Professional access - Assurance of achievement

03. 03. 2010 00:20:00
  From 25th February till 28th February took place a referee workshop in Spa City Rajecké Teplice. This event was arranged for 16 talented referees from the Slovak regions and such an event is a part of the project organised by UEFA Referee Convention. I had an opportunity to participate at this meeting therefore I would like to share the experience with you.
Artur Jakubec, the member of the Slovak Referee Committee started our meeting Thursday afternoon and welcomed us.  We met the best Slovak referees. Vladimír Hriňák, Martin Balko and Tomáš Mókoš prepared very useful presentation and they talked about their scale to success. For a while we could see the world of professional refereeing at international level. The last speech this day belonged to István Vad, young Hungarian FIFA referee. His presentation was focused on UEFA Talent & Mentor program as wel as similar project in Hungary and he was willing to share his experience in his present career. At the end of the evening we watched  a documentary cinema called Kill the referee that was worked for at suggestion of European Football Union. This document shows the relations and paradoxes of the refereeing during the last EURO 2008 in Switzerland and Austria. Friday morning started with a practical training led by Jan Hianik, head fitness coach of Slovak refereeing in cooperation with V. Hriňák and T. Mókoš. The training took place at the field of Žilina amateur football club ŠK Juventus Žilina. During the training we could see the optimal warm-up before the match. The second part of the training was focused on special exercises for the referees and for the assistant referees. In the afternoon Mr. Hianik prepared theoretical lecture about conditional training, correct nutrition and post match recovery.
Next morning we spent with Tomáš Gurský the sport psychologist. He participates in Referee education programme with Slovak Referee Committee for a long time. Except the theoretical part focused on psychological aspects of the refereeing he prepared for us also some practical excercises. In a small group we discussed our opinions to the present evaluation principles of the refereeing performance. Jozef Marko, the member of the UEFA Referee Committee and manager of Slovak Referee Convention performed with his lecture in the afternoon. During his presentation he was talking about how to avoid unnecessary referees faults in the match. Then we visited Top Slovak League  match between Žilina and Dubnica. Our task was to follow the manner of the refereeing, team work and the key decisions in the match.
   
Last day we analyzed this match with Jozef Marko and Vladimír Medveď, member of Slovak Referee Committee. Conclusion of the workshop was devoted to the Jozef Marko lecture about the Slovak referee history. He emphasized we should know the well known personalities of football history. Vladimír Medveď informed us about the claims that Referee Committee poses at the referees in a Slovak leagues. All of them were willing to discuss with us about the topics we were interested in.
  In the end Jozef Marko thanked to the vicepresident of the Middle Slovak Football Association František Vorel. He took charge of this workshop and prepared very good conditions for us during the workshop. I would like to thank also to Slovak Referee Committee and I hope we can use the knowledge we got here on the field of play.

Peter Kovač, young referee, Western Slovak F.A.