Ever have a bad day affect your officiating?

[Huntin' Ref]

First off, to give you a little background of my style.......I generally talk to and joke with the players on the floor. My talking and lightheartedness are know where near a level of a distraction, but enough to engage them and show them we are human as well.

Ok, so here we go....I was working a boys V game Friday night and received an unusual question from a coach (whom I've never officiated for) on a dead ball.

Coach: "Are you mad at me? I feel like you are mad at me."
Me: "No, I'm not mad at you" ~ then we played on.

At halftime I walked over and talked to the coach and asked him why he asked me this question. He said that everytime he tried to ask me something or make a comment I would turn and glare at him in a robotic nature. After thinking about it, I realized that I really wasn't in the best mood the first half and was acting different than I usually do. So my question is, do you ever have a distracted half/game because of your life/job/etc?

[bigdogrunnin]

Yes. Friday night, Boys Varsity Game. Had a horrible day, and did my best to not carry any of it onto the court, but I was inevitably a little distracted. I could tell I didn't have my best game, but afterward, both my partners felt really good about how we called, and neither coach questioned anything we did. I know I am much harder on myself than anyone else, but . . . yes, I do think we sometimes take our day onto the court. We are, human after all.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Huntin' Ref

I generally talk to and joke with the players on the floor. My talking and lightheartedness are know where near a level of a distraction, but enough to engage them and show them we are human as well.

[/I]

That's what you think. You will find out different one day when it turns around and bites you in the azz. And it will. I guarantee it.

Just do your job out there, without the Mr. Nice Guy act.

[JRutledge]

First of all remember coaches are paranoid creatures. They take almost everything personally and try to turn something that has nothing to do with them into something all about them. So the interaction you had with the coach in my opinion sounds more about the coach than you.

Having said that, of course I have had a situation where what goes on in your real life can affect what you do on the court or field. I will say that I do my best to eliminate this by showing up early enough for games and if I am doing a varsity, watching a little bit of the sophomore game or other tournament games before I work. I also work a lot of games where traffic is really bad or I have to be in the car a long time so I need some way to wind down before the game. I have just gotten a lot better over the years in how to do this or what it takes to get ready for a game.

Peace

[Ref-X]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

That's what you think. You will find out different one day when it turns around and bites you in the azz. And it will. I guarantee it.

Just do your job out there, without the Mr. Nice Guy act.

I agree JR
I typically do not say much to players and even less to female players. Last month at a girls Varsity game I was working with a partner that talks to players quit a bit. As we are about to start the second half, the coach from the visiting team calls us over and asked that we stop talking to his players. I tell him that I have not said a word to your players. He tells us that his center #33 is very uncomfortable with my partner talking to her. He tells the coach that all he told her was she had 3 fouls and be careful not to pick up another one ( or something like that). This is why I don’t say anything more then needs to be said. We finished that game without a word from my partner

[REFVA]

Just do your job out there, without the Mr. Nice Guy act.

I agree, get in and get out. You are hired to call a game. You are friend until you make a bad call and then you are a number one enemy.

Also remember about your light hearted personality. I'm not saying this is the case. Read about the referee who made some remarks about the players feet in long Island New York..

You never know what anyone may interpret from your actions. I was like that until it bit me in the big A$$. Now I'm there to call a game. No favorites, no enemy. I just call what I see. Coach will see my same face whether I had a good day or I had a bad day.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Ref-X

I agree JR
I typically do not say much to players and even less to female players. Last month at a girls Varsity game I was working with a partner that talks to players quit a bit. As we are about to start the second half, the coach from the visiting team calls us over and asked that we stop talking to his players. I tell him that I have not said a word to your players. He tells us that his center #33 is very uncomfortable with my partner talking to her. He tells the coach that all he told her was she had 3 fouls and be careful not to pick up another one ( or something like that). This is why I don’t say anything more then needs to be said. We finished that game without a word from my partner

That's one of the more common complaints that we receive about individual officials in our association. They might say something to a player that the player takes the wrong way. They might advise a player to do something that is the direct opposite of what the coach has told them to do. There's a very fine line between being "helpfull" and being a distraction imo.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

There's a very fine line between being "helpfull" and being a distraction imo.

A line you're still working on locating I see...

btw..."helpfull??

[blindzebra]

Just over the holiday my Mom was in intensive care and I had a tournament game that is pretty much a try-out for the state tournament.

My game was at 1230 the hospital was on the way so I stopped by to see her...big mistake. She was upset, got me upset and obviously that all weighed heavy on my mind.

So we have 16 minute halves...part of the tournament rules to keep games on time...so that change feels strange too. I spent the first few minutes fighting off all that was going on, second guessing everything I was doing and then we had a kid get a pass over the top with only a guard chasing him.

I was trail as the kid went up for a two handed dunk and back-rimmed it, the ball popped up and the kid looked down to see who was under him and kind of hung there for a split second. Just as his teammate got the rebound and put it back in he let go of the rim, so we had a rim pop back into the ball and him contacting the rim with the ball in the cylinder...bam, whistle, basket interference.

At the half my partner was thinking we should have gotten him for hanging on the rim and given him a T. The T never entered my mind, the kid looked down, we had a close game and in my mind a T would have been absolutely wrong.

The discussion kind of refocused me and I had a much easier second half.

After the game, our evaluator's first words were, "Great call on the basket interference, 75% of the officials out there would have given a T and they'd have been wrong!"

The rest of the evaluation went well too, so somehow I managed to get through the distraction, and I really think my instincts really kicked in and saved me. That or just being aware you are struggling makes you focus harder.

[WhistlesAndStripes]

Originally Posted by Huntin' Ref

First off, to give you a little background of my style.......I generally talk to and joke with the players on the floor. My talking and lightheartedness are know where near a level of a distraction, but enough to engage them and show them we are human as well.

Ok, so here we go....I was working a boys V game Friday night and received an unusual question from a coach (whom I've never officiated for) on a dead ball.

Coach: "Are you mad at me? I feel like you are mad at me."
Me: "No, I'm not mad at you" ~ then we played on.

At halftime I walked over and talked to the coach and asked him why he asked me this question. He said that everytime he tried to ask me something or make a comment I would turn and glare at him in a robotic nature. After thinking about it, I realized that I really wasn't in the best mood the first half and was acting different than I usually do. So my question is, do you ever have a distracted half/game because of your life/job/etc?

nowhere

[TriggerMN]

So Blindzebra, when will your state tournament game be?

[blindzebra]

Originally Posted by TriggerMN

So Blindzebra, when will your state tournament game be?

Not sure yet...last year we did a semi-final and we got that based on how we performed at this tournament last year, and then we had a very good game in the semi...the evaluator said we did nothing to hurt what we built on last year with our performance this year.

So we are hoping for a final...we have our fingers crossed.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

A line you're still working on locating I see...

btw..."helpfull??

Shut up.