Handling Coaches

[zoops]

I know I've read tips on here for handling coaches who are vigorously arguing a judgment call.  I think one good piece of advice was to not argue with them - answer their question(s) and tell them what you saw.  Now, let's say a coach gets in your face after a banger and doesn't ask a question.  Just things like "you've gotta get in better position," "you've gotta take your time on that call,"  "Every close play isn't an automatic out!"  Etc.  Do you let him get his act in and then tell him why you made the call you did?  What's your rule of thumb?

[Kevin_K]

Eventually I ask him if he has a question. If he does, I answer it. If he doesn't, he is usually stunned into silence. In either case, I go back to my position post haste.

[blue23ll]

Don't try to talk over a coach who is ranting at you. When he stops to take a breath, I will say, "Bill, do you want to know what I saw?"....If he then continues his rant, I will put my hand up in the stop sign and say, "Bill, we are done here" and I will turn and walk away. What he does next will determine his fate. 

[scrounge]

This is so situational-dependent that it's hard to make general guidelines or suggestions, but generally you're right - answer questions, deescalate anger, punish insanity.

If they're going to outright criticize like "you've gotta get in better position", I'm not going to have a long discussion on that. Either, it's "Coach, I had a great view, we're done here" or - if I really was a little out of position, then essentially the same answer but perhaps a little more patience. But not much - making an error doesn't make you a punching bag. Now if you royally mess it up and the guy isn't being a lunatic, you can admit it. This should be exceedingly rare (like, once every couple years or so) but it does happen.

If they're yelling about timing - well, that one may be valid, not necessarily because you're wrong, but slow timing will not only avoid this needless criticism but also keep you from missing calls in general. Let them criticize you for being too slow, not too fast!

If they're just yammering out of frustration and they're not yelling or out of control, all you have to do is listen and turn the conversation when you can. For example, "Every close play isn't an automatic out" - "you're right coach, it isn't...but in this play, the runner didn't beat the throw". Don't overly explain, just say what you had, after once or twice it's time to move on. A "I hear you coach, we just didn't see it the same" can get you going. Good time to move back and try to get the ball back in play - the quickest way to move on.

Now if they are yelling or out of control, try to deescalate. "John, I'm right here, no need to yell". The louder the coach is, the softer you can speak to bring them down. Or "John, I'll listen to you but I won't listen to you yell at me". If they follow you down, then ask them what they saw or try one of the other techniques. If not, no patience necessary - stop sign and end it. If avail, use the restriction - this is the tool the coaches wanted. Give it to them. And if they continue? Well, you've done all you can by then.

[Tksjewelry]

Eventually I ask him if he has a question. If he does, I answer it. If he doesn't, he is usually stunned into silence. In either case, I go back to my position post haste.

Totally used this last night on a balk call. Coach comes out and asks what I have. "Coach, I had a double set." "He can't balk unless he's set" "Coach, do you have a question?"... Blank stare...."OK then coach, let's play ball" and off I trot back to A. It was glorious. We have a young ump going off to the minors next month and he said he's stealing that line too.

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[bam]

How about "Skip, what did you see?"  Let him answer a question, not dictate the conversation.  If he doesn't want to tell you, then the conversation is over.  You'll be surprised how often that works.

[maven]

Every call we make on the field — ball/strike, fair/foul, catch/no catch, safe/out — has two elements. We are applying a rule, and we are using judgment based on what we see.

When coaches dispute a call, they typically focus either on the rule or the judgment aspect.

10 hours ago, bam said:

How about "Skip, what did you see?"  Let him answer a question, not dictate the conversation. 

This approach works when coach wants to argue about a rule. We don't argue rules, we enforce them as we understand them (and if we screw one up, we make sure that we own it going forward).

Refocus the coach on the judgment aspect of the call rather than the rule. He says what he saw, we say what we saw, we're going with what we saw, let's play.

If he refuses to be refocused, we will have to resort to a negative statement: "Coach, we're not going to argue about the rule today."

[Aside: in my state, football officials must have the rule book, case book, and officiating manual on the sideline during every varsity contest, or risk losing tournament assignments. Head coaches may require us to show them the basis for a ruling; should the ruling not be reversed, this would cost him a time-out or DOG penalty. I could see this approach coming to baseball eventually.]

On 4/19/2016 at 10:24 PM, Kevin_K said:

Eventually I ask him if he has a question. If he does, I answer it.

This approach works when coach wants to argue the judgment side. Coach is entitled to his view of the play, and his opinion regarding the judgment call. But his entitlement ends there: we're also entitled to our judgment, and we go with ours when making a ruling. Nip arguing about judgment in the bud: this technique is good.

This approach is also good for umpires who feel the need to convince coaches. We need to refocus ourselves: we're unlikely to convince the coach. Rather than try to do so, refocus on answering a question (often, there isn't one, he just wants to argue). That ends it, and off we go.

In all cases, the objective is to put the ball back in play as quickly as possible. When coaches are coaching and players playing, they tend to refocus themselves and not require us to do it for them.

[Aging_Arbiter]

There are SO MANY different ways..........there also times where a coach will come out to "posture" in representing his team.  Some coaches have told me this is what they are doing, some haven't.  Along with @Tksjewelry line.....Do you have a question?...... If he does ask, repeat it back, it lets him know you are listening, and gives you an extra moment to process.  THEN it paints him into a corner, and keep him from going off on a tangent.  Let's say......... Banger on a steal at 2nd. You call the out, and coach wants to talk.  Coach comes out "do you have a question?" Coach says, yes, I think the runner beat the ball.  A response may be, "skip, I can understand from your angle, why you might think that, but from 10 feet away, I had the perfect angle, and I have an out. Let's play ball. At that point, your "judgment" has been rendered, and there IS NO ARGUING. 

 

 

 

[ALStripes17]

There are SO MANY different ways..........there also times where a coach will come out to "posture" in representing his team.  Some coaches have told me this is what they are doing, some haven't.  Along with @Tksjewelry line.....Do you have a question?...... If he does ask, repeat it back, it lets him know you are listening, and gives you an extra moment to process.  THEN it paints him into a corner, and keep him from going off on a tangent.  Let's say......... Banger on a steal at 2nd. You call the out, and coach wants to talk.  Coach comes out "do you have a question?" Coach says, yes, I think the runner beat the ball.  A response may be, "skip, I can understand from your angle, why you might think that, but from 10 feet away, I had the perfect angle, and I have an out. Let's play ball. At that point, your "judgment" has been rendered, and there IS NO ARGUING. 

 

 

 

And he still didn't ask you a question...

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[maven]

53 minutes ago, Aging_Arbiter said:

Coach comes out "do you have a question?" Coach says, yes, I think the runner beat the ball.  A response may be, "skip, I can understand from your angle, why you might think that, but from 10 feet away, I had the perfect angle, and I have an out. Let's play ball. At that point, your "judgment" has been rendered, and there IS NO ARGUING. 

Me: "OK."

Done.

Seriously, that's all there is to it. Acknowledge statements, answer questions.

[scrounge]

43 minutes ago, maven said:

Me: "OK."

Done.

Seriously, that's all there is to it. Acknowledge statements, answer questions.

Exactly....there's no need to try to convince him. You won't, no matter how 'convincing' you are. And you don't need to try. So he saw it differently. That's allowed. You're not changing it, so what of it. You can even add "I hear you, but I saw it differently." Back to baseball. Remember, that's the goal, to end it quickly and return to the game, not win an argument or display your brilliance.

@Aging_Arbiter, I'm sure you didn't mean for it to sound this way, but your response does read kind of patronizing and may incite rather than deescalate.

[ElkOil]

At a JV game last week, one pitcher was wearing a camo compression sleeve. I ask him to remove it. No sweat.

The other team's pitcher comes to the mound with a 3/4-length gray sleeve. I ask him to roll it up. His coach says, "Hey, come on! We got kids wearing jewelry out there for crying out loud!" I didn't see anyone wearing jewelry, but if I'm gonna correct a pitcher on one team for a sleeve, no way on God's green earth am I not going to correct one on the other team.

So as I'm walking off the mound, I shrug, smile and say to the coach, "That's the rule." He doesn't argue any more.

Similar situations like this cropped up with balks this season. I haven't yet had a coach try to actually argue with me. They settle down and we move on.

[Replacematt]

BLUF: We don't have to always be the ones trying to be right.

Here's what I've found...if you have an idea of the general flavor of their argument, you can work with it a lot better. Sometimes they see things differently. Sometimes they think there is something that you need to be doing. Sometimes they just want to take things out on you. I had all three in a D2 DH yesterday. Just let them talk for a bit. Understand that in the first two, they feel they have a legitimate gripe. Don't ignore that. You don't have to talk them out of it, but it'll help the escalation factor if they don't get frustrated by you bottling them up.

1. Great pickoff move to 2B, F4 just doesn't get the tag down in time. I see (home) DC coming out of the 3B dugout towards me, and I can tell that this isn't an angry conversation (yet.) I get him to blink by simply walking towards him and saying, "What's on your mind, Bob?" This minimizes the confrontation aspect. He says why he thought the runner was out. I let him finish his ten-second explanation, then he asks me what I saw. I give him my seven-second explanation, and that was that. I don't think it would have gone quite as well had it been a battle of who gets to talk over who.

2. Next half inning, home team is starting to pull away. With R2 and a chopper down the 3B line, the play goes to 1B. I move into position in the working area near B, and BR beats the runner by a hair. DC comes out of the 1B dugout, and I can tell that he's pissed at life. I let him vent for about five seconds about how the throw was a full step before the runner, and when he pauses, I tell him that I had the runner beating the throw. He resumes rant, I walk away, and now he knows he has to make a choice. He vents all the way back to the dugout.

3. Next game, I have a visiting batter turn inside on an inside slider that hits him. Had it not, it may have reached the zone, but it didn't. DC comes out (I was confuzzled and could have handled the meeting place better, but that's not really important to this.) He does have a legitimate argument--that it was deliberate and I was taking away the inside corner by letting batters do this. I let him explain his argument. I explain to him that there are two criteria I judge HBP on (using the rulebook and interpretation language,) and both were met. He starts to repeat his argument, and I tell him, "Bob, I understand what you are saying. I get your point." That doesn't mean I agree with him, but that he had his say and it was received. He's not any less mad, but it ends the discussion.

Now, I can't say that these would work with less-experienced coaches--ones that don't know how to argue. Guys that do this for a living have a goal when they come out--and if it's to get tossed, there's nothing I can do with that other than make sure I don't do anything indefensible before, during, and after. On the far more common occasions of coming out to argue something substantive, they aren't generally going to cross a line unless they feel frustrated that they are not being heard. 

[Aging_Arbiter]

20 hours ago, scrounge said:

Exactly....there's no need to try to convince him. You won't, no matter how 'convincing' you are. And you don't need to try. So he saw it differently. That's allowed. You're not changing it, so what of it. You can even add "I hear you, but I saw it differently." Back to baseball. Remember, that's the goal, to end it quickly and return to the game, not win an argument or display your brilliance.

@Aging_Arbiter, I'm sure you didn't mean for it to sound this way, but your response does read kind of patronizing and may incite rather than deescalate.

Re-reading that, I can see what you mean. I often do quite a bit of LL between HS games.  Apparently, I have a gray area that I need to work on.  I give the wreck coaches a little more rope, and try to help educate THEM, to make it easier on the next umpire.  

[HokieUmp]

16 hours ago, Matt said:

BLUF:

I like the rest of the post, but this makes me ask:  Government?  Military (specifically USAF)?  I see this term ALL.  the.  time. in work context, and almost never any other time.

[catsbackr]

B.L.U.F. - Bottom Line Up Front.

[HokieUmp]

6 hours ago, catsbackr said:

B.L.U.F. - Bottom Line Up Front.

If that's for me, I knew what it meant.  I was asking the question more to ask Matt's background.

[Replacematt]

42 minutes ago, HokieUmp said:

If that's for me, I knew what it meant.  I was asking the question more to ask Matt's background.

Been Army since 2000.

[PonyUmpire]

Me: "OK."

Done.

Seriously, that's all there is to it. Acknowledge statements, answer questions.

I use this approach a lot.

coach - "Come on Chris, he never even tagged him!!"

me - "ok"

coach - "That is so bad. That is just, ... , so bad!!!"

me - "ok" (coupled with a "that's really something to think about" nod)

It communicates that I hear them, but I'm not fazed by what they're saying.

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