Reffing Saturday and Monday Open Mat

Reffing at the AKA Tournament

I committed earlier in the week to ref at the AKA Open. I was pretty nervous about it, even though I already had my first reffing experience last year. I got there a little early and ended up helping James build the brackets for kids. After that was a rules meeting, where my biggest concern was remembering what submissions were allowed for kids and which weren't. 

Round robin tournament, submission wins worth 2 points, points win worth 1 point and a loss was worth 0. So in addition to reffing, I also had to make sure that the points were awarded properly and ensure that competitors had sufficient rest between matches. Started off with two kids brackets. The rest is pretty much a blur. I was going non-stop for over two hours with the kids. Had a short break between kids gi and no gi, another break and then adults gi and no gi. 

I missed some calls, and corrected one that I was absolutely sure that I missed shortly after it happened. I had some coaches and parents disagree with me, but nothing too crazy. I don't think any of my missed calls affected the outcome of a match.There was one instance in which I corrected a black belt coach who didn't understand the back-mount points. 

I found that my greatest difficulty was in ascertaining what constituted a takedown as opposed to guard pull. Especially kids, when they just flop over. The majority of my missed calls occurred when there were scrambles that started from a guard position but evolved into a sweep or pass.

James came over when the purple no gi were about to start and asked if I wanted to ref them or have him ref. I very happily gave him the reins. They were crazy scrambles and even he was struggling with awarding points. That made me feel better.

Overall, it was pretty nerve-wracking, but I think with experience it will get better. Much like competing, I guess.
  
Monday

Didn't do class between Wed night and Monday morning. Wasn't expecting the morning class to be 90min of rolling and wasn't properly hydrated. Felt a little tired at the beginning, but energy felt good midway through. Rolled with Kelly last night when he jammed his big toe pretty bad. :( He banged up a knee at the tournament on Saturday, so I'm a little worried for him competing at Worlds. I hope he isn't held back by injury.

My rolls weren't amazing, but I did do some decent things. Finished on a good note. Jamie had been kicking my ass throughout the round and went for a rolling back attack near the end. I was able to reverse and take his back. I almost wonder if he gave it to me though.