Did I bait him?

[sj]

It might have been a time to not make an issue out of the coaches box since he was straddling the line of the box. Telling an angry coach what to do many times only adds fuel to the fire. But if he is out of the box and you want him back in just say, "Coach let's go over here," and then start walking there yourself.

One thought on telling him to relax. Again he's upset and you're demanding that he do something. Another way might be to say something like, "Coach I'll talk to you all day but we're going to have to tone it down." They don't like to hear the word "you " any more than we do. You're not telling him to do anything and he's getting something out of calming down.

If the coach doesn't like your explanation AND you have time at the moment then ask him what he saw. If you know where he's coming from then maybe you can get to the root of the issue quicker.

Maybe even start the conversation by asking him what he saw. I've asked them this right at the beginning a couple of times on travel calls and they had nothing to say. They didn't know why they just thought the play looked funny I guess. If you don't have the time then tell him that we'll have to talk later or that you'll agree to disagree or something like that.

Most of these ideas are for when you have a time out or something.

just some opinions