Question Number: 17436

Mechanics 10/21/2007

RE: High School

Dave Eberle of Clarkston, Washington USA asks...

Hit and Runs

From time to time, I fail to identify who commits a foul. This usually occurs when the offender quickly flees the scene of the crime.

Any advice to overcome this weakness would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Dave,
on calling a foul you really need to be aware of who that guy really is. It plays into persistant infringment. You may wish to caution or send off If you play advantage. If we are not into aquick kick, order him to stop and come to you. Have a stern or quiet word if need be if you are not cautioning. Get better angles, anticipate to get in better positions, be physically fit, chase the bastard down and get that number. Yell the number to your AR and or say did you get that guy for me?
cheers

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Loosing track of who did what to whom indicates to me a great distance from what happened. Stay 15-20 from play and the visual clues will be more readily apparent. Remember the faster a player gets out of the area the more he is trying to hide and that means he fears something you can do, a caution maybe...

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Proximity helps, angle helps, and practice noticing something about the player - hair color or style, shoe color, shirt in/out, number (this is great) also helps. A very fine referee once advised me to learn the numbers of every defender on my offside line as AR. That way, if one of them kept a player onside, I could announce his number, and voila, the defense turned from me to the guilty defender! It had the added benefit of helping me learn to focus on who was where doing what on the field. It takes some practice, but your awareness of the need to see it gets you part way there - keep working at it!