Successful football referees should have an excellent ability to cope

Transcription

1 Sport Science Review, vol. Sport XXIII, Science no. Review, 3-4, 2014, vol. 113 XXIII, - 126No. 3-4, August 2014 DOI: /ssr Development of Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees: Pilot Study Boris BLUMENSTEIN 1 Iris ORBACH 1 Successful football referees should have an excellent ability to cope with competitive stress. Therefore, psychological preparation is a necessary component for improving referees professionalism and optimal performance. This paper focuses on two main objectives: (1) Developing a Psychological Preparation Program specifically for football referees; (2) Evaluating referees behavior in precompetitive routine and during a football match before and after exposure to the Psychological Preparation Program. Thirty football referees participated in a newly developed Psychological Preparation Program which included three parts: Educational (i.e., lectures and self-evaluation), Acquisition (i.e., individual meetings and development of preperformance routine), and Evaluation (i.e., self-evaluation and assessing referee s activities during a match). As a result of the program and based on referees self-evaluation, it can be concluded that our Psychological Preparation Program has a positive impact on the self-confidence of referees and their ability to cope with competitive stress. Future directions and suggested topics are discussed. Keywords: preparation program, football, psychology, referee 1 Ribstein Center for Sport Medicine Sciences and Research, Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sport, Netanya, Israel ISSN: (print) /(online) National Institute for Sport Research Bucharest, Romania 113

2 Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees Introduction The theory and methodology of sport training suggest that an optimal athlete s preparation is composed of physical, technical, tactical, and psychological preparations (Bompa, 1999; Bompa & Haff, 2009; Carrera & Bompa, 2007). It has been found in research and practical evidence that psychological preparation is an essential component for athlete s successful performance (Gould, Flett, & Bean, 2009; Vealey, 2007). In addition, coaches mental preparation can have a positive effect on athletic competitive success. Therefore, an essential part of coaches education should include psychological knowledge and mental coping skills (Blumenstein & Orbach, 2010; Blumenstein, Orbach, Bar-Eli, Dreshman, & Weinstein, 2012; Martens, 2004). Recently, the significance of psychological preparation of other main figures in competitive events such as referees has been discussed (Piffaretti, 2007; Wolfson & Neave, 2007). Successful football referees activity include many aspects of game/match such as game knowledge, decision-making skills, psychological skills, strategies skills, communication skills, and physical fitness (Guillen & Feltz, 2011; Krustrup, et al., 2009). The physical preparation is important for referees since the physical demands such as game speed, volume, and endurance, have been increased in modern football. For example, referees in a typical match run more than 10 km including 47% jogging, 12% sprinting, 18% reverse running, and 23% walking, with an average heart rate of 165 beats per minute (Reilly & Gregson, 2006; Wolfson & Neave, 2005). Therefore, physical preparation is an ordinary part of modern referees preparation. Psychological preparation has the same importance similarly to the physical preparation. From the psychological perspective, referees tasks are demanding since they are required to perform under stress and pressure. For example, during a match the referee must evaluate and judge actions that take place during the match, make fast decision, manage the game, maintain team cohesion with the assistants. Moreover, the referee should have self-confidence, concentration, pay attention to multiple aspects of the game, keeping order and solving disputes (Guillen & Feltz, 2011; Tuero, Tabernero, Marquez, & Guillen, 2002). Best referees have great ability to cope with stress despite the fact that people challenge them all the time: Media, players, coaches, and fans. Under these circumstances, referees must make three-four decisions a minute during the game. It is possible that these decisions are taken during ambiguous situations, have a national/international importance, and suffer from a physical and psychological abuse: All these emphasize the relevance of psychological 114

3 Sport Science Review, vol. XXIII, No. 3-4, August 2014 preparation for referees. Recently, organizations such as UEFA and FIFA and countries such as England, Romania and Germany included mental training to referees preparation as part of their education (Boyko, Boyko, & Boyko, 2007; Frick, 2012; Krustrup, et al., 2009; Piffaretti, 2007). This paper focuses on two main objectives. First, a Psychological Preparation Program which was developed specifically for football referees is presented. Second, changes in referees behavior in their precompetitive routine and during a football match as a result from exposure to the program, is discussed. Pilot Study: The Israeli Football Association requested the first author to develop a Psychological Preparation Program for football referees. The goal was using the program as pilot on selected football referees (see Table 1). Table 1 Demographic data of football referees participated in the program Name Age Gender Experience (years) Height (cm)/ Weight (kg) League 1. A.S. 29 M 9 176/72 1 st League 2. I.B. 28 M 8 177/69 1 st League 3. L.L. 30 M 8 174/70 1 st League 4. A.H. 27 M 6 176/70 N. League 5. E.Z. 29 M 8 180/71 N. League 6. R.R. 31 M 8 178/71 N. League 7. A.G. 29 M /63 N. League 8. S.A. 28 M 8 175/70 N. League 9. A.M 29 M /73 N. League 10. M.N. 28 F 7 172/66 N. League Mean /

4 Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees The program has included three parts: Educational (i.e., lectures and self-evaluation), Acquisition (i.e., individual meetings and development of preperformance routine), and Evaluation (i.e., self-evaluation and assessing referee s activities during a match). The Educational part of the program included three group lectures: During the first lecture the referees learned about four preparations in sport: Physical, technical, tactical, and psychological. The focus was on the psychological preparation and its interrelation with the other preparations. In the second lecture, the participants learned about psychological preparation for football referees focusing on significant psychological skills such as self-confidence, relaxation, concentration, self-talking, and communication. In addition, during the lecture, an optimal model of high-quality referees activity with a psychological perspective was discussed. Finally, the focus of the third lecture was on ideal referees mental behavior such as achieving an optimal mental state before games (i.e., pregame routine), coping with stress distractions during games, and applying psychological strategies for optimal referees mental state. In the conclusion of the lectures, each of the participants evaluates his/ her stress distractions before and during football games (see Table 2). Table 2 Main stress distractions reported by football referees Stress Distractions o Fear of making mistake o High anxiety from funs and controller (observer) o Waiting for a bad evaluation o Low self-confidence in the beginning of the game o Stress from bad experience with specific teams o Bad presentiment before game o Bad mood in the morning Percentage* 70% 60% 50% 40% 40% 30% 20% * Each football referees can select more than one distractor In addition, the referees were asked about the most critical time period in which they are affected by the above mentioned stress distractions. Approximately 80% out of the 30 referees reported that the most stressful time is the minutes of the first half of the game; 60% reported that the most stressful times are the beginning of the game and the minutes of the second half of the game; and lastly, 40% reported on the morning before the game. Moreover, 30% of the referees reported on the significance of the game, table place of the 116

5 Sport Science Review, vol. XXIII, No. 3-4, August 2014 teams, TV coverage, media discussions, cultural differences of the football clubs, and location of the game as major stressors. In addition, the referees reported on a variety of psychological strategies and behavioral activities which he/she has used before the individual meetings (i.e., Acquisition part) in an attempt to achieve optimize readiness before and during games (see Table 4, top values for each category). Among most popular strategies reported by referees were concentration (20-70%), self-talking (30-60%), and muscle relaxation (20-50%). In addition, the time periods for using psychological strategies were usually before games and during breaks between half. In the second part of the program, the acquisition section, the Israeli Football Association selected 10 referees out of the 30 participants to attend 10 individual training sessions. The orientation of the sessions was learning and improving referees mental skills. The individual training sessions included the following psychological strategies: Muscle relaxation, imagery, biofeedback training, concentration, self-talking, pre-competitive routine, develop individual behavioral plan, and cognitive tools for making decisions and analyzing referees games (see Table 3). 117

6 Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees Table 3 Psychological techniques across 10 meetings for referees development Mental techniques Muscle relaxation Referees Imagery Biofeedback training Concentration Self-talking Precompetitive routine (2 meetings) Develop individual behavioral plan Analyze last games with correction (2 meetings) Session attendance (%) /- +/ / / / % 100% 70% 60% 80% 90% 100% 80% 80% 90% The individual sessions lasted 45 min each and were conducted in a special psychological laboratory. An example of individual session is presented below. Example # 1: Learning basic mental technique Monday, 15:00-16:00, laboratory setting Introduction: Analyze referee s performance in last game. Main part: Relaxation with Biofeedback (BFB): Muscle relaxation: 1 min x 5 times 118

7 Sport Science Review, vol. XXIII, No. 3-4, August 2014 Muscle relaxation: 1 min x 5 times (with positive and negative motivation) Concentration exercise with GSR/BFB (Galvanic Skin Response/BFB): 30s x 5 times Imagery: Imagine 5 min of the beginning of a game (chose by the referee) Final part: Muscle relaxation for 10 min Example # 2: Using body gestures Monday, 15:00-16:00, laboratory settings Introduction: Analyze referee s performance in last game. Main part: Concentration exercise with GSR/BFB, 10 sec. x 5 times, with a limit of delta 50-60kΩ Face relaxation with GSR/BFB, 1 min x 2 times Referees gestures with mirror in the following situations: Keeping distance from player (face reaction); First warning (only gesture, without a word); Stop talking (using hand-face); Keeping 9 meter distance while building the wall (gesture): 5 times each situation Final part: Muscle relaxation for 10 min Results A major goal of the program was to increase awareness and knowledge of referees regarding the importance of psychological preparation for referees successful performance. The referees were exposed, learned and practiced a variety of psychological strategies/techniques to improve psychological mental skills. Table 4 represents the percentage of referees who used psychological strategies across time periods before and after the program. 119

8 Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees Table 4 Referees activities before and during football match Referees activities Muscle relaxation Positive thinking Self-talking Imagery Concentration Warm-up Music Watch TV games Selfconfidence Deep breathing Early arrival time Morning before game Before game Time Periods min of first half Break between half 20%* 1 50% 40%* 2 60% 70% min second half 20% 40% 30% 10% 40% 90% 80% 70% 30% 60% 60% 30% 90% 30% 50% 60% 30% 50% 40% 50% 70% 20% 20% 60% 40% 80% 80% 70% 90% 100% 100% 60% 30% 60% 40% 80% 50% 40% 80% 20% 70% 40% 10% 70% 60% 40% 30% 20% 60% * 1 Percentage of referees activities before participating in the program * 2 Percentage of referees activities after participating in the program 120

9 Sport Science Review, vol. XXIII, No. 3-4, August 2014 The third part of the program was evaluating referees behavioral pattern as a result from the program. This data can be seen in the lower part of each category (Table 4). First, referrers reported using more psychological strategies such as imagery, self-confidence, deep breathing and muscle relaxation. In addition, they noted more time periods in which they applied those strategies especially before games, min of first halves, break between half, and min of second half. Moreover, based on referees personal report, the use and the effect of the behavioral pattern and psychological techniques learned during the individual meetings were professionally applied and understood. Therefore, the frequency and the quality of their coping skills increased, especially during stressful situations in football match. An example of developing a preperformance routine is presented below. Example # 3: Development of pre-performance routine The pre-performance routine of the referee before participating in the program was based on behaviors that are common among referees. For example, according to an individual report, before the game I am worried and do not talk with other people. I think about what happened but my philosophy is that things will be good. This referee, similarly to many other referees, focused on an intensive warm-up and positive thinking before the beginning of the game. Although those techniques (i.e., warm up and positive thinking) are recommended to be part of a pre-competitive routine, they were used intuitively, without a professional basis. During mental preparation program, a pre precompetitive routine for this referee was developed and included the following: o Morning of the match: Hobby, music o Early arrival by taxi to the football match field. o During the way to football match by taxi: Relax, music, light talk with other referees. o Cloakroom: Attentive face, talking with line referees, we are one team. Pay attention to special player. o Physical warm-up o During the warm-up: Positives thinking, calm, relax, concentration o First half: o Beginning of the football match: Keeping close distance to player/event, calm, resolute/decisive o Observations and remarks as needed for preventing rudeness among 121

10 Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees players o No discussion with players during decision making o Mistake by referee Should not stop, be fast, keep concentration o During the break: Relax, drink water/tea, notices with line referees o Second half: o Concentration, keep physically close to events on the field o During the last 15 minutes of the game referees used concentration, positive thinking and self-talking skills. o Strengthening self-confidence skills o Resolute and determined without considering the outcome of the match o No discussions with players o After game: o Thanks to line referees o Writing referee s report and meeting with controller The last part of the program included self report and evaluation which was done by the controller. Based on the controller evaluation the referee was invited to a specific amount of games. Meaning, a referee with high evaluation by the controller received more significant games compare to a referee with lower evaluation. Discussion and Conclusions This paper focuses on ways to develop referees mental toughness in general. Specifically, a main objective was to evaluate and modify the behavior in precompetitive routine and during a football match. To achieve that, The Israeli Football Federation, invested resources to improve football referees support system which included physical conditioning, nutrition, and psychological skills. That led to an open and positive attitude and readiness to our psychological program, especially to the practice side. The football referees group participated in our study and was part of our Psychological Preparation Program. In the beginning of the program, referees reported that the main stress distraction is related to an external stressor. A main stressor that came up in the referees self-evaluation was the fear of bad evaluation from the controller and the fans (Simmons, 2009). These stressors had an effect on the referees and led to a general feeling of stress and pressure. Other stressors were related to past experience of the referees such as bad experience with the competitive 122

11 Sport Science Review, vol. XXIII, No. 3-4, August 2014 team which led to low self-confidence, especially at the beginning and the end of the game. To cope with the stressors the referees applied and used simple techniques and strategies, especially before a match and between the two halves. The referees used techniques such as relaxation, concentration, and self-talking without any systematic guidance and professional support. The referees learned to use those techniques by observing other colleagues behavior. Based on the referees self-evaluation we developed the Psychological Preparation Program. The main goal of this program was to provide professional guidance to football referees on how and when to use psychological skills in a football match (Guillen & Feltz, 2011; Tuero, et al., 2002). As a result of the program, referees reported higher self-confidence in their ability to cope with competitive stress. After completion of the program some of the referees continue working with the first author on developing and strengthening their psychological abilities to achieve optimal performance in higher levels (e.g., international level). It was reported in the past that referees career duration is being directly influenced by the competitive pressure being perceived, meaning, the competitive pressure is detrimental to referees survival. The average career duration of a European football referees is 6.3 years (Frick, 2012). Referees who completed our Psychological Preparation Program reported on an effective use of psychological skills which may help in coping with the competitive pressure. The authors recommend investigating the effect of the program on the career duration of football referees and their coping skills during a football match. References Blumenstein, B., & Orbach, I. (2010). The profile of the professional coach. The Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual, 25, Blumenstein, B., Orbach, I., Bar-Eli, M., Dreshman, R., & Weinstein, Y. (2012). High-level coaches perception of their professional knowledge, skills, and characteristics. Sport Science Review, 21(5-6), Bompa, T. (1999). Periodization: Theory and methodology of training (4 th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Bompa, T., & Haff, G. (2009). Periodization: Theory and methodology of training (5 th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 123

12 Psychological Preparation Program for Football Referees Boyko, R., Boyko, A., & Boyko, M. (2007). Referee bias contributes to home advantage in English Premiership Football. Journal of Sport Sciences, 25(11), pp Carrera, M., & Bompa, T. (2007). Theory and methodology of training: General perspectives. In B. Blumenstein, R. Lidor, & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), Psychology of sport training (pp ). Oxford, UK: Meyer & Meyer Sport. Frick, B. (2012). Career duration in professional football: The case of German soccer referees. The Oxford handbook of sports economics: The economics of sports, 1. Oxford Handbooks Online. doi: /oxfordhb/ Gould, D., Flett, R., & Bean, E. (2009). Mental preparation for training and competition. In B. Brewer (Ed.). Handbook of sport medicine and science: Sport psychology (pp ). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Guillen, F., & Feltz, D. L. (2011). A conceptual model of referee efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 1-5. Krustrup, P., Helsen, W., Randers, M. B., Christensen, J. F., MacDonald, C., Rebelo, A. N., & Bangsbo, J. (2009). Activity profile and physical demands of football referees and assistant referees in international games. Journal of Sport Sciences, 27(11), Martens, R. (2004). Successful coaching (3 rd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Piffaretti, M. (2007). Mental preparation of top-class referees. In: Congress Proceedings, ACAPS Conference. Leuwen, November, Reilly, T., & Gregson, W. (2006). Special populations: The referee and assistant referee. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(7), Simmons, R. (2009). Fan pressure and football outcomes. In P. Anderson, P., Ayton, & C. Schmidt (Eds.), Myths and facts about football: The economics and psychology of the world s greatest sport (pp ). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press. Tuero, C., Tabernero, B., Marquez, S., & Guillen, F. (2002). Analisis de los factores que influyen en La practico, del arbitrage (Analysis of the factors affecting the practice of refereeing). Socidade Capixaba de Psicologia do Esporte, 1,

13 Sport Science Review, vol. XXIII, No. 3-4, August 2014 Vealey, R. (2007). Mental skills training in sport. In G. Tenenbaum & R. Eklund (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (3 rd ed., pp ). New York: Wiley. Wolfson, S. & Neave, N. (2007). Coping under pressure: Cognitive strategies for maintaining confidence among soccer referees. Journal of Sport Behavior, 30(2), Dr. Boris BLUMENSTEIN is the Director of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the Ribstein Center for Sport Medicine Sciences and Research, Wingate Institute, Israel. He received his Ph.D. in Sport Psychology at the All Union Institute for Research in Sport, Department of Sport Psychology, Moscow, Russia (former USSR). Dr. Blumenstein has focused much of his research and writing on the mental skills training for enhanced performance, stress-performance relationships, the effectiveness of different mental interventions, and athletic competition readiness. He has published six books, 17 book chapters and approximately 80 refereed journal articles. He was a sport psychology consultant for the Soviet national and Olympic teams, and since 1990 for the Israeli national and Olympic teams (including the delegations to the Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008 Olympics). Corresponding address: Boris Blumenstein Iris Orbach Ribstein Center for Sport Medicine Sciences and Research Wingate Institute Netanya Israel Fax: borisb@wingate.org.il; iriso@wingate.org.il Dr. Iris ORBACH is a researcher and a sport psychology consultant in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the Ribstein Center for Sport Medicine Sciences and Research, Wingate Institute, Israel. She received her Ph.D. in Sport Psychology in 1999 from the University of Florida, Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, in Gainesville, Florida, USA. She worked as an assistant professor for eight years in the Department of Sport, Fitness and Leisure Studies at Salem State University, Salem, Massachusetts, USA. In addition to teaching, Dr. Orbach has published two books and numerous articles and book chapters. She has given presentations at national and international conferences on topics related to sport psychology and health promotion. Her current research interests include stress-performance relationships, children and motivation in sport, and the effectiveness of various mental training practices. Dr. Orbach uses her psychology skills as a consultant for athletes at all skill levels. 125