How to study the refereeing performance?

International audienceWhat is the refereeing performance? Is it only what a referee does? We consider that to perform is to succeed. So, it is about someone doing something, but it is also about the assessment what is done. Accordingly, this paper takes another look at the referee performance as a whole through two studies: the first one focused on the referee’s actual performance on the field, the second one on the activity of the supervisor as he assesses the referee’s activity. First studyWhilst various studies contribute to identifying the physical capacities on the one hand, and the cognitive and emotional capacities on the other, needed for applying the rules of the game properly, other research shows it is impossible to reduce the referee’s performance to an identification of faults. This performance is also concerned with managing the match, and with the fairness and consistency of the decision making or with maintaining safety (Mascarenhas, O'Hare, & Plessner, 2006). Once the referee’s activity is put back in its context the issue of his performance appears to be more complex: “refereeing at the top level is about ‘finding a set of solutions that work for you on the day’” (Ibid., 2006, p112). Consequently, understanding the factors determining refereeing performance presupposes looking at its practice, i.e. “what an athlete [here a referee] does in competition, and not at what is supposed to determine what he does” (Hauw, Durand, 2004, p122). Method - In order to understand what a referee does during a match, we carried out observations of 4 matches of the French first level rugby championship (Top 14). Each game was filmed from the stands, the referee was equipped with a head-mounted camera, and a self-confrontation interview was realized. The head-mounted video was used during the interview in order to foster an experiential immersion and to approach the referee’s sensemaking. Results – We present how a referee shows and imposes upon players what is possible. So what he shows and imposes depends on how he spontaneously comes to grips with the players’ activity: whether as a fact, a dynamic, or a problematic event. The construction of what is imposed cannot be separated from the way in which the referee imposes it. He imposes a fact as something obvious. He calls upon a rule to justify that the dynamic of the players’ activity has become unacceptable. He establishes a coherent scenario that identifies the logic of the event considered as problematic. The various dimensions of their activity (movement/positioning, decision, communication…) have to be envisaged as an entirety. Refereeing is therefore not just decision processing but an interactive activity. To perform, a referee has perhaps not so much to identify this or that foul as to stop the play or orient it toward what is acceptable. In other words, to referee is not to evaluate passively but above all to act, to make the match progress correctly. In this way, the referee’s performance seems inseparable from the players and how they spontaneously consider what the referee shows and imposes. The refereeing performance is thus co-constructed with players. Second studyWhile the previous results lead us partly to deindividualise the refereeing performance by admitting that is co-constructed with the players, an activity is only a performance if it is designated as such by the institution. This led us to take an interest in how the institution establishes the refereeing performance. To do this we investigated the practice of the upervisor responsible for assessing the referee’s performance on the field so as to understand how he attributes a value to the latter (Boyer, Rix-Lièvre, Récopé, 2014). Method – Four supervisors contributed to this work during four matches in the French professional championships (three in Top 14, one in Pro D2). During each investigation we observed the supervisor’s activity throughout the match; we effected one pre-match interview and two post-match interviews - one immediately after, the other a few days later.Results - The study on the supervisors’ assessment activity shows some tensions at the heart of the refereeing performance construction: (1) A tension between a performance built through the accuracy of the referee’s decisions on different game situations, each being taken separately, and the consideration of the refereeing dynamics throughout the match; (2) A tension between a performance carried out in accordance with objective elements and an assignment of value depending on community’s concerns; (3) A tension between the criteria prescribed a priori and some contextualized assessment elements. These tensions that constitute the evaluation reveal potentially contradictory expectations – expectations that have a heavy influence on the referee’s in match activity and can lead to dilemmas. The evaluation of the referee’s performance therefore participates in the refereeing performance on two counts: it determines its value and produces expectations that directly influence the referee’s performance on the field.General discussion This research also highlights the complexity as well as the collective and systemic nature of the refereeing performance. But these studies also lead us to envisage a way of developing the refereeing performance focused on how it is organisationally embedded. If the presence of contradictory logics and divergent criteria is the lot of any social system, many studies in the world of work have insisted on the role the organisation could play inside the system (Guérin et al., 1997). Following Clot (1999), in order to improve the refereeing performance, we envisage putting for debate both the constitutive tensions of the refereeing performances and the confrontation of various manners of managing these tensions. Once the prescribed criteria, the different working methods, and the tensions that constitute the performance are debated collectively, then they become important tools not only for developing the performance but also for constructing the art of the trade.ReferencesBoyer, S., Rix-Lièvre, G., Récopé, M. (2014). Evaluer une pratique en situation. L’activité de supervision d’arbitres de rugby : entre attribution spontanée de valeur et délibération. Spiral-E, 53, 3-17. Spirale. http://spirale-edu-revue.fr/spip.php?article1181 Clot, Y. (1999). La fonction psychologique du travail. Paris : PUF.Guérin, F., Laville, A., Daniellou, F., Duraffourg, J., & Kerguelen, A. (1997). Comprendre le travail pour le transformer. Lyon : Editions de l'ANACT.Hauw, D., Durand, M. (2004). Pour une "dé-psychologisation" de la performance sportive de haut niveau, Movement & Sport Sciences, 53, 119-123.Mascarenhas, R. D., O'Hare, D., Plessner, H. (2006). The Psychological and Performance Demands of Association Football Refereeing, International Journal of Sport Psychology 37(2-3), 99-120