Communication Skills to Coaches & Players.

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by Luis

Well, this is actually a general question. Sometimes we need to communicate with the coaches & the players though there's no such title or term on the rule book & mechanics. I once read the FIBA - Referee & Players' Relationship, that tells me a ref should always be neutral & kind, but his "game call" & "game voice" should be absolute. The most impressive thing is that it says "the game is not a rules clinic, so if it's necessary to explain a call, do that as brief as possible."
So, I'd like to learn from you guys how to be a sensible ref who can communicate with the coaches & players. And I hope you could give me some examples, thanks.

To coaches, there's tons and tons of stuff on this board already, including examples of what works and what doesn't.

The question about communicating with players is a little different, though. My general rule is to say nothing except under two conditions, 1) it might prevent problems, or 2) to respond to a reasonable player question.

Examples of the first are, "Clear the key!" near the beginning of a game; "Hands off!"; "Cool down, I'll take care of it"; and so forth.

For number two, I define a reasonable question as one that is actually requesting real information, and is asked at a good time. "What was that foul for?" "She pushed in the back".

Of course, anytime there's a chance to say something pleasant or encouraging, I do that, although not usually very loudly. "Good shot!" "Cute socks!" Stuff like that. I suppose "Cute socks" isn't a very good example. It wouldn't go over very well with about half of the players in the world.