Whistle-blowers away-day
The Referee Annual Conference took place at the new VE National Training Centre in Kettering on Saturday 03 October 2009. Some London referees went along to pick up the latest information.

If you missed it this year, you should definitely put it on your calendar for around the same time in 2010. As usual, the Conference was a good opportunity not only to hear senior colleagues giving advice on interpretation of the rules, updates of the signalling and so on, but to meet colleagues, to put faces to names and be introduced to new Colleagues in the art of refereeing volleyball. It was an excellent opportunity to socialise too.

We were updated on VE’s Strategic Plan and the future of volleyball in the UK partly based on a satisfaction survey from players, coaches and clubs. We were also updated on how the National League is being modified and how it will operate from the 2010/11 season.

One of the key activities on the day was the session called “Rule Awareness: So you know the rules!” a questionnaire on 25 different rules. Of course it was an individual exercise and members of the Referee Commission made sure no discussions took place during the ‘test’. Later on during the day, feedback on both questions and answers were given and all possible answers –either correct or else - were discussed openly as a learning/reassuring exercise.

For the benefit of new referees, the recent rules regarding centre line and net touch interference were explained once again. The FIVB official video clip and others on the subject were also shown. The FIVB one is available here (please note this is a 29MB video file so it may take some time to arrive and then you will need a media player to view it)

There was a session on the new rule allowing two libero players and on the new procedure for substitutions. A video clip was shown as an example so that it takes the least possible time and interrupts a game as little as possible.

There was also a 2012 update and a display on how National Technical Officials are being trained, the expected line judging signals and a thorough presentation on how referees should check the score sheets we sign. It was suggested from the floor that all referees should not only do some scoring as part of the qualification course, but that they should indeed volunteer for scoring at National League matches (preferably Division 1) so that we can practice this ‘art’ too. Towards the end of the year, the Referee Commission will circulate a document with the most common mistakes made on scores sheets during the first part of the season. In the meantime, referees were told that trigrams for NVL matches should be used at all times; these are available from the VE web site.

The new FIVB score sheet and notes on how to fill it in are available here

Sitting volleyball, of course, was also mentioned and indeed a refereeing course was advertised on the day. Should you be interested, please contact Steve Walton by email or by phone: 01223 264198 (home).

The Referee Commission presented the latest upgrades to those who were entitled and were presented on the day. The Commission did not reveal the names of those who had been upgraded but were absent as they would like Colleagues to hear the good news from the Commission first.

Coffee and tea were available and lunch, as usual, was included, which proved plenty due to last minute cancelation of attendees. At the end of the day there was a tour of the facilities available at the new VE National Training Centre.