Players complaining to me more than other officials

[UNIgiantslayers]

Originally Posted by AremRed

Stop making eye contact with the players. When you do it gives them an opening to engage with you.

Fixed that for you. If that's their excuse to engage unsportingly, it's a pretty poor excuse IMO.

Keep whacking them. They'll either figure it out or keep giving the other team 2 & the ball. Don't worry about it, the guys that do this crap are usually hacks who think they are Steph Curry.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by UNIgiantslayers

Fixed that for you. If that's their excuse to engage unsportingly, it's a pretty poor excuse IMO.

Arem's suggestion is just one of many valid conflict avoidance tactics. Here's another one, at least as it pertains to the coaches: don't get unwittingly sucked into the coach's vortex. Too many do so by reporting too close to the table, and then waltzing inconveniently over right in front of the coach as trail.
Yeah, communication is important, I get that. But sometimes we ourselves put outselves in a position where we're ripe pickin's for a coaches complaining/comments because of our proximity to him/her. Staying a little farther away for that first free throw or for the next play at least makes him exercise the effort to initiate the communication. Some of the regretful communication coaches direct our way is avoidable if we just utilize a conflict avoidance tactic like staying away more. Doesn't address everything or every situation, but some.
As for the players, making the call and then getting out of there and not initiating communication with them by lingering right there in their proximity is a convenient aversion tool to use from time to time.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Arem's suggestion is just one of many valid conflict avoidance tactics. Here's another one, at least as it pertains to the coaches: don't get unwittingly sucked into the coach's vortex. Too many do so by reporting too close to the table, and then waltzing inconveniently over right in front of the coach as trail.
Yeah, communication is important, I get that. But sometimes we ourselves put outselves in a position where we're ripe pickin's for a coaches complaining/comments because of our proximity to him/her. Staying a little farther away for that first free throw or for the next play at least makes him exercise the effort to initiate the communication. Some of the regretful communication coaches direct our way is avoidable if we just utilize a conflict avoidance tactic like staying away more. Doesn't address everything or every situation, but some.
As for the players, making the call and then getting out of there and not initiating communication with them by lingering right there in their proximity is a convenient aversion tool to use from time to time.

I don't change anything about my positioning, but I will make myself seem a bit more "focused" on other things if a coach starts with something other than a question.

Originally Posted by UNIgiantslayers

Fixed that for you.

No you didn't. Making eye contact with an angry person is a easy way to allow them to engage with you. I'm not saying don't take care of business when needed but it's amazing what you can avoid by simply not making eye contact.