I have seen a few things this season that just make you shake your head and turn away. Today at Goddard was just mind boggling.
The ref was CLEARLY coaching the kid. You heard him say:
"Squeeze the arm bar a little tighter!"
"Lift! Lift! Lift!"
"2 more inches! Squeeze tighter!"
"Lift! Lift! A little more!"
Then he spins around on his belly (pauses so he can get the attention of the crowd) raises his hand (pauses) blows the whistle and slams the mat!
If the kid is stuck then why leave him in the position (sometimes painful & embarassing) for an extra 5 to 10 seconds so you can play to the crowd.
Hey Ref, its not about you! We are there for the kids!
Then, few matches later, same ref!
There is a kid on top who is wrestling with an injury to his mouth.
The kid on bottom has his head &
arm and is squeezing sooo hard!
The kid on top reaches up & pulls out his mouth piece and starts screaming
"I'm hurt! Time Out! Time Out! Time Out! Stop! I'm Hurt"
A guy coaching the bottom kid (or maybe he was a fellow wrestler) tells the bottom kid to release so that he don't extend the injury.
The bottom kids does. Both the kids freeze for a momment. The ref punches the mat and yells wrestle. The hurt kid quickly slip in a half, rolls the kid over and the ref calls a quick pin. He stands up holding his mouth, shakes the kids hand & hurries off the mat.
When the ref was questioned he said there are no time outs in wrestling (ummm yes there is... its called an INJURY TIMEOUT) and he didn't hear the kid yelling stop or take out his mouth piece.
It was sooo wrong.
Then you hear a ref drop the F bomb during a match. I coach called him on it and he was told to "just zip it & walk away"
The couch kept arguing his position. The ref grabbed his lips & twisted them (like to lock it up) and then pointed for him to leave mat side.
These are all example of things I've seen and the just get worst.
I just don't know what to do or how to look my wrestler in the face and explain it.
We have better refs then this.
I know we do!
What do you do here?