Disclaimers:
a) I write this as someone who experiences a lot of life as a woman. Although I have a non-binary gender identity, I feel this is irrelevant here as I present in a feminine way and I am AFAB.
b) As this is written from the perspective of a cis(ish) woman, I can't say that it encompasses the experiences of trans women who referee this sport. It may be that a lot is the same, but I don't want to speak for that demographic.
c) This is not written to be an accusation against anyone specific in this community, especially not the hard working referees and RDT people we have. This problem is systemic from society and I believe largely inherited from other sports.
Quidditch, you have a sexism problem.
This problem extends further than the underutilisation of female and AFAB players to an area I feel is often overlooked partially because there are too few of us overall - refereeing. Referees in general don't seem to talk about their experiences that much (part of the reason for me starting this blog) so I think this will be fairly new information to a lot of you; I apologise if you are one of the people I have had this rant to already.
First, let me address the facts. This season, by the numbers, AFAB and/or female referees make up approximately 33% of the total qualified referees and the same proportion of head referees. However, a number of those only qualified recently and missed the biggest tournament of the UK season, BQC. This may not sound too awful, especially as it is much the same proportion as Team UK for the number of female players, but with refereeing AFAB people aren't so much fighting the inherent bias of our society towards encouraging boys into sports and not girls. If anything, we should have more qualified AFAB referees, as girls are often told they are better at exams. Either way, I believe that referees in quidditch should represent the population - using the binary for ease of maths, that would make it a 50:50 split. We are a long way off from that.
The problem gets worse when you consider who the 'best' referees are. If you attended Whiteknights you might have heard people talking about their ideal referee teams with themselves as the head referee: this was a discussion I started to see just how many AFAB/female people would be picked. And whilst the 'non-male' proportion was fairly large, it was dominated by AMAB people. I must admit that my own dream referee team is far from the 50:50 split I talked about above, and I start with the distinct advantage of actually being AFAB. This all generally points to the fact that currently, most of the best referees in the country are AMAB, across all types. But why?
I'm going to try and answer that question by detailing the direct impacts sexism has had on me over the two seasons I have refereed in this sport.
When I referee someone for the first time, especially someone with a big personality, they will try to test me. These personalities are almost always male, and definitely bigger than me. And the tactic a few of them use to see how I bear up under pressure? Intimidation. It doesn't happen often, but I have had people physically assert themselves over me to try and change a call. Pro tip: it won't work, I'll still give you a card, and if you try anything else I will put your butt on the floor. But would they really try that if I wasn't a woman? Whether or not they try to intimidate me, why do they feel they have the right to question my authority on pitch? I shouldn't have to prove myself.
I'm pretty loud as a referee. When I raise or project my voice, it is fairly high pitched. This is because my larynx hasn't seen much testosterone in its life, and I have no control over this. However, it does mean that I'm often accused of sounding angry and or upset when all I'm being is loud. This often leads to people misinterpreting what I'm trying to say, simply because society has imposed that an AFAB person cannot be loud without being shrill, and must therefore be being negative. Obviously this is compounded if I've had a long day and my voice breaks - the same is unlikely to be said of an AMAB referee. Oh, and I also have to try even harder to be loud because I'm starting closer to the ground, so my words don't go over everyone's heads (literally, not metaphorically).
There's also this expectation from players that because I'm female, I'm less likely to give cards. So when I do - because there's no talking your way out of cards with me, only into them - I'm seen as being excessively harsh. Last season I was definitely on the harsh end of the spectrum, sure, but not to the extent I was accused. Referees this season with similar track records aren't mocked as much as I was last season, it is simply attributed to them being new, not their gender. I don't think they should be mocked, far from it - I just wish I hadn't been.
When I was first starting out, there were very few other referees to learn from. This meant that developing a style was very much trial and error - I can't referee like someone who is 6ft tall because I am not 6ft tall. I have to move differently, I have to stand in a different place, I have to conduct myself differently. Most of the guides and advice seems to be written by 6ft people, too. Also, said guides don't cover what you should do if someone head and shoulders above you, with significantly more weight behind them, is kicking off on your pitch. Dealing with male violence as a woman is a lot different to dealing with it as a man. Though that said, I've also had people overly concerned trying to 'rescue' me from situations I had completely under control as a ref - even though it comes with the best intentions, still sexism.
One of the main things referees have to be is confident. I am confident, but I feel I have to overassert this from time to time to convince other people that I do know what I'm doing. I have to compensate for my lack of stature with a confident presence. But I have to do this in a way which won't get me one of my most hated labels: bossy. So I counter this with a healthy dose of humour and lightness, and I purposefully send myself up occasionally to make sure I avoid being seen as having a negative attitude. This is not something I want to have to do. But captains generally are much happier with my performance as a referee if I smile and laugh at appropriate moments, even if it is not as good technically as a comparable game where I was putting less effort into being a walking bag of positivity.
So what we have here are a number of factors which could, I suppose, affect all referees. However, they match up very well with issues I have experienced in other areas of my life which were specifically there because I am a woman. I experience it as sexism. It is certainly only AFAB people who come up to me at tournaments and tell me that they wish they could referee, but they aren't sure they could handle x situation or x person like I did. Yes it's a nice compliment in some ways that I dealt with it, but why should I have to come up against that situation in the first place? The fact that other women are being put off because they see men trying to use their size or sex or whatever to get out of a penalty says a lot.
Changing track a little, I want to address the issue of the gender balance in referee teams for big games - finals, semifinals. Games where you have essentially the entirety of a tournaments' referees at your disposal, save for conflicts of interest. I think a lot of time tournament directors pick the first referees that come to mind, and yes generally this is going to get a good referee team. I'm certainly not going to advocate giving the BQC final to anyone but the best head referee. However, I think that assistant and snitch referee positions are unfairly and disproportionately given to AMAB people, simply because there are more of them. As an AFAB person, I find it disheartening when I see a referee team made up entirely of AMAB people. Quidditch should be entirely mixed gender, and there are plenty of AFAB assistant and snitch referees who are good enough for semifinal level games (most of them are nowhere near as high pressure as BQC) but don't get the experience, and aren't given the confidence to ask because they only ever see AMAB people doing those roles. I'm obnoxious enough to insist I assistant referee games when there aren't conflicts of interest, but not everyone is, and they shouldn't have to be.
The proportion of top-level referees being AFAB should be the same as the overall proportion of referees being AFAB. This isn't currently the case, certainly if you look at the past few tournaments.
I know that these things are going to take time to change. The culture around how people talk to referees in general needs improvement, and with any luck addressing issues of sexism that I covered above can be done at the same time. However, I think that as a community we need to encourage more female players to referee - I think there are more people interested than people realise, but the dominance of 'big male voices' can put them off. We need to give them chances to excel, by not assuming that they are going to be worse than their male counterparts simply because they don't play the sport as physically. We need to improve our referee resources to be more inclusive of all people trying to referee, and we need to recognise the barriers society has created which females need to jump over to get into refereeing.
Having more female referees in the pool will also increase the number of role models an aspiring referee has - it's so much easier to get into something when you see lots of people you can relate to doing it. Currently I'm one of very few AFAB referees given top-level games, so lots of people have to look up to (or down to...) me, and the way I do things isn't going to suit everyone, just like my role models didn't provide me with all that I needed to become the referee I am (that said, please don't snitch referee like I do, I'm not a great snitch referee, there are far better people out there).
I hope I haven't scared anyone off with what I've written above. I've refereed a lot of games for a lot of teams, and instances that really affect me are pretty few and far between. Generally speaking, the quidditch community is very good at not being openly sexist - what sexism occurs is deeply ingrained from society and I don't think stems from any belief that there is a superior sex. But it's something to be aware of for everyone. I hope that I can provide resources on this blog that help someone improve their refereeing, or give someone perspective on why referees act the way they do, or maybe even give someone the push to take up the striped shirt. And I hope that I can do it in a way which supports everyone equally.
If you have any thoughts on this topic that you'd like to discuss with me directly, please get in touch!
Thursday, 26 May 2016
Thursday, 19 May 2016
Head Referee Starter Pack
Warning: This post contains a graphic that attempts to be funny. It started life as a direct copy of a meme, but the Comic Sans hurt too much and there were also too many things to put in there. You have been warned.
1&2. You will need at least two whistles. I have one on a wrist strap, and one on a lanyard. If my snitch referee doesn't have one, or doesn't have one which I think is good enough, I'll give them the one on the wrist strap. Some referees have finger whistles, some just carry them - it's up to what works best for you. I prefer a lanyard so I can have my hands free for signalling when I blow the whistle, but it does mean that sometimes I lose a moment finding it when I need to make a call.
3. I would be willing to bet that most head referees have started a game without their cards in hand at some point. I'm fairly prone to leaving mine on the scorekeepers table. We need shirts with pockets, but I digress. Every head referee should have their own set of cards, just so you always know where they are. One red, one yellow, one blue. This point seems extremely obvious and condescending so I'm going to end it now.
4. The sun is directly behind one set of hoops, or the wind is really strong and the quaffle keeps rolling one way down the pitch. Or there's a slope. Something has made both captains very set on the idea of starting at the same end of the pitch, so you'll need to do a coin flip. Spoiler alert, 60% of the time you will drop the coin. Just make sure if you are using foreign currency, the person calling the toss knows what the sides are. Icelandic coins don't have heads or tails, they have fishies or shields. You don't need the embarrassment of dropping the coin twice because the first toss called something that wasn't even there.
5. Is a referee shirt white with black stripes or black with white stripes? It doesn't matter, as long as it is stripey. Again, it's nice to have your own because as much as quidditchers are a close community, there's only so much of someone else's sweat you can wear before you'd rather just stick to your own. Also it's much more likely to fit.
6. A peaked cap isn't just an awesome fashion statement with your referee moniker, it's also very useful to keep sun and rain out of your face. Running around with your hand above your eyes gets tiring and looks silly. There will always be something you could've seen better if the sun hadn't been quite so in your eyes, be it a hoop or otherwise, so it's best to minimise these issues where possible.
7. You don't need a printed copy of the rulebook, but I would recommend having the pdf downloaded to your phone/tablet if you don't. Especially for big tournaments, there will be rules that you want to double check before you go into the next game, either to reassure yourself that you did the right thing or to make sure you do the right thing the next time it comes up. Also, you'll probably have to set up a pitch at some point and it's a lot easier to just read off the numbers from the book than take them from memory.
8. Hugs! Consensual hugs. Everyone should be able to have those.
Those are the physical things. I'll make another post later about the less tangible things and I'll try to remember to link it here...
1&2. You will need at least two whistles. I have one on a wrist strap, and one on a lanyard. If my snitch referee doesn't have one, or doesn't have one which I think is good enough, I'll give them the one on the wrist strap. Some referees have finger whistles, some just carry them - it's up to what works best for you. I prefer a lanyard so I can have my hands free for signalling when I blow the whistle, but it does mean that sometimes I lose a moment finding it when I need to make a call.
3. I would be willing to bet that most head referees have started a game without their cards in hand at some point. I'm fairly prone to leaving mine on the scorekeepers table. We need shirts with pockets, but I digress. Every head referee should have their own set of cards, just so you always know where they are. One red, one yellow, one blue. This point seems extremely obvious and condescending so I'm going to end it now.
4. The sun is directly behind one set of hoops, or the wind is really strong and the quaffle keeps rolling one way down the pitch. Or there's a slope. Something has made both captains very set on the idea of starting at the same end of the pitch, so you'll need to do a coin flip. Spoiler alert, 60% of the time you will drop the coin. Just make sure if you are using foreign currency, the person calling the toss knows what the sides are. Icelandic coins don't have heads or tails, they have fishies or shields. You don't need the embarrassment of dropping the coin twice because the first toss called something that wasn't even there.
5. Is a referee shirt white with black stripes or black with white stripes? It doesn't matter, as long as it is stripey. Again, it's nice to have your own because as much as quidditchers are a close community, there's only so much of someone else's sweat you can wear before you'd rather just stick to your own. Also it's much more likely to fit.
6. A peaked cap isn't just an awesome fashion statement with your referee moniker, it's also very useful to keep sun and rain out of your face. Running around with your hand above your eyes gets tiring and looks silly. There will always be something you could've seen better if the sun hadn't been quite so in your eyes, be it a hoop or otherwise, so it's best to minimise these issues where possible.
7. You don't need a printed copy of the rulebook, but I would recommend having the pdf downloaded to your phone/tablet if you don't. Especially for big tournaments, there will be rules that you want to double check before you go into the next game, either to reassure yourself that you did the right thing or to make sure you do the right thing the next time it comes up. Also, you'll probably have to set up a pitch at some point and it's a lot easier to just read off the numbers from the book than take them from memory.
8. Hugs! Consensual hugs. Everyone should be able to have those.
Those are the physical things. I'll make another post later about the less tangible things and I'll try to remember to link it here...
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Assistant Refereeing 101
I hope I don't sound too arrogant saying this, but I am one of the best assistant referees in the UK, and potentially Europe too. I'm confident in my rules knowledge, I'm loud, I don't get distracted by the quaffle and/or snitch play, and I'm able to quickly impart my thoughts to the head referee on the pitch. I'm also a decent head referee and I know what I want my assistants to do for me when I'm pitch. Usually I'll tell you at the beginning of the game if there are any specifics, but here are the basics for someone who wants to assistant referee:
1. Be loud.
Seriously, all points beyond this are useless if you are not loud. There is no such thing as being too loud as a referee on a quidditch pitch. As a head referee, I like to be able to hear all of my assistants from every point on the field, but as a minimum I should be able to hear you if I'm on the other side. If I can't hear you, how do I know the players can hear you? And conversely, if I can hear you, then the players likely are ignoring you and that is a cardable offense (with exceptions given to those who have hearing issues, though those guys tend to actually try to see ref calls, not just run merrily along until you scream directly into their ear). Most of the time, players will go back to their hoops as a reflex if they feel a beat, but you should still be calling to them. 'Beat, team, number!' is usually the best order I find. This also applies for other calls such as 'safe' and 'back to hoops'.
2. Move a lot.
Referees do not have to stand on one fixed point on the soft boundary. In fact, don't ever do that. Move. Always move. Bludgers and players are moving, so you should be too. You should try and have the best angle for judging contact (from behind) and you should definitely be moving in for a closer look if two or more players are grappling on the floor for a ball.
Also, your legs will get super stiff if you stand in one place for too long, and lets be real you probably have a game to play straight afterwards so that won't help you win, will it?
3. Be aware of your fellow referees.
This is probably the one which causes the most issues with new referees. You are not the only assistant referee on the field (at least I really hope you aren't!). Between all of you, you need to use your eyes to cover the most amount of things possible. This means if a referee is watching a beater clean out chasers in their keeper zone already, you can - and should - focus on something else. You need to be aware of what the other referees are looking at, and also if they're calling a delayed penalty. More fists in the air makes it easier for the head referee to spot it! So always try and keep an eye on what the other referees are doing. You don't need to follow the head referee on quaffle unless they specifically ask you to - they have that covered. If you're directly opposite another assistant referee, move to have a different angle or watch a different bit of play. And if you're not the snitch referee, don't watch the snitch's butt, however attractive it is. Keep your focus on beater play around the snitch, if it's happening.
4. Don't worry if you don't know the specific penalties.
That's what the head referee is there for - that's why they did a longer and harder test. You don't need to worry about it. It's nice if you do know, because you can just go up to the referee and recommend the colour of card, but don't feel that you can't call something just because you can't remember if it should be blue or yellow. Most of the time, the head referee will know what you mean from your description and will figure it out.
5. Keep your descriptions concise.
As a head referee, all I need to hear from you when you're calling a delayed penalty is 'x player from x team committed x foul (on x player)'. Then I should be able to make my judgement on the penalty. Please try to avoid saying 'I think I saw this' or 'maybe it was from behind/over the shoulder' - if you're a referee, you either say it happened or it didn't. Be confident in what you're calling! If you're not sure what the foul is, then quickly demonstrate for me, but that isn't necessary if you are more than 51% sure of what happened. Everyone hates long referee meetings, and assistant referees need to do their bit to keep the game moving.
6. You will get things wrong, and that's okay.
Every referee makes mistakes. Calls will be missed, incorrect cards will be handed out, you'll misinterpret a rule in the heat of the moment and a player will be very cross with you. They might even be cross with you for the entire tournament. But after a while, they will get over it. You are a human, you are allowed to make mistakes. Without them, we don't learn and improve. The most important thing as a referee is to accept that and move on.
7. Be enthusiastic.
Nothing is worse than an assistant referee who doesn't want to be there. You need to be focused on the game, not chatting to the crowd or staring off into the distance. If you don't want to be there, you shouldn't really be volunteering in the first place - it isn't fair on the other referees or the teams involved. Think how you'd feel if you were playing and the referees just weren't bothered; it would piss you off, right? So you should try and care. Please. It really isn't that long a time.
There are more detailed niggles, but those are probably for another day.
1. Be loud.
Seriously, all points beyond this are useless if you are not loud. There is no such thing as being too loud as a referee on a quidditch pitch. As a head referee, I like to be able to hear all of my assistants from every point on the field, but as a minimum I should be able to hear you if I'm on the other side. If I can't hear you, how do I know the players can hear you? And conversely, if I can hear you, then the players likely are ignoring you and that is a cardable offense (with exceptions given to those who have hearing issues, though those guys tend to actually try to see ref calls, not just run merrily along until you scream directly into their ear). Most of the time, players will go back to their hoops as a reflex if they feel a beat, but you should still be calling to them. 'Beat, team, number!' is usually the best order I find. This also applies for other calls such as 'safe' and 'back to hoops'.
2. Move a lot.
Referees do not have to stand on one fixed point on the soft boundary. In fact, don't ever do that. Move. Always move. Bludgers and players are moving, so you should be too. You should try and have the best angle for judging contact (from behind) and you should definitely be moving in for a closer look if two or more players are grappling on the floor for a ball.
Also, your legs will get super stiff if you stand in one place for too long, and lets be real you probably have a game to play straight afterwards so that won't help you win, will it?
3. Be aware of your fellow referees.
This is probably the one which causes the most issues with new referees. You are not the only assistant referee on the field (at least I really hope you aren't!). Between all of you, you need to use your eyes to cover the most amount of things possible. This means if a referee is watching a beater clean out chasers in their keeper zone already, you can - and should - focus on something else. You need to be aware of what the other referees are looking at, and also if they're calling a delayed penalty. More fists in the air makes it easier for the head referee to spot it! So always try and keep an eye on what the other referees are doing. You don't need to follow the head referee on quaffle unless they specifically ask you to - they have that covered. If you're directly opposite another assistant referee, move to have a different angle or watch a different bit of play. And if you're not the snitch referee, don't watch the snitch's butt, however attractive it is. Keep your focus on beater play around the snitch, if it's happening.
4. Don't worry if you don't know the specific penalties.
That's what the head referee is there for - that's why they did a longer and harder test. You don't need to worry about it. It's nice if you do know, because you can just go up to the referee and recommend the colour of card, but don't feel that you can't call something just because you can't remember if it should be blue or yellow. Most of the time, the head referee will know what you mean from your description and will figure it out.
5. Keep your descriptions concise.
As a head referee, all I need to hear from you when you're calling a delayed penalty is 'x player from x team committed x foul (on x player)'. Then I should be able to make my judgement on the penalty. Please try to avoid saying 'I think I saw this' or 'maybe it was from behind/over the shoulder' - if you're a referee, you either say it happened or it didn't. Be confident in what you're calling! If you're not sure what the foul is, then quickly demonstrate for me, but that isn't necessary if you are more than 51% sure of what happened. Everyone hates long referee meetings, and assistant referees need to do their bit to keep the game moving.
6. You will get things wrong, and that's okay.
Every referee makes mistakes. Calls will be missed, incorrect cards will be handed out, you'll misinterpret a rule in the heat of the moment and a player will be very cross with you. They might even be cross with you for the entire tournament. But after a while, they will get over it. You are a human, you are allowed to make mistakes. Without them, we don't learn and improve. The most important thing as a referee is to accept that and move on.
7. Be enthusiastic.
Nothing is worse than an assistant referee who doesn't want to be there. You need to be focused on the game, not chatting to the crowd or staring off into the distance. If you don't want to be there, you shouldn't really be volunteering in the first place - it isn't fair on the other referees or the teams involved. Think how you'd feel if you were playing and the referees just weren't bothered; it would piss you off, right? So you should try and care. Please. It really isn't that long a time.
There are more detailed niggles, but those are probably for another day.
photo by Amy Maidment
Why did I start refereeing?
photo by Amy Maidment
The first tournament I 'refereed' at was Valentine's Cup 1. This was back in the halcyon days of no-one (pretty much) being qualified, so at merc tournaments the captain had to head referee games, and enlisted members of their team to help out. As I'd broken my arm two weeks before and couldn't play, I tried to be as helpful as possible by assistant refereeing. Well, the original form of assistant refereeing which was basically calling beats and trying to get the head referee's attention if you thought someone had done something particularly bad, even if you had no idea how legal anything was ever.
For some reason I enjoyed that experience, and I actually read the rulebook to take the IQA (former IQA which became USQ) tests. I was also trying to impress my quidditch mentor at the time. After two abysmal - 50% - attempts at the snitch referee test I passed that one, and scraped through the assistant ref test first try, only to promptly fail the head referee test because I didn't realise that I would actually be expected to memorise the pitch dimensions. Undeterred, I went on to referee at An Almighty Battle and Roxdon the First, and since then I haven't really stopped. I love being able to help out, and knowing that when I'm on pitch I can control the quality of refereeing. My rules knowledge is helpful to my team, to my captain, and it's also nice to be known as someone who will have the answer to a question.
I feel that I have earned a lot of respect as a referee, especially over the past year. I was fairly lucky in that when I started, the refereeing quality was low and it was easy to slip in and be perfectly average - if you were bad, it was more likely to be because everyone was bad. There was a lot less pressure on referees to be good straight away, and because I didn't do a big or important tournament until about six months after I started refereeing, I could find my feet without anyone chewing my head off. I'm not sure how true that is for people starting to referee nowadays, but the sport has grown so much and so quickly that we still need lots more people to take up the stripey jersey.
I'll probably write a post about being a new referee at some point.
Who is #tinyref?
Have you ever played a game of quidditch refereed by a short, slightly overweight, purple-cap wearing human? Chances are, that was me. Especially if they had OUQC printed in big letters across their butt.
My name is Zoe Ford, I'm a beater for Oxford University Quidditch Club, but I'm probably better known as one of the top assistant and head referees in QuidditchUK. I've been refereeing since rulebook 7, pretty much exactly two years now. I'm known as tinyref because compared to most other head referees in the UK, I'm on the short side at a little over five feet. I'm agender, so my pronouns are they/them/their, and I'm AFAB.
This season I've refereed at a bunch of different things, from friendlies where I only had one assistant referee to the finals of the European Quidditch Cup. Due to a bunch of factors I've been focusing a lot more on my refereeing than on my playing this year, with the aim to go from being 'the ref who knows all the rules' to 'the ref who applies all the rules in a way which keeps the quidditch going smoothly'. This has involved shaking my reputation as the most card-happy referee in the country, and also working on my own reactions to situations to keep everything going smoothly. Advantage sucks, but is useful!
In this blog I will attempt to impart little bits of wisdom, rant about various aspects of refereeing that need improving, talk about my own strengths and weaknesses as a referee, and maybe even post some things that are vaguely amusing. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful!
photo by SnappyGibbs Photography
My name is Zoe Ford, I'm a beater for Oxford University Quidditch Club, but I'm probably better known as one of the top assistant and head referees in QuidditchUK. I've been refereeing since rulebook 7, pretty much exactly two years now. I'm known as tinyref because compared to most other head referees in the UK, I'm on the short side at a little over five feet. I'm agender, so my pronouns are they/them/their, and I'm AFAB.
This season I've refereed at a bunch of different things, from friendlies where I only had one assistant referee to the finals of the European Quidditch Cup. Due to a bunch of factors I've been focusing a lot more on my refereeing than on my playing this year, with the aim to go from being 'the ref who knows all the rules' to 'the ref who applies all the rules in a way which keeps the quidditch going smoothly'. This has involved shaking my reputation as the most card-happy referee in the country, and also working on my own reactions to situations to keep everything going smoothly. Advantage sucks, but is useful!
In this blog I will attempt to impart little bits of wisdom, rant about various aspects of refereeing that need improving, talk about my own strengths and weaknesses as a referee, and maybe even post some things that are vaguely amusing. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful!
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