When to give a "T"

[zebraman]

As I'm sure is the case in many places, we have a few refs in our association that give technical fouls at the drop of a hat. They call a good game, but are held back because they "look for trouble" when reffing and have a hair trigger as far as T's go.

We also have a few guys who haven't given a "T" in 5 years and let coaches ream them all game long without taking care of business. Again, these guys call a good game, but are rated fairly low (IMHO, justifiably so) because of their poor coach handling skills.

I'd like to put together a presentation for our refs on criteria for when a technical foul is warranted and make the game better (and when it isn't and other actions will help). While I realize that it is an art that some refs will never learn, there must be some words I can express to try to help these guys out.

Things like, "only call a T when you think it will make the game better" seem like cliches, but I do think that they might make the lightbulb go on for a few of these guys. Can you others kick in some insightful words of wisdom for me?}

Thanks in advance,

Z