Referees

Warning: This entry is extremely long and much too wordy so read on at your own risk.

Since there has been a few things said about refereeing here on the site in the last couple of days I think it is an appropriate time to talk a bit about the referees here in Denmark.

Obviously this can be a touchy subject, especially coming from a current player in the elite division, but hopefully I can say what I want to say without offending anyone. I should also say that I respect referees and the job they do in general. My father was a head referee on the AVP tour and other places for many years so I have a bit of an understanding of what kind of pressure the job can put on someone. Ironically, while I’ve seen him getting yelled at by Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, Tim Hovland and all the rest of those great old school beach guys, I’ve also seen my dad go as far as to throw sand at a referee because he was so angry about a call made against him in a match. No matter how much understanding or experience we have, the emotion of a certain moment can always override it. (Quick aside: There is a great picture of Sinjin screaming in my dad’s ear after a match he had refereed. Stoklos and Smith were never really one of his favorite teams…)

The thing that bothers me more than anything else about the referee – player relationship here in Denmark is the way that once the match starts there seems to be this invisible wall between the two. I can’t even remember how many times I have come up to a referee with a valid question or comment and immediately been shunned by a firm wave of the hand. What is that? Can anyone else offer an example of this in any other area of life? Can you imagine going into your boss’ office with a question and being immediately shunned with a cold stare and a wave of the hand? It’s like somehow the referee is supposed to be this god like figure who cannot be questioned. And honestly, to me it seems like a lot of referees consider themselves gods once they step onto that podium. Yes, I understand that in the end it is their decision and that we all have to respect that. But does that mean that I shouldn’t be treated with the same respect as any other human being? If a referee expects to be treated with respect then maybe they should consider giving that same respect to the players. Too many times have I seen a player being ignored. Let’s look at a player’s options if they want to talk to a referee and the possible outcome of those options:

Scream at them until they are forced to respond in some way or other = At least a yellow card, probably a red card
Scream at the ground in disgust, maybe saying a bad word or two = At least a verbal warning, very possibly a yellow card
Calmly walk over to the referee and explain your feeling about the situation = A flat hand signaling that a player has no right to even approach a referee and should immediately turn around or get a yellow card
Ask your captain to politely go up and say something to the referee = Probably a flat hand and blank stare for the captain. If he somehow gets to talk to the referee he probably won’t explain the situation the way you wanted to so there is no benefit anyways.
Do nothing = Nothing happens.

None of these are very viable options for real people. They work well for cattle.

I understand perfectly well that referees should not be subject to having to sit there and listen to people scream at them after every play. And in no way am I suggesting that they should. But if a referee wants my respect during a match then they have to do three things, be consistent, treat me with the same respect, and most importantly, understand that there are emotions involved in the game of volleyball. There are so many things going on in our bodies that sometimes we have trouble containing ourselves. Sometimes we do go over the line, but the more these emotions get bottled up inside, the more apt we are to take them over the line.

I’ve met and talked to a lot of the referees and all of them (with the exception of one or two who I will not name) seem like genuinely nice people. I would just love to see that side of them during a match. We all make mistakes, maybe next time if you think you might have made one, listen to the player who is protesting. You don’t have to change your call and you don’t have to let him scream at you or call you an idiot, but you could calmly say, “I’m sorry, I saw it the other way,” and move on.

Another issue I have with many of the referees is that they try actively to be a part of the game. Many refs, and I am not saying all of them, seem to relish the chance to blow the whistle and make a call. In my mind this is not what a referee should be doing. A perfectly refereed match from my perspective is a match where I can’t remember the refs or any of the calls they made. Of course I have a tendency to always feel like any call against my team is a wrong one, but that is an issue for another day… But please, I’m begging all of the referees to just take a step back and try not to be a major factor in deciding a match. DHG has a gold medal that stems all the way back to a match deciding referee call during the regular season in 2003 but that is also another story that I don’t have time to get into at the moment J.

The last thing I want to say on this subject is that a yellow card should not be enjoyable. We are all working together to provide good sport and good entertainment for the fans, yellow cards and red cards should be used only as a last resort. I only mention this because I have seen with my own eyes referees who like giving out yellow cards. This is not right and as a player it makes me upset. It is an insecure referee who not only frequently uses red and yellow cards but who also feels satisfied by using them. (That was the volleyball wisdom by Confucius section of the blog for today)

Technically, the biggest problem I have seen in Denmark has been the inconsistency of the refereeing in relation to hand setting on the beach. There is simply no consistent level for hand setting. Personally, and I have also heard this from several other people, I am too afraid to even attempt to hand set the ball. For me, the reason is that as far as I can tell I can make ten identical hand sets and three of them will be called bad. This makes no sense and honestly it’s holding good players back in their development. Anders Hoyer is a great example. He is a good young player who has ambition to play internationally on the beach. And there is no doubt that he has the talent. Unfortunately, when it comes to hand setting (a major part of international beach volleyball) he is behind. A major reason for this is because of the inconsistency of the refereeing. I saw it several times over the course of the summer – one good set, two good sets, a third good set which was called for an unknown reason, and a fourth bad set which wasn’t called. I saw a hand set that rotated two times in the air be called. I’ve also seen balls that didn’t rotate at all get called because the player had “not contacted it evenly with both hands”. How this player made uneven contact and still managed to set the ball without any spin is one of the great mysteries of the world…

Of course we can always discuss how harshly we should referee hand setting, all I’m asking is that we draw a line and we all abide by it. However, right now the Danish referees are much, much tighter than the rest of the world and that means that players on the Danish tour are not being encouraged to use that part of the game and they are behind because of it.

I realize the above is slightly long and a little picky, but it is something that has bothered me since I got here, plus it’s my blog so I get to write whatever I feel like.