View Single Post
  #27 (permalink)  
Old Fri Jan 14, 2005, 03:55pm
Back In The Saddle Back In The Saddle is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: In a little pink house
Posts: 5,289
Quote:
Originally posted by thumpferee
Quote:
Originally posted by Back In The Saddle
I had a good official suggest to me that after calling a T, stick your fingers in your ears for 30 seconds. Then if the recipient is still going at it, bang him again.

What is the point of the T? I submit that it's really not to punish the offender, so much as it's to remedy the situation. If a coach goes off at me and I T him, and he takes another 10 seconds to vent, even vigorously, and then settles down, haven't I acheived my goal? I wouldn't say never give quick back-to-back Ts, but could the desired end be acheived without it?
And where is your creditability as an official end? If you let the coach you just T'd up continue on his rampage, where do you draw the line with the other coach?

Hmmmm, Coach etc got away with it, let me try saying this...

Coaches coach, players play, officials do the rest.

IMO of course!
If an official needs to be such an iron-fisted dictator that he dumps the coach if he doesn't shut up the instant he Ts him the first time, he probably don't have much credibility to lose. IMO of course!

It's always goint to be on a case-by-case basis, but generally you gain credibility by handling people calmly and even-handedly. If you can whack a coach who has crossed the line, let him make his point or get the last word or whatever it is he's trying to accomplish while getting him back to his bench, and then he settles down and goes back to work, you're credibility goes up. You won. He got the penalty he deserved, and you demonstrated that you're in control of the coach, the game and yourself.

What about the other coach? Well, he now knows for certain that you will whack someone who crosses the line. But he's also seen that you're not such a hothead that he has to live in fear of you.

Which is easier to deal with, a coach who will talk to you when he's got an issue, or a coach whose afraid of you and bottles up his issues until they boil over?

Now I haven't said never. If you whack a coach and he goes nuts and throws furniture, yeah he's gone. But even then, it's better for your partner to get him, not you.
__________________
"It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best." - W. Edwards Deming
Reply With Quote