Techniques for dealing with coaches

[jeffpea]

PS2Man -- I do not officiate at the D1 level now. I was speaking specifically to high school and college coaches.

Certainly I don't advocate letting a coach make a comment about every play for an entire game without some type of response from you as an official. If you have a coach that continually comments/complains every trip down the floor, you need to "nip that in the bud". Did you ever think that the coach might feel as if you didn't hear him and that's why you didn't respond? So he makes the same comments the next trip. If he gets the same no-response from an official, he probably may continue his attempts. At some point a simple - "coach, I've heard you the last 3 trips. I'll call it when it's there. Now let us work." - needs to take place. If it continues, then the "I'd be happy to talk about a couple of plays with you, but we can't discuss every single call" speach needs to occur. A simple nod or physical acknowledgement from an official may go a long way to avoiding the scenario I've just described.

All I'm saying is that you have to listen to what the coach is saying before you decide what to say. You cannot go to either extreme: respond to every comment/question (you will both miss the entire game that way) or completely ignore the coach (he get's more frustrated with you as you get more frustrated with him).

My advice? Just listen better. Is it a legitimate question/point he is raising? Is it just frustration? Or is that the way he normally handles himself? The best officials tend to know how to respond best because they're able to determine why the coach is saying what they're saying.

Hopefully a good pregame would include shared information about the coaches in the game (maybe you've had them before or have received a "scouting report" from others) that can help prepare you in how to respond.

[PS2Man]

Jeff I agree that listening will help but it is not the official's responsibility to completely understand the beef of a coach. It is the coach's responsibility to communicate in such a way that their intentions are understood. You can listen all day long and misunderstand the message. I know it can be difficult to not understand a coach because I am focused on the game not what the coach is saying.

I see you have a unique perspective as a coach to this issue. I welcome that opinion. I just think in any forms of communication the person trying to get their point across has the burden to speak in a way that the person they are talking to understands where they are coming from. Listening can solve a lot of the problem. I just think coaches need to watch their tone and their body language if they want their message to be accepted.

[jeffpea]

PS2Man - As a Communications major in college, I know that the message that is received can be different from what the sender intended. Furthermore, discussion boards like this are not the best way to communciate ideas or thoughts for the same reason.

Now that I have been on both sides of the issue at hand (coach and official), I hated it when officials would take the "don't talk to me becasue I am always right and I know it all"-approach and I certainly don't like it when coaches complain about every call and do it for the benefit of the crowd.

The best way to avoid these situations is to communicate with each other, albeit within reason.

The Cliff-notes version of my advice: Linsten better. Every comment doesn't need a response; smart-aleck retorts don't work; and simply ignoring the problem doesn't provide a resolution. Use the following progression: "I hear you, coach"; "I'll watch for it, coach"; "that's it - I've heard enough, coach"; then "whack" - T.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by jeffpea
PS2Man - As a Communications major in college, I know that the message that is received can be different from what the sender intended. Furthermore, discussion boards like this are not the best way to communciate ideas or thoughts for the same reason.

Now that I have been on both sides of the issue at hand (coach and official), I hated it when officials would take the "don't talk to me becasue I am always right and I know it all"-approach and I certainly don't like it when coaches complain about every call and do it for the benefit of the crowd.

The best way to avoid these situations is to communicate with each other, albeit within reason.

The Cliff-notes version of my advice: Linsten better. Every comment doesn't need a response; smart-aleck retorts don't work; and simply ignoring the problem doesn't provide a resolution. Use the following progression: "I hear you, coach"; "I'll watch for it, coach"; "that's it - I've heard enough, coach"; then "whack" - T.

Part of the problem with this entire discussion is the fact it is too general. I agree that officials should not be a smart-aleck when responding. But I have had coaches go ballistic and you say nothing at all. Larry Brown got upset and the official did not say anything to him. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. We are accused of taking sides when there are not logical reasons to be seen that way.

I T'd up a freshman coach the other day and he claims that was the fastest I he was ever T'd up. I did not make any comments back to him. I answered many of his questions when I had a change. I had his assistant screaming at me as if I really need to explain anything to an assistant. He came to me at halftime after he was T'd up and insisted on talking to me directly. I told him, "This is not the time. I will talk to you later." All that did was make him raise his voice and do more to try to show me up. I think I showed a great deal of restraint and professionalism and not getting upset. The funny thing is that I was being observed by the assignor of this league and the assignor asked me about the situation. This person is a D1 official and knows a lot more than I do about officiating and someone I respect very much. He told me to bring the coaches together and ask this coach "what he wanted to talk about." He also went on to say, "you need to tell him that we cannot talk on my time without the other coach being present." Amazingly when I did this the coach did not comment the rest of the game. He went back to coaching and behaved like a human being should dealing with kids. You would have thought that I did nothing but hurt a family member because I answered one of his questions. I did not deserve him talking to me like I was a child. I am a man too and coaches like these think that they are entitled to say whatever they like and not bear the consequences. In my thinking if you are able to ask a question, you are responsible enough to shut up while it is answered. In my pregame meeting I said, "What you see on TV does not apply on this court." This is a freshman basketball game, not varsity, not NCAA and definitely not an NBA game. I think many of the coaches are not seeing what you seem to understand when you were coaching. Coaches are getting out of hand and it is not on the lap of the officials.

Peace

[PS2Man]

Jeff,

I agree with you. Still that does not absolve coaches from acting like an *** themselves. If you do want a sarcastic response, stop being a smart *** in the way you talk to officials.

[Jeremy Hohn]

This weekend I told a coach that if he disagreed with what was called on the floor, that our crews' "complaint department" was closed for the holidays and we would get back to him on the 3rd......




We didn't have a single problem from a previously very volitaile coach in a big 5A tournament earlier this week.....

[SMEngmann]

Coaches are smart people and they will take it as far as we are willing to let them. It is no coincidence that at the higher levels of play, where the officials are more experienced at dealing with coaches, that there are fewer problems. We as officials must have the courage to enforce the rules and T coaches when warranted, especially at the lower levels where the problem is at its worst. Despite all the communication in the world, if a coach says or does something that earns a T, he should get it. Allowing personal comments, in my book, is way over the line.

[Rich]

Originally posted by JRutledge

Part of the problem with this entire discussion is the fact it is too general. I agree that officials should not be a smart-aleck when responding. But I have had coaches go ballistic and you say nothing at all. Larry Brown got upset and the official did not say anything to him. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. We are accused of taking sides when there are not logical reasons to be seen that way.

I T'd up a freshman coach the other day and he claims that was the fastest I he was ever T'd up. I did not make any comments back to him. I answered many of his questions when I had a change. I had his assistant screaming at me as if I really need to explain anything to an assistant. He came to me at halftime after he was T'd up and insisted on talking to me directly. I told him, "This is not the time. I will talk to you later." All that did was make him raise his voice and do more to try to show me up. I think I showed a great deal of restraint and professionalism and not getting upset. The funny thing is that I was being observed by the assignor of this league and the assignor asked me about the situation. This person is a D1 official and knows a lot more than I do about officiating and someone I respect very much. He told me to bring the coaches together and ask this coach "what he wanted to talk about." He also went on to say, "you need to tell him that we cannot talk on my time without the other coach being present." Amazingly when I did this the coach did not comment the rest of the game. He went back to coaching and behaved like a human being should dealing with kids. You would have thought that I did nothing but hurt a family member because I answered one of his questions. I did not deserve him talking to me like I was a child. I am a man too and coaches like these think that they are entitled to say whatever they like and not bear the consequences. In my thinking if you are able to ask a question, you are responsible enough to shut up while it is answered. In my pregame meeting I said, "What you see on TV does not apply on this court." This is a freshman basketball game, not varsity, not NCAA and definitely not an NBA game. I think many of the coaches are not seeing what you seem to understand when you were coaching. Coaches are getting out of hand and it is not on the lap of the officials.

Peace

Many of the coaches know exactly what they are doing. A few weeks ago a JV assistant berated the 2 officials on the floor while my V partner and I watched from the stands. There were at least three or four times I thought the assistant deserved to get whacked. Probably more since he was an assistant, no the head coach, but I'm talking about whackable offenses even if he WAS the head coach.

When I saw him on the bench for the V game, I thought "here it comes."

He didn't say a single word the entire game.

The blame for this falls back on the officials. They NEVER took care of the problem during the game. On top of that, the coaches were standing the whole game -- while I'm usually not overly concerned with the coaching box, in subvarsity in WI they DON'T GET ONE AT ALL. The one comment I made to the JV officials was, "Looks like that coach needs some velcro on his a$$."

I had to clarify my comment, of course, then heard that they really didn't care what the coaches did. Of course, 90% of the JV officials around here have no desire to be varsity officials -- they come for the early game and the paycheck and go home.

--Rich

[JRutledge]

Rich,

I agree that the officials need to take action. But when they take action they officials get blamed for doing something wrong by the coaches. Even this jerk coach I worked with the other day tried to threaten to report me because he could not understand why I T'd him up. Now I am a veteran, I not only know the process of how you report an official, but I know how they anyone is going to react to him reporting me. I not explaining something to his liking is not a good reason. A younger official is not going to be as aware of that. A younger official might actually think that he or she is in some kind of trouble or something might really arise as a result. Not only that, if he reported me to the assignor, he was there and saw his behavior all by himself. I agree that officials need to take more actions, but coaches and schools do not take enough personal responsibility for their actions. They think because they do not curse they are OK. But they feel they can raise their voice, call you everything close to a name, but when we T your sorry behind up we were taking their actions personally. I even threw out a kid yesterday for kicking another player after a dead ball and the coach tried to make it about me and not the kid. There is this growing culture of blaming others for your own actions. I am just wondering when these coaches get stuck (or their kids) they are not going to go into these speeches about "This was the first time...." or "That kid would never do that." Why can't these guys just accept the punishment and move on?

Peace

[RecRefNC]

Have heard several good ideas on this (see also the Batman/Robin thread)-one phrase that I learned this year from a partner that helped me with preventative officiating was "Coach, you're coming up to a fork in the road. Your decision will have a big impact on my decision. Now let's play ball."

Coach returned to coaching, we continued the game, all went well.

Will this work all the time and will I use it as a first response? No. However, I do have it in my small encycopedia of strategies.

C