How do you keep all the age group rules straight?
I'm a new ref. About 4 months of adult rec league (its a work league, low dissent issues, cards are very rare), and now several weekends into youth games. I spent last weekend at a tournament, and did four different ages from u14 to u9. I was AR1 in all but the U9 (1 ref only), and I studied up on the tournament specific rules, but when coaches would ask for clarity, all my confidence left, and I second guessed which age group had which rules, and whether I was mis-remembering the league rules entirely.
How do folks keep all the different rules in their heads, especially when moving between 4 different age groups in a single day? Do you keep a cheat sheet, or am i just going to get better at it?(honestly, writing this out may have helped me more than any studying ive done before)
Example rules being:
- holdback lines (9U-12U have them at different places, and 13+ doesn't).
- Headers and punts allowed/disallowed at different ages.
- Some rule about every freekick being indirect, even for 9U/10U (i keep hearing this one from coaches, but cant find it written down - it may be a local league rule, but not in the tournament notes?)
- Which age do you re-try foul throws (i think just 9U?)
- Offsides enforced or not (the league typically doesn't, the tournaments typically do, i think)
- My adult league doesn't allow slide tackles
Happy note: Coaches were never rude; it was still a great experience - even when i said, "hey lets talk at half, we'll double check". Also, since i was AR, i wasn't really making many calls based on this, but felt i needed to be responsive.
