Ted Blog post 2021-02-15
New season or no… new year?
New season or no… a new year? New efforts. New times, or something like that. I have had one match in the elite ladies on the line, because the elite teams are allowed to play matches in Sweden. In normal cases, i would have had about two matches per week from February onwards. The referee course and the test have been completed, the bag has been dusted off and the clothes have been washed - I am ready for the new season. I'm so freaking ready! But I may continue to wear running clothes, and keep on by myself for a while longer. Football, playing and refereering, has been my whole life in one way or another. Not always the most important, or the most fun, but it has always been there. When I stopped playing football completely, there was the refereeing which I think is more fun and fits in with my life puzzle right now. But now, when there are no matches - what should I do? I know a good idea, or really a good idea. I'm starting to train football again with a team! Brilliant, or maybe not. Because probably I will think it's so much fun and maybe realize that the body (and the head) are there and i'm keeping up with them.
That was exactly what I did, trained with a team. I explained to the coach that I only want to be referee and come and train once a week as a maximum, now that there are no matches. The team gets one more player in training, an experienced one who just wants to train. Said and done, I have done two football training in two weeks. Usually I run three sessions a week. One (!), A whole week my body screamed after the first session. Not that training pain i'm used to, this was hamstrings, groins and "extremes" that really hurt. The following week I went there to see if I was just not used to Football or if I'm actually a little too old to play. Such luck, that I was just not used to it and not old. For session number two did not feel the same way at all.
Fun, nice and all that to extinguish the social part around football a lot. Now I got a match on the line and two football training sessions. Now I can calm down and train on my own again. I got to talk a little with the players, shout a little, run and be part of the social around football - that is the whole reason why I am a referee. And because I think it's fun too, of course. Got to throw a couple of my old Puma King which broke completely on these two workouts. For those of you who do not know me, I have had Puma King for as long as I can remember. From a little boy to a player in his thirty's I played with my Puma King. And now i of course use them as a referee!
The match then? So much fun to meet two referee colleagues and a match. Not many of us referees at this lower level are allowed to referee right now, understandably. So I enjoyed it and still enjoy that match. The match then? It was a "easy" match. Pretty boring, cold and no special events. Felt I was a little rusty, but I mostly flowed around on the clouds because it was a match!
Now we are keeping our fingers crossed that this pandemic will soon go down to manageable levels. Then we crossed them even more so that we can play, referee and train football again. During the year I will continue blogging here. You can read about my thoughts on being a referee, my matches, situations and a little about my life. Now I'm going to buy myself a pair of new Puma King. Cheers.