Hands on Players...By ref

[Brick43]

I had a situation recently where I felt I needed to separate two players jawing at each other (on the same team actually) and in doing so I placed my hands on one of the players. The player immediately told me to get my hands off of him. My question is do we have the authority to place our hands on the players during the game? Is this authority only in certain situations? I just scanned through Rule 2 and didn't see anything. Any help/thoughts help would be appreciated.

[bob jenkins]

Not covered. Generally better not to. Sometimes you need to.

[Rich]

Two players on the same team? I'd let them go at it and then eject both of them. Why put yourself in physical danger over that?

[Brick43]

I am no tough guy but I never felt in danger. Following the game I apologized to the player I had touched and then wondered if I needed to? The good ole post game 2nd guessing. Especially since he was very condescending when I apologized. Made me 2nd guess the apology... From this point on I think I will take the tact of no touch.

Thanks for the replies

[tref]

Originally Posted by Brick43

I am no tough guy but I never felt in danger. Following the game I apologized to the player I had touched and then wondered if I needed to? The good ole post game 2nd guessing. Especially since he was very condescending when I apologized. Made me 2nd guess the apology... From this point on I think I will take the tact of no touch.
Thanks for the replies

Unless I need to step in between two opponents to prevent a situation from blowing up, I dont touch 'em.

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by Brick43

Following the game I apologized to the player I had touched and then wondered if I needed to?

Absolutely not. It sounds like a player overreaction to me.

Better to not touch, but if you do, better to not make a big deal out of it.

[APG]

Originally Posted by Brick43

I am no tough guy but I never felt in danger. Following the game I apologized to the player I had touched and then wondered if I needed to? The good ole post game 2nd guessing. Especially since he was very condescending when I apologized. Made me 2nd guess the apology... From this point on I think I will take the tact of no touch.

Thanks for the replies

In general, I wouldn't be apologizing. Sometimes, you have to make physical contact with the players to prevent a situation from taking your game to absolute ****. If the player doesn't want to be contacted by the official, then he shouldn't be in a potential physical hostile situation.

Now in your case, if it's two teammates about to square off, I'd be a lot slower to try and intervene as there should be the at least three teammates on the court and the head coach there to intervene unlike what could happen if something breaks out between opponents.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Brick43

My question is do we have the authority to place our hands on the players during the game? Is this authority only in certain situations? I just scanned through Rule 2 and didn't see anything. Any help/thoughts help would be appreciated.

Of course you have the authority, but that is based on the situation. Normally I would not grasp, pull or touch most players in most situations. I will get players apart if it is only two of them. If they do not want to be touched, then do not do something where players will be in each other's face. This is all situations and I would not worry about this at all.

Peace

[BillyMac]

Attorneys, and other legal experts, will probably tell you to just stand back and take numbers. That being said, it's very difficult for many of us, especially those who are also dads, youth league coaches, etc., to just stand back and watch kids wallop each other.

I've heard stories, don't know if they're myths, or not, about officials who hold one of the players in an attempt to stop the fight, but end up giving the other player a clean shot at his subdued opponent.

I don't think that there's an easy answer here. Reminds me of situations where there is no trainer available and I'm the only adult around who knows a little first aid. Do I stand and watch the injured player suffer, or do I step in and offer assistance? Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

[Scuba_ref]

The advice I got at camp this year from the supervisor of officials for a local (ish) college conference was to "never ever touch a player or coach, even if they are dying".

[Adam]

I'm much more likely to make their ears bleed with my whistle. But if something were to give me reason to touch a player I wouldn't apologize. For a player who reacts that way to my efforts to prevent a fight, I'd likely tell him he needs to walk away if I hadn't already dumped him.

[stir22]

Originally Posted by Brick43

I am no tough guy but I never felt in danger. Following the game I apologized to the player I had touched and then wondered if I needed to? The good ole post game 2nd guessing. Especially since he was very condescending when I apologized. Made me 2nd guess the apology... From this point on I think I will take the tact of no touch.

Thanks for the replies

his reaction to you says a lot more about him than it does you. Personally, i think you did the right thing. His reaction to your actions make me think that his attitude, his thought processes, etc....tell me that he has many, many life lessons to be learned. Sadly, they will most likely be learned the hard way.

again, kudos to you.

[Camron Rust]

A couple years ago, I had a game there was a resident idiot on one of the teams. He was being a general headache and was just creating trouble. We were keeping our eyes on him very closely. He had a particularly hard foul that we called intentional that had knocked the other player to the floor. The other player was just getting up when the troublemaker was aggressively going to him. Maybe he was going to shove him down again, I don't know. The other player got up before he got there. Seeing this happening, I made it between the players and stuck my hands out to keep the space between them. I ended up shoving the "victim" backwards a few feet as I told him to get away in the process as I was turning towards the troublemaker.

We tossed the troublemaker (flagrant T).

I then went to the other kid and his coach and apologized for shoving him and told him I moved him away from the troublemaker because I didn't want him to get in any undeserved trouble by reacting to the troublemaker. They were appreciative of me keeping them from being drawn into the trouble.

Not always a good idea, but I feel that without my physical intervention that kept them from being close enough together for contact, the "victim" would have been shoved and very likely would have shoved back....all because of a bad apple on the other team.