Spent the weekend at Herb Dean’s yearly MMA referee camp. It’s been over 4 years since I have reffed or judged MMA and I had been thinking about getting back into it for awhile. My friend/training partner Jenn, who also happens to be the operations manager for the camp, told me about it and suggested I take the course. I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and take the course to get brushed up on the finer details of the unified rules (which, after taking the course I realized, no matter how well you think you know the rules, you probably don’t). At the end of the course we shadowed at the CAMO-sanctioned U of MMA show at Club Nokia in Los Angeles and those of us that passed the course got to ref and judge the fights. Long story short, I STRONGLY suggest the course for anyone thinking about reffing or judging MMA. Getting to pick the brains of Herb and other refs he brought in to help (Larry Landless, Greg Kleynjans and others) really helps. Then having them give detailed critiques of your actual reffing performance along with what you can do to improve was invaluable. I can’t say it enough. While the course may seem pricey, it is worth every penny if you’re serious about reffing and/or judging.