Name: Cornwall FA
Telephone: 01208 269010
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Referee's Development Day at Penryn Huge Success

Nearly 40 Cornwall FA Referees attended the Annual Development Day on Sunday 13th November at Penryn AFC.

Penryn Athletic played host to a hugely successful Referees Development Day which was led by Select Group Assistant Referee & former FIFA Assistant Referee Simon Long as Principal Speaker

Simon has acted as assistant at the very highest level of World Football and his advice and guidance to referees down at Penryn was very welcome

The first session was based on the art of lining, entitled “Assist or Insist”. The interactive session started with Simon highlighting areas the assistant can assist the referee & the few occasions when they need to insist. An example of this being where the referee has clearly missed an incident or when they need to prevent the official being wrong in law. The use of a number of video clips enabled the delegates to discuss & decide whether the assistant would assist or insist. At the conclusion of the first part of Simon’s presentation, delegates assembled on the field of play for some practical activities.

The groups were split into two with Simon leading one & Malcolm West (former National League Assistant Referee) leading the other. Malcolm’s group worked on movement, “crabbing” & flag techniques whereas Simon’s group were videoed actively judging offside decisions. Halfway through the practical session the two groups swapped over and completed the second half of the session.

The group gathered back inside for a Q&A session and were able to pick Simon's brains on his experiences

Simon then had the pleasure to present Nigel Jewell with his Long Service Award to Refereeing, a fully deserved honour for a dedicated grassroots football volunteer

The next session was led by Luke Wilkes and was looking at "Conflict Resolutions”, this was another interactive session with the audience working in small teams of 6 with various levels of experience, to discuss & review a series of video clips. This resulted in some healthy discussions.

The Final presentation was led by Liam Mankee & Paul Minns, and was looking “Managing Mass Player Confrontation”. The Main Theme of the Day “Think Before You Act” again came to the fore in this very interactive presentation, the videos creating strong debate

Cornwall FA would like to thank all the referees that attended on the day and a special thanks to the following