Games, Mixed Martial Arts, Kids, and lots of unrelated things.

Preparing for last weekends ref work I reviewed UFC 90 through 98, focusing on referees and how they dealt with different situations. Especially Yves Lavigne’s recent calls that have earned a fair amount of criticism. On one hand, you expect a seasoned, experienced referee not to make mistakes. However, having been in the same situations, making the same mistakes, it is very hard to get very upset with him. When you are focused on protecting someone from a serious injury, mistakes involving early stoppages is easy to do. Let’s face it, no matter how hard you try or how good you are, you will make mistakes.

People do not quite understand how difficult the job is with the multitude of things to worry about, usually happening at breakneck speed. Are you stopping the fight too early, ruining months of hard work? Maybe you are stopping a fight too late resulting in a dangerous knockout or injury. Have I missed an illegal strike, especially those sneaky inside leg kicks and knee strikes to the groin? Are they faking a low kick to get a breather? Did someone pop in a submission too quickly, breaking something before a player can tap out. Not to mention a good ref keeps the action exciting, while allowing fighters in dominate, yet boring positions continue. It is an amazing balancing act.