Selfscan for referees

The selfscan for referees is a useful tool to map out your actions for the coming period. This tool makes your development as referee visible and helps you write down your action steps.

I got this tips when following a KNVB course as referee. It helps me to prepare better for my games plus it’s a good tool for evaluation of your games.

The model works with the following steps:

1. Write down your current situation
2. Give yourself a score
3. Write down your ambition
4. Find learning objectives
5. Make an action plan
6. Review every game

This selfscan for referees is a good way to work on short-term goals. Evaluate the action steps after a certain period. This all can contribute to your final destination as referee.

Download the template for the selfscan for referees.

1. Current situation (selfscan for referees)

I hope you know where you’re good at and which things you want to improve as referee. Or have a look at the assessment reports you got, because these will have some good points. Where are you now? Write down your development themes, the things you want to improve on.

To start with you can write down many points, but I advice you to focus on two or three. Please fill these out in the form, because you’ll have a higher chance of improving if you don’t do everything. You can work on other aspects of refereeing in the next month or period.

2. Score

You probably find some points you can improve, but what’s your score on each theme? If you pick “positioning at free kicks” as theme, say how good you are at it. Pick it on a scale from 1 to 7.

3. Ambition on these topics

What do you want to reach at the themes you picked in the first stage of this selfscan? How do you want to score on these themes?

Personal story

I personally took “advantange vs ball possession” as them. During games I don’t whistle for fouls at the halfway line and wait for advantage. It’s not wrong, but I wait way too long. Usually, the player has ball possession at most, but being (still) a player myself makes me want to go on. No breaks. Go! When starting this selfscan for referees I didn’t recognize these things. Call it a wrong intuition, but now it’s different. I know I do make mistakes and sometimes realise it when it is too late to whistle. I see myself developing now I am more aware of what I need to improve. That is already a big win.

Four stages of competence

It reminds me of the four stages of competence:

• Unconscious incompetence (wrong intuition)
• Conscious incompetence (wrong analysis)
• Conscious competence (right analysis)
• Unconscious competence (right intuation)

When filling out the current situation, you’ll get concious about your incompetences. And when you know your ambition, you can work hard to move to a different stage.

4. Learning objectives

This step is crucial, because you’ll formulate the learning objectives on each of your development themes. What is needed to go from your “current situation” (step 1) to the ambition (step 3). What is needed to reach your ambition? KNVB advises to take a maximum of three learning objectives per core task at a time. Other themes may be discussed later in the process.

5. Action plan

The big question is: What are you going to do now to work on your learning objective? Personally I will read my learning objectives before every game, because that reminds me where I am working on. This helps me keep my objectives at the top of mind. During games it reminds me what I need to do. That leads to the next action step: whistle when there’s no real advantage, but just ball possession.

As I am a player myself I know players will react when you whistle. As match preparation I also try to visualize these talks and know what I’ll say. Works good for me. During a recent game a player wants advantage, but when you point out shortly there’s no real advantage, they’ll accept it. When you know players will accept these calls, you’ll be less afraid to make the calls and wait endlessly for advantage.

A few notes from KNVB to keep in mind when making an action plan:

• Keep in mind that this is a plan that only affects you (and is not dependent on others).
• Sometimes a learning goal is comprehensive. Make sure you make a feasible plan that you can properly assess (wether you have / have not achieved it)
• It may be that you have to take multiple actions to achieve a learning goal, then start with action point 1 only.

So focus, don’t do all things at once. That helps you a lot. Because doing ten things for 10% brings you nowhere. When you really see improvement, add other things.

6. Review every game

Okay, the action steps are there, but that is not the end of this model. Make sure you review every game and score your performance on the action steps you picked for that game. Due to this reflection method you’ll also be able to tweak the ambition and action steps, because you realise what works or not.

And no, it is not a lot of work. You wrote your action steps and the only thing you’ll do before every game is pick the points you want to work on. Evaluate them after the game and do that for a longer period.

Passing the course

I just finished the course and got my diploma. The selfscan for referees was one of the best tools I learned. I keep using it now after the course as well.

Update your selfscan for referees

During the summer or winter break, feel free to do a new selfscan for referees. That will change your action plans and ambitions. When you improve over time, you’ll find new things to work on. Also assessments might alter the things you want to work on. Be flexible, but make sure you know what you want to improve and focus on that.

The improvement as refere is up to YOU. Make sure you’ll make the best out of it.

Download your free template for a selfscan

To make it easier for you, you can download the template for the selfscan for referees. If you have any questions, just let me know.