The IJA Girls in Sport Fee, together with the IJA Refereeing Fee is delighted to help Sarah O’Gara on her quick observe programme to Worldwide Refereeing. Thanks in fact to Sport Eire who make this help doable by the Girls in Sport Funding.
Take pleasure in Sarah’s report of her expertise on the Welsh Open, September 2024 which is under:
Junior/Senior Welsh Open 2024 – Sarah O’Gara Referee Report
I refereed on the Junior & Senior Welsh Open 2024 on the 15th September 2024 together with Chris Hickey who agreed to journey with me as a mentor. The Welsh Open is a British Judo Affiliation (BJA) Stage 4 occasion held within the Sport Wales Nationwide Centre, Cardiff. This was my first time refereeing at an occasion exterior of Eire and a possibility for me to progress additional by my refereeing profession.
As a stage 4 occasion, that is used as an evaluation occasion for BJA referees. This meant the extent of referees current was fairly excessive and gave me a possibility to study from a number of the BJA’s high referees. I used to be assigned to mat 2 with Martin Rivers (Worldwide Referee/IJF A) and another BJA referees. General the day of refereeing went very properly and I loved the chance to study and achieve extra expertise at excessive stage occasions. Though the extent of occasion got here with extra strain to verify choices I made as a referee had been appropriate, I loved the problem. I acquired some very optimistic suggestions from Martin with reference to my refereeing all through the day and felt it was a step in the precise path for my refereeing development.
Some positives I acquired about my refereeing had been:
- My scoring was superb, with only a few scores needing to be modified or reviewed.
- My information of the principles was glorious with the opposite referees having confidence in my judgement.
- General my refereeing was superb and it was evident that I knew my stuff.
Some areas I may make enhancements had been:
- To have extra confidence whereas within the centre of the mat. At occasions I appeared unsure or nervous despite the fact that I had no motive to be.
- To carry my hand alerts for barely longer to make sure everybody has undoubtedly seen and understood the choice.
- To observe my positioning when the struggle is transitioning to ne-waza so I don’t must chase the struggle, though this solely occurred on the uncommon event.
- Generally I referred to as matte a bit too quickly when gamers had been on the fringe of the mat however usually this improved because the day went on and I turned higher at judging the path of the gamers.
