I think I should've called my first technical foul last night, one and a half seasons into my career. A coach thought I had missed her player getting fouled, and comes at me with "you gonna wait til someone else gets hurt?" (one of her girls was hurt earlier on what coach thought was a too rough play).

Maybe my T trigger is slow because I'm still trying to master the fundamental calls and mechanics. Maybe I just ignore too much of the background chatter. Maybe I just let coaches vent more than I should.

Someday, I'll get that first one.

Hartsy

I'd have hit her on that one. Don't kick yourself too hard. It took me probably 4 or 5 solid years of reffing before I called one on a coach (finally happened this year, and then it was twice in one week.)

A Tee may or may not have been warranted. Did she run on the court and tell you this or scream so all can hear? By all means Tee her. Did she make this remark so only you heard it? Perhaps no Tee. Use common sense and go with your "gut" you'll figure it out in time. Remember participants earn Tees. When they earn them give it to them.

It's kinda funny, you know you want to do it. Everyone talks about how great it is. Your friends are doing it and you want to give it a try but your a little scared or intimidated or your waiting for the perfect moment. You know it'll make you feel better but still your hesitant. Once you finally do it, you see how good it feels and you want more. You look for opportunities to do it. Now your hooked and you can't stop.

Oh heck, your talking about giving out T's, I thought we were talking about something else.

Hartsy, this was exactly my problem as a young ref, and in fact, I've not completely overcome it. You'll get better at realizing what is over the line and dealing with it. I still don't give a lot of T's to coaches, but I'm better at talking to them when I need to.

Don't be hard on yourself, it's just another aspect of the game to learn. Some guys have the opposite problem, and give out T's like Halloween candy. They need to learn to pull it back. You need to learn to drop the hammer -- when necessary. But you'll get that, it'll come. Hopefully faster for you than for me :)

Good point, Chuck. I think for me it was a matter of developing confidence in my game. I kept thinking to myself, "What if he has a point? Should I whack him when he might be right?"
I'm seeing two differences this year for me. I'm much more confident in my game (it helps actually officiating a 2nd consecutive full season now instead of that year on/year off stuff I was doing before) and am much more comfortable with my calls. Second, I'm okay with ringing up a coach, even if he has a point, when he has gone beyond it. If I know I may have kicked a call (or if I think it probably looked quite different from his angle), I'll grant some leeway; but only some. I'm more comfortable with my limits now.

If you wake up the next morning thinking "I should have T'ed that jerk up" then you are right.

As Chuck said it takes a little time to get your trigger adjusted.

I agree with everyone that this is one of the more difficult things to develop as an official. My first couple of seasons I probably put up with too much. My next couple, I think I was a little quick on the trigger. Now, I'm pretty confident of my game management and give fewer T's, but the ones I do give are pretty easy for me. I've only thrown one unsportsmalike this year and haven't felt bad about it. Monday night I had a kid pound the padding behind the basket pretty hard, it would have been an easy T, but instead I just put my hand on the kids back and told him to calm it down. Fouls happen and there's no reason to do something like that and hurt your team. Didn't have another problem with him the rest of the night.

Whether the coach is right or not shouldn't be that big of a factor. We all screw up sometimes. Doesn't mean that the coach gets a free shot at ya. If he/she makes a complaint/remark and then let's it go, that's fine. It doesn't mean that you have to put up with any instant replay, right or wrong. And if they swear at you after you've blow one.........

Jmo.

Kinda like the great come back episode on Seinfeld? Just carry a tray of shrimp to every game.:D