The perspective of a brand new referee

I had my first game today. I was shadowing a senior official for a handful of games today, and he offered me the whistle for one of them. No amount of classroom time can prepare you for the sheer volume of things you need to keep track of.

On the F/O, you've got to remember to check your partner to for his ready signal before you order the players down, then you've got to (quickly) check stick position on both the x and y axes, as well as rotation on the y and z axes, make sure the ball's in the middle, make sure their bodies are outside the neutral zone, and don't take too long to get from down to set to whistle. Now you've got 10 things happening at once, and there are any number of ways they can foul each other. Make sure you watch for those, and make sure you remember to call possession, but DON'T call possession too SOON.

So now you're the lead official, and you're watching for the ball to come across midfield, so you can start start your 10-count while watching for the touch, all while getting down to GLE. While you're doing all of that, don't forget to call and signal that the ball's been touched in! Now you're moving in and out along GLE to stay close enough to the crease to judge what's going on, while staying the hell out of the way. That went out of bounds - was it a shot or a pass? It was a shot. Which team is attacking this way? White! Okay, step on. Give him 5 yards, black! Ok let's go. Okay, am I the on official, watching ball, or am I the off official, watching everything else? If I'm the on official, but also the lead, do I watch ball when it's up high on my side, or do I keep focusing on the crease? Screw it, just keep scanning between the two because that seems like a good way to keep tabs on things, like when you go back and forth between the play, and the second to last defender as an AR in soccer. Was that a push? I mean, he did push him, but how much side was that and how much back, and was it hard enough to be a foul?

Okay, there's a shot and the keeper saved it. Ball's going to go the other way, so now you're the trailing official. Start the 20 second timer and begin a 4-count for the keeper because he's got possession in the crease. Don't forget to signal that you've got the change of possession, and therefore the start of the 20 seconds. Okay, they got over midfield, stop the timer. Don't forget to signal with the clearing team touches the box! Hey, that's a push! Who has possession? Who pushed who? Am I supposed to throw the flag (I know the answer, but it takes a second to process what I just saw)? Okay, I'm supposed to throw the flag, so do it. Don't forget to yell "flag down!" Okay, so now make sure we're paying attention to when any of the reasons to stop the slow whistle happens (failure to advance, goal scored, ball goes out of bounds, offense commits a foul, defense gains possession, injury, end of period, defense commits second foul) in addition to everything else. Since we're the trail, we've got to make sure the shooter doesn't get fouled after their shot, and when we're the off official, we're watching everything except the ball. Defense gained possession, blow the whistle! Okay, go tell the table what's up. Ball goes back to the offense in the alley. Since we're the trail, we'll blow the whistle to restart play, rather than the lead official, so he can just worry about being in position.

Hey lead official, don't forget to tell the goalie he's playing man down for the next 30 seconds and the ball's gonna come back in high left.

Seriously, y'all, the mechanics are challenging all on their own, and that's before you even get into foul recognition, and drawing an appropriate line for what's acceptable and what's a foul.

I just thought I'd share my experience as a new ref in the hopes that it might give you a glimpse into what we're trying to do/keep track of during the game. Shit's hard, yo. If it takes 20 hours to get competent in a new skill, when you consider referee's don't (generally) have "practice", so that's 20 games before we're any good. To any players or coaches I frustrate while I continue to learn, my apologies - please bear with me while I make the effort to suck less.

(Sidenote, the lack of good formatting is intentional to underscore how it all mushes together in real time in my brain.)