Referee Fitness Trainings

What you get out of life is generally what you put into it.

The same philosophy applies to our Wednesday night training at Gribblehirst Park, Sandringham Rd (home of the Eden Rugby Club).  Training is held every Wednesday night from 6:00pm-7:00pm.

With the departing of Jose Thomas to Melbourne earlier this year the ARU have kindly appointed Simon Kent to become our Master of Masochism.

A few years ago John Gillies put the groundwork in and got a few referees together on a Wednesday night to not only add something different to a training regime but also to create a kind of togetherness or (if you want to use the old cliché) camaraderie.

It proved to be a success although numbers were always a bit low in the middle of winter.

In Russell Trotters reign as GM he introduced Jose to us and this was, without a doubt, a stepup not only in fitness training but also of running and training techniques.

Jose’s reign was a most enjoyable and rewarding experience and having between 20 and 30 referees regularly turn up (some who brought their partners along) you always had someone you could push yourself against.

This year we have Simon with us and to date his only fault seems to be that he is English. We tend to talk to him quite slowly.

Simon is also involved in the strength and conditioning training with Auckland Rugby.

The idea of the Wednesday night training is to involve referees of all levels and to bring them up to a fitness level quite worthy of the games they are refereeing or hope to referee in the future.

The intention is to push yourself just that bit harder than you would if you were training on your own. The emphasis is also to train within your limits. There are guys who are like whippets and there are also those referees who will never be in danger of breaking speed records.

No one is ever taken the piss out of because of their speed (or lack of) during the training grids. Indeed it is all about encouragement and that is an integral part of the Wednesday night group. Everyone is equal.

The bottom line is if you want to improve yourself as a referee come along to our Wednesday nights. It matters not what shape you’re in or what level of referee you are. All grades are represented from JRC to Premier.

And of course there is always the re-hydration aspect of the night which occurs at the completion of the 60 minutes of training. It’s got to be worth it just for that.

Dave Ferguson