[ayso45-refs] A few mid-season reminders

[Beau James]

Refs (and interested coaches),

Below are a few procedural reminders/refreshers, collected from 
observations at many games so far this fall.
Today's topics:

    (1) Free kicks: respecting the distance, quick kicks, and setting up 
walls
    (2) Offside: when does offside postion become an offside infraction?
    (3) "Quarter" substitutions: the clock is running!

If  you have other topics that you'd like to see shared with the region 
45 refs, please send them to me for the next "edition".

Hope you are enjoying the season so far.  Have a great day on Saturday!

Beau


_*(1) Free kicks: respecting the distance, quick kicks, and setting up 
walls*_

On any free kick awarded to the *red *team, all *blue *players are 
responsible for moving the required distance from the spot where the 
ball is placed for the free kick. The required distance varies by 
division: 6 yards for U7/U8, 8 yards for U10, 10 yards for U12 and 
older. The distance applies in all directions around the ball, not just 
the "forward" direction that the kick will probably go.

Especially in the younger divisions, the referee may need to encourage 
the *blue *players to move away from the ball ("move back 8 yards, 
*blue*"). But unless asked by the *red *team to do so, the referee 
should not become involved in positioning the *blue *players.

The *red *team is /always /entitled to place the ball and take a quick 
kick. The *blue *team is entitled to try to set up a defensive position, 
such as a wall - but the *blue *team is /not /entitled to be given time 
to set up their defense, and the *blue *team is /not /entitled to 
assistance from the referee getting into their defensive position.

Things change when the *red *team asks the referee to /enforce /the 
distance ("hey, 10 yards, ref!"). At that point the free kick becomes 
ceremonial. The referee should first tell the *red *kicker that she must 
now wait for the referee's signal before kicking. Then the referee 
should go to the appropriate distance from where the kick will be taken 
to indicate to the *blue *players how far they must move.  (That's 
usually quite a bit further than the players think it is!)  Once the 
*blue *players have backed away the required distance, then the referee 
should signal to the *red *player to proceed with the kick.

_*(2) Offside: when does offside position become an offside infraction?*_

Remember that in soccer, being in an offside /position /is not an 
infraction. To become an infraction, the player in the offside position 
must become /involved in active play/.

Today's point is to emphasize the meaning of /involved in active play/. 
 From Law 11:

    The definitions of elements of involvement in active play are as
    follows:
    . Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or
    touched by a team-mate.
    . Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from
    playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the
    opponent's line of vision or movements or making a gesture or
    movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts
    an opponent.
    . Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a
    ball that rebounds to him off a post or the crossbar having been
    in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him off an
    opponent having been in an offside position.

When you are an assistant referee, tracking the offside position and 
indicating offside infractions to the referee is your primary 
responsibility.

An attacker in an offside position who could have played the ball, but 
does not, is not "involved in active play" simply by running toward the 
goal or calling to his teammate for a pass. An attacker hanging out in 
an offside position near the goal is not distracting the keeper and thus 
"interfering with an opponent" simply by being there. An attacker in an 
offside position, breaking toward the goal and drawing defenders to run 
towards him, has not generally "deceived" his opponent.

Be sure that /active involvement/ actually occurs, before you raise your 
flag to indicate an offside infraction.

Brad Porter forwarded this pointer:

    http://www.dynamic-thought.com/OffsideLo.swf

which is a good animated referesher on the basics of the offside law.

Law 11 is deceptively simple. It is the subject of endless 
scenario-playing and debate in any referee meeting or class.  If would 
like to engage in some lively discussion, join us at one of the 
Wednesday pizza sessions.

_* (3) "Quarter" substitutions: the clock is running!*_


The region 45 policy regarding the substitution breaks "approximately 
midway through the first half" and "approximately midway through the 
second half" is that /the clock continues to run/.

Substitution breaks are meant to be brief!

Coaches should not expect to use the substitution break as a "coaching 
huddle", even in the younger divisions. This takes playing time away 
from the players.

Players who are going off should show their jersey number to the 
assistant referee (or referee, in U7/U8) before sitting down. Players 
who are remaining in the game should stay on the field. Players may come 
to the edge of the field, parents may bring water bottles to the players.

After a short break (+- 90 seconds), the referee should start calling 
for the players to get back on the field. Sometimes, a short "tweet" of 
the whistle and calling out ("Let's go! Clock is running!") helps. 
Calling out the restart ("It's a *blue *throw-in from here!") may help 
to un-confuse the players and get them moving into position more quickly.

In region 45, the fields must be scheduled very tightly in order to 
complete all the games each weekend. We do not have the luxury of large 
inter-game gaps. That means that we do not have the luxury to stop the 
clock during the substitution breaks (as AYSO National suggests) nor to 
add time at the end of each half to compensate for long, slow 
substitution breaks.

Start the match on time, start the second half on time, keep the clock 
running during each half - and keep the substitution breaks short, 
sweet, and on point.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ayso45.org/pipermail/ayso45-refs_ayso45.org/attachments/20071005/a2f2389a/attachment.html