[A Pennsylvania Coach]

Originally posted by RecRef

I'll make you a deal coach, I'll stop coaching when you (the literary you) start coaching.

It is said that it is the little things that count so:

A. I call a spot throw-in and point to the spot on the floor. The player stands there, so far so good. I move away some distance to put some space between us before I bounce the ball to the player. What does the player do? He/She walks toward me to get the ball. What do I do? I point to the original spot and tell the player that is where he should be. You would be surprised at the number of coaches that take exception to this. Granted a small number but it should be zero. (One of these days I am going to keep walking just to see how far the kid will follow. )

B. Speaking of throwing in the ball, or the defense of it, when are coaches going to tell their charges not to windmill their arms. And while we are at it let me coach the coach. Why is it that I have never seen a player step right up to the line when throwing-in the ball? Doing this to try to draw the T or intentional on a defender that is right on the in-court side of the line?

C. Don’t get mad at the official when we “don’t tell a player what to do.” Case in point is the lineup for the free throw. As long as B1 and B2 occupy the first spaces I don’t care where the rest lineup on the lane line. (Don’t know what I am going to do when a player occupies the #4 space this year.)

Now let’s talk about a big thing. Before last season we invited coaches to our board’s general meetings, boys representatives one month and girls the next month. One of the coaches voiced displeasure with us in that we talk to his kids after a call. Though these are not his exact words his statement was something like, “I would appreciate it if you would not tell my players the why what he did was wrong. Coaches teach players a way of defense such as backing out another player from the lane, or putting a hand or forearm into an opponents back and leaving it there. That is the way we teach them and you should not correct them if they say something.” Excuse me! So when some kid says something to us that implies that we don’t know what we are doing call that a foul we are not to say why it is wrong? I think not.

As so many of us have said, we appreciate YOUR knowledge of the game and YOUR willingness to see our point of view but you are the exception not the rule.

A. This is not coaching, this is officiating, and clearly not what Hawks Coach was talking about.

B. You've never seen it because we can't be sure that the officials we have that night are actually going to call the warning or technical. In my opinion, defenders breaking the plane on inbounding is second only to three seconds when it comes to calls made inconsistently. Plus, I teach my players to step back to improve their passing angles. I don't want them up against the line.

C. I'm sure some coaches fall into this category--the minority.

I doubt that many officials would agree with you when it comes to getting into an on-court debate with a player as to what is and what isn't a foul. If it's a foul and the player doesn't think so, well, she can do it five times then watch the rest of the game. Simple.