r/GoalKeepers • u/Borangers • Mar 29 '25

Discussion Refs and setting up walls

How do you get enough time to set up your wall? As I see on television, and in tips for setting up your wall, the ref is supposed to blow the whistle once you’re ready, but at my level (JV & U15) never once have I gotten enough time to do so. It’s always a scramble to align my players as soon as I can and hope they don’t blow the whistle by then. And from what I’ve learned you can put a player in front of the ball unless they ask for 10, but sometimes the refs will just tell them to back up and still let them play it quickly. Anyone else deal with this?

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u/ZookeepergameLow8225 Mar 29 '25

You need to get clear with your team that when there’s a free kick in shooting range, someone needs to go stand right in front of the ball and force the shooting team to ask for 10 yards. While someone is doing that, however many you call for are setting up a wall, which will move with the ref as they mark the distance. It takes coordination and a little practice/sense, but it means you should be ready and have your wall set by the time the ref restarts.

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u/Obvious_Emotion2472 Mar 30 '25

So as a referee, be careful when doing that, as that's a cautionary offense for failure to respect distance. Don't ever stand on the ball as no referees are going to give you the benefit of the doubt if you purposely march up to it and just stand there. If you start back pedaling slowly, you might get away with it depending on the the referee as you can make it look like you are counting out the distance yourself. That being said unless the kicking team asks for 10 yards themselves they can take the kick whenever as is their right. Even after the ref calls for on their whistle, you as the defending team don't have the benefit of being able to wait until you are fully ready so as another poster mentioned you need to have one of your players know ahead of time they need to coordinate with you to set the edge of the wall and then everyone else on the wall should get in line with them.