Judyta, I’ve heard you had a nice surprise at this year’s EC’s in Baku?

Yes, these championships were special to me, the Congress has voted to create a special position of director for teaching the EAF referees (WAF has had it for years now), and I was asked to take that position.

That’s nice to hear, what exactly will you do?

I will instruct referees from all over Europe, help and support for new referees and “quality control” of sorts over the old guard. We wish to keep refereeing at the highest level, and minimize the differences in refereeing between countries. Aside from that, seeing as people become armwrestling referees because of passion, not for money, we want to help them improve their skills. This is my task now. It’s a real step up for me, especially as I’ve been helping other referees increase their skills unofficially for two years now. I had my doubts if I’m the right person. There are better and more experienced refs than me. But the main referee Harri Naskali and his assistant, David Shead, told me that it’s not the experience, but certain predispositions that count. Apparently, I’m a good observer and can give synthetic advice, and voice my concerns in a non-offensive manner. That’s their opinion. Though I cannot help but think that they wanted me out of refereeing, without getting rid of me completely. I’ve once heard say that if you do something for a long time without success, maybe it’s time to start coaching it. It’s food for thought in my situation.

In that case, what are your thoughts on the refereeing during the Baku EC’s? What are your plans for this position?

For the time being, I had my first tournament on the new position. Quite difficult, as there were very few referees in Baku, I had to spend most of the time at the table and had little time to chat with the new referees. But seeing them do better every day, I’d like to think I had a hand in that. I’m a type of person that tries to do everything as best as I can. I have the Vilnius World championships ahead of me now, where I’d like to get the Master category; I don’t feel comfortable judging referees of degree higher than mine. I’m also planning to brush up on my Russian, because a lot of the European refs speak only this language, and you cannot teach without communication. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Błażej Kuźniar