Bench Decorum
 

How much do y'all address the issue of bench team members "calling" violations and fouls? Do you ignore the bench as they yell, "Travelling! "3 seconds!" "Double dribble!" At what point do you draw the line? I find that it gets under my skin very quickly, but when I ask the coach to get it under control, he acts as though I'm speaking Hindi (well, actually the Hindi people mostly speak Urdu, I think) or something. Am I the only one that's dealing with this?

Tim Taylor, Smitty, Camron, I'd be especially interested in your practice in this area.

I definitely don't ignore it. I do like you and remind the head coach that they are the only people on the bench that will be addressing the officials. If it continues, throw the T. Almost every time I say something, the coach goes down the bench and yells at the players.

Juulie, if I hear a team member on the bench whining about any calls or no-calls, I will make sure to tell the head coach to control his bench. Every time. Every year I get less and less tolerant of players and assistant coaches whining toward myself and my partner.

Any whining at all? I mean, I'm hearing it every game, almost, and I really have started to think that no one's worried about this but me.

Talk to the coach the first time you hear it. If you can point out a specific player it helps. Then if it happens again, throw the T. The Barney Fife rule is certainly in effect with bench decorum. The more you listen to, the more you'll get.

Had a game last week where the two assistant coaches kept calling out "Travel" every time the home team player made a move...the first time I was in front of their bench was about 5 min. into the game...they did it again. "I said - quite loudly - "Her left foot was her pivot and it never moved. Now knock it off." They did...din't hear it again that night...of course, at the next time-out one of those assistants stood there and glared at me the entire time-out, standing with her back to the huddle and all that...I think maybe she was mad at me. Since she was pretty good-looking, I had no problem staring back!! :D (Apologies Juulie...just couldn't help myself)

First I try to say something somewhat amusing to them like, "you sound like your parents". If that does not work I become more forcefull and tell them loud enough for the coach to hear, to knock it off. If they continue or get worse I bang the bench. I never warn the coach, because if I hear it, so is he. If the T coems early in the game it is usually forgotten about and fixes the issue.

The other thing I do is completely ignore it if the crowd is loud enough so no one else hears them.

[QUOTE=bgleason@neonin] I bang the bench.
[QUOTE]

Oh my!!:eek:

Just wanted to get in on this one before M&M or Dan_Ref...

I will nip it in the bud the first time I hear it.

If I am certain it's one of the players on the bench or an assistant, I have a zero tolerance policy for that. Sometimes it's hard to tell if it's someone on the bench or in the stands, though. I won't say anything unless I am certain it's someone on the bench that's whining.

I'm with everybody else. One whiner per bench only----> the head coach.

Nip it, nip it in the bud.

Had an interesting thing happen this past weekend. Thursday night in a tournament game, I ended up wacking a coach for too much refereeing. Friday, I spoke to another official who heard the T on the radio, and spoke to the coach about it Friday morning. Coach told him that he knew that he had received the T for too much refereeing and that even his wife had let him have it pretty good that night at home.

Saturday afternoon, I show up at the same gym, and when I arrived, it was the start of the 3rd quarter, and this same team was playing. Throughout the entire 3rd quarter, the coach was in his seat, coaching his players. As I got up to leave at the quarter break, I asked a couple of the officials if one of them had wacked him in the first half or something. They said, "No, what you did to him Thursday night changed him."

It gets even better.

When our crew came out onto the floor before our game, as soon as I had taken my position to observe the home team warming up, this same coach stepped up beside me. He told me that he wanted to apologize for his actions Thursday night, that he had gone home, thought about what he did, prayed about it, and was convinced that he was wrong. I accepted his apology, and that was the end of it.

Miracles never cease!

WS -- WoW -- but I have always said that you can only effect (affect? -- someone help me here) or reason with those that are at least reasonable themselves.

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

usage Effect and affect are often confused because of their similar spelling and pronunciation. The verb <SUP>2</SUP>affect usually has to do with pretense [she affected a cheery disposition despite feeling down]. The more common <SUP>3</SUP>affect denotes having an effect or influence [the weather affected everyone's mood]. The verb effect goes beyond mere influence; it refers to actual achievement of a final result [the new administration hopes to effect a peace settlement]. The uncommon noun affect, which has a meaning relating to psychology, is also sometimes mistakenly used for the very common effect. In ordinary use, the noun you will want is effect [waiting for the new law to take effect] [the weather had an effect on everyone's mood].

For whatever reason the bench decorum from the HS leagues I officiate has never been a real problem (knock on wood). The very few times I've had to address it I do it the on the very first instance. I've only had to T one assistant coach during my HS career.

All my major bench decorum problems come during AAU ball. In the AAU setting I address the first transgression directly to the perpetrator in a very loud tone and I make sure the head coach hears it and the words I use are not the friendliest. If there is a 2nd transgression I tell (I do not ask) the head coach he needs to controls his bench. I've never had a 3rd transgression. :cool:

Part of my problem is that I hear all the chirping and don’t necessarily know whence it comes. :)
Unless I take the time to look at the bench and acknowledge them, I don’t know if it’s coming from the HC, the AC, B12, or grumpy Dad. If I know it’s from the bench, but not the HC; I’ll ask the HC to address it. If it’s constant from the HC, I might remind him that I’ve done this before.

I agree, our attention isn't really focused on the bench and sometimes it's difficult to hear where it's coming from. When I do catch it for sure, at the next opportunity I simply tell the HC to get his bench under control. Like JR said, only one whiner allowed per bench - the HC....and even that has a limit....

I'm still laughing over the "Sorry Robin, I only talk to Batman" comment on another thread - I cannot WAIT to use that one.:D

I prefer referencing "Electra Woman and Dyna Girl," but it's not often appreciated.

http://www.tvsquad.com/images/2005/10/electrawoman.jpg

Yeah, me too. 4-5 years ago in a BV game I thought a coach was whining for a 3-seconds call so I turned and started to address it when I realized it was a guy directly behind the bench. The rest of the game that guy and his buddies never shut up. Sooooooooo, unless I know for sure who's talking, and I rarely turn around for confirmation, I normally don't acknowledge such whining.

Besides, it really just doesn't bother me that much...besides, ignore it and it usually eventually stops.

Not just whining about calls - We have a team that chants " ..... and one" on every contested shot - in essence pining for a call.

Shut it down.

There is no question that for an official the hardest call to make is one a player, fan or coach beats you too

How bold of m-w.com. They're usually so friggin' <i>descriptive</i>....

Yeah, tell 'em to knock it off. As for your coach friend, I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish when they do that stare you down bullsh1t. Idiots.

Anyway Rock, you should have banged her. I'm sure she might have even noticed. :p

Juulie - you know the stuff I use.

On counts to three -"Wow! Someone's been watching Sesame Street" or "You finally learned how to count to three? Good for you!" or "If you count any higher, will you have to take your shoes off?" or "You can count all the way to three? You must go to public school!"

And we all know the standard - "When you count out loud, it makes me lose count and I have to start over".

No, a lot of people get Hindi and Urdu confused.

From Wikipedia:
"Urdū is often contrasted with Hindi, another standardised form of Hindustani. The main difference between the two is that Standard Urdū is written in Nastaliq calligraphy style of the Perso-Arabic script and draws heavily on Persian and Arabic loanwords, while Standard Hindi is written in Devanāgarī and has inherited significant vocabulary from Sanskrit. Linguists therefore consider Urdū and Hindi to be dialects of the same language.[3] Together Hindi-Urdu is the second most widely spoken language in the world."

Is it just me, or has this been the season of Assistant coaches doing all of the chirping. The only problems that I have had from coaches this year have all been the assistants, not the HC.

PS, I usually tell the HC the first time I hear anything from the bench "Coach, your bench is getting ready to cost you your coaching box privilages" and they tend to fix the problem right away. If they don't, the T comes out.

Actually in most of my games I think I'm hearing it less. They made a point out of discussing assistants at our state rules meeting. Really the only times I've had to warn assistants were in the first week of the season and then at one 1A school out in the sticks (that I'll be visiting Friday).

In one of my first ever varsity contests, we had an assistant coach questioning calls. My partner (very prominant college official) calmly walked over and told the assistant coach that he only had 3 reasons for being in the gym. #1 help the head coach keep track of fouls/timeouts #2 learn how to coach from the head coach #3 "Most importantly to drive the bus, and I don't listen to the bus driver!"

Kinda like the Batman and Robin line!

Ouch. That is a good one. :D

If you're not careful, you'll be appointed Official Annoying Wikipedia Guy.

While the asst coach shouldn't be questioning calls, I don't agree with treating people in this manner. A very successful official once told me that he always listens to asst coaches because someday they will become head coaches.

Good and when they get fired as a head coach, many of us will still be around. ;)

Who really cares if their feelings get hurt. Then they should know their place and shut up.

Peace

The first time I hear it, if I'm by the bench, I'll joke and say, "if you're calling it, I don't need to". If that doesn't work, I'll warn the coach that if I hear anymore reffing from the bench his view of the game will be impaired. Strike three is a bench technical. I make sure that my partner knows we are at strike two. This specific behavior is addressed in my pregame so that my partner and I are on the same page; as I too have noticed more chirping this year from Asst Coaches.

I am very intolerant of Asst Coaches. They're like my kids. They should be seen and not heard.

Thanks. Reminds me of the relationship between Serbian (written in Cyrillics) and Croatian (written in Latin letters).

Yet more bad advice from the mouths of "bigdawgs".

My rule of thumb is simple: Nobody besides the head coach should be chirping from the bench. One warning should suffice. Most coaches will get pretty upset if someone else on the bench does something to warrant a "T"