Referees - The best and most difficult athlete to train but most rewarding
Being able physically train referee’s is by far my most favorite thing to do, except for maybe doing my own physical fitness training.
What I love most about training referees is how dynamic they must be when it comes to their training plan.
Let me give you some examples -
Referees must be aerobically fit for a full 90-minute match or sometimes 120 - they must possess the aerobic endurance and stamina to make it for the entire match.
They must also be anaerobically fit - being able to sprint at high rates of speed anytime during the match, to keep up with play and adjudge plays accordingly and credibly.
They must possess great quickness and agility to be able to adapt to certain runs, movements, and styles of play by certain teams and players.
Explosiveness is also another key fitness element a referee must possess - by being able to be explosive on movements, referees will be able to gain first step quickness, adjust to breakdown of plays faster, and help establish proper position.
Muscular endurance, strength, and power must all be present for referees at the elite levels of the game and well balanced; one not too dominant over the other, and help prevent injuries.
Being a fully functioning dynamic referee and able to meet the demands of the modern game is being able to adapt physically as well as mentally to any match you work. To get a well-rounded balanced fit referee; one must be able to train properly in different aspects of fitness, without becoming too dominant in one aspect of fitness, and the kicker is that you can’t train a certain way and expect to get the benefits of everything. Meaning you must change up your routine and introduce something new.
The first topic will be aerobic training vs. anaerobic training. Aerobic training means “with oxygen” - when you train and are continuously exercising or training that increases your heart rate, your body uses oxygen to produce energy. Anaerobic means “without oxygen” - when you train or engage in a quick high intensity session, your body isn’t using oxygen to produce energy; it usually gets the energy from the breakdown of glucose in the muscle. In terms of referee fitness training, think of aerobic training as easy run or a “low and slow” run, a bike ride, or swimming, this is all based on intensity of the exercise as well, lower intensity longer duration, typically type 1 muscle fibers. Examples of anaerobic training would be sprints, HIIT workouts, plyometric/isometric, high intensity short bursts, typically type 2 muscle fibers. What is really important to understand is you can’t train exclusively aerobically and get anaerobic benefits, and you can’t train fully anaerobic and get aerobic benefits - these are two different energy systems and need to be balanced to get the full benefit of each.
Our second topic will be speed, explosiveness, and agility. These three are all separate forms of training and should be trained as such. Speed is the ability to move apart or the whole body as quickly as possible, so when it comes to speed training, we should be training this 1-2x a week, by hitting top speed; one example of speed training would be high speed/max effort sprints for 30-50 yards, and being fully recovered after each sprint. Explosiveness is where athletes must produce quick powerful movements; sometimes they need to be repeated in a short duration. One example for explosiveness training would be weighted jump squats, or tuck jumps, followed by the same exercises unweighted. Agility is the ability to rapidly change body direction, accelerate, or decelerate. Agility examples would be change of direction sprints, lateral bounding, knowles jumps, and exercises performed throughout an agility ladder.
Our last topic we will cover is weight training. There is always a small misconception amongst referees I train when it comes to weight training. A lot of people think that weight training consists of just body building or putting a large amount of muscle on. Sometimes certain training programs call for this depending on what the athletes needs are. However, there is more to weight training then just this. First, we will start with muscular endurance training. Here we are trying to hit a minimum of 15 reps with a certain weight, for a 2-4 sets, with only 45 seconds-60 seconds of rest between each working set. The idea is to increase the body’s ability to contract a muscle against a resistance over a period of time. This will help the overall endurance of the referee but will also increase the aerobic capacity of the working muscles.n
Strength training will help a referee avoid injuries by increasing bone density, tendon, and ligament strength, which can aid in preventing breaks, pulls, and tears. It will also aid in developing type-2 muscle fibers, which works great with our anaerobic training! Strength programs are designed around a 1-6 or 6-8 rep range, depending on weight training load, which usually based off a 1 rep max test; while also completing 3-5 sets of any said exercise. Also we want to focus on getting an adequate amount of rest between each of these sets. We want to rest anywhere form 3-5 minutes depending on the athletes recovering ability. This is a big contrast to the muscular endurance training listed above; this is because the weight will be much heavier with a lower rep range, meaning we are trying to move more weight to recruit more motor units and develop muscle to get stronger!
Lastly, Power Training! In short power can be described as Force x Velocity = Power. Or strength x velocity =Power. Power focusses on overcoming resistance but also focusses on the ability to overcome the resistance in the shortest period of time. Also, focusing on how fast you move the weight in the concentric part or positive part of the lift is important. In strength training we are recruiting more motor units, however with power training we are also now focusing on how fast they fire, which is another way to build on strength and power. Rep ranges for power will consist of usually 1-5, depending on weight, and 3-5 sets with 2-4 minutes of recovery between each set.
As you can see referee fitness isn’t just about going out for a run or going to the gym to bench press. The training needs to be carefully programmed to hit every aspect of training to get the most benefits. Your referee fitness is only as strong as your weakest point. Matches are a great revealer of the weak points because every game a referee works is different, so it forces referees to dig deep into the fitness training reservoir to see if they have trained accordingly. Sometimes it can be a struggle to hit all the fitness aspects for a referee, however, once you do master this concept, you will reap the rewards of your hard work in training.
Dynamic Athlete Training was developed with this standard. We carefully construct programs to meet the demands of not only the modern game but each to each individual referee, so they have no weak points. We are here to help each, and every referee become as fit as they can be! Join the DAT family today and BE READY TO BE READY!
Be FEARLESS
Be RELENTLESS
Always TRAIN WITH HEART!