and disadvantage defenders far more because they're not sure when they can step in.

[00:20:27] So unusual circumstances that happen distract us from applying what we understand and planning out where are we going to be happy with where that ball gets taken and how much of a stop do we need to understand that that's where it has actually been taken. Old school right wing, for anybody asking, right side forward, whatever, doesn't matter, takes it and feeds it in, a commitment to run 70

[00:21:08] meters. Old school right side forward, whatever. What do we think about that one? Liz, you have a smile on your face. My comment's going to be to Kadamsha, Is it stopped going that way? That is physics. So there's got to be a second there where it's still… But there's a story to tell, isn't there, at the start of the game about what you are and are not happy with.

[00:21:33] And I, obviously this is deep into the game. Yeah. But for me, if you set the standards early about what you're happy or not happy with, then that sets the context for this. Yeah, great comment. Do you, do you see which game this is? Um, no. Oh my god, is it the same game? Is it quarter four with 12 minutes left?

[00:22:01] Same umpire? Potentially? And he's reversing that, okay? I'm not saying, I'm not pointing this out because I think Yaku made horrendous errors. Because obviously that would be, I would be a jerk if I did that. But, what I'm pointing out is that when we miss something that we should maybe have managed differently early in the game and it's in our heads and we're thinking about the mistake and we're talking about the mistake on the radios something happens later and we step over, back over the line that we did.

[00:22:37] Because that is way, way clearer than the one that he let Hannah Martin get away with earlier in the game. Or they as a team. And I believe, I believe it's Laureen on the other end. It actually is. And she says, yeah, not stopped. Very good. Over the radio to Jakub. So they're in complete agreement. As to that stepping over the line, but in Q two or whatever it was, 10 minutes through that, the other one was okay.

[00:23:18] That that can, that can affect your thinking as well. Absolutely. You're paying more attention. You are. You have that in your mind that your coaches have told you many, many times. When you get closer to the 23, you get closer to the circle, you must be more strict about ball placement and ball stoppages.

[00:23:36] I think the first one as well, they've… Oops, go ahead. With the first one, by pulling it back there, you've, you've continued the breakdown. The player's broken it down, and then as an umpire you've also broken it down. So then actually the Dutch have achieved what they wanted to do. So, whether the lead in scene was deliberate…

[00:24:06] I, I understand what you're saying, but you're trying to talk us into two wrongs making a right, at some point. And if you are fast enough in managing that situation, you're not gonna have that much of a total stoppage. And if you're giving that card right there in that moment, when it should be given early in the game, well, stop it!

[00:24:24] Because that's not my narrative! You're going against everything I'm trying to outline here! Okay? No, I understand the point. I understand the point. For me, just because that then doesn't allow the England player to take advantage of, you know, horrendous ball placement and a rolling ball, all because the card wasn't given or the breakdown wasn't given at that moment.

[00:24:51] Like, that's not enough. If it breaks down the play and the player can't do the right thing because the ball's rolled away, Yeah, no, the tidy. Just deal with it. Just deal with it. Kill you. Totally different question. You sure? Video referee. Can we say video on par for fun? just to make me happy, but what can they say?

[00:25:17] Can you do anything? You know, like a football referee, the video on and all that. They're all looking at it, and it's happening in real time in the middle of the pitch. Absolutely not. So the video umpire's remit is to answer questions that are posed to them. If it is a team referral and you look for this, if a team member does this signal, it is now a team referral.

[00:25:37] Sorry, I'll get this playing so you have something to look at while I'm ranting. Team referral goes like this. They can ask questions about 23. that lead to a penalty corner, a penalty stroke, or a goal. Only those three things, and the event, the incident, must occur within the 23. The umpire may self refer for an incident that occurs within the 23 that leads to a penalty stroke or a goal, and that's it.

[00:26:08] The video umpire has no authority to just get on the horn and say, Yo, you missed that call in the middle of the park! Get back there! Oh god, what are you doing? That would be fun. It would be fun, but they can't do that. They can't do that. There is some significant conversation happening right now about misconduct issues because most Video umpires do watch the entire game.

[00:26:35] I actually I had a really good conversation with Franica Alcomade in Nottingham and she said when she is in the video booth or she was in the video booth and she Coaches this that you actually turn off the game a little bit because she says watching the game for the full time is impossible I disagree with her.

[00:26:52] I watch full games all the time Every single second of them. And the two umpires who are on the pitch are watching the full game every bloody second it's going on. So I don't understand that logic at all, that makes no sense to me. So, most video umpires are watching the whole thing, and if they saw somebody hitting their opposition with a stick when the ball's on the other end of the pitch, A lot of people are talking that this would be a good thing to add to the video Empire regulations, that they are able to give some advice as to a personal penalty in those situations.

[00:27:25] Has it happened yet? No. Is it gonna happen soon? I think it will because of Christopher . Okay. He's not the only one, but offended that ball's come straight onto his forehand. It has. It has, but give, oh, I turn it over. They have to leave it, they've got to back away. The free hit will be up near the edge of the circle.

[00:27:47] They've got to restart and reset. That's not stopped at any point. They'll refer this because the free hit was not stopped. the time, so take their referral. Take their referral. They have to look at this. They'll take the referral, that's fine. There was a foot in the circle. However, the free hit had not been stopped at any point.

[00:28:09] From here, it looked like a travesty. So look at the whole play. So the ball gets rolled back in here, for the free hit, it's the overhead. Watch the pass through the ball, at any point is this stopped. There's nothing there at any point. I think the defenders were five. It hits the foot, that's fine, but, and therefore we're looking at time, but at no stage was the ball stopped.

[00:28:32] First and foremost, I think this play is after time anyway. Okay, so we did on the last slide. Any difference in this one? Anything that you can see? Any thoughts?

[00:28:52] I'd let it go. You'd be happy with that one? And why? Because as the ball was being taken out of the deep back to the sort of dotted line, the player, I felt just looking at that as taking a minute touch to stop it and then drive forward, but I didn't look at the clock to see whether it actually occurred in time, but that's what I'd do.

[00:29:11] So this is one of those things that I can give you a whole bunch of things at once. And the red herrings start getting in there. I want to make sure that we're focusing on the rolling ball. Whether the guy went five before he went straight into the circle. Whether or not it hit the foot before time ran out.

[00:29:29] As it turns out, Antonio just says, no reason to change your decision. Smart guy. He's not going to get himself into all of that. Right? And I think the correct answer was actually that the, um, the time actually did expire before the ball hit the foot. Now, the call can come after time, but the ball actually has to hit the foot while time is still going.

[00:29:52] I'm also happy with that as well. And what you're hearing is a great deal of commentary. saying never stopped, never this, never that, surely, okay? To me that's my keyword, it's actually the opposite thing, and it's completely ambiguous, and we need to have a talk about it. Yes? What worries me is that you're actually going against the rules of the hockey as they're written down.

[00:30:15] Absolutely. Yes it does. Yeah, yeah, but

[00:30:24] the game would suck. Well, maybe, maybe it would do at this level, you know, the level I'm Concern, but I want to make sure everybody knows what's going on at that level. Perhaps they do know what's going on, right. But they're not playing to the rules of hockey, as I understand it. Right. You know, that happens in this series.

[00:30:41] One part of your statement is absolutely true, and I take, oh, I, I give a lot of credit for that, which is at your level players. May not understand what's going on, right? So the key is, do the players at your level understand that that's where the free hit had been taken from. But part of that is the reason that players at lower levels play the way that they play, is because they're not allowed to do these things.

[00:31:03] They don't learn what the principle of the rule is, because we enforce the letter of the rulebook and not the spirit of the rulebook. They play slow and boring because we don't let them do exciting, flairful things. We are there to give them the chance to play their best hockey on that day. But, but you are then confusing half the players, half half the team.

[00:31:26] The defendants in this case don't know whether they can attack the door or not. They don't know has been taken, is, are there any where, are there any techniques you can use to help with that? Can you use proactive communication? Say, yep, happy taken. Can you do that? And over the course of a season… One can.

[00:31:50] But would that be quick enough for defenders to? What's interesting in that though, is you watch the Welsh defenders. Those who engage a set, they're set five, because they know where it's coming from. It's just inside the dotted. And funny enough, the Welsh defenders are set about a yard, metre inside. Top D and then I think the compounding factor in this example is the German players know that they're about to get timed out, so that ball has to get M LD so quick if they want to get a foot, a PC before the times off, which is I think, the primary driver why they do that.

[00:32:23] Of course. Yeah. Yeah, and they're trying to earn a PC for a five meter infringement, and they're trying, they're trying all kinds of things. They're doing what they can. But I think what, what I'd like to, to push back on and challenge you with is the idea that maybe we have more of a part to play by accelerating players development, their growth, and their understanding of what really matters in the game of hockey by not applying letters of the rules and the way that we've seen it for the last 25 30 years And I am an old umpire with a lot of Botox, but I know what the game used to look like.

[00:33:03] Surely. I know it was like that. I know it was very static. I played like that. Do I want the game in my area to look like that? Do I want players to go out and have fun and exercise flair and do exciting things? That's what I want. I want them to enjoy it, and I know this is a continuum, it's a spectrum, it's grey, it's nuanced, but we don't give players the credit that they deserve for their capacity to learn.

[00:33:32] And if you go out and you watch Masters hockey, and you see what the players are able to learn at all kinds of ages, let's give them the chance, let's talk to them, let's educate people in the area, let's work with the coaches, let's work with the players. Talk about these things. So instead of stationary, it should be clearly taken.

[00:33:52] So it's clear that it's been taken rather than has to be actually stopped dead. That, that would be good. Yeah, yep. It's clearly been taken. Everyone's really happy. There's no problem with that. Yes, please send your rules rewording suggestions to me. I have someone on the inside who's promised to send all my suggestions on without my name on them so they might get accepted.

[00:34:12] So… We might be able to get some shit done here. Okay. Um, This is another style that, or another aspect of the rolling ball that you are going to start seeing because the international teams are doing a ton of this now within the last four months. This is caught on like wildfire. Sideline balls.

[00:34:33] Does anybody have an issue with this one? Rowena? Sorry? I was saying it's a classic, we would sort of take it off the line. Okay. And so would you reset this? Okay, that's fine. And why wouldn't you reset this one? Oh, probably because I'm in a world of their own. I have a little bit of space at the ball back.

[00:35:00] Nothing changes, no impact. Right, great.

[00:35:06] It's like I can tell a story with the clips as they move along.

[00:35:19] Does it have an impact because a player puts a hand in the air? Or is there something more?

[00:35:27] There's a higher risk of infringing? Okay, okay. Do we know from where this free hit is taken? Why? Why do we know? Because there's a line there. How amazing is that? We don't have that anywhere else on the pitch except the 23. So we have our 23 meter line, we have our sideline. We know the ball has been taken from there, that we can actually map out the players, know exactly where 5 meters is away from that.

[00:36:01] So, you get to make the decision at your levels. As to whether you're happy with this, or do you want to see every time the ball goes off the sideline, and it goes rolling away, do you want to see a player picking up the ball with their hand, and walking up to the line, and putting it down there, and then standing up and taking a look around?

[00:36:22] Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

[00:36:29] Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha! It's

[00:36:38] easier to play quickly when the ball's on your stick. When I coach players, I get furious when they pick up the ball with hands doing. How can you do anything quickly when you have to put the ball down on the ground after you picked it up in your hand?

[00:36:52] I have many, many rants, as you can tell. We need to stop. Yeah, it's like ran to the, ran to the five minutes. It's a confidence he's put out his right leg. Patted that away. Neil Sharma is wasting no time, but he has to have the ball stationary thoughts for at least a second before he starts again. Those are.

[00:37:16] I actually think that one, it's more clear where it's been taken from than the Spain Belgium Ladies game. Okay, that's fair. Because the defender's running away. Back to the ball. The other one, in the Spain Belgium one, she's moving it up outside the pitch. The Belgian player, or the Spanish player I think it was, was still backing off.

[00:37:36] Trying to get fives. It wasn't quite clear where it's taken. With that one, there's no argument. That player's, the defender's gone away and got the five. I think that's the difference between those two clubs. All the players are much further away on that one, and the guy's running away. So, to pull that one back, I agree, Graham, is unfair.

[00:37:57] More unfair than pulling the other one back. Because basically what they're doing, because he's in a danger area, and he's now allowing the opposition to reset everything. So he's taking away the advantage. Okay. But is there supposed to be an advantage from a sideline ball? It's just the ball's gone out of play.

[00:38:15] Yeah. Because the other team sucks too much to keep it in play, so. By not allowing the defence time to even back off and start getting themselves set, which would be… Is that the point of the rule? Is that the point of the rule though?

[00:38:32] Is that the point of the rule? Are we trying to buy time for the defenders to get back? In front of the ball, okay? The one thing that I want you to notice, by the way, I mean I I agree, I think, I think this is overly you know. I don't know if something's gone on before where he's had issues with it.

[00:38:52] Something has gone on before, that's Sean Rappaport. This is at the Asian Games. He's our Asian Champions Trophy, pardon me. This is after the Commonwealth Games. The clip that I showed you right at the beginning.

[00:39:08] How many times does something like that happen to us where we get a lot of Controversy back. We have a big discussion with the coaches and the players and the clubhouse afterwards. And then we go out the next day and we're paying more attention to things. We go up to the captains at the coin toss and we say, All right, today we're going to be very strict about rolling balls.

[00:39:29] Commonwealth Games final, actually the same scenario happened as in the semi. Um, and it was stood on. Okay. Rely on principles. And this won't happen to you. I want to help all of us get to a consistent standard because we apply the principle, Do we know from where the ball is taken from? And if we know that, if the players know that, we're going to get to the best decision, not necessarily the same decision every time, because the facts are going to be subtly different every, every single time we umpire a match.

[00:40:08] Okay? But principles will save us. Right then, that was super easy. So, let's go. Into an even easier topic, right? You all know this language. The portion that I'm going to draw your attention to right now is the Received, controlled, and is on the ground.

[00:40:34] Speaking of things that I hate in the rulebook, and words that we shall ignore. Oh!

[00:40:50] And that's what the confusion in the circle. Uh, can I ask for a five meter inside the D? Right, I'll have a look. This wasn't there to start with, it's a great ball by Anthony. It's a brilliant ball, she gets some real distance on this. I think it's the bounce that causes the trouble. The ball isn't dangerous there, but then of course the bounce goes so high again that that creates the…

[00:41:11] Technically the second aerial threat, but it's always a tricky one to umpire this. But

[00:41:19] you can see the hesitations it causes for both the goalkeeper and the last defender. And technically, as she's not made a clean interception… It's now deemed dangerous onto Jones. In fact, she's actually played it onto Jones. So it actually, for me, that is a clear corner. If you look, she gets the touch here and Jones is obviously close enough.

[00:41:41] Absolutely. Oh,

[00:41:47] I'm pressing buttons. Buttons are not responding. Anyway, she upholds the decision.

[00:41:55] So just to get into the mindset, we are looking for an initial receiver. We are looking for whether five meters is given and we are looking for control. We are looking for controlled and on the ground. Are we looking for on the ground? Please say no. How do you feel about this one?

[00:42:24] Okay, so you, you don't see that as being dangerous to the GB player who is behind. Sorry, the player in white who is behind the player in red. You don't see that as dangerous to her? Oh, it is dangerous to her. Okay. Thank you. That's why I'm if I'm that's why if I haven't heard it, right. Absolutely Okay, so you're happy with that?

[00:42:44] Any other thoughts? Who's the, who's the initiator? It's none of an error at that point, is it? Is it? It's part of the rule. The ball's, you know, bouncing well over head height. It hasn't been put there by the Yeah, it hasn't, it hasn't been contacted in any way, yeah.

[00:43:15] Now our pitches all vary in amount of bounces and such like that, so maybe you don't see that that often, or maybe you do see this very frequently, but to me, the aerial ball rules still need to apply here, because the purpose of the aerial ball rules is to keep the players safe. And that requires…

[00:43:33] Without anything else happening, without an initial receiver having an opportunity to touch the ball, without a potential safe interceptor coming in, which we'll talk about in a minute, that those rules still need to apply at this point with this particular ball. That these players cannot just come in from opposing teams and contest it as they would a ball that's maybe thigh height Knee height, something like that.

[00:44:00] I think they both come in. It looked like GB player was pretty back all along, and the Chinese girl backed into it. Right. I mean, I'm happy that the defender in red is the initial receiver of the ball. Okay? Yeah, the first defender. The opposing player in red from where the pass is going. What is interesting on this particular play for me, that the more I've watched it, the more I've actually kind of seen this, is that…

[00:44:37] I think the Chinese player has, she's not even mishandling this ball, I think she knows exactly what she's doing in here, and she's actually playing the ball intentionally over the end line. She doesn't know that she's got somebody behind her, but she's like, oh, um, should I leave it? Oh, if I'm not going to leave it, I'm just going to touch it off and give up a 23 meter restart.

[00:44:58] She, she is doing just fine as this ball's coming through, and she plays it like this rather than playing it like this, or this, or this. Out of the air. Is the GB defender, the player in white, is that player within 5 metres of the receiver at the time that the ball lands? Not

[00:45:28] the initial receiver. Not the initial receiver. The initial receiver is the one just in front of her, she is.

[00:45:36] So

[00:45:40] is the player in white within 5 metres of her as she's attempting that reception? Yeah, she is. She's like three and a half, maybe four meters away. This is my coaster. I didn't, I'm, I'm gonna hurt myself if I roll this out. The way we think about the five meter receiving area, I like to call it, I don't like to call it a landing zone anymore because balls don't always land.

[00:46:05] And they certainly don't always land in the zone because they don't always come to the ground, which is why I don't like the control, and on the ground. But the way we've often conceived of this is that the initial receiver is in the middle of this circle, They have a five meter disc around them, and in that area, that is a no go area for anybody else.

[00:46:28] In this disc. And I mean back in the day, when aerials first came out, there was the little touch one meter to our friend, they backed off, we aerialed it straight up the pitch, we got lots of distance on it, okay, everybody else, and the ball would come down from a nice swooping height. And it would land, it would come to land, somewhere in there.

[00:46:57] The problem is, is that that kind of pass is really, really slow. Because it goes, it takes all this extra distance. in the air in order to travel the same distance. If you hit that ball on the ground, it would get there way faster. So it's not an effective aerial anymore to throw a big high bomb that comes down nice and steep into a player with a disc.

[00:47:20] Instead, what's happening is trajectories like that one, where it's low. They're throwing these low slingers now. And my argument is, is that our landing, or our receiving area, is actually a 5 meter. This is heavier than it looks. I'm under tension here, okay? Is like this. Because what we're concerned about is whether the ball is playable in that area.

[00:47:47] It's not just an artificial distance around, it's can that player in behind, can she play the ball as it's coming at that trajectory. And this is why you're seeing at the top levels, That players in behind of these lower trajectory balls are just being completely disregarded. Because this player, in the receiving area, with this kind of angle…

[00:48:12] On the ball are perfectly safe. There is no pressure on them whatsoever, so you can play that on. Was that a good visual? I don't know. I, I, I don't know if it is. Can you do it again? No, I can't. I can't. I'm, I'm burned out. I'm exhausted. Back to Van Doren. A little flick up, picked up. Oh,

[00:48:41] the shot is a dangerous one from De Slovat. Was he going on target? Let's have a look here. Dunn throws this aerial,

[00:48:53] but he's going backwards and, and, and the slover doesn't trap the ball, he knocks the ball towards him. I don't think that's a foul, I think he's over 5 metres. He's pulling back when he's receiving the ball, just a little bit, then… And then he's trying to go back as well. So the initial decision here was play on to a 23 metre restart because it deflected off a defender's stick on that shot.

[00:49:23] And goes to referral. By, uh, Belgium,

[00:49:32] and it doesn't matter what the ultimate call was. What do you think of that one, in terms of control versus mishandle? Control versus is that attacker disadvantaged by a potential infringement by the defender in black there, the German player?

[00:49:54] Who knew exactly what they were doing? Well, but the attacker already knew where It's used

[00:50:01] within five, isn't it? But it's then the argument within five versus playing distance versus safe distance that's…

[00:50:12] He doesn't track the ball down, he tracks the ball forward. Yeah. It's under control, but it's not on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. But what about the rulebook? What about the rulebook? I'm

[00:50:29] glad that we're on the same page. That's a different thing. Would it not be the ones in black, say, because at the time of the initial throw in, they both were charged into the same space, so neither of them were five yards apart? No, no, no. No. No, there's a clear initial receiver there, even though that defender may have only been four meters, right?

[00:50:53] They don't have to be in five meters of clear space, disc drawn on the ground, in order to be considered an initial receiver, okay? And he's allowing them to receive it, and even as the ball's played forward, the defender actually takes it. Kind of a step back. He's like, oh crap. Am I allowed? Can I? Can I? I don't know.

[00:51:13] Am I gonna give up a corner here? Am I gonna give up potentially a stroke if this is deemed intentional? I think as well, the attacker, when he plays it down and controls it forward, instead of choosing to, like, try to play it on the ground, he chooses to play it semi in the air to get a good shot at goal.

[00:51:32] So,

[00:51:37] I gonna

[00:51:41] step out on the pitch and we're not gonna see This kind of level of execution of skill, right? So that's what I'm not, that's not the point. The point is, you will have decisions to make as to whether something that a player does on receiving an aerial constitutes control for your level of the game, for your level of skill.

[00:52:26] Who's dead?

[00:52:31] Okay, so listen after the call and see if you can pick out his dulcet tones.

[00:52:46] Okay, yes.

[00:52:55] Yeah. I'm gonna plug mission critical positioning here. Oh my god, I hate it when people do that. Stop it. The reason being is if you're square there, and so at the point he touches that ball, that guy's five metres. So if you are square on that and you're watching the trajectory of the ball go in from the aerial, by the time you get to watch the player in white pick that ball and it drops, he's now less than five.

[00:53:28] Yeah. You're going to give a corner. Whereas for me, that is not a corner. Yeah, unfortunately, I can't even blame positioning on this particular call, because he's in the right place. But thank you for that, that's very helpful. But for this umpire in this moment, he made the decision based on what he saw to be not under control,

[00:53:54] okay? So, this is the challenge you get to make, because that… is a remarkably, incredibly clean pick out of the air with a side on stick. I mean, it's, it's crazy. Yeah. And he is absolutely, that attacker wants to take that ball full blooded out of the air and thinks he's going to have a full five meters in which to do so.

[00:54:22] So, if you had the opportunity to see the live stream that I did with David Ames and Bernardo Fernandez and Ernst Barth of The Hockey Site, the three of us, Surprisingly, shockingly came to a violent agreement as to how we thought that the notion of controlled, especially at this level of skill, actually should just be the first touch of the receiver.

[00:54:48] That's absolutely true. Because they can control it with one touch. They might keep the ball in the air. They might play it off to the side. They might play it around the next player in order to gain the space that they want. In order to keep playing.

[00:55:12] So for you, what is control at your level? What are the players able to do? What are they trying to do? What are their aims? And you're there to facilitate that growth while still keeping the players safe.

[00:55:34] Initial receivers, who? Yep, reddy, orange, either way, not, not busting your eyeballs, that's fine, okay. And the player in black, who reaches in at the point that I freeze framed, what are they trying to accomplish? An interception. Had that player touched the ball, do you feel that they are, let's say they were able to actually pick that, would you have been happy with that interception?

[00:56:07] Wina would absolutely be happy. Yes, doesn't play it dangerously, absolutely. That's a good caveat, like it, doesn't pick it at all,

[00:56:23] right, right, and at this point that player cannot interfere with the five meters. Just because their interception took them into that area doesn't mean that they can interfere. I've kept this on mute for purpose because Jonas makes the absolute dead correct decision for none of the right reasons. So I don't want you to get confused.

[00:56:48] No shade on Jonas. It's a complicated situation, but the ball is controlled forward and practically a full five meter distance. By which, by which time another defender who had been five meters away from the whole thing and much further than five meters away Is entitled to come and close and make that tackle and off we go So at this level, you'd say the first touch is control, but at lower levels, in the case of us, our judgement is when we can do that Yeah, that's your experience of the skill levels at the, where you're umpiring And so you have the fun task, especially if you're doing different levels at times Is, how do you adjust your expectations and what you're happy with and what you're not.

[00:57:48] I'm sorry. It's so blurry. This is the kind of frame rates I get from the fh. It's very dismaying.

[00:57:57] I know.

[00:58:02] Again, more evidence of, I want you to, if you can hear Sarah talking, Tina's the chance man off the back

[00:58:15] first to hear Argentina Unhappy about that, the ball in the air saying that, uh, that was dangerous. I think we probably would've. Okay, everybody happy the initial receiver is the Indian attacker? Okay, great. And then, what happens after that?

[00:58:36] He sure does, in a very special way. The Argentinian defender decides, probably fairly, that that's control, and comes to close, attempt to dispossess, and Mandy just plays it over his head. The Argentinian defender, importantly, does not take legitimate evasive action, in my opinion. He attempts to play it in the air like this, actively moves towards the ball as opposed to evading the ball, therefore, great play on, okay?

[00:59:13] And it's that action, the proactive, I am going to try to get this, means that he doesn't get the second chance by saying, Oh, but it was dangerous. I didn't even have a, there wasn't even an illusion of a, of a flinch. Okay. Just on that one. Yeah. If anything, the Argentinian player is just coming in. He's never making an attempt at the interception, so he's very quickly closing the 5 on the receiver.

[00:59:48] So if anything, the defender's compounded and is able to crop them, and is then attempted to, as he's been skilful with it. It's just great advantage. And, and if there had been danger, the question that you would then have to think about is who created it? Because dude never should have been there. He shouldn't have been within that five meters because of how he was encroaching the ball.

[01:00:13] So if you would call that dangerous, you're actually rewarding. The player, for encroaching the five metres, and putting himself in a dangerous position. Are you not allowed to say dangerous, but you are the, um, the dark bloons the call? Sorry, say that again? Are you allowed to call the fact that they've run into danger as

[01:00:36] an attack to the other team? For that, yes. If it's broken the play down, you're free to attack off that. But… If they've created danger for themselves. Yeah, so then it goes to the attacker. Would you, would that be allowed? No, you just, you just wouldn't reward them with a foul in their favor. They create their own danger as long as it doesn't hit them.

[01:00:57] You just play. That's all.

[01:01:03] You don't give a foul to the attacker because the defender puts himself in a dangerous position. Right? If it hit, no, if it genuinely played that, so we can't play. Right. Okay, well we're extending the hypothetical in a way that my mind can't even grasp, but I appreciate what you're saying, for sure. As you used earlier on today, Todd, is when the ball comes in like that, you just want it to stick.

[01:01:29] That's a great running take. I love the new ball here. That's unfortunate.

[01:01:40] I like this particular clip, first of all, because Roer gets picked. So good. Second of all, because there's something that happens after that is quite exciting.

[01:01:54] I love the new… Okay.

[01:01:58] Fumble. That is SO unfortunate. Unfortunately reckless as to the intended result, which is dangerous, and therefore should have been a yellow card. No shade to Martin. This is one of the few calls he missed at EHL this year. Last year. Sorry, this is last year's EHL. Okay. Thoughts on the interception itself.

[01:02:17] What do you notice about it? What do you notice about what's… What's happening in the actual play? What are the players doing?

[01:02:28] He runs in front of him. He's within playing distance when he picks, although he's in front of a zone. So, we don't care, but no, the ball is heading on a trajectory, so let's say I've bombed this ball straight at Graham, okay, but instead of it being someone in the line of the ball that attempts the interception, Rick comes from the side and he cuts across the line of the ball that I have bombed towards Graham.

[01:02:57] And that is how, hmm? Audience

[01:03:04] laughs. Look, use your imaginations. Okay? The angle of him coming in, does that actually matter? As long as he's outside of playing distance of the initial event? I'm not talking about legale, I'm not talking about necessarily how we apply the rule except that if you're going to see clean interceptions, this is most likely how you're going to see them.

[01:03:26] Because it is very difficult for players who are in the line with the ball to intercept without being within playing distance and making it dangerous from either in front or behind, okay? But that little slash move from the side, that works. And I've watched hundreds of matches now where I've seen a lot of failed interceptions and a few successful interceptions.

[01:03:53] And the few successes are like this. That is a cheat code for you. Up, up, down, arrow, B. It's okay. If I lost you, nobody plays video games in this room. times, before he has to

[01:04:20] stay off. Quickly take it. When it comes to the initial receiver, it's difficult for us because the camera is panning. We don't see the full situation as it goes. So what I would like you to do is to take, for fact, that the player in black is the initial receiver here. Okay? Hmm?

[01:04:44] Okay, so this is an interception attempt by a defender who is very much in the line of the ball. He is not coming well enough in from the side, and he comes within playing distance and in a way that is also dangerous, and… We have a far spin out by ings goes off and over the top pounding corner, closing the gap.

[01:05:16] Phillip's asking for a card as well. There's a conversation going on.

[01:05:27] Well, they're gonna go upstairs here. Question? Question, yeah. Question. So we're allowed to inset? Yep. He's came from the site inset. Clean bomb. Okay. Kindly check the, I just leave that in 'cause I like you to hear that Forsyth is arguing, that is a clean interception of the book. Just check whether it was, uh, okay.

[01:05:46] I interpreted that it was, uh, uh, note between his, uh, to self. Okay. I'll get back to you for that.

[01:05:56] Okay, here we go, ball played over, and for me, that's a clean intercept.

[01:06:05] Oh yeah, yeah, he didn't, he didn't mishandle the, the ball whatsoever. Okay, yeah, yeah, the question is, I mean, he's coming in, I mean, if he gets an edge, same game, the face of the attacker, same team. Going into the same end. This is later in the game, and the umpire on this one calls a penalty corner for intentional or, as I much prefer to describe it, reckless as to be resolved.

[01:06:35] But I think we can even go with actual intent on this one, and why. What makes this different from the clip that we just saw? He can see. He can see? The defender is actually looking at the guy that he's about to try to pick his head off? Yeah. So that focus by the defender and from where he's coming and he can actually see that he's coming straight at that player means he knows what he's doing in this case.

[01:07:04] In the other one, at least you could argue the player was coming across like this. And he was like, oh, I'm not really sure exactly how much space is there. Interestingly, I attended a series of coaching seminars that Danny Carey and Kate Richardson Walsh just gave back in Canada, and Danny spent some significant time talking about his Views on intentional breakdown of play by players Attempting interceptions when they have no business attempting interceptions, and they are absolutely not actually Trying to intercept the ball.

[01:07:38] They're simply trying to stop the play gain a free hit so everybody can get behind the ball and he says At that level, at least, umpires are not doing a good job in figuring out when things are intentional because they're not penalizing it enough.

[01:07:57] So looking for factors that'll help you make that decision if that is in play at your level. If it's not tomorrow, look at, look for it in January, look for it next season, okay? It's coming. Because players are going to try this because they don't know how. But, if they know, if they can see the person who is the initial receiver and they're tracking right at them and wave their stick in their face, well, I think you're justified in taking that up as an intentional foul and penalizing it appropriately and sending the clear message.

[01:08:33] to the teams. I also liked, liked on that one where Forsyth had said he thought it was a clean take about half a second after he'd made a completely wild swing

[01:08:48] at

[01:08:56] the

[01:09:00] Unfortunately, it's very unfortunate, the misfortune of trying to intercept the ball.

[01:09:13] Okay. We're intercepting two of those kind of balls in the area, about five yards. Unfortunately.

[01:09:26] Okay. And this will be the difficulty that players will attempt interceptions in positions where they are. Outside of playing distance, so they're doing it safely, but they miss it. They are now within playing distance, and they go, Ah, in for a penny, in for a pound. I'm gonna break down the play. So, and you, we need to understand, coaches need to understand, players need to understand, and these are conversations you can have in the pub, on the pitch, at an appropriate time, not during the game, with players to say, look, if you try that interception, and you're doing it safely, and you're not playing distance, great.

[01:10:00] But you know what, if you miss it, and you are now caught within five meters, and an influential, disadvantaging five meters of that player who is the initial receiver and who can now do something awesome, if you're in that, you better get out. You better not reach or stick your feet. In the middle of the play.

[01:10:24] Alright, so, understanding where we are on the clock, I will make my pitch to you all about personal penalty management and give you some, give you a very practical set of tools as you're going into this season because I have noticed things have been changing in the whole world about how we manage our personal penalties.

[01:10:48] And I call it an elevator as opposed to a ladder, because I can create better metaphors for it. Like, you want to be the one pushing the buttons in the elevator, or else the players are going to be taking you to all kinds of floors you don't want to go to. Okay. When it comes to deciding what you are going to manage, and how you are going to get to that first button that you're going to push.

[01:11:15] How are you going to step into that control elevator? I had a problem back when I was here umpiring. This was about 2008, I was FIH Promising List, and I was doing an under 18 schools championship down south. Here, ish. And Liz Pelling was my UM. And walked off a fairly easy game, thought, oh this is going to be fun, can't wait to work with the esteemed Liz Pelling, it's going to be great, and she said, Keely, hmm, so you're really good at the second time, but you're missing the first chance you have to make an intervention, and I think this is what's holding you back in your international career.

[01:12:06] And I was like, yeah, I think you're probably right. How do I fix this? And she said, I don't know if this is going to work, but here's an idea. Do you like lists? Oh, yeah. I love a good list. Let's go with this. She says, I want you to write down everything that you need to manage the first time on the pitch.

[01:12:29] And I wrote something like this. First five meters, first breakdown tackle, managing my first penalty corner, the first opportunity to talk to the captains. Could be one, okay? This isn't the all inclusive must have list, but this worked very well for me. She said, okay, Keely, you're gonna write down this list.

[01:12:48] You're gonna have it in your umpiring kit. I want you to write it down a second time on another piece of paper before you step into a game. You're gonna fold that piece of paper up and put it in your umpiring kit bag. And I said, I'll one up you on that. Can I put it on my hand? Write it on my hand? She's like, all right, you do you, girl.

[01:13:06] And so I did, and I went out there in the next game, and I had a list of… Very, very shorthand things that only would have made sense to me, probably written in Elvish. And, as the game was going, and I was like, I'm so excited to check things off my list, and I'd see a rolling ball that I wasn't happy with, shh, hey, give it a stop, don't want to see that again.

[01:13:31] It was so satisfying. I had now a dopamine hit that rewarded me for doing something that I needed to get done that I was really shit at doing prior to that moment. And it worked for me. It may not work for you, it could be something. And what I took away from the whole experience, from working with Liz Pelling, is that first of all, I had an umpire coach who actually gave a shit and wanted to give me a tool to make me better, instead of just telling me, you're not very good at this, you need to fix it.

[01:14:04] That's something that all of us as umpire coaches… And managers can take away from this. And it's something I've now been obsessed with for the last 15 years. When it comes to starting to use the tools to push the buttons in the elevator, to know which floor you want to go to, there is a few very helpful slides in the FIH briefing.

[01:14:32] This is probably the best part of the FIH briefing, is the slides dealing, telling you And then their suggested criterion for what could be green card offenses. Have you all seen Death by PowerPoint? This is Death by PowerPoint. There are so many words here. Okay. You can see some of the words, um, blah, blah, blah, blah, with low impact on play, off the ball, minor physical offenses, breakdown of play with low impact.

[01:15:00] And then a couple of minor things. That are quite technical for the FIH level. Then when you go to the yellow card offenses, here we go five minutes. Playing the ball after the whistle with high impact or repeated. Breakdown to play with high impact or repeated. Physical fouls. All of the repeated offenses, okay?

[01:15:22] Lots of words, lots of words. 10 minutes, high impact, deliberate breakdowns with no regard to player safety. Dangerous, right? Physical fouls, dangerous tackles that trip, blah blah blah. Repeated technical yellow card offenses. So, I've kind of finally figured out just a few weeks ago that you can put all of this into three little letters.

[01:15:44] RDI. Repetition, danger, impact. This is your criterion as to which card you're going to use at a particular time. And then, you have the two sort of main sections, same main context in which you're going to be giving cards, and one is everywhere else in the pitch, and the other is within the 23 and circle.

[01:16:15] Because when you have the hammer of the team upgrade foul, you have an extra tool, you have an extra… Magic button that appears in the control elevator that you can push, and that comes first. So, what this kind of represents, this is a work in progress, so if this doesn't help and looks confusing, please give me the feedback, because I want to make this better.

[01:16:38] But, you may start with a warning. Not a huge fan of warnings, you're about to see why, but that might be one of the buttons that you want to push in the elevator. And then in the neutral zone, your next step is a green, because you don't have anything else to give. You can't give a team upgrade penalty, but you can inside the 23 and the circle, and then you progress from there.

[01:17:05] And you may go up, you may go down, depending on what happens. In the context of repetition, danger, and impact. Offensive play, they're coming back. Michelle Batiste, she's really up for this game, certainly. I think the US is going to need her experience. Her and Melissa Gonzalez, without a doubt, are going to be key to this.

[01:17:27] And that's what I was talking about with the physicality that the US will want to put on the game. Equally matched, you have to say, by India so far.

[01:17:41] Okay, did everybody hear? Everything that Sarah was doing in order to deliver this warning. It was a lot of work. And this is, I mean, you recognize the, the pitch. I think this is Hockey World League. Nope, sorry, Women's World Cup. There you go. So this was a few years ago. And Sarah had to blow her whistle repeatedly, get the player's attention, the player's like, yes ma'am, my, but my tackle was good.

[01:18:12] Yes ma'am. And smile and all that sort of thing. And Sarah's like, yeah, but not for me. and walks away. How effective was this warning? We'll find out in a minute. If you don't get caught. Defensive player coming back, Michelle Batiste. She's really up for this game, certainly. The US is going to need her experience.

[01:18:35] Her and Melissa Gonzalez without a part of Sarah Wilson's best part whatsoever, because equally matched, you have to say, by India. Rambush, just trying to slow that down. Could have easily been carded had they played it into him. Ball in. Oh, I tell you what, Winfeld has done well. Number three. Yeah,

[01:19:03] yeah, point has to be made.

[01:19:08] Number three, Germany. Don't pretend you don't listen to me. Number three. Just there, watch your five meter. You know what I mean, exactly. Yeah, it was you, don't worry. I love it, I love it. In fact, he could even try and argue that he wasn't doing it. Uh, here we see a replay that shot. The whistle had already gone, but yeah, I absolutely agree with you, Charlie.

[01:19:29] So it's difficult to see. The moment will come, the camera cuts right there, but Grand Busch is standing on the ball. He's like, oh, gave up the free hit and now I'm gonna stand right here. And he is doing just enough, but didn't actually break down the play.

[01:19:47] Was that a good warning? Did it get the message across?

[01:19:55] No. He got it. We enjoyed it. Do you actually think Graham Bush gives any Fs in this moment? No. Had he got a card he wouldn't have given them either. Well, he would have walked off and he would have been thinking about, well… I don't think she was right, but she's gonna bloody well give me a yellow next time I do it.

[01:20:17] There's actual cost to the action that the player committed. I'm not telling you that warnings never work. I'm showing you examples of excellent umpires who have picked moments, and have tried warnings, and they do not work. And you need to gather your own data as to whether the warnings that you give on the pitch actually work or not.

[01:20:40] And that data will include things like… Did I have to card for that same kind of offense later in the game? Because what you're aiming at is to very clearly show the players where the line is by saying, that is stepped over the line, here's what the penalty is, off you go, and they don't do that shit any other time in the game.

[01:21:05] That is the goal. You are deterring them with a very clear, Message that means something. Keely, isn't there also a danger here that all the other players don't think it applies to them? The warning? Possibly, yeah. There's a lot of reasons why they suck. I mean, but you may choose. You may choose.

[01:21:28] So, I want you to think very critically when you go out into your own games. Because I umpire at very, very low levels. Very poor hockey, players who do not understand anything. And I have had to go through that whole thought process myself. Am I going to warn these players? Does it work when I tell them, don't do that thing?

[01:21:53] I mean, generally people are scared of me and Calgary, so sometimes there's a little bit of something there. Right? I have their respect. They believe the things that I say. In my own experience, in my own league, the best way to stop something from happening again is to deal with it appropriately the first time, with a very clear card.

[01:22:14] And again, we make assumptions as to that that our players do not know. They don't understand the rules. I have to be nicer to them because they don't know. It's our job to show them, so they learn faster. Because I believe in their capacity to learn. We're just not doing a good enough, good enough job in showing them.

[01:22:38] The impression is already, in this first couple of minutes, second half, the Dutch are a little bit deeper. They're comfortable defending in their own half. Oh, Virga's gonna get another card, and this time it's a yellow, is it? Yes, it is. Virga, who picked up a green earlier on, picks up a yellow now. Well, he did, he swished this ball there, there, and uh, he's already had one.

[01:23:03] Okay, so just a very, I, I, I, what I should have done when I clipped this is showed the first time that Virga got the card and then you see the next one and it's still only Q3 pretty early on and Virga's at it again. There's the repetition and you know, even if it wasn't Virga again, it's somebody else, you're moving up because repetition.

[01:23:24] Okay, so this is an example of the repetition part of things. In the third quarter, it's a third quarter where Spain have been incredibly good value for a team four goals down. Benastra at the heartbeat of everything good that they do. And Arna now is going to, I think, pick up a green card. It's a second corner outside.

[01:23:44] It's a second. Second corner given outside the circle. That first one from Boca, the stick tackle was number one. The second and he pays the price. How great from the umpire there to just make that really clear, because I thought and thought, oh, I can see it's a corner, but a card seems harsh, but actually two offenses exactly the same outside the circle.

[01:24:06] He's explained it beautifully. You can't argue with that. So one of the commentators understood what was happening.

[01:24:16] And what Martin does here is everybody clear that the offense that's being carded is number 16. I think it's Charlier who goes in for the breakdown tackle outside the circle. And what Martin says in that moment as the dissent comes towards him, he says this is exactly the same thing that I gave a penalty corner for early in this game.

[01:24:39] Same breakdown tackle outside, I gave the corner, and now you're doing it again, we have repetition, that is when I add the corner and the card together. Does that make sense? Because if you're spending the whole game banging in corners for intentional fouls outside the circle, I would suggest to you that the data is showing that that's not enough deterrence.

[01:25:04] The players are still committing the same behavior that you do not want to see, because you want that player to pull out of a tackle that they have no business trying. You want good, free flowing, attacking, and great defending. Hockey. Any questions on that? Yeah, sure, of course. Why is it, I mean, I understand why you don't like the idea of a warning, because people don't take it seriously, is what I would think.

[01:25:36] But, um, why is it okay, then, if you give a green card, and people repeat the offence? I mean, it's sort of the same idea. But people are not responding in the way you would want them to, to any interventions you make. So, obviously, the warning is inefficient in many cases, or the green card could be inefficient in many cases.

[01:26:00] Well, what do you do if the green card is not sufficient and it gets repeated? If they're both equally inefficient. You know, if your sort of warning is equally inefficient as a green card, I mean, why is the warning less good? My response to that is from the matches that I watch and the experience that I have, is that if the green card is given, the first time something happens, you don't see it again in the game.

[01:26:27] It is effective. And many umpires, many umpires are very concerned about this, because they say, it's just going to turn into a card fest. I'm going to have to card everybody off the pitch, we're going to be playing 7 on 7, these players are paying in order to enjoy their hockey, and I'm sending them off the pitch.

[01:26:46] And my response is, because they're not doing the right things. And, if you have breakdown play, over and over again, you have unsafe play, you have high impact play, what about everybody else on the pitch who's paying their money in order to play that game of hockey that day? They want to feel safe. They want things to be fair.

[01:27:06] They want to have fun. It's your job to provide that to them. So you need to do that by managing the problem, which is the person who's doing things wrong.

[01:27:20] Okay? And you manage them. By taking them off the pitch for two minutes, and if somebody does again, you take them off the pitch for five minutes. Things start to open up when there's fewer players on the pitch as well, okay? So in, in my experience, the early cards do work. The late cards, after other, other breakdowns, other misconduct have occurred, don't work.

[01:27:49] Because the players have seen, well, we got away with it in the first quarter. We got away in the second quarter, a couple times then, so this is going pretty well for us. Third quarter, oh, okay, so got a green card for this one, but I bet the next time we're gonna get away with it because we got away with it in the other.

[01:28:08] Okay, so I didn't understand, I'm sorry. Mm hmm.

[01:28:17] Yeah, we can, we can follow it up later and, and let, let me get it straight because I do, I do want to get it straight. It was a good rant anyway. Hopefully it was helpful. Okay, great, great. As long as, as long as that was there. And Germany have got to do things the hard way here.

[01:28:42] Yellow card. Wow. That's uh, quite an escalation of things. It is. It's terrible of her what you've just said. Well, it might have been one of your 50 50s, Williams. Ha ha ha. Yep. No, the only, well, there we are. Van Doren, I think. Okay, sorry. This is the first card of the game and it's the bronze medal game with the Euros that just happened.

[01:29:16] Okay, big game. That is how many time FIH Player of the Year? And in Q2 just before, one minute before that quarter is to end, on this foul, Dan, who is… For me, in the top five umpires in the world, brings out a yellow card without a moment of hesitation. Why? What's the criterion that he's applying here? What are the elements that he's seeing?

[01:29:48] High impact. But for that foul, there was a two on one going into that circle. And Dan can see that because he has mission critical positioning. It's my favorite. It's also kind of dangerous too, that tackle is pretty close to the hand. And it's not, it's not high this way, but it's, it's this, but there's, there's contact pretty close to the, the attacker's hand.

[01:30:12] It's pretty nasty. And as Dan walks off the pitch at the end of this quarter and somebody asks him, oy, you went straight to a yellow, what's up with that? I just mixed two different cultures there. He says it was high impact. Because it cut down a great opportunity and it was dangerous, so you have danger and impact.

[01:30:39] The interesting sort of question that I posed is if that tackle comes in inside the 23, is Dan in that scenario comes with a PC and a green rather than straight yellow? I don't know. Because it's a combination of team healthy and green. Yeah, I think he would have added a, I think he would have added something.

[01:30:57] I think he was that concerned. So he's, he's got the impact covered with. The penalty corner. So he's like, Oh, you took away a great opportunity. I can reset the scales of justice by awarding a penalty corner to that team. Now I'm giving them back that great opportunity, but I'm not happy about the dangerous aspect.

[01:31:17] So I need to send a message. And you can send message about dangerous play in some situations with a green. But it wouldn't have been enough to give a green for this. It would have, I mean, Van Duren still would have been mad, but it would not have been enough of a message. Pretty much Spain's top squad.

[01:31:43] It's not, you know, there are players come in, players go out in the pro league, that's absolutely normal, but all these players play normally. Lacaye, now, penalty corner, that could have been more, there's going to be a card, Paul Glander, yellow.

[01:32:03] This is the TMS sheet for that game. This is when Germany decided that they were too cool for school and brought their under 21 squad to the Pro League. Cause, why not? Spain was really unhappy but didn't get their shit together until the end of the game when they were at risk of losing or being, uh, staying in a tie with an under 21 squad.

[01:32:29] You can see that nothing happens. There's no cards, no cards whatsoever, and very little other fun action. Until this fourth quarter, Spain scores their first goal. Germany comes right back a couple of minutes later, and then you see that high impact and. You can argue dangerous tackle. Spain score from that, and then they score an open net goal, and now we've got 3 1, okay?

[01:32:59] So that's the full context and color. Now you might say, if I do it this way, you might say, but Keely, I think that foul was inside the circle, and had that umpire Not been following the play with the European j hook He would have been in front of it and he would have seen that it actually did happen inside the circle That's not the point.

[01:33:25] That's not the point. Other than the fact that mission critical positioning can make sure that you get that call Right, just my little dig

[01:33:38] and that my friends Concludes the formal portion of the conversation which took the full two hours and means that I did it wrong But if you haven't if you haven't seen this happening On Wednesdays. Please do, please do come by for the chat and let me know you're there. You don't have to ask questions.

[01:33:57] You don't have to, you know, just, just say hi. It's Graham. And then I'll be like, Oh yay! Graham's here! And I get to have a little moment of joy. And I get to humanize the people who I'm talking to, and it helps me do a better stream. Instead of me just talking to a piece of glass, I feel like I'm talking to people.

[01:34:14] And that means a lot to me, and I think that means I can give a better, a better stream. And we can do Q& A now. This QR code will take you to a whole, like, link tree you can see. Where the course is, where the FHU3T hangs out, our Discord server. There are several people here who are members of the server and contribute regularly, and I adore them.

[01:34:38] So if you want to be my favorite, come to the server. There you go. You can, you can turn up all the lights now, and thank you very much.

[01:34:55] And I'm mindful of time, so if people don't, you know, if you're like, gotta go, like, go. That's fine. You can find me on the interwebs, it's fine, but if you have questions, open stuff, you can ask me anything preferably about umpiring, but I am good at life advice as well. Quite often they gimme a match, particularly to a colleague you don't know.

[01:35:16] Mm-hmm. , you'll get this sort of comment during the Prematch chat, oh, I don't like to give cards and disrupt the play. Mm-hmm. and he'll actually tell the players that possibly at the toss as well. How do you cope with that when you feel. You know, card early is probably the best option. Yeah. That was my response.

[01:35:36] Yeah, and, I mean, you will, you will have colleagues that have these sort of different opinions, you will have so many things that you need to work out before the game, but communication is key. And if I had a colleague that said that to me, I'd say, I, I understand that point of view. I mean, nobody wants to ruin a game, but here's another.

[01:35:58] Here's an alternative. Have you thought about whether not giving cards means that players feel they have carte blanche to do crappy things for the rest of the game, and that makes everybody unsafe? And that's, I really don't like that idea, you know, to me, my job is, so have the conversation and work on it.

[01:36:18] You may not get back that information right away. They may not go, Oh my God, I've seen the light, but it'll plant the seed and they'll start doubting well, long held canon in their own heads. And they'll start talking to other people about it. Well, what do you think? Like I thought, I thought we should avoid giving cards.

[01:36:40] It's better to try to keep the players on the pitch, right? That's, you've heard that phrase, keep the players on the pitch. Use all your tools. Show me the ones that work, is my response. Just show me the money, show me the money, and I will jump on that every day of every week. So, just start the conversation, and for me, if I see situations that my colleague isn't willing to card, And I believe need to be managed.

[01:37:11] I give the cards because you can, right? There's nothing that says that you can't give that card. I certainly won't blow their penalty corners or their strokes. That's rude and Probably not in the rulebook. So I just take care of the management of the game. And that happens to me a lot in Calgary, where I'm umpiring with, you know, people I'm mentoring and training who have just picked up a whistle that season, and I'm umpiring a league game with them.

[01:37:39] And I'm like, well, I, this needs to stop. I need to step in. And the players come and thank you afterwards, because they know you're doing it to protect their safety, hopefully. Okay. Good question though. Something that happens to all of us. I hope from what you've seen that if you… And if you watch hockey that maybe isn't the level that you're umpiring at, but you watch different scenarios and different things, the more hockey you watch, the more you see the patterns.

[01:38:11] So what I'm, it's difficult because I pick out this little slice and I show you because that's the only thing that I can do in a, in a seminar is. Hey, look at this 30 seconds, this 15 seconds. This is proof of something. And what I am asking you to do is to just sort of suspend your disbelief and come along with me in saying that I'm picking up things that are represented in hundreds and hundreds of matches that I'm watching.

[01:38:40] And I have yet to see, for example. An international game, where a card came out early, when it was needed, the first time it happened, and then the game went to shit. I have yet to see that happen. And there's only seven players on the pitch, you know, from each team, and players are all mad, not a single time.

[01:39:01] And Dan and I used to have arguments about this. Because about two years ago we were talking and he was like, Keely, you know, we shouldn't be giving cards right away. And I'm like, I dare you. I dare you. Go out and prove me wrong. Give the card early and then let's see what chaos ensues. And then he's doing amazing stuff like that.

[01:39:21] And he's showing the world how to manage a game. And it's, I'm not taking credit for it.

[01:39:31] No, I'm not. I'm not. But, but even the best umpires in the world have You know, they, they've grown up with these cliches and these little catchphrases that we all use, and that we've been perpetrating. We've been teaching the young umpires that we work with, right? And my whole modus operandi is to challenge all of that and say, I'm not interested in what we used to always do.

[01:39:57] I'm not interested in positioning that was excellent to see offsides. I mean, offsides used to be at the center line, right? And then they were at the 25, back when it was a 25 Like, those were the days. And absolutely, you needed to be on the sideline and alongside the play in order to see all that.

[01:40:19] Probably at that 45 degree angle, excellent! 1996, we got rid of offsides and we're still doing that stuff. I was definitely not going to use the word stuff. So, let's get with the modern game. The only time I listen to players on the pitch is when they say… We're not keeping up. We are 25 years behind, and I'm like, yes, players, you are absolutely right.

[01:40:45] So let's prove them wrong, let's show them we can do the work, and we can get up to speed, and we can keep with them. Because, we're awesome. Hi! So, the messaging on this thing, to people who think we're in the dark ages, I mean, suddenly we're going, revolution. Not me personally, but… I'm going to change all this.

[01:41:08] Communication with the teams, the coaches, and that post match, that's going to be crucial. Absolutely. So, the other thing I look at is the game I started playing more than a year or two ago bears no resemblance to the game it has now played at any level. Yeah. The 3D skills that have evolved probably in the last five years, which have changed the game dramatically.

[01:41:33] Aerials. We all see aerials at all levels these days. Yeah. Our umpiring has to evolve, has to change. The players are well ahead of the rulebook. Yeah. They're not playing the rules any more than we are. Sorry, we're trying to. Yeah. Sorry. They are. They are. So, my view on some of the rules is, they're very nice, but everybody accepts the fact that they're not, they're not, the ball being stationary out of free hit.

[01:41:57] Well, I haven't seen those in a little while. Reminds me of the old penalty corners, going back to when it had to be stopped dead outside the D. Mm hmm. Okay, we evolved. Games changed. It's moving on. It's a better game to watch, to plant on. There's such things like this where I get a chance to talk to, you know, we need to show you what we're doing there.

[01:42:16] We need to think about that. So what are we, what are we trying to get, choose? That's what we're trying to do here. And that's how we're trying to do it now. Yeah, that's my, my view on, on… Balancing the rule book with the game that's actually happening in front of us. Yeah. I think my point, Alan, though, is if you turn up to a game with that attitude, your colleagues are not the same way.

[01:42:35] You're stuffed. So you're pretty, no, you're pretty matched up and you're post matched up with when you're talking with the other teams and the coach has to be enlightening. You have to be open about it as well. Yeah, absolutely. And to me, if you come to it with the spirit of, I'm, this is why we're doing it this way.

[01:42:53] It serves a purpose, not just because Keely said so, or Dan Barstow does it, it's, there's a why to this. Because it makes sense with what we're trying to communicate with 5 meters. Because these are the skills the players are able to use now. Because… Warnings don't work. And what we want is a better game from this.

[01:43:17] So I'm not doing this because I want to be the centerpiece. I'm not doing this because somebody told me to. I'm doing this because I feel like I'm going to be able to give you the best game today, if I do this, as to the best of my own ability. You take, for instance, you go… Mike here, who coaches the team as well.

[01:43:34] If we don't keep it in a consistent space, and everybody's trying to get on it, then the team's got no chance either, because one week they're seeing modern umpires, next week they're seeing dinosaurs. To be honest, I don't think many coaches would notice. Decisional differences between jade running and MCP.

[01:44:00] Yeah. I mean a classic one at um, uh, Mike and I are part of Young Ones Tournament a couple of weeks ago. There were two aerial instances inside the circle where someone was jade running. Experienced umpire was Jay running, ball's gone up, and I think there's a delay in them seeing the starting and finishing positions of the players, they've banged a corner in on what was a perfectly good interception on the ball, but they've perceived that player started within that distance and encroached and gave a corner as a result, and I think that was a result of Jay running and being caught flat, and that happened twice that weekend.

[01:44:46] Thanks for watching. Peace. implications really serious for, um, you know, for both those games in terms of outcome. And I'm standing next to Jason Lee and clearly there's been, you know, a position of responsibility at the Right at the top end of the game thinking, what on earth is going on with that? And, you know, and I sort of said to them, well, I think it's because their positioning is not right.

[01:45:12] And they've caught it late, and they've come to the wrong conclusion. So it's, you know, because I think if you stood them in the bar and asked them about their decision making around aerials, I think you'd probably get the right response. Yeah. Absolutely. Question on that one. Alright, um, at the risk of keeping people any later, Okay.

[01:45:33] Can you quickly cover what you would cover in a pre match chat? Because we have lots of discussions about the importance of a pre match chat and also Okay,

[01:45:44] I'll deal with the captain first because that is very quick for me. Is that I introduce myself with my name, find out what the captain's name is, and we choose a toss and I say, have a great game. There is no, no, merit. In saying, right, we're going to be really strict on rolling balls today, we want a big five meters, we want this, we want that.

[01:46:12] How about we just umpire correctly, first of all, and then they adhere to the rules. How about that? That's all we're looking for. And when you get it in the players heads that you're focusing on something specifically. We're going to be really strict on rolling balls. And then there's a ball that you don't deem to be rolling, but is closer to that edge.

[01:46:34] They're like, well, you just said, you told us you were going to do the thing, right? Don't dig your own grave. Right. Oh. Right. And as somebody who prepares a lot of tournament briefings, and has a lot of pre tournament meetings, I, I just, I will not use that language as much as, I avoid it as much as I can and just say, this is the standard.

[01:47:01] This is the standard. Is that new to you? Okay. Cool. We're going to get you to the standard. And you're not going to, you're not going to be able to give a player anything informational. Two minutes before they're taken to the pitch. Their brains are kind of focused on something more important, which is winning a game.

[01:47:18] They don't care what you're going to say, right? Which again, is why I don't think warnings, very much. Okay, so that's the toss up. Uh, just be nice, be a human being, and go from there. That's the most important job you have there. And, and then when it comes to your pre match chat, it depends on how much time you have.

[01:47:37] I take a very triaged approach to everything because sometimes you come to a game and your colleague's been stuck in traffic, or you're in a tournament situation where they're coming off, this is my life, I come off the pitch and I'm pulling off my shin guards and pulling on an umpiring skirt and my colleague is doing the toss up because the next game is starting in three minutes.

[01:47:58] What kind of pre match chat can I have with my colleague, right? So you cover the basics. The, what side do you want, right? How am I going to need help on penalty corners? I want you to give me big signals and then you give me a secondary, that it hit the foot or it was high, it was dangerous. But the first thing is, what is the result?

[01:48:22] And if we have radios, which I don't get to work with very, very often, then you can tell me the secondary information after, but give me The call. Don't make this hard for me. I'm a very, very simple person. Okay. Okay. And likewise, and then we'll talk about responsibility. Okay. And if you've had a pre match chat that's been made anytime in the last 30 years, and my card actually, I think still has it on it and I have to fix it because it's shit.

[01:48:53] The, the line across the pitch, this is your half, this is my half. That's Jayhook stuff, right? What's more important is that you're talking to your colleague, right? When the ball is busting down my sideline, but going into your circle, would you mind taking that for me? Because I'm going to be behind the play and there's going to be a whole bunch of bodies in the way.

[01:49:16] You are better at making that decision. And if we have radios, tell me you got it. And I'll say taxi, okay? Because I'm going to be coming later because I can't deal with that. Likewise. That's coming down the far side line and it's coming towards my circle. I'll say, I got it. And if the, and, and if the, it's trading back and forth and you're, and you're working on the balls in the back of the structure and you don't have anybody in your, in your way, especially if you're mission critical positioning, you're more inside the pitch and you are taking all of this here and your colleague is taking everything when the ball is on the other side of the defensive structure.

[01:49:57] When it's in the middle, it's a shit show, but, okay, but you're dealing with flow and those, those ambiguous areas in different ways and with communication and experience and you're trading off. If you have radios, this is magical. It is magical. You don't miss stuff and you're not panicking that, Oh my God, I got, I got players coming running down my barrel and I've been caught a little too high and I really got to get going and I'll hear umpires that I've worked with and they'll be like, bye.

[01:50:25] And they're just, they're gone and they don't even look at the ball. Because they know it's going to get chucked as an aerial, or they know it's going to come down their throat, and they've got to go as fast as they can to get to their happy place, or close to it, so they can then turn, and then they can backpedal the rest of the way and have a nice strong presentation.

[01:50:42] They're like, yep, there you go, here's your yellow card, see you later. Okay, so talking about responsibility, pardon me, but responsibilities and how you're going to trade it, is a very important element of early on in the pre match shot that you don't have. Time for it. Often. Okay? There's one other important one that I found it useful last season that you deliberately talked about in pre match was reaffirming when I'm going to be watching off the ball to play to my colleague.

[01:51:17] When he's down in your corner and you have clearly got control to play the ball and I'm 50 yards away, please don't ask me questions. Because I'm going to be watching you off the ball is crystal, that that's when you're

[01:51:36] disengaged, you're watching the other stuff, and vice versa, like, please be watching over there. Yeah, especially, yeah, if this, if this is, if this is your goal, and you're doing happy place stuff, and the ball is over in this corner, you should be. You know, moving up and down and that sort of thing, but your shoulders are going to be open, but you are going to be looking more like this, so your circle is vulnerable.

[01:52:01] So you need that help and hopefully your colleagues not hanging out on the sideline way out there can't see anything They should be inside halfway in between nice and deep but seeing everything from there, right? They can see everything the whole world in front of them and it's beautiful. So absolutely That's another thing that you contribute, you know where to find me Right?

[01:52:27] Everywhere at FHumpires. But I will steer you into the server, because when you have a question for me that I know other people can benefit from, which is pretty much everything that you're going to ask me, I am going to want to be able to share the answer with everybody, and I'm going to want their contributions as well.

[01:52:44] Because I'm not just here trying to tell you what to do, I'm here trying to teach you how to think. And how to gather your own information, so that when I tell you things like, card early, you're going to go out there and say, I'm going to test this out, and I'm going to check to see what happens in my games.

[01:53:02] And I'm going to try not giving cards, and waiting until the end of the game, and then I'm going to try giving cards early, and seeing what the difference is. I'm going to watch more games, and see what happens. Critical thinking skills. We've been telling each other, just authoritatively, this is how you do it.

[01:53:19] This is how you position yourself. This is how you card. Doesn't work. We have to learn how to think. And that's how we're going to keep pace with the play. And the players. And the modern game. Keely, I don't disagree with anything you said all night. But my concern as the appointment secretary is, Yep. It's a numbers game.

[01:53:41] Yeah. So we get into our, and for the audience, some of these guys here and girls here will not be umpiring the same level umpire as they are. Right? They'll be level ones umpiring the level twos. Right, and there'll be club umpires stepping in because there's a shortage of umpires. And I think it's just going to be hard work for some of those to carry a club umpire or a level one umpire.

[01:54:08] Absolutely, absolutely. The good news is I have a lot of confidence in everybody here. We didn't work hard, we worked hard tonight. Just, just on that though, so I used to play louse and then go into umpiring. To keep it long story short, because it was set up three times in the season, so I say it. Only three!

[01:54:26] Only three! Which is a great club rule. Um, but when I started having a clearly senior colleague, very clearly setting standards, and I say, this is amazing, I just have to follow the lead. With bloody use, and so I, I now always have that in my head. If, if you are genuinely with someone who is materially more inexperienced, kind of help 'em out and bring them along with you.

[01:54:52] Yeah. I believe very strongly that this time that we've spent together tonight is incredibly constructive because now I see 30 people who are gonna go out there. And you're all going to be working with umpires who weren't here and you can teach them exactly this stuff too. Okay. This isn't rocket surgery.

[01:55:11] I'm not the, you know, I'm fairly smart, but this is doable for absolutely all of us. I'll be interested in the card score at the season. It'll be, well, I hope to see that it's lower, and you're seeing earlier cards, and then the rest of the game is like, wow, this is beautiful. So, a umpire will be a level one, doing a level two game, or someone from the same club.

[01:55:39] Not following the instructions of the umpire. Can I also interject there? Sure. You don't understand it that we umpire. I've had so many times last season. Oh, there's something like, why did you cut? Do you remember that? Oh, oh, I got it. Why did you cut? Because it broke my heart. But we discussed it afterwards.

[01:55:55] Yeah. And they said, it wasn't that time again. We were discussing what color? What do you mean? Yeah, we were just discussing what color and how long. Should it be yellow or green? And I think it was a yellow, wasn't it? And it was a yellow, and we were… That yellow car was yellow. It was one of those ones where the player was arguing, and I was trying to understand, what that happened that we…

[01:56:15] Yeah. No, no. But it's a classic combination. It wasn't rampant. That's fine. Absolutely. But the good news is that you had that opportunity to have that conversation. I bet that player now is like, oh, what? In the worst bit of that team, three weeks later, I was in second yellow. Yeah. And that was a good thing.

[01:56:31] Absolutely. They will learn. They will learn. I really do believe this. We just have to be consistent ourselves. We have to keep working on it. We have to keep talking about it. We have to use the right language. We have to do our best and things will change because we have all been around long enough to see things change.

[01:56:48] Let's be the ones pushing the buttons in the elevator. But then the interpretations of things like the role of the ball have to be set so that everybody, every umpire, every player knows what the

[01:57:01] interpretation is. And currently that interpretation is as the rules. They're all quick maths. I mean, well, yeah, but the, you know, I mean, we, we, we used to say, you know, that there's a temperature to a game and you warn or card or whatever appropriately. If you talk about escalator, there's no hope of going back, but often it's not.

[01:57:21] You can calmer. a game down, where it's not appropriate then to card because it's being played in the right spirit. Okay, you try that, and then I want you to try this. Honestly, please, I want you to try it. Because a card isn't an aggression, it's not a, you know… It's a management tool. Yeah. you know, sometimes I have found that the warning, an obvious warning, so everybody knows what we're talking about.

[01:57:50] That's worked. That's what I think. Mike. Maybe it's what I do. I, I, I saw Dan Barstow umpire at OGs, and the first green was within the first 30 seconds, yeah? Yes, Dan. Yeah, and then it didn't happen again. Yeah. Exactly, yeah. Mike. So I've got one observation as a coach rather than umpire. It's also a reparation tool.

[01:58:16] You know, not only do you want a great game of hockey, but it's got to be fair, right? And equitable. And if a side isn't being equitable, and the other one is, there has to be reparation for that. Otherwise, you haven't got a fair game. Can't be so precious about one player's feelings. We have an entire, entire two teams to look after that day.

[01:58:38] Let's be fair to them. Players can be cynical. And clever. And they should be. Surely not. Surely not. Surely not.

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