Along with our partners at ACME Whistles we spoke to the RFU’s Match Officials Strength & Conditioning Coach, Alex Reid, about the first things new referees should do to build robustness and a base level of fitness. Alex said:
“The RFU run a really comprehensive, advanced match official award (AMOA) and I’ve written all the physical training modules for that.
“They have a cohort from the North and South that go through that process – so that can be a great start.
“Within that I speak about exposure, the FITT principle: Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time and am trying to educate referees about the importance of a positive approach to match official fitness.
“We’ve only got ten people who are full time professional referees. It’s not a full-time role for our national body unfortunately, so my job is to educate them to understand how often they should train, the appropriate intensity and what type of training they should do.
“You’d be amazed how many people sit on a bike to train for being a referee. But of course, being a match official includes high intensity, multidirectional movement patterns. So why would you only sit on a bike or do a straight line 5k run?
“One of the best things you can do as a referee, at any level, is a lot of high intensity, intermittent, multidirectional training.
“That’s what you do when you’re in the game – and you need to replicate that.
“If you watch the movement patterns in a game; referees are not just running, there is a lot of movement sideways, backwards, turn and go, curved runs, accelerating, and decelerating.
“So, for me, specificity of training is key.”
We went on to talk to Alex about frequency, and how often referees should be in the gym and exercising. She added:
“So I suggest, whether they’re full time or part time, strength sessions two to three times a week ideally.
“The off season plan is also really important. I give everybody a plan for their off season that they should follow to make sure they’re robust and capable when pre-season starts.
“So two to three times strength and within that would be body protection. So some posterior chain, glutes, all that good stuff – and then 2/3 times running per week.
“My job is to help them recognise what is best for them. When I’m not with them they need to know, right, this is my training diary and stick to it. So there is a lot that’s down to them self-managing their training.”
Finally, the last big question for Alex focussed on what are the most common mistakes made by referees around their fitness, strength and conditioning. Alex added:
“I think there’s two things. One is nonspecific training, which is when people say ‘I like to ride my bike, Therefore I’m going to do my bike rides every week and then I’m going to officiate on a weekend’. Then they wonder why they pull a calf or get injured.
“Then the other thing is frequency of loading. So not loading frequently enough. And when people have full time jobs and they’re sitting in the car travelling for work, you know, then often they find it difficult to train often enough.
“So a lot of the sessions that I prescribe, I give out a conditioning booklet at the start of the season, and it has a menu of options from running, strength, high intensity, interval speed, conditioning – everything. The PGMOT can select options from this booklet to help them condition and prepare physically.
“These are short, sharp quality sessions, 20 to 25 minutes. They get results and are time efficient when many are time poor and have other demands, family, travel, work.
“However, if you want to referee at the highest level in England and around the world, you have to commit physically and be capable at the highest level.”
To find out more about refereeing and get your first referee’s whistle, visit www.acmewhistles.co.uk
