Evaluation of effective demographic variables in competition performances of Turkish wrestling referees

Abstract

Management of wrestling competitions of equal competitors is often assigned to successful referees. For this reason, it is important to determine the demographic variables that influence the referees’ level of success. In this context, the aim of the study was to evaluate the effective demographic variables in competition performances of Turkish wrestling referees using the logistic regression analysis. The purpose of this research was explained to the referees and voluntary participation was provided. The research data consist of demographic variables and the referee evaluation reports of the year 2016 calculated by the Central Referee Committee of the Turkish Wrestling Federation. The referees were classified as successful (between 7-8.5 points) and unsuccessful (between ≥8.5-10 points) according to their performance scores. Accordingly, the international referees were 49 times more successful than the national referees in a competition. The referees who wrestled at the international level were 6 times more successful than the referees wrestling at the national level and who did not wrestle. Referees whose ages 31-40 and ≥41 were 7.9 and 24.9 times more successful than ≤30 age respectively. Moreover, it was determined that those who were refereeing for social identity, a hobby, and other reasons in a competition were, respectively, 6, 39 and 22 times more possible to be successful than those who were refereeing for social status. Consequently, if a successful referee performance was desired, the ones should be selected as who were over 41 years of age and wrestled at the international level, and who were international level referees that were refereeing as a hobby or other. Thus, a more successful referee performance can be achieved in competitions.