After drinking the cool limoncello, everyone continued to chat, and Corina next told Christina about his understanding of the referee in addition to the World Cup:

The most important thing I understand as "refereeing skills" is the preparation before the game. In order to referee a match as well as possible, it is important to know what you are called to do and then put yourself in the best possible condition, which means task, work and concentration.

It means that as long as it is possible, nothing will be spared.

Preparation is naturally associated with running, and in fact, the referee has to run non-stop for 90 minutes on the field. Today's football games are very fast-paced, very intense, and often reach a very high level. Therefore, in order to be able to make a decision in the best condition, a referee must rely on his physical preparation to adapt to the speed on the court.

If you look at the last video of a football match from 15 to 20 years ago, you'll see how much the speed at which football is played now compared to what it used to be: your first instinct is that something is wrong with the VCR, because the picture on TV is like slowing down the motion. But it's not actually slowing down the camera, it's because today's soccer players move faster, sometimes they don't even have time to think, but just practice countless movements when they repeat training. They play so fast that sometimes they don't have time to lift their heads and pass the ball. In recent years, people have begun to pay attention to the color of shorts and stockings while distinguishing the color of the jersey, because players have begun to distinguish between teammates and opponents through these methods. Also in recent years, in order to avoid problems in this regard, referees have begun to require the use of colored stockings instead of traditional black socks.

The referee should know that the most dangerous phase of a match for him is towards the end of the game. In theory - and in practice it is almost always the case, at that time, due to the huge physical consumption, the players will have a lot of technical mistakes, mispasses, shortness of breath, losing the ball, etc.; A player's mistake often becomes a mistake, and that mistake means that there may be a crisis. In the final stages of the game, the players are already very tired, and his mistakes will increase significantly, and the likelihood of fouls will also increase. This means that referees need to be more attentive and in the final stages of the game to maintain the best mental state to cope with the most difficult situations.

It was clear that the referee had been running throughout the match, and by the end of the match, he was definitely tired compared to the time it had been.

But the referee can't raise his hand and turn his face to the bench for a substitution with 20 minutes left, so he should take that into account when he is training, and he should consider whether he can still keep a clear head and a good overall shape until the end of the game. At that point, he will find it even more tricky to make decisions, because every decision he makes with only a few minutes left in the game will be difficult for both teams to overturn. For example, a last-minute goal can deprive the team that conceded the goal of getting it back.

Since there is no panacea that can prepare the body without training for long periods of time, the weekly exercise on the court is still of decisive importance. As a referee, I can show off my time in the field. I've been a football referee for over 25 years. I see myself as a credible witness to the evolution of the various training styles on the pitch.

From the time I started as a referee until I entered the international competition, I spent a lot less energy on my body than I do now, probably because in those years football referees were not required to be able to perform like players, so even though training was not as frequent and not as intense as it is now, referees were able to meet the demands of the game on Sundays. I remember at that time, I trained twice a week, and if I gave up because it was too cold or something unexpected happened, it wouldn't be a big problem.

But that's not the case today, so one piece of advice for the lads who are just starting out as referees is to go for maximum intensity training right away. Because hard, tenacious, consistent exercise is good for them, and when they get a little older, they can expect to reap the expected benefits, because their body organs have become accustomed to the rhythm of this training.

If you wait until you are old enough to train, it will be very difficult and it will not work very well.

If we look at the tools and testing methods used today, we can see how much effort people need to put into exercising today. For example, the Cooper test, which is a method used to test the training of referees at world level: it stipulates that the referee must run a predetermined minimum distance at full speed within 12 minutes. In the last 10 to 15 years, the shortest distance has increased from 2,400 meters at the 1990 World Cup to 2,700 meters today. In the last few World Cup tests, the average distance covered by the selected referees in the allotted time exceeded 3,000 meters. Ten years ago, few people were able to go beyond 2,700 meters.

Let's take a look at the 50-meter and 200-meter runs. It is necessary to run 50 meters in 7.5 seconds and 200 meters in 32 seconds, and now all of us are able to meet that standard. At this stage, some changes are being made to the testing methods, hoping to find some testing methods that are more suitable for the referees, so that they can be more adapted to the characteristics of modern football.

Recently, a test called "YOYO" has been introduced in many countries, including Italy. It stipulates that people must complete a series of 20-meter switchback runs, each with a round trip of 40 meters. There is a 10-second interval between each 40-meter run. The test subject runs 20 meters at a certain speed according to the rhythm of the music or drum, and this speed will gradually increase, if the test subject cannot keep up with the rhythm and does not arrive before the end of the music or drum, then he will be eliminated. It is a test that depletes the physical strength of the person being tested, or a limit test, which is able to test the physical condition of each person.

In addition, from a medical point of view, the medical examination we receive is also very detailed. The heart, blood, muscles, blood vessels, from pulse to weight, from lactate production to fatigue recovery time, all have to be checked and evaluated regularly.

As I said, while focusing on inspection, we should also focus on training methods. In the past, it was laissez-faire and allowed referees to exert their own subjective initiative; Now, the coaches have used advanced methods and have developed a plan for each referee. They work at different stages of the year, at different times of the week, to determine the intensity of training according to the specific situation of each referee, to help us achieve the best results on the field.

More than 10 years ago, the Italian Referees Association has set up a system of so-called "training centers", that is, using training centers scattered throughout Italy, referees and assistant referees from the current First and Second Divisions are organized to participate in training camps in these centers, and lower-level referees and assistant referees can also participate in these training camps.

In each "center", there is a coach who follows each stage of the training camp throughout the process. Many coaches form a coaching staff together and they are generally responsible for the results of the training camp. At the beginning of the season, they give each referee the same amount of training, and then they test the referees regularly according to the needs of the league, in the hope of helping them to get to the right shape before the game.

We attend training camps and tests at least once every two weeks, and often get more frequent. This is a very important moment. The training camp took place at the training center in Govergano.

Each training camp during the season consists of two training sessions. Coaches take into account whether each person will have a game at the end of the week and then give the amount of training accordingly. During this time, some physical tests are also conducted.

The management of the summer training was also very serious: from 1991 onwards, all referees and assistant referees serving in the First and Second Divisions were organized to participate in a 12-day intensive training camp in the Apennine Mountains of Tuscany-Romagnia in the province of Forlì, where they had to train twice a day.

Recently, FIFA and UEFA have begun to adopt similar methods and standards. They set up a temporary body, headed by Werner Herson, to manage the training of referees. Since it is unlikely that the judges of the Judges Association will execute the training plan in the form described above, they will receive an email each week with a personalized training plan.

Werner Herson, a former Belgian First Division player turned second division coach, became a kinesiology instructor at the University of Rovagno.

Prior to Euro 2000, he was appointed by UEFA to train referees during matches. We were so pleased with his work that he was recommended for the 2002 World Cup, where he was also in charge.

Since the referees and assistant referees for the World Cup come from all over the world, FIFA asked Professor Werner Herson to draw up a detailed weekly training plan for each of us from March 2002, just after the training symposium. This is done for two purposes, one is for the sake of their respective domestic leagues, and the other is obviously for the World Cup.

Each training session is stored with a heart rate meter. Every week, the number of each training session is saved to a computer and then emailed to FIFA. In this way, the training of each of us can be checked and monitored, despite the fact that the referees are located all over the world and are thousands of kilometers away from each other.

Once the World Cup starts, our training plan is based on the time intervals between the previous and next matches. This careful planning has clear benefits: it not only tests precise results, but also completely avoids muscle injuries.

For us referees in Europe, it was a hard season. In the next 40 days, in the course of the World Cup, it is not easy to feel good. In fact, we felt very good, no doubt thanks to the advanced training methods employed.

But I have always believed that we are like footballers, and that the best coach is ourselves - the person directly involved. Self-knowledge is crucial, and everyone should know when to fuel themselves a little more and when to slow down, guided by the training system and the general direction. Human body organs are not immutable, so it is necessary to develop a special self-examination ability. In this respect, I am very satisfied with Alexander Rainer. He coached me in Viareggio for a few years and I was inseparable from his achievements.

Oh, Christina has been listening intently

If exercise is essential for referees who compete at a high level, then I am convinced that it is also of great value for referees who compete at a lower level. This is because, like I said, physical exercise can be a long-term asset for you as you grow up. If I had been able to work out like I do now, then I believe that now I feel more relaxed on the field and I don't feel as hard as I am now.

I have one more little secret to reveal to you. It's that when you're not very tired, you have to find ways to exercise. Of course, if you have a job to do, you can't find time to exercise while you're working or after you're off the pitch, because it's not an easy thing to do. At that time, you were already a little tired, both physically and mentally. In this state of fatigue, it is of course not easy to exercise. So, you might say, "Okay, I'm going to rest now." I'm done here. I gave up. "But if it's early in the afternoon and you don't feel very tired, it would be good for you to be able to dedicate your time to exercise. For example, if you don't have a race on a Sunday, you can use the afternoon, or take advantage of the break after lunch, to work out, especially if you need to lose weight.

Personally, I don't like to train alone because I feel very mentally tired. That's why I think it's very important to train with other people.

During the course of the season, I was able to train with others because I had to train at the training center. But at the end of the season, if you're going to a World Cup or something like that, it's going to be a hassle to find someone to train with, because your colleagues are on holiday.

In this way, you will have to find several "friends" who are ready to sacrifice their vacations and continue to sweat with you.