What does help you reach your goals? You need some positive thinking as a referee. Dutch international referee Serdar Gozubuyuk thought he could not make it. He was Turkish, so probably was not good enough to achieve things in The Netherlands. “That’s what I thought in earlier days”, Gozubuyuk told magazine NuSport. He heared the same thoughts from other boys in his neighbourhoud. “Then parents said: nonsense. There are half a million people without a job, there will be Dutch too.” Change how you think Gozubuyuk changed the way he thought. He got a different view about what he can do himself to reach his goals. Positive thinking as a…

Concentration is so important for referees. You can train your brain to focus on the right things. There are some things you can do during the game, but there’s another useful thing: concentration training as match preparation. There are lots of things you can do at home. As PGMOL’s sports psychologist Liam Slack says: the biggest mistake is that “referees don’t practice concentration during their training sessions”. But what can you do? Ian Blanchard wrote a brillaint technique in one of UK’s referee magazines to train your brain. It’s just a simple task that you can do at home while closing your eyes. Concentration training as match preparation Blanchard explains:…

As a referee it’s quite difficult to stay focused for 90 minutes. Just as you are watching a player being challenged, a coach yells, the crowd sings and you’ll hear another player shouting he got punched. Too much information all at once. But you still need to make the right call. Earlier on I explained the 4 components of concentration to give you a better understanding of this term. In this blog post you’ll get Avoid negative thoughts and feelings. You can have an external focus and try to see what’s happening on the pitch. But your focus can also be internal. You’ll over-analyze how you performed while you’re still refereeing. Or…

2016 could be your year as a referee. But you won’t improve your skills without putting much effort in it. Refereeing is hard work – especcially when you want to get better. That’s my goal as well. I want to help you getting better by publishing useful information on my blog. I’ll do that by picking a theme each month and give you new insights or learn you new excercises. The theme of January will be mental fitness. During the first week I’ll blog about keeping your concentration during a game. 4 components of concentration as referee Before you get tips on improving your concentrating during a game, it’s good…