First Tech
 

Had to give out my first technical foul this morning...

Freshman Girls game. B1 fouls A1 in the act of shooting. B coach wants to know what for. B coach had been chirping all game, but hadn't gotten out of hand. I say to B coach "Pushing foul, coach"

I report the foul, and he asks me "where did she push her?" I say "with the body". He starts complaining, so I put up the stop sign and say "Coach, that's enough".

He then goes "ugh, what the hell".

WHACK!

No problems the rest of the morning.

Good to get that first one out of the way ;)

aaaahhhh...an easy one to start with.

And now that you've seen what a useful tool they can be, you'll be less hesitant in the future.

Last night BV game - both coaches were sitting, permanently, by the end of the first half........

Glad I had an easy one...can't wait for a diffifcult one

Question: Has the stop sign ever worked for you?

I would venture a guess it's more a formality

I ask because I know some places teach the technique, but I've never had success with it. A simple "that's enough" without the hand gesture has always worked better for me. I'm just curious, with this being your first T, if you've given the stop sign at other times when you didn't end up giving a T.

Well, it's the first time I've had to use the stop sign, so I guess it didn't work. I suppose that if we use the stop sign, we can at least say we tried to shut the coach up

Different sport I know but I've used it several times doing baseball and softball with good results. What has been your experience using it? The coach becoming more irate?

I had one I had to chuckle at this week. 7th grade girls. I call a push under the basket (lead) and as I pass the bench the coach says, "You couldn't have seen that push". I said, "At least we both agree their was one." She said, "But, well, ok." The rest of the night was fine. As good a way to start the season as 7th grade girls can be.

Some choose to use it because it shows up on the tape, others choose not to because giving someone the hand isn't generally considered a good way to communicate. I'm not telling you not to use it, I'm just doing some "research" of my own on this. I used it once when I was in Iowa, and a T followed before the ball became live.

My experience with it has been limited. I noted in another post, but I used it once in Iowa and had to follow very quickly with a T (he ran the stop sign). I've had much better success with verbal communication followed by just putting the ball in play.

I try to think of how I would respond to it, and I can't find the right word to describe it. It comes across as dismissive, I think.

I understand, though, that some use it effectively, and it's likely just another personality thing. I've just found that talking to them is much easier.

My anecdotal experience is that it's better if the sign is given fairly close to the official's body. That is, keep the upper arm close to the chest -- the elbow perhaps 2-3" away from the chest and extend just the forearm. Also, keep the hand sort of relaxed / curled. That's interpreted as "okay, i've heard you, we need to move on one way or another."

If the whole arm is extended and the hand is tense, it's interpreted as "STFU."

I think the former also helps calm the official, while the latter just gets you primed to jump on the next comment.

Bob, you make a good point. My failed use of it involved a full arm extension.