On Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 of July, a workshop for Class S referee instructors was held at J-Green Sakai, Osaka.
Under the current instructor system in Japan, each instructor takes various roles as an assessor, mentor, tutor and coach.
In England, where football originated, roles of assessors, mentors, tutors and coaches are divided and allocated to each instructor, and he or she is specialized in that given role.

For the session, we invited Edward WOLSTENHOLME, who works as a referee coach in England, and participants enjoyed learning the concept, objective and methodology of coaching.
They learned the coaching method to continuously look for solutions, talking with referees on different occasions such as a few days before a match, just a day before a match, a day after a match, and a few days after reading an assessor report,. The session turned out to be an opportunity for them to spark further motivation for coaching.

Prior to the Class S referee instructor workshop, the same session was carried out for instructors who work full-time for the JFA. There were many discussions on the topic of its advantages and potential challenges when implementing the English system in Japan.

Comment from the instructor

Mr. Edward WOLSTENHOLME PGMO Coach 

I’m greatly honoured to work with instructors in Japan as a representative of the PGMO and the two weeks have been very exciting for me.
During the stay, I watched matches from the Emperor's Cup and J.League. I was impressed that Japanese football was being played with great pace and fair play spirit, and players were full of respect. And as the environments of matches were well-organised, so referees could concentrate on the match in such a good environment.

I had opportunities to have a talk with not only instructors but also referees. They seem to be highly motivated and full of enthusiasm.
The coaching method in England is something that we think and grow together spending time with referees for long.

I was surprised that the number of registrations for referees in Japan is much bigger than that of England.
Although all categories may not come to follow the England method, I hope they found it as a useful reference.

Comments from participants

KAKIHANA Kazuo, Class S instructor (Osaka)
The theme for the session was ‘Japanese spirit combined with Western learning.’ Today’s instructor was Mr. Eddie Wolstenholme from PGMO (Professional Game Match Official Ltd: an organisation where Premier League referees and instructors belong), who works on evaluations for professional referees and coaches young referees. “Coaching”, what we learned today from him, included concepts and practices of referee development that have not been introduced in Japan. The session went with group discussions and role plays which made the concept easier to understand.
The system of “coaching” has not currently used in Japan, but I want to utilise it for my future work as an instructor.

OIWA Mayumi,Class S instructor (Hokkaido)
“Today’s encouragement　lead to a significant change in someone’s tomorrow.”
This is one of the most impressive words I heard today.
Instructors never force some goals or improvements on referees and never try to ‘change’ them, but they are supposed to lead them to become aware by themselves and give a trigger (tips) to move forward.
And then, they need to be continuous, not temporary. They need to be interactive, not one-way, to discuss with referees and value words that they speak. I learned an approaching method that was very positive and nurturing each one of them.