From now on, referees will be filming games with them

The players and officials of both teams were amazed when referee sebastian wieber and his team members konstantin schaab and tobias fritz arrived for the eighth-final of the district cup between DJK schondra and SV aura. Equipped with camera and tripod. The reason: the new "video coaching" project the bad kissingen arbitration panel. That could change things.

The project was initiated by sebastian wieber. Two years ago, he had the idea of video-recording the games of young referees and analyzing and processing the recordings with the referees. He recently learned how this is done and what needs to be observed at the DFB’s training course for instructors. The "videocoaching" project under wieber’s leadership and the teaching team.

It works like this: the young referee is informed in advance about the video coaching in the setting. Before the game, a brief meeting is held to explain the video coaching process to the referee. After the game, scenes relevant to the game are briefly addressed, keeping the booth talk concise. The video material is processed and relevant scenes are cut to size. Afterwards the referee receives the video material. Intensive reappraisal with sebastian wieber or by members of the teaching team.

With the videocoaching, the support and challenge for young talents is raised to a new level. For young referees who are willing to make demands, video coaching has an enormous added value compared to conventional coaching without video material. The reason for this is as follows: on the one hand, it can be shown to the referee in which areas there is potential for improvement. On the other hand, the referee can see how his movements and decisions work on the court, in order to maintain or optimize them in the future.

The filmed scenes also offer advantages for the referee group. This way the material can be divided into different thematic blocks. They can be discussed as examples in a lehrrabend or a challenge event.

In the coming weeks, there will be further uses of video coaching. "We are satisfied with the way our opener went, and look forward to future games with joy and confidence", wieber said after the game. And also the players, who looked puzzled at the beginning, used the chance after the game to access video scenes with very special goals. Already a great success for referees and players in the age of digitalization.