Re: Referee Certification Course
 

I am VERY glad the referees have to do this. It may not help the really stubborn ones, but it has a potential to help.

Last year there was ton's of ramming in the Colorado regional. The ref's did nothing to stop it. ...and only gave out a yellow card after our claw had been damaged. (the only yellow card issued the whole regional)

It was very disappointing, when the ref's would not even enforce the rules.

Re: Referee Certification Course
 

I wonder who on the GDC is also a soccer referee. Red and Yellow Cards last year, Impeding this year.

Re: Referee Certification Course
 

This topic brings back MANY memories of 2005 and some posts I made, both good and bad, regarding referee capability and consistency across all events.

I distinctly remember asking/demanding that FIRST and the regional staffs do something ahead of time to better educate and certify that their volunteer referees were knowledgeable of all game rules and prepared to enforce those rules equally at all events. I've read and witnessed many other similar sentiments in the years since then. This effort in 2008 to "standardize" refereeing represents a positive step forward, and I feel we should all put our full support behind FIRST in getting this new program to work. We should also give them time to see if these changes do bring improvement before providing any criticism and feedback, constructive or otherwise.

All that being said, if the "course materials" of this refereeing education were made public, I do believe it could help drive teams better understand what "style" of gameplay is expected by the GDC. It could make referees' jobs even easier as more teams will know how to play the game from the outset.

Now only if we could get some distributable "driver's ed" videos produced by FIRST that demonstrate appropriate and inappropriate robot behaviors relating to the current year's game. A picture is worth a thousand words. I'd guess some teams would love to help out in making these videos prior to the season, but that's quite difficult given the secretive nature of the game design sessions, so it would be up to FIRST and the GDC to arrange for such a thing. If that is too much to put on their plate, then we'll just have to go without such visual aids.

I'm very interested in seeing how this training plays out this year. Good luck to all in making it work! :)

Re: Referee Certification Course
 

I believe the Red and Yellow Cards first appeared at IRI several years ago. I think Andy Baker or one of his compadres came up with the idea. It works very well if you ask me. Something a little more permanent and severe than a point penalty.

Re: Referee Certification Course
 

Yeah 2005 was the year for that sort of thing.

I certainly hope the drive teams can have access to the course's content. It may lead to more questioning of the rules or less but it will be beneficial all around. Then again you just read the rules a few dozen times over.

Re: Referee Certification Course
 

I feel this is a good step towards better refereeing. The results of this implementation will obviously be seen during the season. Contrary to what many people say, FIRST is a lot about the game. It is the glue and the referee's are a very important portion of FIRST. We have seen the number of debates that have come up over the years from this topic. I am overall glad to see this.