How to correct poor coaching behavior?
 

Comrades,

I know it's a tall order with all these out of control coaches on television, but I want some input on how to deal with else irrational people. The Baylor woman's coach who ripped off her jacket a year or two ago and the Iowa men's coach pretty much going psycho the other night.

We had a coach just on us from the get go. He is known around these parts as a very difficult coach (politically correct, insert different tavern language). He as in my ear during a first half free throw about how we have to call it both ways, I replied its 8 to 8 what more do you want? I added we are working hard out here for both teams. Horn blows a while later, it's now half time. We wait for the teams to clear as he is barking across the court. We then are escorted to our locker room by the AD. He proceeds to come into our hallway with more colorful language! I told the AD that he needs to get his emotion in check.

He was better in the second half, don't know if the AD talked with him or not. His team had a clean block on a fast break and a held ball thereafter, the other coach loses his marbles and gets a T for being very animated and some choice language (no swear words, but out of line). It was a non conference game and my partner and I joked at our local tavern about whether or not we would get the call back next year. The coach that was T'd told my partner that we called a great game and that he was out of line. That was very refreshing.

You see these people at all levels. I am a realist, and know I probably will not change these crazies, but I want them to behave as well. What do you recommend to achieve this? As my previous posts have suggested, I am a sportsmanship stickler, almost to a fault at times.

Every area has "that" coach, how do you handle them?

Warn, then Whack! You can't let it continue.

"Coach, I've heard enough."

For me, handling coaches came with experience and maturity.

You promote what you allow.

Yeah, put the onus on them to control their behavior. Early.

If they don't, they'll pay the price for it. The Iowa coach was tossed and suspended for a game by the Big Ten. He will miss his own bobblehead night because he acted like a child.

Responses to coaches
 

BigT and I have been talking about ways to respond to difficult coaches. Perhaps we could get people to give a difficult scenario that they have had and a good response that you could practice or role play before hand with a buddy so that it just comes second nature in a game situation. You veterans and your experimentation can be very beneficial for us rookies. An example would be "look at the foul count. It is 8 to 1." Response insert here.

The key is to penalize it and that will put a stop to it. You gave the coach enough leeway during the FTs. When he barked across the court at halftime was the proper time to whack. It would most likely have prevented the hallway situation, which is an obvious whack!
I'm disturbed that your crew passed on penalizing these instances and then T'd the opposing coach. How do you think that looks?
You need to take care of business with the unsporting behavior. If you allow one coach to misbehave the other will think that he can too.

"Let me change that for you, coach." Tweet. "Now it's 9 to 1."

Eh, I'd rather see the official ignore this statement the first time, and address it the second time. Something like "We are not discussing the foul count coach" would do the trick. After that, whack.

I believe last year at the NCAA-Men's level that was supposed to almost be an automatic T.

Dr. Jake Bell, who has supervised the Atlantic Sun for years, and more recently took over the SEC, says he expects his officials to give this standard response, "Coach, we are aware". (heard this in camp from him, I do not work in the A-Sun or SEC :D )

I once told an a-hole type coach, "that's not our fault".

Maybe that was a supervisor driven thing, which I would be OK with. But I do not recall everyone taking that stance last year. Then again I was not working D1 either.

Peace

In response to the foul count statement, I have a simple response. I don't care how many team fouls they have. Its not my job to call fouls in an even number.

As to the OP, it sounds like you let it get out of hand. General rule of thumb. Don't respond to comments unless you need to fix a behavior. I would have t'd that coach at halftime, in the hallway.

I just tell them, "Stop fouling" and leave it at that. If they want to be a smart ass, I can be one too. And that is actually a good way to make the point you do not care and not your job. At some point we have to stop worrying about how coaches take everything. If they want the foul count to be different, they are going to have to find another scapegoat.

Peace

When a coach brings up the foul count, I ignore the first one. If he says it again, I shut it down quickly with, "Coach, we aren't going to talk about the foul count."

So, the blue part describes a..."coach [who] loses his marbles and gets a T for being very animated and some choice language."

Yet you and your partner consider the red part neither "very animated" or an example of a "coach [who] loses his marbles" and spews "more colorful language" at you and your P (the halftime hallway incident) worthy of a T?

Your course of action to get this guy under control is to "[tell] the AD that he needs to get (his coach's) emotions in check"?

Your post is titled "How to correct poor coaching behavior?" You describe yourself as a "sportsmanship stickler."

Become a sportsmanship enforcer and you will quickly discover how to "correct poor coaching behavior."

Insert humor plug-in.

Getting them to behave is simple. Call the T. If it doesn't work, call another one; that'll take care of the problem every time.

Frankly, if you didn't get him in the first half, you should have got him for his halftime tirade. You're fully responsible for his continued misbahavior. Had you taken care of it earlier, you likely wouldn't have had the problem with the other coach.

Also, I would never respond to "call it both ways" to a reference to the foul count. It only perpetuates the impression that an imbalanced foul count means anything whatsoever regarding the officiating.

Depending on the progression, "call it both ways" either gets ignored, warned, or stung. It never gets a "reply" from me.

I once told a coach "I don't count them, I just call them".

When responding to coaches we shoud always be professional -- no smart ass remarks (the above was a weak moment). Just answer a question or, as suggested earlier, something along the lines of "I've heard enough coach" is as far as I go. After that I usually issue "your 1 and only warning coach" and then its a T the next time he crosses the line.

I tend to be less patient than many of my colleagues but I nip it in the bud quick. They will only push you as far as you will let them. Questions are fine, harmless comments are ignored, and everything else gets them more of my attention than they wanted. You'll be surprised at how different they will act the next time you work one of their games if you do this.

Tit For Tat ???
 

Agree 100%. Rookies should write this down (above), and memorize it.

I said that by accident one time...really without thinking (guess my inner self just took over). I thought the coach was going to fall down he laughed so hard. After a couple of times back down the floor we had a dead ball and he told me he liked my attitude. The coach was known to be somewhat of a jerk...we got along beautifully after that and I never had a problem with him again.

Sometimes you just never know...

+1

When I worked in my last state last year we RARELY had a coach get to the point of deserving a "T". When a coach said something in that area then you could assume that it was warranted. There were 1 or 2 exceptions out of the ~80 teams we covered but those guys watched more games from the showers than the bench. It was something we covered in our study groups...how to manage coaches. If you let the coach go wild, then the fans start in and then the players feed off of it. Our association took very little from coaches and everyone stayed happy.

Fast forward to my new state where EVERY coach I have had to this point has deserved a "T" at some point in the game. I mean guys stopming floors, slapping bleachers, "3 seconds, Travel, and 1, oh come one, etc" from tip off to final horn. I have whacked 5 coaches to this point and had to toss one and people ask me why my fuse is so short. All partners tell me is "I don't even hear them anymore, I don't care what their opinion is."

What I am trying to get at is if a coach has a reputation for being an jerk it is probably because mots officials are giving him the ability to be a jerk. He clearly has been allowed to act that way because I assume if he got whacked a few games in a row he would simmer down.

Just my opinion...blast away if you disagree...but I think the biggest problem is that many officials (primarily newer officials) cannot make a distinction between a coach behaving badly and one that is simply competitive and emotionally into the game. It took a while for me to get to that point and in all honesty I got there primarily by watching experienced varsity officials in games and the better officials at the camps I attended. I had always been told that officials were the only ones in the gym that didn't care about the outcome...but that took a long time to sink in. By talking to officials and making note of when they talked with coaches...addressed comments...when they issued warnings and when the went to the T I eventually got there.

Coaches are attached to their players, they see them work hard all the time (hopefully), they want them to succeed, they want to win and are, by definition, looking for ways to make success easier for them. All that means they are watching the action, to a certain degree, with their heart and not their head. My experience tells me emotional coaches get loud and start "working the officials" when things are not going well. That may or may not coincided with when they are losing a game but it usually coincides with when they are getting frustrated with their team. They probably know the foul count is out of whack because their guys are grabbing and pushing because they are not playing decent defense, but getting on them isn't helping. So, they go to the next logical (in their mind) suspect. I have found that in these situations you can often get a coach to settle down if you just acknowledge them and maybe answer a question. Many times a simple "I didn't see it that way coach" or "I'll try to watch for that coach" goes a long way.

Again...just my thoughts.

In hind sight, I should have T'd the coach at half. We would begin the second half with the throws and the ball with no arrow change???

I am new to the scene, and don't want to be known as the guy that gives out Ts like candy. Round these parts, I think the coaches get way too long of a leash and I "try" to fit in. I also have very keen hearing, unfortunately. I am working on zoning it out, but I do hear nearly everything on the court from players, coaches, and fans.

I appreciate all of the responses, but I think I'm going with, "That's enough coach." Followed by whack-city where they are the mayor. I like, "I call them, not count them."

I got a chuckle out of a coach when I slipped and said, "Well stop fouling then." I think you would need a relationship with the coach to say this.

We all go through what you are going through in questioning our actions about what a coach does from time to time.

I had a coach last night in a freshman game that got offended when I asked him what kind of timeout he wanted, after he clearly was frustrated with his team. I knew I was going to have issues when one of the first calls I made he yelled at my partner to help me on a BC violation where his player stepped into the back court. The coach was throwing up his arms what appeared to be in frustration, but got mad when he thought I could understand his frustration over a proper signal or using his voice to answer my question about a timeout. It later led to a T on him and everything in the game went fine after that moment. The T made the game better and nothing that happened I had personally experienced directly before.

Peace

I would add that some of this is because an action that works with one coach can be throwing gas on the fire with another.

And an action that works FROM one official might backfire if used by another.

A lot of what we do is so personal based on our physical features, the coaches we are dealing with, the place we are officiating and how what we do is perceived based on some of those things mentioned.

Peace

You must 'couch your words' carefully. Some will cite a rule, some can use sarcasm, some can use humor - others don't have that 'gift.'

Really? Too long of a leash? You're not seeing the right officials, then.

IIRC, you're not *too* far from where I am...

Foul count responses
 

I have two standard responses when it comes to a coach bringing up the foul count--my relationship/experience with the coach dictates which one I use.

'Matt, the foul count is 6 to 2'

Option A - 'We're looking at both ends, coach.'

Option B - 'Your team is three times as aggressive (you have to be able to do some simple division to use this one...but it works with the right person!)

+1.

hey ej, hope you are well. we miss you.

Miss you guys too!! There are some very good officials down here and good guys but I don't have to tell you that you are in a VERY professional association. Thankful I got to spend a few years in it!

I never remember the final score after a game. I may be able to tell you who won or lost, especially if it was blow-out, but I honestly couldn't care less.
I feel the same way. As long as you give the coach the time to askyou a question (no matter how dumb it is), and you give a response (again... no matter how dumb it is), then it's all good. Just acknowledge the coach's concerns.

Rut,

What in the world does this mean?

It means if you are 6'5 and 230, people will react to you differently than if you are 5'6, 150. And you can add race, gender, experience, playoff experience or history with that coach (sometimes players) or any number of factors to how coaches respond to your words or actions in these situations.

Peace

Last night I had to give one to a smartass who was up 28 with 4 minutes left. Then he made a smart ass comment about where officials are supposed to be after a foul call that almost got him tossed.

May I ask what he said? And why didn't you toss him?

Funny I had to warn a coach before the actual FT administration, by going into the lane and telling both my partners, "I am done with him" to each partner, yesterday afternoon. This all happened in the first half of the game.

Well the second half was about to start and the coach apologized to me (well kind of) by saying, "Thank you for calming me down." Then he said, "I would not have cursed at you....." and said that is mother was in the stands and she would be very upset by his behavior. Well he was an angel the rest of the game and they actually loss. He never got out of control over any call we made. Who knew?

Peace

He said partner and I didn't even know how to switch properly on fouls. I chose to tell why we did do it properly, and how he needs to read my manual and learn something.

Was this a HS or college game? Would you do it differently if you had a chance?

HS, lower level private school BV. Only thing I would have changed is less talk on my part before I issued the T.

This wouldn't have happened in a college game b/c coaches are a lot more professional and knowledgeable than this coach was.

I work with a guy that is a replica of the dude from Green Mile...no not Tom Hanks! I have yet to see anyone even give him a roll of the eye in 3 games we have worked together!

I'm 6'5/240lbs. That in itself doesn't stop the comments. But I don't ever have coaches attempt to intimidate me. Their anger is always from a distance. (sort of like how my 2 sons are real brave on the phone, but not quite so in person :D )

That is the key, they do not try to intimdate you. When coaches feel they can intemindate you, they try more stuff. I am certainly not very tall, but I am 6'0" and I have to do so with other means to let it be known, "I am not the one." When they realize that fact, most step the heck back.

Peace

I'm 5'9". They can try intimidating me, but it's going to work 0% of the time.

This and how you display your confidence goes a long way. I am also 6'5 and 225, and really have only been challenged maybe once or twice in 33 years.

Maybe if started eating smoke, I could lose that extra 15lbs. :D

In terms of the perception bias based on the factors people are discussing, Its obviously a factor. It does work both ways though. If the coach is a 150 lbs guy/gal who stamps and mutters and eyerolls that often gets a very different response (IME) the the 275 coach with the lungs to match who starts barking and/complaining. The volume and intimidation factor go way up and officials have to be aware of the behaviour vs the source too.

In terms of the OP, we don't correct coaching behaviour anymore then we correct footwork, shot form, or player behaviour. We call the the rules of the game in the spirit of the game as one of the many ambassadors of the game involved.

If the coach in you or your crews opinion is violating the rules/spirit of the rules of the game, then as per your job description you should enforce the rules and any appropriate consequences. I'm not saying coaches can't have a say, and we can't manage behaviour a number of ways and that in certain leagues/areas relationships with coaches aren't important. Though nothing I've ever seen in work or sport goes more toward professionalism then simply following/ enforcing the basic norms and expectations.

Ditto and I am only 5'8"

I am only 5'8" myself but we will just say I know where the weight room is. Plus I have served 3 tours "over there" so it has been a minute before anyone was able to intimidate me

The other night I was "C" right in front of the bench and this big kid goes up for a rebound and gets it knocked out of his hand...Coach yells at him "that is weak!" then leans into me and says "can you show take him to the weight room with you next time you go?" I chuckled...

+1, I was thinking the same thing