Coach managment
 

hey
One of the areas that I am very weak in is handling coaches. I really want to get better at this aspect of officiating. I know alot of it comes from experience, but any ideas of how to help. One idea that I am working on now is talking with the coaches early on in the game.What else should I do? thanks

Get yourself a large puppy. Train it to not sh1t in the house, not run into the street, behave well & do cute tricks.

This will give you all the experience you'll need to handle coaches.

Seriously.

I believe that if you acknowledge a coach, "I hear ya coach" then continue to manage the game you don't usually get too many problems. If you do meet the one or two "get all up in your grill", then handle that in the context of the games rules. Admit when you make a mistake, and if you can correct it do so, if not accept it and move on. This will add credibility to your game. Remember, Coaches don't have to necessarily agree with what you call but they do have to understand and go with it.

JMO, and it works for me. Treat a coach how you would want to be treated.

Smoke

Yep, this sums it up pretty well. Work to have a good relationship on the court with both coaches, but remember you are responsible for controlling their behavior when you need to.

There is no one size fits all way to handle coaches. What I do might not work for you. What you do might not work for me. Some guys can be funny and keep everyone laughing and other need to be a "hard ***" and show that they will not be run over. Or you could be somewhere in between. I do agree that usually the response "I hear you coach" does work a lot. The problem is what are you going to do when a coach has a legitimate question? You cannot always say "I hear you coach" or a canned response. You sometimes have to answer questions directly or not say much of anything. Usually the good coaches will listen to you and not go on and on about calls. The coaches that are not either very good tend to complain every time up the floor and constantly have an issue with the officiating. You just have to find out through experience what works for you.

Peace

I agree with Rut, you have to decide what style works for you. My style is not being a hard*** but I am not a comedian either. Biggest complaint that I hear from coaches is when refs do not acknowledge them. This can be nothing more than a nod of this head. They what to know that they are being heard. But any any coach who complains the entire game has no credibility with me and I tend to tune them out. My experience is coaches at the lower levels never let it go, they will harp about a call from early in the game the entire game while better and higher level coaches will let it go very within a short period of time and get back coaching their team. Find what works for you and go with it.

One of my favourite series at officiating.com about coach management:

Who goes there, friend or foe?
by Juulie Downs

And if that works successfully, you can try it out on your wife too......can't hurt.

Geeze, I got as far as Juulie telling us to imagine standing with the coach in a rose garden.......and then it said "insert $50 to continue".

I've got my own imaginary little mantra. Ain't gonna cost you $50 either. Forget about the rose garden and try this:

<i>Picture yourself near a stream. Birds are softly chirping in the crisp, cool mountain air. Nothing can bother you here. No one else knows this secret place. You are in total seclusion from that place called "the world". The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity. The water is crystal clear. You can easily make out the face of the coach whose head you are holding underwater.</i>

Just acknowledge a coach that you hear his concerns and will address them when best fit. Also unless you are 100% sure dont tell a coach that -- say coach from my angle thats what I saw -- he could have a different opinion than you and thats fine.

If you know a coach is irate at you give him room and stay opposite for a while. Once he cools down if you feel address his concerns then (you dont have to unless he asks nicely).

If you have to tell a coach something like not to roam to far up and down the sideline just remind him nicely once or twice if hes coaching and not harrasing (if hes harrasing one warning is enough).

I like to give coaches as much rope as needed for them to hang themselves -- by the time they get one they deserve it and everyone knows it. Now there are catch phrases that will cost a coach faster than cyndi lauper was popular and those usually revolve around the personal stuff.

Just be as honest as possible, if you missed the call, say so. Always listen and dont be too quick to answer. Sometime they actually have legitamate points.

JR, just remember that not everyone can make a go of that style! I mean, I have a lot of trouble holding a coach's head underwater, since my arms are rather weak and flimsy. So I've developed a more internal way of handling things. I just sulk and mutter to myself, until I explode and whack the poor clueless coach. It's about the same effect as yours, but more entertaining to the on-lookers.

Meantime, I appreciate TADW's plug. Those articles (I think that series ran to 10!!) got me a tidy little sum for buying more whistles, and quite a few complimentary e-mails. Anything that I've discovered that works has to be good for others, since I started with so little of any value.

And never, never, never sell out your partner to a coach. Never. Never. Someday it may be you.

Some of these answers are no brainers, but very valuable ones, so to say :) Someone wrote that good coaches wouldn't try to complain about every call or put a lot of pressure on the referees. That's where I can't agree. In the past two years I met a lot of very experienced and knowledgeable coaches while refereeing on a semi-professional and professional level here in Europe. Almost all of them where focusing on coaching their teams most of the time, but I think every single one of them tried to get me or one of my partners at one point in the game and then it wasn't about asking a question and wanting to hear about a different angle or something like that. These situations were about giving the ref a hard time, get inside his head, or at least see to which of the above mentioned categories the ref belongs (hard a**, entertainer, or whatever).

A very popular move was to question a close call (block-charge or something like that) in a way that one could not ignore the coach, and as soon as you moved towards him to handle the situation coach turned around and walked away from you ... What is the referee supposed to do? Follow the coach who will probably pretend he can't hear the ref and finally give him a surprised "What do you want from me?" look with the ultimate power shrug of his shoulders while looking at his assistant coach for help, or just turn away and let it go? Both ways, you don't look very good in this situation, which is of course what the coach tried to achieve. I think it is part of the game, coaches try to get to know their refs, they try to influence our decision making and this does not only apply to bad coaches.

From my own experience a couple of years ago I know that at least in highschool in Canada referees were treated with more respect then in youth basketball here in Europe. Would you say this is also true for College basketball? And how would you react to the situation described above?

Cheers,
Kostja

Having experienced the situation Kostja described, I prefer not to move towards a coach to explain a call, ever. I report the foul first (this usually allows him to cool down a bit), then I either give a brief answer (it may be something like "he doesn't have to be stationary" in a block/charge situation) while already moving towards my new position or I ignore him completely.

Unless there are 5000 people in the gym, you should be able to talk at a distance... and it is advisable to do so ;)