Thread: talking coaches
View Single Post
  #35 (permalink)  
Old Tue Dec 23, 2008, 07:58pm
TheOracle TheOracle is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Velley Forge, PA
Posts: 269
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snaqwells View Post
I could go with that, and I've used it, but I wouldn't stop the game and make a show out of embarrassing the coach.
What Snaqwells and JRutledge are saying gets to the heart of this. Communicate with coaches and players as if you were the coach or player, until they lose that privelege. Tactfully let them know they lost it, and then focus on the floor unless they make the choice to make you T them.

Above all, be nice. Messy games result in more missed calls, more 50/50 decisions we have to make on the spot, and more judgment by coaches and players on our performance. We have to understand that. When I help out and observe, I rarely see a coach get upset during well-played clean games. I rarely see them ranting unless there have been some missed calls or a few consecutive close ones that went against him. That's OK. No official ro crew is perfect. We're human. But how we react is the difference. We control our responses.

Empathy is your best friend in dealing with coaches. You can always clamp down later if he doesn't respond to being nice, but once you offend/embarass him, or pee in his pocket and tell him it is raining, there's little chance of recovering.

Every T I give, I am angry about it, because the player or coach made me do it. Their reaction when I tell them that is always interesting. Prevents a grudge on their part every time.
Reply With Quote