Table Of ContentSPORTS OFFICIALS AND OFFICIATING
Sports officials (umpires, referees, judges) play a vital role in every sport, and
sports governing bodies, fans, and players now expect officials to maintain higher
professional standards than ever before. In this ground-breaking book, a team of
leading international sport scientists and top level officials have come together to
examine, for the first time, the science and practice of officiating in sport, helping us
to better understand the skills, techniques, and physical requirements of successful
refereeing.
The book covers every key component of the official’s role, including:
(cid:120) Training and career development
(cid:120) Fitness and physical preparation
(cid:120) Visual processing
(cid:120) Judgement and decision making
(cid:120) Communication and game management
(cid:120) Psychological demands and skills
(cid:120) Using technology
(cid:120) Performance evaluation
(cid:120) Researching and studying officials in sport
Top-level officials or officiating managers contribute in the ‘Official’s Call’ sec-
tions, reflecting on their experiences in real in-game situations across a wide range
of international sports, and on how a better understanding of science and technique
can help improve professional practice. No other book has attempted to combine
leading edge contemporary sport science with the realities of match officiating in
this way, and therefore this book is vital reading for any advanced student of sport
science, sport coaching or sport development, or any practising official or sports
administrator looking to raise their professional standards.
Clare MacMahon Head of Sports Science at Swinburne University of Technology
in Melbourne, Australia
Duncan Mascarenhas British Psychological Society Chartered Psychologist,
Senior Lecturer at Glyndwˆr University, Wrexham, UK
Henning Plessner PhD in Psychology, Professor for Sport Psychology and
Director of the Institute of Sports and Sports Sciences at the University of
Heidelberg, Germany
Alexandra Pizzera Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Psychology of the
German Sport University Cologne
Raôul R. D. Oudejans Associate Professor at the MOVE Research Institute
Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, The
Netherlands
Markus Raab Head of the Institute of Psychology at the German Sport University
and Head of the Performance Psychology Department, and Research Professor at
London South Bank University, UK
SPORTS OFFICIALS
AND OFFICIATING
Science and practice
Clare MacMahon, Duncan Mascarenhas,
Henning Plessner, Alexandra Pizzera, Raôul
R. D. Oudejans and Markus Raab
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Clare MacMahon, Duncan Mascarenhas, Henning Plessner,
Alexandra Pizzera, Raôul R. D. Oudejans and Markus Raab
The right of Clare MacMahon, Duncan Mascarenhas, Henning Plessner,
Alexandra Pizzera, Raôul Oudejans and Markus Raab to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacMahon, Clare.
Sports officials and officiating : science and practice/Clare MacMahon,
Duncan Mascarenhas, Henning Plessner, Alexandra Pizzera,
Ra?ul R.D. Oudejans and Markus Raab.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sports officiating—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Sports officials—
Training of. I. Title.
GV735.M33 2015
796.023—dc23
2014021704
ISBN: 978-0-415-83574-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-83575-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-70052-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
Notes on contributors vii
Preface x
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 Development of officials 8
Official’s Call: Janie Frampton
3 Physical demands 33
Official’s Call: Bill Mildenhall
4 Visual perception 46
5 Judgement and decision making 60
Official’s Call: Ralf Brand
6 Interaction and game management 73
Official’s Call: Wayne Barnes
7 Psychological demands and skills 95
Officials’ Calls: Marika Humphreys-Baranova, Chris White
8 Technology 114
Officials’ Calls: Holger Albrecht, Graham Hughes
vi Contents
9 Selection, training and evaluation of performance 130
Officials’ Calls: Jacqui Jashari, Tony Parker, Tom Lopes
10 Conclusion 152
Index 156
CONTRIBUTORS
Clare MacMahon is Head of Sports Science at Swinburne University of
Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Her research broadly examines movement
cognition, exploring how thinking and moving are interlinked, with examples
such as the impact of cognitive fatigue on physical performance or the impact of
context on decisions in sport. Clare has also worked with a number of professional
sporting organisations understanding talent identification and development, and
training of cognitive skills such as decision making. She has worked with officials in
a multitude of sports, at a variety of different levels in both research and application.
Duncan Mascarenhas is a British Psychological Society Chartered Psychologist
with over 15 years of experience working with sports officials. Having provided
psychological support to the Rugby Football Union Elite Referee Unit, he has
since provided training to many clients including the Rugby Football League
Match Officials and New Zealand Netball. He completed a post-doctoral research
project with New Zealand Soccer referees investigating the interactive effect of
physical performance and decision making. Duncan is a UK level 4 basketball ref-
eree and currently enjoys refereeing basketball, touch-rugby and soccer. He is cur-
rently employed at Glyndw^r University as a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise
Psychology. Duncan is a BASES (British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences)
Accredited Sport & Exercise Scientist and has research interests in team decision
making, sports officiating and video interventions in sport.
Henning Plessner, PhD in Psychology, is Professor for Sport Psychology
and Director of the Institute of Sports and Sports Sciences at the University of
Heidelberg, Germany. The focus of his theoretical and empirical research work is
on the experimental investigation of basic processes of social judgement, as well
as on the study of judgement and decision making in various applied settings.
viii Contributors
Henning is Vice-President of the German Society of Sport Science and the author/
editor of three books, three journal special issues and more than 50 peer-reviewed
articles and edited book chapters. Besides, he has been active as a national certified
gymnastic judge for more than 20 years.
Alexandra Pizzera is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Psychology of the
German Sport University Cologne where she also completed her Diploma degree
in Sport Science and her PhD in Sport Science (Sport Psychology). Her research
interests focus on the bidirectional link between action and perception with regard
to visual and acoustic perception, expertise research and the selection, training
and performance evaluation process of sports officials. She teaches courses in sport
psychology and gymnastics.
Raôul R. D. Oudejans is Associate Professor at the MOVE Research Institute
Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, The
Netherlands. His main research and teaching areas are perceiving and moving in
sports (including sports officiating) and other high-pressure contexts, with empha-
sis on the psychological factors involved in performing. For the last 15 years Raôul
has specialised in the visual control of the basketball shot as well as in training
and performing under pressure. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers,
eight book chapters and four books, including the new student book in Dutch
Sportpsychologie (Sport Psychology) first published in 2012.
Markus Raab is the Head of the Institute of Psychology at the German Sport
University and the Head of the Performance Psychology Department. Additionally,
he is Research Professor at London South Bank University, UK. The main focus
of the research programme in performance psychology is on motor learning and
motor control and judgement and decision making in sports and beyond. He
favours a simple heuristic approach and an embodied cognition approach to under-
standing the interaction of sensorimotor and cognitive behaviour from a psycho-
logical perspective.
Officials
Holger Albrecht, Federation International de Gymnastique (FIG) Technical
Committee Member for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics, Germany
Wayne Barnes, International Rugby Board (IRB) Referee, England
Ralf Brand, Referee and Member of Referee’s Advisory Board, Basketball
Bundesliga (BEKO BBL), Germany
Janie Frampton, Former National Referee Manager, the Football Association
(FA), England
Contributors ix
Graham Hughes, International Rugby Board (IRB) Television Match Official
(TMO), England
Marika Humphreys-Baranova, International Skating Union (ISU) Judge, ISU
Trainer and Examiner of Technical Specialists, England
Jacqui Jashari, International Netball Umpire; Umpire coach and mentor, Australia
Tom Lopes, Executive Director of International Association of Approved
Basketball Officials (IAABO), USA
Bill Mildenhall, Referee Development Officer, Basketball Victoria and Victorian
Basketball Referees Association, Australia
Tony Parker, International Squash Official, England
Chris White, Rugby Football Union (RFU) Referee Academy Manager, England
