[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by brocoli

I can respect what you are saying here and I do feel as though there needs to be more communication between players and coaches. The issue which I have been told by many younger officials is that it's hard to go over and talk to a lot of coaches because they feel as though they are being talked down to. It's less of a questions and answer and more of a, "here's what I saw and why you should have called it".

We try our best to get supervisors out to as many games as we can, but once again, those are volunteer hours which can be a struggle to get.

You are correct that we are there for the players safety. I 100% agree with that. The difference in something being a penalty or not can come down your perspective. What I see on the ice compared to what you see on the bench are often two completely different angles. That's where as an older official I have learned to talk to coaches to explain what I saw and how I can only call what I see and now what you see.

This is also why we are trying to have coaches learn that we will talk to them, but we are not going to do it directly after that play. When the blood is pumping it is better to let it simmer. I will explain things to your captain briefly and then if you still have questions I will talk to you in between periods. We have found that by giving people time to simmer, it has reduced conflicts between coaches and officials

I believe we are seeing this from the same viewpoint. A good buddy of mine is a senior ref and we have talked a few times about it.

As with any differing opinions an exchange of ideas/information goes a long way.

One thing I will say, it I agree that is can be difficult for young refs to talk to adult coaches. That is on the coaches 100% for not being approachable. I have told many a ref that nobody on our bench will yell at them for a call or missed call. We might ask to talk to them about it, but we won't yell at them. It is important as a coach to encourage the young refs and let them know you support their calls and their authority.