The Power of Teamwork: Enhancing Performance in Refereeing

1. CSOA REFEREEING AS A TEAM Chris Dowell February 4, 2012

2. What does this Board bring to the table? • Board member 2011 • Example of great teamwork • Purpose • Commitment • Leadership • Roles • Trust • Communications • Hard work • Fun

3. What does the Board do? • Take care of operations • Manage the finances • Deal with all the good stuff • The other stuff is handled confidentially

4. What do CSOA members bring to the table? • Professionalism • Commitment • Hard work • Willingness to work for low pay in harsh conditions • Experience (another way of saying gray hair) • Love of the game • Welcome New members

5. What do CSOA matches bring to the table? • High expectations from players, coaches, spectators, ourselves • Challenging matches • Great atmosphere – hard to beat Friday night • A place to work on our game • A place to improve professionally

6. 2012 – the world we live in • We live in a world of teamwork • Professionally • Leisure time – DC United, Redskins, Capitals, Wizards, Nationals, UVA, U Md, Duke… • CSOA • Teams define us • Teamwork dominates our thoughts: remember Albert Haynesworth

7. USSF Teamwork Presentation • Fouls and Misconduct • Fouls outside the box, inside the box • Mass confrontation • Free kicks, walls • Throw in, corner kick, goal kick • Goals, ball in, ball not in • Penalty kicks

8. Laws of the Game • Law 5 …referee controls the match in cooperation with the assistant referee… • Law 6 …assistant referees also assist the referee to control the match in accordance with the Laws of the Game.

9. Professional Referee Associations • USSF • NFL • NBA • Here is what they say: • Can’t do it alone • It takes a team to get it right

10. What does a team need to be successful? • Goals • Roles • Process • Relationship (sense of team) • Mutual Trust • Mutual Respect • Communications • Feedback • Mutual Influence

11. Goals • We get this – this is part of who we are • We train to this • Safety • Fair Play • Enjoyment

12. Roles • Functional roles • Responsibility roles • Leader – clear vision, credible, creates trust • Support – willingness to be led • Washington Post article • Successful leadership is not so much about leadership as it is about having people who are willing to be led.

13. Roles • Washington Post article • 10th round draft pick • Not on a well performing team • In college everyone in the locker room wanted what was best for the team; in the pros its every man for himself; its about his numbers today, not about wining or losing.

14. Process • High level of standardization • > 95% the same • I think we get this too • We prove this all the time • Tournaments • Compressed schedules

15. Relationship • Mutual trust • Mutual respect • Communications • Feedback • Mutual influence – open to what you say, open to what I say • Without these the team is less than 100%

16. Less than 100% is not good enough • Comair Flight 5191 • August 27, 2006 • Take off from Lexington, KY • Used wrong runway • Game changing event • Factors: weather, equipment, fatigue, teamwork • Where was the teamwork?

17. Couple of quotes • …majority of game changing calls involve referee team interaction. • …without clear understanding of roles the team runs the risk of getting the call wrong.

18. How build a team? • It does not always happen automatically • Address goals, roles, process • Build the sense of team

19. So what? • We can’t do it alone • We have specific roles to play • Teamwork does not just happen • Have to build sense of team • Less than 100% is not always good enough • Continue doing the great job you are doing