So after listening to another year of endless complaints about the officiating at the IBJJF Worlds, I started to think about the state of officiating and how to improve it. One thought is to naturally recruit more referees into the sport, get them experienced, and then have a larger, more robust talent pool to choose from. This would not improve merely one organization, but could offer a cascade of benefit to a variety of tournaments around the country. Even more, ideally it would improve the talent pool in more remote, less developed areas to ensure growth of the sport in more diverse markets around North America. 

So I’ve decided to make the case for why officiating is an enhancement to the jiu jitsu journey. Often I’ve said that I believe the journey of a grappling referee is much like the path in jiu jitsu from white to black belt. It contains years of overwhelming low knowledge, sometime high anxiety, plateaus, and periods of discontent and apathy. At the same time, it offers many of the same parallels of life skills you might receive from jiu jitsu, including increased confidence, ability to persevere in difficult circumstances, and sense of accomplishment.

I won’t sugarcoat the negatives to officiating grappling nor delay from getting to to them since they are certainly a factor in decision making. These factors are not only real at the beginning, but can change over time as a person’s life, circumstances, finances, and desires change. Having a realistic view of the role from the outset is important, and can help shape a reasonable trajectory if you’re truly willing to make it part of your jiu jitsu lifestyle.

Economically, the pay is decent, but there will be an initial investment in time and money. Traveling to find officiating education is not cheap or easy, and frankly, requires you to be somewhat creative and connected to even find any. Referee training is thin at best, and largely learned in trial-by-fire atmospheres, where you are literally thrust into the position without much education. So since you have to seek it out, there has to be an inherent desire to learn the craft, and then a willingness to pursue it regardless of that investment.

Additionally, refereeing is not a stable position for most and something not likely to sustain your financial needs. There may be some referees that make a living out of it, supporting large tournaments and traveling every week, but that is rare if at all. Most referees consider it supplemental income at best, and one that comes with inherent sacrifice.

I think of refereeing a lot like being a comedian traveling the country to do comedy clubs. You blow into town, barely spend time in the cities you visit, and then do you job and leave without actually engaging much in your destination. This means alone time spent on airplanes, in hotels, or driving around aimlessly in areas you visit. It’s not for everyone, but some might find it has appeal just to be exposed to new environments. But if you consider the long haul over years and dozens of tournaments, you can see that this type of travel can grind on you, especially when you consider the time investment outside of the actual work. For instance, for a one day tournament in a distant city, you may have to fly in to town on a Friday, work all day Saturday, and then fly out on Sunday – effectively killing a weekend for a one day job.

Part of the investment in time is the time away – time away from family and pets, from your training, from your full-time job, even time away from other hobbies or interests. Each person has to weigh the economic value of their time to justify it, but sometimes while one day’s pay seems good, when you average it out for a long weekend including travel, the hourly rate calculation is far less inviting.

Of course, there is also an emotional and physical toll. Emotionally, refereeing can be times unsettling at times, and can be compounded if you also are hard on yourself. Referees receive more than their share of criticism from others, often in a rather blunt, brusque manner, which can range from manageable to intolerable. But for those perfectionists that are hard on themselves too, it can be very challenging not to become fed up with the job quickly. Also, the physical demands of standing all day and staying sharply focused can be challenging particularly when you combine it with travel and unfamiliar surroundings.

Geesh, so what’s the good part??

Well, the good part is that everything you enjoy about jiu jitsu and the lifestyle can be enhanced by being a referee. If you love to watch jiu jitsu, especially in an intimate setting and high level, well there’s no better seat in the house than in the ring. This provides potential exposure to the latest jiu jitsu trends, the coolest techniques, the best competitors, the best coaches, and the best tournaments.

If you like to be in the middle of the action, and even part of the attention, then being the one in charge in the ring gives you the opportunity to participate and be an engaged member of the martial arts community. Without referees, the sport doesn’t exist – period. If you thrive on action, pressure, and risk, it might be the excitement you’re looking for. 

The gentler side is the freshness of the experiences. There’s the camaraderie of being part of a team, sharing similar experiences with others that love the sport, always meeting new faces and making new friends, finding new training partners, exposure to different coaches, different schools, different tournaments, different types of competitions, and different perspectives on jiu jitsu and life.

For those that really embrace traveling and the jiu jitsu lifestyle, if your are so inclined, you have the opportunity to train at places around the country in each city you visit. Picture creating a jiu jitsu bucket list and allowing refereeing to be the vehicle to help you travel and check your items off? Pretty neat if you do it correctly.

Additionally, all the worthwhile life skills you get from jiu jitsu are easily transferable and further reinforced by refereeing. Things like discipline, constant learning, self-confidence, determination, overcoming objections, and a long list of other qualities and life skills certainly transcend jiu jitsu or merely officiating. 

While I previously cautioned about the financial aspect and they notion you cannot get rich, there is certainly nothing wrong with doing something you love for $20+ hour, something you might even consider doing for free. If you’re local and have no expenses, or connect with an organization that pays expenses, $250-350 per event can even be a lucrative reason and easy money.
The last thing I might offer to potential referees is the opportunity to give something back to jiu jitsu. I’ve listed the pros and cons of ‘the job’, but the bigger picture is the impact the role has on the larger community. As I said before, our sport does not exist without officiating ( don’t let the sub only movement fool you, it has rules and needs referees just the same ). 

So for those that train and are fans of the sport, I encourage you to become a referee; for those that coach and compete and want to become better, I encourage you; for those that want to enhance their network, travel, and have new jiu jitsu experiences, I encourage you; and for those that are critical of referees, I encourage you to do something to help improve the sport.

The author was awarded his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in June 2012 and is a 2nd degree black belt training for more than 19 years. His martial arts background includes a black belt in Tae Kwon Do he received in 1993. His BJJ journey began at Gracie Thornwood, NY in 1999 after he took a seminar with Royce Gracie and became hooked on the art. In addition to training and instructing, David has focused the last ten years on officiating grappling competitions and has officiated more than 3,500 gi and no-gi matches at over 80 events for multiple organizations. He is the current head referee for the Tap Cancer Out organization, was the previous head referee at Grapplers Quest, FIVE Grappling, and Copa NoVA tournaments, and routinely officiates events in North America.

Visit his officiating website www.TheGrapplingReferee.com

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