Game films and Correspondence
 

When a coach sends a note with the game film and asks you to look at some points, do you resond to his points?

Why would you NOT respond?

Now, you might not say more than "Thanks for the film, Coach -- there were some interesting plays that we'll discuss at our meeting", but to ignore him would be considered very impolite in most places.

Talk to your assigner or your local clinician or your local/state rules interpreter, see if they have a policy on situations like this.

I would almost definitely look at the film, and I might give the coach a "thanks, I'll take a look at it", but I would probably not respond to his "points", unless directed to do so by someone in higher authority then myself.

And I'm going to go out on a limb and postulate that his "points of review" are this coaches' team "getting screwed by the officials" in some way and none of them are of "a great call by the officials".

Depends heavily on the note. "You guys completely Effed up our game..." no, I'm not replying.

Something non-inflammatory and yeah, he deserves at least an acknowledgement that you received it and intend to look at it (true or not),and a thank you.

I've even responded with something concrete occasionally... I remember one such note was along the lines of "Can you let us know why you didn't call a chop block at X:XX in the 3rd quarter?" I know he was probably really meaning that we screwed it up, but since he had the film and it clearly was NOT a chop block I used it as an educational opportunity and informed him why it was not a chop block (both players were low). I let my supervisor know beforehand, of course, and he was good with it. That particular coach was not known as a jerk, which probably had something to do with it.

When I was working on the west side of the state at the bigger schools, many schools would make a DVD of the game for you if you brought a blank DVD with you. They often included notes about specific calls. In my experience with the schools, their feedback was constructive and helpful. I can only recall one case where the coach made a dig at the crew, and it was for an ejection for fighting (the game film showed the other guy threw the first punch, but like usual, we only saw his guy retaliate).

We give a blank dvd with a self addressed, stamped mailer to return to us for every game. We encourage them to let us know if they have a play or two they'd like us to look at, but if they did, we would respond to them through our chapter secretary.

Thanks, I gave them the DVD and haved asked for each of our films this year. So far I have received 4 of the five. This one was asking about 2 specific plays that were judgment calls(both were calls that went against him). After watching, I could see his point but neither were clear enough that they would have been overturned if we had a replay rule. That's basically what I sent back to him.

Keep in mind that in watching film -- and this topic probably deserves its own thread -- the viewpoint is difference and there may be a difference between what you saw on the field and what showed up on film. That's why one of our mottos is "try to make it show up on film just as you called it." Certain calls, like a facemask or even a block in the back, look different from both up top and from the sideline. When talking with a coach about it, you might remind him that this is why many teams do two views -- press box and end zone.