Dealing with coaches...
 

Summer girls tournament. I like doing girls games because anything can happen. It tests rule knowledge and situational awareness. Spencer has shown up and volunteered to do three man. A5 gets trabbed on the baseline opposite of Lead and Lead doesnt come over. B4 and B5 trap her on the baseline and she has no where to go. To get an angle she starts to fall toward the baseline that she is already on. She tries to pass the ball and the defenders just let her try since she has no angle and she throws it away. A5 coach starts chirping "She wouldnt throw that away, he must have missed it". Another transition call he thinks a girl travels and I see nothing I would call a travel. "Thats a travel". Coach what did you see. "A travel". He is running a full court press and man to man. His varsity girls are aggressive, especially with hands and the foul count is showing it with a 8-2 against him. I say something to the affect the full court and man to man is going to see more fouls called on your team.

I dont get chirped at much any more. I work hard and call a good game and seldom get chirping. Especially from good coaches. To me this guy wants his girls to get away with more aggressive defense and I the crew is penalizing it properly. And I am ass/u/ming he is trying to get me to go easy on his girls to give him advantage.

How do I respond to make sure I dont assume and let myself get agitated by this behavior. Do I simply need a thick skin and ignore the little japs knowing we are doing a good job and just tell him we will watch for it and move on. This feels like my 2nd biggest wall and because it doesnt come up often I have been ignoring it. Yet I want a well rounded game and seek advice when on of THESE coaches show up on the side line. My gut says to tell him we will watch and discuss it as we can and internally just ignore what I think is a manipulation of the referees.

Thanks in advance,

Ignore if you can.

If it gets distracting and you can't, tell him politely that the running commentary needs to stop.

If that fails, an ABS T might be in order.

Part of it may be needing to develop a thicker skin. Before I had to take my break this was an issue I had to work on as well. I finally realized that what every "old timer" was telling me is true...at most games there are probably only 2 (or 3) people in the gym who do not care about the outcome of the game. Everyone else is watching with their heart, we are (or should be) watching with our eyes and mind. For me, I also came to understand that you need to hear the coaches without really listening to them. By that I mean when dealing with a talker I monitored them and waited for something important to come out of their mouth. Just because they make a sound, it doesn't mean they need to be addressed. You will know when it needs to be addressed...then use your training, rules knowledge and professionalism to deal with it.

Once you get to know the coaches it gets easier. There were coaches in my area that virtually never said a word to an official. When they did say something, you were almost convinced they were right as a matter of course.

Thanks you two. Good stuff.

Exactly what I had to do in camp this past weekend. Somehow every one of my games I got the same team (defending state champions from what I understood).

In the 2nd quarter of the 3rd game the coach comments to me 3 straight times down the court, all essentially about the same play. I turn and tell the coach "I can't have a running commentary from you".

I did not hear another word from him the rest of the game. Methinks he was just testing me to see what he could get away with.

Gray Hair Dye, Yeah, That's The Answer, Gray Hair Dye ...
 

... and along the same line, once they get to know you it gets a lot easier. I'm lucky in that my experience (32 years), and my age (lots, and lots, of gray hair), help, actually help a lot. I may not be one of the top officials on my board, but when I walk into a gymnasium, most coaches know me, they know that I will be working by butt off for both teams, they know that I'm pretty good with the rules, and with the application of the rules, and they know that I won't put up with a lot of bullshit from either coach. My only problems are with young coaches, who don't know me. Those young'uns have to adjust their learning curve real fast, or we're having a "tea party". I seldom do it, but I'm not afraid to take the gun out of the holster. "Bang. Bang. Take a seat." (Tea party? Gun? Sorry about the mixed metaphors.)

Don't ignore unacceptable behavior, address it.
If you don't the coach will believe that it is permissible.

Remember that the coach is there to provide instruction to his team, not the officials.

First time at a camp that a coach dropped a vociferous F-bomb today. Guess he thought that was permissible. He did very well coaching from the bench thereafter. :)

Thanks so much guys. I have taken a lot of this to heart. Last Saturday I was at a GV/GJV camp and had a volunteer church official with me doing a game. He was doing a great job and I had a coach questioning a lot of calls. The rookie put up his hand to let the coach know we had heard enough. I come by later and he starts getting into with me. I said coach my crew has had enough with the running commentary. Immediately more chirping. Coach I just said enough. Immediately more chirping. That is at least 3 warnings to stop talking so I rang him up.

Thoughts on the T. I had a thought come to me after this T and I wanted to know if it was stupid or brilliant.

At this 3rd+ warning to talk the running commentary. Blow the whistle with a fist in the air. Send the teams to the bench. Tell the coach you have my attention what do you want us to watch for if there is one important thing you want us to do better the rest of the game. Listen for about 10-15 seconds. Go over to the other coach give him the same 10-15 seconds and ask him who he wants to shoot the T. Then turn and verbalize that you are giving a technical foul and administrator it. If the coach tries to stand at the next dead ball your partner tells him by rule you are only allowed to stand for time outs and talk to us about said timeouts. What do you guys think?

Personally...I like the way you handled it. You backed up your partner's warning verbally and (with the last warning) made sure he understood. Basketball, like life, is all about choices. Coach made his choice, you just administered the consequences of his choice.

3 warnings = at least one, probably 2 warnings too many.

no. No. NO. A thousand times, NO.

No, no, no. Ackknowledge (I hear you coach), Warn (ok coach, that's enough), then T. After giving a T there should be no more conversation.

While I love the creativity and would fantasize about doing this to a mouthy coach that just won't stop....

You are doing the thing that we, as officials, absolutely don't want done to us...showing up the coach.

As was said previously, we (the officials) are generally the only people in the gym that do not have an emotional investment in the outcome of the game. We need to remain professional at all times and not lower ourselves to the emotional level of the participants.

I do not get this "showing up a coach" thing. It think that is ego driven and does not get to how we solve the problem. If they ask a legitimate question we have the option to answer it. If they are making statements, we choose to ignore most of those unless they are excessive in yelling or acting in a way that their behavior is over the top. If a coach is acting a fool, my reaction my show that. They are the ones that are acting in a way that could be considered over the top. We should stay calm, but we have a right to respond in a way IMO to stop their behavior for escalating. If they "show us up" we have methods to take care of that. If we act unprofessionally, there are methods to handle that as well. And sometimes unconventional methods should be used if it fits your personality or experience.

Peace

Let me add my voice to the "Ugh, please don't do this" crowd. Third warning? A warning is a warning. Unless you said, "Coach, if you do not stop, I shall ask you to stop a second time!" Warning are worthless if you can't follow through. Don't warn unless you are willing to do so.

When a coach has reached his limit with me regarding complaining I just say, "I've heard/had enough." He's grown enough to understand what comes next.

If a coach is unhappy about a specific call and hasn't been a PITA I generally just say, "I got your point let's move on." He's grown enough here as well to understand what comes next.

When working with less experienced officials who are taking a beating I generally tell my partner that the next time the coach says something just tell him you've had enough. If it's a stoppage in play also tell me that you have warned to coach. I also, if I think that my partner has taken enough abuse for the crew, at the first sign the coach is going to whine to me, he gets his warning. Crap from a coach is accumulated as a crew IMO, and it shouldn't be individually earned.

Why don't you protect your less experienced partner and not permit the coach to abuse him? After "enough abuse for the crew" the coach doesn't deserve a warning, he deserves a T.

You should certainly not instruct an inexperienced official to tell a coach to stop. That is something which a veteran should do for his newbie partner.
Unfortunately, you still aren't ready to lead a crew.

I prefer to lead by allowing the less experienced the opportunity to deal with this issue themselves. If they show that after instruction they cannot handle the situation then I can step in. We are not dealing with infants but adults, and I remember when I was new and partners just jumped all over doing whatever they thought or wanted to it annoyed me. I would rather have been instructed as to what the proper way to handle a situation was and given the opportunity. Of course if a coach is so belligerent then by all means my partner could step in, and I would appreciate a, "I did that because..."

We all lead in different ways. You, I can guess, lead by a dogmatic approach of I am right and everyone else is wrong. I am happy that works for you.

When I was newer I had one particular partner who felt it necessary to jump in when I had extended dialogue with coaches. It irritated me as well.

I think it depends on the situation. We all probably had a "know it all" or "I'll handle it for you" partner when we were just starting. While what I told my children when they were growing up is true...It is less painful to learn from the mistakes of others than from your own mistakes...it is not always the best way to learn.

When I was considered one of the vets in our chapter I took the approach of letting a partner handle the situation in their own way...but always keeping the best interest of the crew in mind. If they gave a stop sign to a coach I always asked what was said or if it was just a sign. Then I would be more aware of what was said and reinforced the "warning" with the coach. A great many coaches test newer officials and I wanted to make sure they understoon that I was not new and they were on notice. Sometimes I told my partner to let me handle it from there...if it appeared he was "excitable"...sometime I gave them a chance to handle it, but never let it go too far.

A good official should be able to read his partner just like they read the coaches and players.

Just my opinion and approach.

Listen to the content and volume. I don't respond to statements...generally. Pick your battles call your game, don't be trolling the sidelines for trouble from the bench, if you troll long enough something will attract your attention, and deviate all the attention from the court and the game.

Accusations, emphatic physical behavior, loud and attention gathering verbal outcries, still boohooing about a NO call 2 trips later.......1 warning, if needed a physical a "stop sign"..... continued behavior, "here's your sign!" "T"

It is rare that this is unpredictable, you can smell it coming like bad gas.
Exceptions maybe.... a specific incidental call, injury play. We are not perfect, we do HAVE TO MAKE A CALL. we can not stop the contact/foul from occurring, we can merely choose to call something, or not.

In closing.... there is a big difference between a Varsity game Coach conduct, and Tournament ball, AAU, USSSA,etc...

BIG DIFFERENCE.....................

Great comments all around. I appreciate and look forward to using the suggestions at a National tournament this weekend.

What if they can't handle it? What if they they are now yelling at the veteran and over the top about the younger, inexperienced officials? I get the point you are trying to make, but that is only going to go so far. And coaches often do not just yell at the guy they are upset with, they start making the rounds to get some satisfaction.

Peace

I'm going to give my partner a crack or two to handle the situation himself. If he's good enough to be assigned to a particular game, I'm going to assume (at least at first) that he's capable of handling a coach.

There's nothing worse for the crew, IMO, than a veteran jumping over the rookie at the first sign of trouble. It makes the rookie look incapable, it makes the veteran look aggressive. That said, I won't let a coach run the bus over a younger official, either. But I'll try to handle it in a way that doesn't (1) show up the coach, (2) show everyone I have no trust in my partner and (3) make it look like I have it out for the coach.

That is where "always keeping the best interest of the crew in mind" part comes in.

DUH!!!!

Then what you said was very subjective when someone is being a "know it all" as you put it to come in takes charge.

So it sounds like you are outraged by something that someone else might not even be concerned with.

Peace