A rare positive experience with a coach...

Originally Posted by VaTerp

Agreed. I have found that I talk less and less to players over the years. There are situations where you can do some preventive officiating and talk players out of stuff but you have to choose your words and timing wisely.

"Hands" is something I may have said a few times years ago but I eliminated after I've seen it get people in trouble. Particularly with the 10-12 rule addition. I even sometimes pre-game against using it.

What happens when you say "hands" to a player and the opposing coach hears it? The coach can then say "if his hands are on him then call the foul." Or when you call a hand check or illegal use of hands on his team he can asks "where was my warning."

If the hand use is legal then we have nothing to say, if it's illegal then blow your whistle. Trying to talk a player out of this while the ball is live has little to no upside and plenty of downside.

I'm with you, talk with your whistle.

[Smitty]

I may be in the minority but I still think verbalizing early with players to let them know they are on the verge of doing something illegal is a useful part of our job. If we can talk kids out of things, I think it helps the game. Certainly most situations resolve themselves with a whistle, but I don't think it's preposterous (as Nevada seems to feel) to say "hands" sometimes. I think it's silly to equate that to saying "pivot". It's more like telling kids to get out of the lane, which is fairly common.