RefBlog

Differences between sports

No, the blog's not dead - it's just winter. I decided against doing a "Best Of" this year for reasons of time and number of entries for 2009.

---

I've mentioned it a few times, but for the most part of left this item of my reffing life out of this blog, but I'm officiating roller derby now. The quick-and-dirty story is that another referee friend of mine got me out to watch a bout, and despite my preconceptions, I enjoyed watching it immensely. Three years later, with the realization that getting my State badge would take a lot longer than I planned, I took my first step into becoming a multi-sport official. Fortunately, soccer is a 3-4 month summer endeavor in this state, so there's plenty of time to indulge in other activities, especially since I stopped doing indoor soccer (short-sided and wall-ball) several years ago.

Now, I can't speak for how other sports work, but I thought it might be interesting to compare my experiences with derby with my experiences in soccer. There's a lot of (especially in foul recognition), but some major differences in philosophy.

First, some background (if you want something more in-depth, there's a pretty decent article in Wikipedia): while the roller derby most of us grew up with was a pre-determined entertainment, that became more and more like professional wrestling, the current iteration, is pure sport; there are fishnets and fake names (although a lot of that is for security purposes - it seems each league has their own list of icky people to keep an eye out for), but the action on the track is real. In 2004 the Women's Flat Track Derby Association was formed, and put out a standardized set of rules, which has been evolving in great leaps and bounds (we're currently on the fourth major rules update). There are currently 455 active roller derby leagues worldwide, according to Derby Roster, which keeps track of them. Some of these are just single teams, playing travel; some have "A" and "B" teams; some have a collection of "home teams" playing a local league; and some have a mix of all three. The vast majority of leagues are owned and operated by the skaters (making a huge departure from the old leagues, where were owned and operated by a promoter) - many have league rules that incorporate public service as a requirement for playing, and most donate any revenues they make that exceed their operational expenses (which may not be much, but hey).

Officially speaking, roller derby is much more complicated than soccer. While in soccer you have (ideally) three referees and a fourth official for administrative purposes; roller derby can have four to seven skating officials, and a bevy of non-skating officials, manning the penalty box, tracking penalties and scorekeeping.

Philosophy is where things differ a lot. First because derby, and I'm referring to the current real sport iteration, is so new, there's no old boys network that I'm aware of. I remember a few years back when there were people marveling on SocRef that the center referee in the NCAA College Cup had facial hair. Now, can you picture this guy reffing a high-level soccer match (pic: http://newyork.metromix.com/content_image/full/638866/560/370)? He's probably one of of the most respected referees in the WFTDA. The tats and the hair aren't a big deal in derby (I'm probably one of the stranger ones for not having a tattoo) - and he takes his job as seriously as any USSF referee holding a National or FIFA badge. In fact, when I was at a conference where he did a lot of the instructing was no different than any other advanced re-certification class I took with the USSF. Likewise, the pre-game meetings are no different than any quality, Gil Weber-style pre-game. In other words, it's just as serious, even if it's look would drive some people crazy at Referee Magazine.

The biggest difference in how things are officiated is soccer's emphasis on man-management, which derby sees as coaching. Part of that is the difference in the games, of course. Soccer runs more-or-less freely for 45 minutes each half - the referee only stopping things when necessary (be it justice, injury, or goal scored). In derby each half is broken down into much smaller parts, called jams, which are no longer than two minutes each. There's also a desire in the WFTDA that every official calls the game the same way, nation- (and now world) wide; we know very well that in soccer the style of the referee has a major impact in how the game is run. In soccer, if a referee can get a player to not commit a foul, that's considered a good thing because the flow of the game can continue unimpeded; in derby that's thought of giving one team an unfair advantage; likewise, what's derided as "gotcha" officiating in soccer is standard practice in roller derby.

I don't know if this qualifies as philosophy, but as soccer referees we know that most of the players and coaches have never read the rules. And as coaches get higher and better licenses (from the entry level, to the "A" license which lets you coach professional teams), there's still no requirement to read or know the Laws of the Game. You have to give WFTDA credit: in order to play in their leagues, players have to pass a written rules test, along with the physical and skill requirements. Does any other league in any other sport do that?

I recently had a conversation with our league's assistant head referee, and apparently there's some discussion about a book by a NBA referee about how they try to massage a game to keep star players in. We know this happens in the MLS as well - it's also been a major impediment when MLS players play in international competitions, as they're not used to the game being called straight-up anymore, and they can't get away with what they can in this country. Roller derby has always had sex appeal driving ticket sales; I can't recall the name, but a big player in the 50s-70s referred to her chest as "tickets"; and while travel teams are looking more and more professional, fishnets, makeup, and (when they're honest) T&A are still part of what drives in people to watch - but the officiating is never modified to make things more entertaining. As I said, the philosophies vary greatly.

16 January '10 - 16:32 - - | No comments yet - § ¶